Getaway Highway: Bonnie and Clyde’s Path to Infamy

It’s the morning of April 13th, 1933. W.D. Jones and Clyde Barrow leave their Joplin, Missouri, garage apartment – presumably to pull off another job. Bonnie Parker and Blanche Barrow sit inside, and soon they hear the V8 Ford returning. The car is having engine problems. As W.D. and Clyde lower the garage door, police pull up to the residence. Tipped off by neighbors, the police are ready to raid the house assuming the tenants are bootleggers.

One police car blocks the driveway. Constable Wes Harryman fires a shot into the garage in an attempt to stop W.D. and Clyde from closing the door. In return, Barrow lets off a shotgun blast that kills the Constable. Detective Harry McGinnis then rushes to the garage and shoots three shots through the window. He hits W.D. in the abdomen. Another shotgun blast goes off from the inside, hitting the detective. He dies later that night.

Other officers take cover and continue to fire as W.D. rushes upstairs. He is covered in blood and alerts the other gang members that they have to leave immediately. Blanche’s dog has run off, scared from the gunfire, and she takes off on foot looking for her pet. The Barrow gang piles into their car, leaving all belongings behind. Clyde floors the vehicle and rams the police car blocking their escape. As they race down the street, Buck sees his wife, on foot, and pulls her into the car. Officers continue to shoot and successfully hit Clyde, but the bullet does not penetrate his body.
This event changes the Barrow gang’s fate. When police enter the apartment they find jewelry, clothes, Bonnie’s purse, Blanche and Buck’s wedding certificate, Bonnie’s poetry, and weapons including multiple BARs. They also find a camera and several rolls of undeveloped film. Once printed, the images of the Barrow gang become famous. Their crimes, up until this point, have only been of interest to state law enforcement where the acts were committed. Now, the Barrow gang have become national fugitives.

The items recovered after the shootout lead to the enduring legend of Bonnie and Clyde. The jewelry, poetry, and photographs found at the Joplin apartment, which is about 2 miles south of Route 66, romanticized the gang. A sense of style, feminine, and passion were associated with members.

After the shootout, the gang drove along 66. They headed 400 miles south until they reached Shammrock, Texas, where they checked into a motor court off the Mother Road. Route 66 was essential to Bonnie and Clyde. It was a fast road. Well paved and direct, it served much better as a getaway route than any local roads which had lower speed limits and were poorly maintained. Route 66 also connected multiple states. It allowed the Barrow gang to pass through the country easily, especially back and forth to Texas, which was their home state. The route connected small towns with major cities, allowing the gang to commit crimes on the outskirts and then quickly escape into larger populations.

In their heyday, Bonnie and Clyde traversed Route 66 extensively, committing crimes along the way. One city they targeted along the route was Baxter Springs, Kansas. There, they held up a grocery store, and then later that week returned and robbed the same business. During their spree they also checked into White’s Court in Carthage, Missouri located on the Route. They pulled off multiple robberies in the Carthage area during this time.

The Barrow gang has been romanticized and popularized through the tabloids and movies over the years. They have become anti-heros tied to American folklore and the allure of the wild west. She was only 23, and he 25, when they were killed. It’s an inverted life they led, but it’s inspiring nonetheless. To be willing to die rather than to forsake your philosophy is mythical.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer
sometimes you can hardly see.
But it’s fight man to man
and do all you can,
for they know they can never be free.


–Except from Bonnie Parkers poem, ‘The Trail’s End’