Bonnie and Clyde potential culprits in 1933 robbery

FORT SMITH, Ark.—Japan had invaded China and captured the Great Wall. Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany was nearly complete. Revolt was raging in Spain. The Great Depression was in full swing. And Clyde Barrow was on the run with Bonnie Parker.

It was mid-January 1933 and Fort Smith was becoming a favored place of business for the Texas outlaws on the verge of national notoriety. In addition to stealing suits in Fort Smith, and later using a local tourist camp as a hideout, Clyde Barrow and his 17-year-old sidekick, W.D. Jones, also apparently robbed the Southern Cigar and Candy Co. at 814 Rogers Ave. while Bonnie Parker waited in the car on Jan. 18. A week before that, a newspaper article also reports suspects that resemble Barrow and Jones had robbed Sutton Chevrolet at 117 N. Seventh St. and the George H. Hickerson filling station at 19th Street and Grand Avenue.

Because of the relative anonymity of the duo outside of Texas at the time, historians are still connecting the dots of their crime spree between late December 1932 and late March 1933. They were known to be in west Dallas on Jan. 6 when Deputy Malcolm Davis was shot and killed by Barrow at Lillian McBride’s house in west Dallas. And on Jan. 26 they kidnapped officer Tom Persell in Springfield, Mo. But not much else is proven of their whereabouts in that time period until March 31 when they rented a house on Oak Ridge Drive in Joplin, Mo. for a two-week stay with Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow, having been recently released from prison, and his wife, Blanche, with her little dog, Snowball. The stay ended unexpectedly in a bloodbath and two more lawmen killed: Newton County constable John Wesley Harriman and Joplin detective Harry McGinnis.

With Fort Smith a hub of business for the region and a convenient location for border-hopping bandits, some of the breadcrumbs to Bonnie and Clyde’s location during that dark period can be found in local newspapers.

The Times Record reports that the morning of Jan. 19, readers of the Southwest American in Fort Smith woke up to read a rather inconspicuous frontpage headline under a story about an animal trainer’s pet kitten saving him from a spider.

“Local Theft Nets Bandits $300 in Cash.” Subhead: “Employee of Southern Cigar and Candy Company Forced By Two Men and Woman To Open Safe of Concern.”

It wouldn’t necessarily stand out as a gripping story unless looking for clues to Bonnie and Clyde. But a few important details of the robbery stand out, including the fact the “woman, who, he said was about 19 or 20 years old, remained in an automobile parked at the curb,” the article says, quoting Southern Cigar and Candy Co. bookkeeper Stanley E. Russell. He told police he was stopped by one of the two men at Carnall and Rogers avenues after he had closed the store on his walk back home to 2009 S. I St.

From the article: “Russell’s attempt to feign ignorance of the safe combination was met with a threat of death, he told officers. ‘We saw you when you closed up. You know it, and I’ll blow your brains out if you don’t open it,’ he quoted one of the men as saying.”

James R. Knight, an Alma, Ark., native and author of “Bonnie and Clyde: A TwentyFirst-Century Update” with historian Jonathan Davis, says this sounds a lot like the subjects of that book.

“The story says that the woman stayed in the car, which sounds right,” Knight wrote in an email. “Unlike the 1967 movie, Bonnie rarely if ever went inside on any of the robberies. She, and any of the other women who might be along, stayed in the car on a small ‘smash and grab’ job like the cigar store or outside of town with the real getaway car on a bigger, more planned bank job … The cigar store robbery itself sounds just like a spur of the moment ‘target of opportunity’ job that was Clyde’s ‘bread and butter.’ Although they have been portrayed as bank robbers, for every small-town bank that Clyde robbed, there were at least 10 more small jobs just like the cigar store that he did just to raise a few dollars to live on.”

The Southwest American article goes on to describe how Russell was followed closely by one of the men and called by name just before reaching Rogers and Carnall.

“He said he turned and saw a pistol pointed at him, and heard the man command him to return to the store,” the reporter writes. “At first, Russell said he attempted to convince the man he had no key and could not re-enter the building. Failing, he said he turned about and walked back to the store.”

The article goes on to report, “On the way back to the store, Russell said he saw the other man and the woman sitting in an automobile parked near the Fort Smith and Western railway tracks at the Rogers avenue crossing. They followed in the car, and the second man accompanied them into the store.”

The writer describes the cases of cigarettes being kept in a metal cage and Russell had to open it after “one of the robbers announced an intention of battering the locks off to open the door.” The five cases of cigarettes were valued at $50. After the robbery, Russell said the thieves hurried to the car and sped east on Rogers Avenue.

The morning of Tuesday, Jan. 10, about a week before the cigar-candy store robbery and four days after the shooting in west Dallas, the Southwest American reports of another robbery with details resembling traces of Barrow and Jones.

“Bandits Busy In Fort Smith Monday Night: Two Young Robbers Hold Up Bookkeeper of Chevrolet Company and Take $1,816 In Currency and Checks.”

The article reports “Two debonair highwaymen” held up B.M. Moody at Sutton Chevrolet to get $500 in cash and checks totaling $1,200 the night before. The man carrying a nickel-plated automatic pistol was described as about 22 years old, 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds with a dark suit, gray hat, blue tie and black shoes. The bookkeeper was unable to describe the second man because he remained in the shadow near the door, the article states. Moody said he didn’t normally work at nights but had been sick and gotten behind in work.

Barrow’s October 1933 Wanted poster describes him as 5 feet, 7 inches and 150 pounds.

The two escaped in small, black coupe parked at the curb outside the building.

“Although they have been portrayed as bank robbers, for every small-town bank that Clyde robbed, there were at least 10 more small jobs just like the cigar store that he did just to raise a few dollars to live on.” — James R. Knight, an author (with historian Jonathan Davis) of “Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update”