7/20/1933 - A gun battle between the
Barrow Gang (Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow,
and W.D. Jones) and a posse of thirteen takes place, culminating a
series of outlaw stupidities that include:
*Hiding out on the outskirts of Kansas
City, Missouri, while the area is still abuzz seeking the killers of
four officers of the law and bank robber Frank "Jelly" Nash on 6/17.
The initial dumb, Buck is so upset with Clyde that the brothers
are not talking to each other when they arrive in Platte City, Missouri.
*Unknowingly selecting a site within
spitting distance of their beds that serves as a gathering place for
local cops and members of the state highway patrol ... info bonding over
cold beers, fast food, and music at the Red Crown Tavern, also a
service station and grocery.
Red Crown Tavern with Tourist
Court behind
*Paying the rental fee of $4.00 for two
brick cabins of the Red Crown Tourist Court using change taken in a
series of gas station robberies in Fort Dodge, Iowa, earlier in the day.
The Red Crown Tourist Court
*Checking into the Red Crown Tourist
Court as a party of three, but allowing the owner-operator of the motor
court, N.D. Houser, to see five people enter the cabins.
*Letting Houser see the gang park their Ford V-8 in the attached garage "gangster style," facing out for a quick getaway.
*Blanche Barrow running errands in the
area for two days in skintight riding breeches, jodhpurs, which draw
attention and comments from the locals that will be remembered even 40
years later.
*Twice paying for meals for five with more silver and copper from their gas station conquests.
*Using a vehicle, that when Houser takes
down its license plates for registration against the rooms rented,
bears stolen tags from Oklahoma.
*Drawing attention that something not
right might be going on by taping newspapers over the windows of both of
the cabins ... a doubled-edged sword that also keeps the gang from
seeing if danger is headed their way.
*Buying bandages and a list of medical
supplies at the local drugstore for Bonnie's burn wounds from a car
crash that took place in June that druggists throughout the Southwest
are advised to let law enforcement know about if purchased.
*Clyde ignoring Blanche's warning that every person in the market across the street stopped talking when she walked in.
Firing positions readied and the garage
blocked by a makeshift armored car (a regular car with extra steel
plating), convinced that they have trapped a band of outlaws, armed with
pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and metal bullet-proof shields, at
around 1:00 in the morning a mix of state and local cops led by Missouri
Highway Patrol Captain William Baxter and Platte County Sheriff Holt
Coffey wake the occupants of the cabins.
Coffey &
Baxter
"Sheriff ... open up!" And indeed
the Barrow Gang does open up, with Browning Automatic Rifles they have
recently been stolen from the National Guard Armory in Enid, Oklahoma,
blasting away at anything that moves. Outgunned, the police are
saved by the darkness of the night making it hard for the gang to
bullseye their targets, the shields deflecting numerous deadly rounds,
and just plain good luck, but they do take damage ... Sheriff Coffey is
wounded in the neck, in the less than reliable armored car Jackson
County officer George Highfill takes bullets to both knees, and officer
Holt Coffey, Jr. is hit in the arm. Advantage outlaws, and that
advantage increases enough to allow them to escape when bullets set off
the horn in the armored car which the posse interprets as a signal to
cease fire, unwilling to risk further injuries, the wounded Highfill
backs the armored car out of its blocking position, and a tear gas
rocket misfires and sends its toxic fumes over the lawmen instead of the
bandits it was intended to incapacitate. Shooting all the
while, with Clyde at the wheel and the gas pedal floored, the outlaw
filled Ford V-8 explodes out of the garage, just misses hitting Sheriff
Coffey, turns on to Highway 71 and vanishes into the night. But it
has not been a clean getaway, making his way to the car from his cabin,
Buck Barrow is struck by a round from Captain Baxter's machine gun that
enters the outlaw's left temple and exits his forehead, taking a fatal
amount of brain matter with it, and his wife Blanche is blinded by glass
splinters that find both of her eyes when the lawmen unloose a final
volley into the windows of the gang's fleeing vehicle.
Buck dying
of head wound received at Platte City
Blanche days later in Iowa
And escaping with only the clothes on
their backs and the weapons in their hands, the bandits are forced to
leave behind food, medical supplies needed by Bonnie, and a major
portion of their potent arsenal which includes six more stolen BARs,
ammunition, and forty-seven Colt .45 automatic pistols! Gone, but
not forgotten by members of the law, the gang will next turn up in Iowa
... and another gun battle will take place.
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