Comprehensive archive of material related to the 1935 Bonnie and Clyde harboring trial and the detainment of its 23 defendants, dated between February 1934 and November 1936, consisting of 23 letters, 41 documents, 16 telegrams, and various other ephemera such as memos and information packets. The majority of the letters and documents are typed carbon copies, with some signed by period law enforcement officers like Dwight Brantley, W. E. Wyatt, F. X. Fay, Charles J. Crane, W. H. Bietendorf, D. W. Magee, and F. J. Blake. The large assortment of documents consist primarily of case files related to the indictment of nearly all those accused of harboring Bonnie and Clyde, “so as to prevent their discovery and arrest…particularly between January 16, 1934 and May 23, 1934 in the Northern District of Texas.”
Items of particular intrigue follow the chronological manhunt of Raymond and Floyd Hamilton: a case file from February 2, 1935, notes that all indicted subjects in harboring trial are in custody, with the exceptions being Raymond, Floyd, and Mildred Hamilton. Two days later, a telegram issued by Agent Blake, in part: “Floyd Hamilton and Raymond Hamilton engaged Dallas Police gun battle tonight and escaped division agents not involved in fight being on duty another location no officers wounded and apparently neither bandit seriously injured although forced to abandon car in which were riding stop I was en route to location of battle when fighting started arriving about three minutes afterwards.” A memorandum issued the following day by G. D. Crow, Jr., concerns the retrieval of the getaway vehicle, in part: “The truck was found about three miles Southeast of Hutchin, Texas, in a heavy thicket. There were blood stains on the back of the front seat about even with the shoulder of the driver.” Later that same day, on February 5th, a telegram is dispatched: “Floyd Garland Hamilton et al harboring reported apprehended admitting identity on bus alone Shreveport, Louisiana.” Two more case files are issued in regard to Raymond Hamilton: one on February 12th, distinguishes him as the only defendant in the harboring trial not in custody, and the second, released some three months later on May 7th, affirms that Hamilton is “confined in the State Penitentiary, Huntsville, Texas, awaiting execution for murder.”
Other highlights include: a carbon copy of a document from Agent E. J. Dowd, dated September 26,1934, relates to S. J. ‘Baldy’ Whatley, an informant within the Barrow Gang, in part: “He stated that on one night in particular he met Clyde Barrow on one of the cross roads between Ft. Worth and Dallas, and was approached by Clyde Barrow with a proposition to make a lot of money—about $25,000…Barrow then told Baldy Whatley the proposition was to release O. D. Stevens and others from the Tarrant County Jail”; a memorandum from Agent C. B. Winstead, dated February 2, 1934, concerns the whereabouts of Bonnie and Clyde and mentions “that a doctor by the name of R. Walker at Cheneyville, Louisiana, treated Clyde Barrow for bullet wound in his left leg”; a case file from February 20, 1935, relating to the misplacement of arrest warrants for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker from May 20, 1933; a case file from September 18, 1934, in which Henry Methvin pleads guilty to harboring Bonnie and Clyde, and opts to testify against various other defendants; a carbon copy of a report bearing detailed information of a two-week rundown on the migratory behavior of the Barrow Gang; and a handwritten memo from H. E. Plaxico, stamp-dated February 7, 1935, noting that it is believed that “Mr. W. O. Bracken and his son, Ernest Bracken, who live on Route #1, Palmer, Texas, had harbored Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, and was probably harboring Raymond Hamilton.” In overall very good condition. Although Bonnie and Clyde had been gunned down on the back roads of Louisiana on May 23, 1934, Dallas and federal authorities wasted little time in punishing those suspected of aiding and abetting the elusive outlaw couple. With ample never-before-seen material relating to both criminal and lawman alike, this incredible archive offers a unique opportunity to delve even deeper into one of the period’s most memorable trials. A dense and highly informative source of Barrow Gang history.
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