WOMAN OUTLAW SHOT

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3504, 11 August 1934, Page 2

WOMAN OUTLAW SHOT

END OF PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 2. "Bonnie" Parker, the notorious cigar-smoking woman outlaw, of America, and her highwayman lover, Clyde Barrow, known as Public Emeny No. 2, who since January had terrorised Texas with a record series of crimes, were shot at sight by Texas police, who had tracked them to their hiding place near Gibson, Texas, says an American paper. Barrow and his gunwoman friend were shot in their motor car. They saw a group of police officers concealed behind a clump of trees and drew their guns. Before they could pull the triggers a burst of gunfire put an end for ever to their careers. The pair were known as "wild human rats," and their murderous exploits equal, if they do not exceed for desperate daring and ruthlessness, those of Dillinger in the Middle West, whose life of crime, robbing banks and passing motorists in remote towns of Minnesota, and the adjacent States, came to an end recently. The extinction of the Texas "human rodents" was regarded by the police as an omen foreshadowing the fate which-they hoped would,shortly overtake Dillinger. Barrow was known as Public Enemy No. 2, Dillinger being No. 1. Barrow and his gunwoman companion were driving at 85 miles an hour when they were shot down. Both of them crumpled up in their seats as the car turned over in a ditch. The officers found Barrow's- body twisted behind the steering wheel with a revolver still clutched in his right hand. In the lap of "Bonnie" Parker was a machine-gun. Both bodies, as well as the car, were riddled with bullets.

The official report of Mr. Prank Hamer, the officer in charge, known as "Dead Shot," states that the highways frequented by the couple had been watched for weeks. The trail was picked up one morning. The outlaws' car was reported at an early hour in Bossier parish, where Barrow ia supposed to have relatives.

The officers waited behind some trees. Soon afterwards they saw a motor car break over the horizon racing at a terrific speed. They greeted it with a fusillade from machine-guns and continued to fire after it was wreoked in a ditch.

Many victims of the couple describe "Bonnie" Parker as a marvellously expert markswoman. She liked corn whisky as much as her cigars and was adept with a machine-gun, with which she invariably covered Barrow's retreat when his arms were full of loot. In the house which the police surrounded after the couple had shot their way out some weeks ago, they found a poem in the gunwoma'n's handwriting, entitled "Suicide Girl," and which testified to her exultant pride in her life of crime. "Bonnie's" boast was, "They'll never take me alive." She made good her boast. Barrow and five companions escaped from a Texas gaol five months ago. After that they have roamed the Texas and Oklahoma prairies committing a succession of crimes the like of which has not been seen since "the bad man" days of the famous James Gang. Their car was equipped with three machine-guns, three shotguns, and a quantity of ammunition. "Bonnie" Parker shortly after the escape, joined her lover. She was a waitress in Dallas, where he was born, and had been the wife of Raymond Hamilton, the murderer condemned to life imprisonment for killing a deputy sheriff. "Bonnie" was a "chain-smoker," invariably lighting one cigar from the butt-end of the one she had finished. She puffed big cigars while her male companions perpetrated their ruthless acts of outlawry. A few weeks previously they murdered Police Constable Campbell, of Miami, Oklahoma, and kidnapped the local chief of police, Mr. Percy Boyd. The outlaws swooped down on the two officers as they were following a trail which they supposed led to the outlaws' place of refuge, firing a fussilade which instantly killed Campbell.

This crime was preceded by the murder of two highway patrolmen near Grape Vine, Texas. Dozens of hold-ups marked their career, which the . Texas rangers and deputysheriffs brought to a sudden and appropriate end.