July 24, 2023, is the 90th anniversary of the infamous shootout in Dexfield Park between a posse the Barrow Gang, better known as Bonnie and Clyde.
There will be a special program by local historian Rod Stanley the afternoon of Sunday, July 23, at the Dexter Museum.
The Dexter Museum has extensive displays about the shootout, the days the gang camped at the park before the confrontation, and a large map of the mayhem the couple caused after they escaped.
A little history of the shootout.
The Dexter Museum Facebook page.
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Thanks, Joy! I’ll need to peek at the Dexter Museum info a little further…I think I see a couple of hats in the pic you’ve shared. Bonnie’s iconic cloche hat? So interesting! 😊
It’s a prop and so is the dress. Bonnie Parker was married to someone else, and I guess she wrote poetry.
Well now…that’s interesting!
I remember it well….in the movie. They are buried not too far from where I live in Dallas area.
You’re too young to remember it! It put my small hometown (never more than 900 souls) of Dexter “on the map.” The Wilson family lived in Dexter during the Great Depression. My mother was 14 when she walked uptown and saw Buck and Blanche come out of the doctor’s office, Buck’s head all bandaged. (He was taken to Perry for surgery but died a few days later.) B&C escaped with their driver, returning to Stuart (just west of Dexter) to rob the bank the next April! Rod tells all about what happened to them after the 1933 shootout.
I remember dad’s telling us that he and Grandpa Neal were in John Love’s clothing store when Clyde came in to buy clothes. He said that when John turned around and they saw his gun (John was the Marshall at the time),he paid with cash and left in a hurry. I asked dad what they did, and it he quipped, “Hi Clyde.” Of course, they didn’t know at the time who they were. The Texas ranger museum in Waco has a huge display of Bonnie and Clyde’s travels and Dexter, Iowa is on that map.
They certainly did put Dexter on the map, didn’t they! What a fun story about Grandpa!
This sounds like an interesting presentation, but unfortunately I live too far to attend. I wanted to learn more about Bonnie and Clyde so I did an internet search. Among other interesting facts, the undertaker who prepared their bodies for burial had difficulty keeping the embalming fluid in them because they had so many holes from the firestorm of bullets!
Wow, that’s a new one for me! I wonder whether Rod Stanley know that one. I’ll let him know. This is from 2012 (wish they’d had a stationary chair): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxBn9gNDvTQ
Interesting history. The map of their crime spree seems to indicate that they traveled close the state lines so they could quickly escape the jurisdiction of one and into another where they might be “safer.”
Hmm, you’re thinking like a bandit! We figure they’d already spotted Dexfield Park as a good place to hide out after Buck Barrow was terribly wounded. North of White Pole Road, people camped there all the time during the Depression. Dexterites were used to strangers coming to town who’d stayed out there. But someone hunting blackberries came upon some bloody rags in the park and told John Love, the town constable. Lawmen from Des Moines and Clint Knee, Dallas County Sheriff, were involved.
Now, this will be an interesting program to attend! One day I will get to Dexter to see the town and museum – and hopefully, you.
Wow! Tiny town, never more than 900 souls, can you believe that?
I bet everybody knows everybody there, and I bet it’s a lovely town.
I’l bet that will be a fascinating program!