THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1973 Lost BY ROBERT E. FORD Associated Press Writer Thestory of Bonnie and Clyde will be revived from time to time. But it is unlikely that the pair will become true folklore figures as did Jesse James. This was demonstrated a few weeks ago when Clyde Barrow’s old homeplace was sold to an investment company. And to this hour, there has been no outcry from the Texas State Historical Survey Committee nor any big movement asking contributions from the public to buy the place and turn it into a shrine. Ot Hampton of the Dallas Times Herald who is something of an authority on Bonnie and Clyde went to the neighborhood and asked a youth what he thought about the sale. “Clyde Barrow was just another man, no more important than I am,” said the youth who is no Madison Avenue type. He tightened his hold on his comic book and added, ‘“‘Why should I be interested in his house? The people up in Missouri look at Jesse James differently. They have built up a whole compiex of James memorials, and tourists flock there to see artifacts left by the man who was called the Midwest Robin Hood. I know of no Robin Hodd acts of robbing the rich and giving to the poor really attributed to James. But he came at a time when the people of the area were mad at the railroads, and one of Jesse’s specialties was robbing trains. The only reason he lasted 20 years was because the people hid him and were not about to tell any railroad dicks where he was. One day Jesse decided to hang a picture. It was his last error. As he turned to the wall to drive the nail, one of his business associates shot him in the back. Which is one reason you'll never read this column written from Missouri. Jesse’s killer was Robert Ford, and that is not a popular name up there. The Barrow family home is nothing much to look at—a worn frame house attached to a filling station which no longer sells gas or anything else. The house was under almost constant surveillance during the two years that Bonnie and Clyde were cutting a great swath of crime though the Southwest and Midwest. This didn’t stop the pair from visiting home, according to stories circulated then. They would coast into the place for food, gasoline and a few hours with Barrow’s family. Hampton records that during the Christmas holidays in 1932, Clyde and his younger brother, L.C., pulled a two-day drinking spree in the residence under the very eyes of the law. How long ago was 1932? Nothing explains that better than a notation that gasoline at the Barrow filling station was 11 cents a gallon. Clyde’s father sold the place in 1940 for $800. It was sold again in 1959 before it was purchased by ADA Investment Corp. recently. The place is in.an area known as West Dallas. Talked not long to a fellow who was a kid resident of the area when Clyde, Bonnie and such other outlaws as Raymond Hamilton lived there. The region at the time was nothing more than a few houses- our informant called them shacks-strung along a country road paved only with the good earth. The region later became thickly populated, and as occurs in many cities, began a decline. Redhaired Bonnie and Clyde met in 1929 when she was a waitress and he was a punk with a minor criminal record. The saga began April 30, 1932, with the killing of a Hillsboro service station man. Never again will a chase make page one of newspapers day after day as authorities hunted the pair across the nation. Clyde liked to do the spectacular. Once, for instance, the duo kidnaped an officer in New Mexico just for a lark and carried him to San Antonio before releasing him unharmed. The officer was lucky. Bonnie and Clyde are known to have killed eight persons, most of them law enforcement officers, without mercy. They are suspected of slaying several others. A yellowed clipping pinpoints why there never will be such a chase again. A man named W.B. Jones said in Houston that Bonnie and Clyde “‘wouldn’t last a week” against modern police methods- that _ police radio communications are too gooa. Jones said he rode with the duo in those days. He said his job was to climb telephone poles and cut the lines to prevent officers ahead of them on their route from being informed that they were coming. Police radios today can result in roadblocks in minutes anywhere in the country, killing the long chases. The climax came May 23, 1934, when officers, relying on information from one of the Bonnie and Clyde companions who talked to save his own hide, Staked out an area near Ar- cadia, La. The pair showed up. Their car was riddled with 167 bullet holes. Each of the outlaws suffered 50 or more bullet wounds. They are buried in the Dallas area-but 11 miles apart. It was the beginning of the end for the really well-known criminals. John Dillinger was killed in Chicago 61 days later. Pretty Boy Floyd was killed three months after Dillinger in a shootout with officers in Ohio. For the record, Clyde was 25 years old at his death. Bonnie was 23. TELL NEWS MRS. TOM GOFF Index Special Correspondent Visiting Mr. and Mrs. Gene Gambol over the weekend were Mrs. Mable Everett of Redding, Calif., Mr. and Mrs. Charles Murphy of Austin and Mr. and Mrs. Larry Malone of Borger. Mr. and Mrs. John Glover of Chadron, Nev., are visiting Mrs. Oscar Glover. Mrs. J.A. Stinnett is a patient in Hall County Hospital at Memphis. Mr. Tom Goff has been dismissed from Bethania Hospital at Wichita Falls. Scientists theorize that, with a powerful rocket, a round trip to the planet Mars would take 400 days, includ- ing 40 days spent in explor- ing the planet. an eee i tee ee ee a