Showing posts with label Dallas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dallas. Show all posts

Saturday, August 19, 2023

2021-05-30: Visiting the Notorious Bonnie and Clyde Hangouts and Graves in Dallas, Texas

Welcome back friends, geocachers, RV'ers, and fellow travelers. On this particular roadtrip adventure, we were passing through Dallas, Texas and decided to take a break from the driving. We set out to retrace some of the stomping grounds of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde with the help of a Geocaching Adventure Lab. The couple became national news figures as they traveled the mid-west from 1932-1934, with their criminal gang during the Great Depression. Just about everyone has heard the story or seen the movies. Now let's go visit some of their hangouts around West Dallas...


Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born in 1909 into a poor farming family in Ellis County, Texas, southeast of Dallas. The family moved to Dallas in the early 1920's as part of a wider migration pattern from rural areas to the city, where many settled in the urban slum of West Dallas. The Trinity River Squatter's Camp was the industrial slum along the river bank underneath where the current Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is now located. Back during the depression, the area you see below was a maze of tents, wagons and makeshift huts, in the mud, without running water, gas, or electricity.



While living in the squatters camp, the Barrow family collected and sold scrap metal from a mule-pulled cart. A drunk motorist hit and destroyed the cart and killed the mule. With the money awarded to them from the insurance claim, Clyde's parents built the Barrow Star Service Station in Cement City. The family lived in a shack attached to the back of the gas station.



Barrow was first arrested in late 1926, at age 17, after running when police confronted him over a rental car that he had failed to return on time. His second arrest was with his brother Buck soon after, for possession of stolen turkeys. Barrow had some legitimate jobs during 1927 through 1929, but he also cracked safes, robbed stores, and stole cars.

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in 1910 in Rowena, Texas. Her father, Charles Robert Parker, was a bricklayer who died when Bonnie was four years old. Her widowed mother, Emma (Krause) Parker, moved her family back to her parents' home in Cement City, where she worked as a seamstress.

In her second year in High School, Bonnie met Roy Thornton. The couple dropped out of school and married on September 25, 1926, six days before her 16th birthday. Their marriage was marred by his frequent absences and brushes with the law and proved to be short lived. They never divorced, but their paths never crossed again after January 1929. After she left Thornton, Bonnie moved back in with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas. Bonnie briefly kept a diary early in 1929 when she was aged 18, writing of her loneliness, her impatience with life in Dallas, and her love of photography. Bonnie was still wearing the wedding ring Thornton had given her when she died. This is a photo of Bonnie's elementary school which still stands today.


Eagle Ford School

Clyde met 19-year-old Bonnie through a mutual friend in January 1930, and they spent much time together during the following weeks. Their romance was interrupted when Clyde was arrested and convicted of auto theft and was sent to Eastham Prison Farm in April 1930 at the age of 21. He escaped from the prison farm shortly after his incarceration using a weapon Bonnie smuggled to him. He was recaptured shortly after and sent back to prison.

Clyde committed his first murder in prison of another inmate, with a pipe crushing his skull, in retaliation for repeatedly sexually assaulting him. Another inmate who was already serving a life sentence claimed responsibility. In order to avoid hard labor in the fields, Clyde purposely had two of his toes amputated in late January 1932, either by another inmate or by himself. Because of this he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. What he didn't know however, his mother had already successfully petitioned for his release and he was set free six days after his intentional injury. He was paroled from Eastham on February 2, 1932, now a hardened and bitter criminal. His sister, Marie said, "Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison because he wasn't the same person when he got out."

On January 6, 1933, officers were staking out this house owned by Lilly McBride, sister of one of the Barrow Gang members. A shootout occurred around midnight and Clyde killed 52-year-old Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcom S. Davis beside the front porch.



Now surrounded by a golf course, this is the Eagle Ford Road Bridge. Back in 1933, this area was known as the "Devil's Back Porch." This once isolated area of West Dallas was rarely policed and is where Bonnie and Clyde often were hiding out in their stolen cars. It was also a gathering place for their family and friends to come and visit with the wanted outlaws.



In May of 1934, a posse of six officers from Texas and Louisiana had followed the trail of Bonnie and Clyde to the Bienville Parish. The setup an ambush along Louisiana State Highway 154 south of Gibsland. At approximately 9:15 am on the morning of May 23rd, the couple came speeding down the road in a Ford Deluxe V-8 Sedan, Clyde's preferred stolen car of choice. The officers immediately opened fire and began unloading about 130 rounds towards the car. In the end, there where 112 bullet holes in the vehicle. Seventeen rounds found their way into Clyde's body and 26 into Bonnie.

The Belo Mansion was built in the 1890's by Colonel A. H. Belo, founder of the Dallas Morning News. The mansion was later leased to funeral home operators George Loudermilk and Will Sparkman. The body of Clyde Barrow's bullet riddled body was laid out in the parlor for public viewing. Approximately 20,000 people came from all over to file past and get a glimpse of this notorious outlaw's remains. Today, this building is the current home of the Dallas Bar Association and Law Review.



Even though it was Bonnie and Clyde's wish to be buried together, the Parker family refused. Clyde Barrow's funeral was at sunset on May 25th at the Western Heights Cemetery next to his brother Marvin where they share a single headstone. There's a geocache hidden nearby (GC7K52N).



