My Life with Bonnie and Clyde by Barrow Blanche Caldwell & Phillips John Neal

Author:Barrow, Blanche Caldwell & Phillips, John Neal [Barrow, Blanche Caldwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2012-10-08T05:00:00+00:00

Mary O’Dare. (Phillips Collection)

According to Blanche, the overall impact of the movie Bonnie and Clyde was that “it nearly caused my husband to divorce me. Of course, my in-laws never liked me anyway.”65

Although the movie Bonnie and Clyde is certainly an exciting, fast-paced juxtaposition of violence and humor, masterfully crafted and directed by Arthur Penn, it is anything but the story of Bonnie and Clyde, much less of Buck and Blanche. Indeed, one of the initial criticisms of the movie was that it was so very inaccurate historically. Nevertheless, some may argue that such is the nature of entertainment, that if one is interested in history one shouldn’t try to find it in the entertainment industry. Still, that is of little consolation to those whose lives were being represented as something purportedly approaching fact.

Such was certainly the case with the characterization of the former Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer, as portrayed by Denver Pyle. In the movie, Bonnie and Clyde capture Hamer and humiliate him and even beat him up. In reality, nothing even remotely like that ever happened. Indeed, the very first time Frank Hamer saw Bonnie and Clyde was the day he and five other lawmen killed them in Louisiana. Hamer did not even know what they looked like. Only one officer in the group had ever seen them before that day. Consequently, Hamer’s family sued Warner brothers. The litigation was settled after a court case that included testimony from another one of the officers who killed Bonnie and Clyde, former Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton. When asked in court if Frank Hamer had ever been abducted by Bonnie and Clyde, Hinton responded wryly that only one entity had ever taken Frank Hamer anywhere, “and that was God! And I’m not so sure He knew what to do with him after He got him!”66

After the movie’s release Blanche hid away as best she could and hoped the fallout from her resurrected notoriety would be minimal. Besides, she had other things on her mind. Eddie had contracted cancer and died on May 11, 1969, at age fifty-seven.

After the death of Eddie Frasure, Blanche slowly renewed friendships with her former in-laws, beginning with her old friend Artie, Buck’s older sister. She started frequenting Barrow family gatherings, usually in the company of Artie. Nevertheless, it was Marie Barrow who told Blanche where to find Bonnie’s sister, Billie Jean. By then, Billie Jean had dropped “Billie” from her name and was married to a man from Mesquite, Texas, named Arthur Borland Moon. Jean and her husband, whom everyone referred to simply as “Moon,” also lived on Beltline Road, within a few miles of Blanche. They began socializing together, eventually so much so that she rarely saw the Barrows thereafter. Marie once quipped, “Yeah, Blanche used to come by here and drink beer with us. Now she’s always over at Moon’s drinking beer.” The last time some of the Barrows remember seeing Blanche was at LC’s funeral.67 Like Eddie Frasure, LC contracted cancer.

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