On Wednesday, May 23, 1934, the two-year-long crime spree of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow came to a bloody end on a lonely Louisiana highway. That morning, six lawmen - Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Manny Gault, Dallas County deputy sheriffs Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn, and Bienville Parish law enforcement officers Prentiss Oakley and Henderson Jordan were hidden in the brush on the east side of Louisiana Highway 154 (also known as the Sailes Road or Ringgold Road), waiting for Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow to pass by on their way to their rural hideout--an abandoned farm several miles further south. In the middle or on the side of the road (sources vary in regard to this detail) a seemingly disabled logging truck was parked, with its right front wheel removed.

The vehicle belonged to Ivy Methvin, father of Henry Methvin, a Barrow gang member whose rural home was situated nearby. (Sources also vary as to whether Methvin was a willing or unwilling participant.)

At about 9:15 a.m., as Bonnie and Clyde approached from the north, in a stolen 1934 Ford Sedan, they apparently spotted Methvin's truck and began to slow down, probably to see if they could be of some help. Suddenly, the lawmen sprang from their positions. Whether someone shouted "Halt!" or not is uncertain. Regardless, before Bonnie and Clyde could reach for their guns, the officers opened fire with automatic weapons. As they sprayed the pair of outlaws and their vehicle with literally hundreds of bullets, the car lurched forward toward the left side of the road, where it came to a halt in a shallow ditch. In a matter or moments it was all over.

Afterward, with the bloody bodies of Bonnie and Clyde still sitting in the front seat, the car was towed through Gibsland, then on to nearby Arcadia, the seat of Bienville Parish. There, scores of curious townspeople tried to get a peek at both the bullet riddled automobile and the bodies of the outlaw lovers, before they were taken home to Dallas for burial.

Below are some scenes of the ambush site and the nearby towns of Gibsland and Arcadia, as they appeared on the afternoon of May 31, 2003 - just a little more than sixty-nine years since that fateful day in 1934.

Ambush Site

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Gibsland

While Bonnie and Clyde's car was towed past the elementary school seen above left, the tow truck stopped momentarily and children ran out and jumped on the car's running board, to take a peek at the outlaw couple's bullet-riddled bodies.

In 1934, the center building in the center photo above was a cafe where, reportedly, an unsuspecting Bonnie and Clyde ate their last breakfast before driving off down Highway 154 toward their imminent demise.

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Arcadia

The gap between the buildings in the first two photos above left is where the furniture store/mortuary once stood, where the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde were first taken followng the ambush on May 23, 1934. The building was there until the late 1990s when, after a tornado damaged it, it was condemned as unsafe and torn down.

The middle photo is a view, looking north, from the hill where Arcadia Cemetery is located. Here you will find the graves of two of the lawmen who helped ambush Bonnie and Clyde : Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan and Deputy Sheriff Prentiss Oakley.

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Sources:

• Several different books about Bonnie and Clyde
• Television documentary, "Remembering Bonnie and Clyde" (1994).
• Actual on-site inspection by the author of this web site.

All color photos on this page were taken by the author of this web site and may not be reproduced without permission.

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