Bonnie Parker was laid to rest the following day on the 26th in the Fishtrap Cemetery. Her body was later moved in 1945 to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas where you can also find another geocache (GC596A).



So that was our quick historical tour around Dallas, Texas and Bonnie & Clyde's stomping grounds and final resting place. One of these days when passing through Primm, Nevada, we'll have to stop by Whiskey Pete's Hotel and Casino to see the bullet riddled Ford Deluxe V-8 there on display.

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course by clicking the "Follow" button to the right. And there's also my main website at AwayWeGo.US for the complete index of my traveling adventures going back to 2005. But also by using one or more of your favorite of these social media platforms: FacebookMeWeGabRedditTwitterGETTRInstagram, and TruthSocial. These all link directly to my profiles. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

Thursday, November 12, 2020

2019-03-02: A Packed Geocaching Road Trip from Texas to Minnesota and Back! Busy Day #1 TX & OK

Hey Everybody! Welcome back to another of my adventures. This road trip adventure is brought to you by the company I work for. You ever have to take a business trip to corporate headquarters for a training meeting or something. The company wants to fly you in, pays for the hotel, and fly you back home. A long way to go, but you don't get to see anything.

Since I was between projects and had the free time, I asked if I could drive up and get reimbursed for the gas and hotels instead of them paying for airfare. And the answer was YES! Sounds like a road trip to me! So I start planning a route and looking up geocaches from Killeen, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I also thought it would be fun to go along with another geocacher. So I inquired of another former Floridian cacher who's now living in Austin called "CuteLittleFuzzyMonkey", or CLFM for short. We've tried caching together before but just could never get our schedules to line up. He got back to me in a couple of days and said the timing works out perfect so it was a go!

Today was the day to hit the road and CLFM drove up to Killeen from Austin to meet me at my house. We both have GeoJeeps, but I prefer to drive so we took mine. Since he's got all the caches picked out and navigating, it only makes since for him to be in the passenger seat anyway right! Plus he's officially still on the clock and has to answer work related texts and emails too. So... AwayWeGo...

Our first stop was a puzzle cache up in Dallas. Puzzle geocaches are usually not at the posted coordinates. I hate puzzles because I'm not good at solving them. Fortunately CLFM is a puzzle master and has hidden many of them himself. Plus this one was called "Infinite Monkey Theorem" (GC3BT76) so we just had to find this one! I took one look at the puzzle and had no clue. But he solved it and we found the cache.

Next up was a virtual cache. A virtual geocache has no physical container. There are requirements like answering questions or taking a selfie at the given location. This is the original Pegasus (GC7B9NE) that once rotated 450 feet high above Dallas atop the Renaissance Revival Magnolia Building. The 40' tall flying red horse rotated on the 50' tall oil derrick above the 29 story building for the offices of the Magnolia Oil Company, which later was acquired by the Mobil Oil Company, from 1934 through 1999. This original sign was packed away in storage and replaced with a new sign. Found in 2012 and restored, it was moved to it's new location and lit up once again in 2015 at this Omni Dallas Hotel location.

Our last stop in downtown Dallas was another virtual geocache at this 30' eyeball (GC7B77Z). Created by artist Tony Tasset in 2007 for a temporary display in Chicago. After time in storage and a stop in St Louis, the Joule Hotel in Dallas purchased it in 2013 to anchor its sculpture garden. It certainly is an eye catcher! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)


Continuing on our way north, our next stop was at the Oakland Cemetery for two geocaches in Marshall County, Oklahoma (GC57HYM, GC5NHBK).

Then over to Johnston County for another virtual geocache at a veterans memorial park (GCGDCQ). The park is dedicated to the residents of Tishomingo who gave their lives in the various wars. One of the displays included this Blue Angels fighter jet.


A quick stop at the McAlister Cemetery gave us a cache in Carter County (GC2B84E). Sadly though, it also gave me a pain in my back! OUCH!! I've picked up heavy objects, bend the knees, don't bend the knees, no problem. This is the second time I've reached for a micro cache and just send a huge pain shooting through my lower back. The first one was leaning over a guard rail and reaching in for the cache. This time I see the cache, just reach into the bush, and almost drop to my knees in pain. Not the way I want to start this road trip.

Continuing north on I-35, we stop at a rest area to use the facilities and grab a cache for Murray County, Oklahoma (GC6TRPJ). Ugh... getting in and out of the Jeep is painful. It's not bad while I'm sitting. The heated seats help.

Now it's time for another virtual geocache. You know the best thing about geocaching is that you find some of the strangest things. In Cleveland County, we found some Bug Art (GCF12E). Someone actually took this full sized VW Beetle and added some legs to make it look like a bug for a great roadside attraction.


Some quick roadside caches (GC7ZGMJ, GC1VN87) and another puzzle cache (GC5EX03). And then there's this virtual cache for the Oklahoma City Air Force Memorial (GCF69C).


And this virtual cache at the Oklahoma City Memorial (GC4772). I wish we had time to look around further but we have a long road ahead and a lot of geocaches to find. Plus my back was killing me still.


After seven more geocaches, we ended the night in Perry, Oklahoma. I thought it would finally be good to lay down and stretch my back out. Wishful thinking. My back was so  tight I could barely move. I crawled into bed but I couldn't even take my shoes off. I couldn't take my jacket off. I couldn't move at all. Eventually I did manage to get some sleep but not much. Maybe an hour or so. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.