page_title: Bonnie and Clyde
section_title: Platte City and Dexfield Park
hierarchical_section_title: Bonnie and Clyde / Armed robbery and murder / Platte City and Dexfield Park
caption_attribution_description: English: snapshot at motel after shootout, Platte City, MO, July 1933
context_page_description: Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, known for their bank robberies, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and four civilians. They were killed in May 1934 during an ambush by police near Gibsland, Louisiana.
  The press's portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde was sometimes at odds with the reality of their life on the road, especially for Parker. She was present at 100 or more felonies during the two years that she was Barrow's companion, although she was not the cigar-smoking, machine gun-wielding killer depicted in newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Nonetheless, numerous police accounts detail her attempts to murder police officers.
context_section_description: In July 1933, the gang checked in to the Red Crown Tourist Court south of Platte City, Missouri. It consisted of two brick cabins joined by garages, and the gang rented both. To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant among Missouri Highway Patrolmen, and the gang seemed to go out of their way to draw attention. Blanche registered the party as three guests, but owner Neal Houser could see five people getting out of the car. He noted that the driver backed into the garage "gangster style" for a quick getaway. Blanche paid for their cabins with coins rather than bills, and did the same later when buying five dinners and five beers. The next day, Houser noticed that his guests had taped newspapers over the windows of their cabin; Blanche again paid for five meals with coins. Her outfit of jodhpur riding breeches also attracted attention; they were not typical attire for women in the area, and eyewitnesses still remembered them forty years later. Houser told Captain William Baxter of the Highway Patrol, a patron of his restaurant, about the group.
  Barrow and Jones went into town to purchase bandages, crackers, cheese, and atropine sulfate to treat Parker's leg. The druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under surveillance. Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas law enforcement to watch for strangers seeking such supplies. The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City, including an armored car. Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers toward the cabins at 11pm, armed with Thompson submachine guns.
  In the gunfight which ensued, the .45 caliber Thompsons proved no match for Barrow's .30 caliber BAR, stolen on July 7 from the National Guard armory at Enid, Oklahoma. The gang escaped when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armored car and the police officers mistook it for a cease-fire signal. They did not pursue the retreating Barrow vehicle.
  The gang had evaded the law once again, but Buck had sustained a bullet wound that blasted a large hole in his forehead skull bone and exposed his injured brain, and Blanche was nearly blinded by glass fragments in both her eyes.
  The Barrow Gang camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa, on July 24. Buck was sometimes semiconscious, and he even talked and ate, but his massive head wound and loss of blood were so severe that Barrow and Jones dug a grave for him. Local residents noticed their bloody bandages, and officers determined that the campers were the Barrow Gang. Local police officers and approximately 100 spectators surrounded the group, and the Barrows soon came under fire. Barrow, Parker, and Jones escaped on foot. Buck was shot in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers. Buck died of his head wound and pneumonia after surgery five days later at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa.
  For the next six weeks, the remaining perpetrators ranged far afield from their usual area of operations, west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi; yet they continued to commit armed robberies. They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones robbed an armory at Plattville, Illinois on August 20, acquiring three BARs, handguns, and a large quantity of ammunition.
  By early September, the gang risked a run to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months. Jones parted company with them, continuing to Houston where his mother had moved. He was arrested there without incident on November 16, and returned to Dallas. Through the autumn, Barrow committed several robberies with small-time local accomplices, while his family and Parker's attended to her considerable medical needs. On November 22, they narrowly evaded arrest while trying to meet with family members near Sowers, Texas. Dallas Sheriff Smoot Schmid, Deputy Bob Alcorn, and Deputy Ted Hinton lay in wait nearby. As Barrow drove up, he sensed a trap and drove past his family's car, at which point Schmid and his deputies stood up and opened fire with machine guns a
caption: Two-unit Red Crown Tourist Court, where the gang's conspicuous behavior drew police; Buck was killed in the ensuing gunfight. 39°18′43″N 94°41′11″W﻿ / ﻿39.31194°N 94.68639°W﻿ / 39.31194; -94.68639﻿ (1933 Site of Red Crown Tourist Court Platte City, Missouri)
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