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T h e B a r r o w s ' V is i t T o D e x f i e l dLike it or not, the Barrow Gang

.has already become a legend. Crit-ics have said the new publicity

brought on by the movie, "Bonnie

and Clyde" glorifies what was pettyand mean and should be forgotten.But this type of criticism nEwerstopped wild west tales or yarnsabout Jesse James or gangsters.

Whenany story becomes a legendit becomes bigger than life, andincreasingly hard to separate factfrom fiction. Many tales have beentold in the Dexfield area about theBarrows that is as substantial asmost gossip. ;....

In visiting with John Love, Dexternight marshal for many years,about the episode we found thatwe shouldhavecontactedhim earlieras he straightened us out. on allthe details. He said that only sixmenincludingRags Riley andBillArthur went up the lane afterthe Barrows. The two named wentahead and challenged the Barrowsthe other six fanned out.

Eight men, including John Lovewere strung along the Dexfield roadto watch the Dexfield park exitsand the bridge. There was anotherlane leading out from the area

where the Barrow gangwastrapped,northeast through the present Ve'rnReynolds farm. However a groupfrom Redfield, led by HammyDeFord, blocked this way. Thisgroup actually watched the Barrowgang as they escaped downthe hill,but they couldn't shoot as theyweren't close enough to positivelyidentify the people.(Howhandywalk-ie-talkies would have been then).

WRONGMANMr. Love said a very deserving

man of the county was not givencredit for shooting the gun out ofClyde Barrow's hand at the bridge.Instead of Editor Place, it wasdeputy sheriff, Evan Burger. Thesetwo men were leaning on the big

arching entry way intothe park whentwo shots were fired at them andtheyran to the bridge. The editor fireda shot without aiming, which caused

Barrow to holler out he wasa mem-ber of the posse. Then Burger firedhis shots from under.. the bridgethat nicked Barrow. The gunman'sautomatic rifle was found only anhour later in some bushes.

Mr. Love said that George Sul-grove, while driving south downthe Dexfield road, saw the Fellercar, with Barrow at the wheel,emerge fromthe Feller lane. Guess-

. ing who it was, and deciding itwas better to be safe than sorry,Sulgrove turned into the Alex Spill-

ers driveway to give them plenty ofroom.WORSTKEPT SECRET

That the Barrow gang was camp-ing out at Dexfield was commonknowledgeby the Sundaynightbeforethe encounter. In fact severalpeoplewho knew the Barrows had recog-nized them on the street in Dexter

.for several days, Bill Meyers, forone. Clyde Barrow had performedin rodeos previous years at Dex-field park. And the gang had usedthe Dexfield park as a hideout twomonths before. According to JohnLove, he helped Clyde Barrow atthat time fill his radiator, notknow-ing who he was. Why wasn't ageneral alarm given earlier in theweek? Probably because ofthe sameindifference that causes many by-standers now to avoid getting in-volved. .

It is very plain then, that theBarrows knew exactly what theywere doing and by design siezedthe best way to outwit their pur-suers.

Authorities were first called into

action whenGeorge Johnsonbe'cameuneasy at having a party with twocars camping out nearby and asked

.John Love, whowas township cons-

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L AS T W E EK

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table and also leader of the localvigilJinte group, to order them out.

. The Johnsons lived in the Roushhome, not far from the scene. (Hada

Landers is their daughter). By thistime Henry Nye, reported discover-ing their camp, luckily no doubt,while they were all away. Love,certain by now that this was theBarrow gang, inturn notified countyofficials. .

There was a lot of excitementin 'Dexter that Sunday night. Clydeand Bonnie drove up to the Ed

.Blohm meat market for the lasttime. Possibly they did not noticethat a car with police was at theend of the street. Jesse Ross, whobynow was in on the secret, waited onClyde. Bonnie stayed in the car.Clyde left withouthis wieners. JesseRoss says he hollered a sharp,"Hey there," which caused Barrowto whip around with his hand reach-ing into his pocket, until Ross quick-ly added, softly, "You forgot yourwieners!" It was said that manycarloads of young people whirledup and down the Dexfield road thatevening and some even venturedinto the adjacent field impatientfor the action to begin. ,.

. As the posse formed duriilgthenight for the chase, some heavycelebrating began, especially amongthe Des Moines contingent, and bymorning many were completelysoused. Whata night that must have

be en I

So it is easy to see why somelocal people have called the wholedeal a complete fiasco, almost acomical farce. Mr. Love said hewas convinced that none of theBarrow gang was hit at all in theDexfield fight and that all of theirwounds resulted from earlier bat-

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tles. He scoffed at the recent claim out ofth~~ar' fO;>iL:';i~;:~~~~t~*~:~~'~;by a man in a Des Moines paper Many youngsters were'lU'Olmdat'of having shot the Barrows. the time. Glenn Short remembers

When Mr. Love was asked why having come over from Stuart tono one was hurt by the hail of watch. Some others "who werebullets, he said that no one could there" were Max Cushman, Nevasee very well. Weeds, brush and Gardner, MaryWalker Musselman, 'trees obstructed the view and the Thelma Ross, Gerald'Butler, Glennadvance men hailed the Barrow Allsup, Harold Dunmire, Elmergang before coming up over the Johnson. It was related that Sammycrest of the knoll to a direct View. Thulin,drove up, dressed in a new

A Redfield witness, who does not suit, and asked what all the ex-wish to be identified, believes that , ' citement was about, whypeople wereactually no one tried to shoot any- ducking. When told, he said he

bodyelse. He said the Barrows in- wasn't going to get his suit dirtytentionally shot over the posse's ,by hiding, so casually watchedstand-heads to scare them back so the ing up.."" ',"',.,".:., i.- ','gang could make a get away while Doubtless many others will bethe officers' main intent was to', proud to claim membership in theeither get them to surrender or ,"they were there"club. "'/!";'get them out into the open. They ....~ . ~_.-:--7:-~':::-:,P:~:~~~;/-.;~,..~ .':',

didn't relish flushing them out o,r__\the timt>erthe hard way, accordingto him.

Some of the local people shown inIthe pictures published all over the iworld at the time were Kurt Piper, iwho held Blanche until he became iapprehensive that if he was photo- jgraphed this way, the Barrow gangimight seek him out for 'revenge. Iothers were Jim Young,EarlBooth, i

Harold Meyers, Henry Leeper, now Iiall dead. Virgil Musselman livesin West Des Moines and CarrollCody in Texas. Most of these peoplewere onlookers that came uponthescene after the capture.

Al Gardner was onethat was morethan an onlooker. He guided thesix men that first surprised theBarrows. He lives in Waverly.

The picture, according to Bob

Creager, was a posed scene. Thecar was on its wayout of the parkwhen photographers asked for a

picture, so everyone, includingthewoundedMarvin Barrow, waspulled