From The Springfield, MO Leader and Press, February 13, 1934

The notorious Barrow desperadoes kidnapped and later released two men on their dash through the Ozarks country was interrupted yesterday by a gun battle with officers near Reeds Spring. The Texas outlaws, led by Clyde Barrow and his cigar-smoking sweetheart, Bonnie Parker, today were reported in the vicinity of the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth and the Kansas State prison, although southwest Missouri officers had expected them to head for the Oklahoma badlands after their trail was lost at Eureka Springs, Arkansas last night. Joe Gunn, 40, eccentric farmer who batches in the hills nine miles southwest of Reeds Spring was a captive of the Barrows when they riddled an officer’s car with machine gun and rifle bullets, he reported today.
Famished and fatigued when picked up on a highway near Reeds Spring at 11:30 o’clock this morning, Gunn described Barrow perfectly and identified Bonnie Parker by a small growth on her nose, which Motorcycle Officer Tom Persell had noticed when kidnapped by the Barrow gang a year ago. They rode in the front seat during the flight from officers, he said.

In the back seat with Gunn, he said, where two men, one of whom officers believed was Raymond Hamilton, who escaped from a Texas convict road gang when Clyde and Bonnie battled the guard several weeks ago. A man, whose name Gunn did not learn, was kidnapped from the roadside at the edge of Berryville, Arkansas as the bandits fled south, and released simultaneously with Gunn a few minutes later. Gunn said they both walked into Berryville without speaking.

Gunn then described his solitary all-night walk back to Reeds Spring in a conversation relayed to Springfield by a telephone operator. Gunn’s story this morning revealed that he was the man who sat in the car during the gun battle with officers, rather than Barrow, as officials had believed, and that Barrow himself had done most of the shooting. Gunn’s report of his experience today revealed the inner story of the dash which began in Springfield, when Mrs. George Thompson, 1304 East Walnut street, saw two men roll the new Thompson sedan out of the driveway and sped away. She identified one of them as Barrow from his rogue’s gallery picture. Not long afterward, the machine containing several persons roared through Hurley.

Sheriff Tuttle was notified and picked up the chase at Galena, but the stolen machine was far in the lead when abandoned for Barrow’s own maroon sedan before reaching Reeds Spring. J.O. Tolley, Reeds Spring school superintendent, saw them changing license plates and obeyed a signal to drive on. Sheriff Tuttle took charge of the stolen car and Deputies Sam Thompson and Ernest Hayes continued the chase. City Marshall Dale Davis was waiting for the car at Reeds Spring. The Barrow gang, which already had picked up Gunn, saw the trap, stopped, shot until the deputies were out of ammunition, and then continued. I had been to a grist mill, 2-1/2 miles southwest of Reeds Spring and was walking back home on a side road when the bandits drove up beside me, Gunn recalled. There was a man and woman in the front seat and two men in the back seat of the red car, he said. One of the men got out of the back seat and asked me the direction to Berryville. Before I had time to answer he had a gun on me and told me to jump in the back seat.

I did and we started out to the farm-to-market road between Reeds Spring and Cape Fair. We saw some officers coming and drove into another side road and found we were hemmed in. We’ve got to let ‘em have it, boys, Gunn quoted the small dark-complexioned man believed to be Raymond Hamilton, Texas fugitive, made selections from four automatic rifles. There was a pile of shotguns in the back seat and enough ammunition to say mike, Gunn declared. Twice Clyde emptied his weapon, Bonnie reloading it while Gunn sat by, frightened stiff. As her sweetheart’s machine gun threw a spray of perforations over the officer’s car, the auburn-haired bandit queen was delighted, Gunn said. Barrow gave the signal to drive away after the officers’ ammunition was exhausted. Gunn said Hamilton climbed into the car, snickered and declared: I sho tried to kill that ______ in back of the car!

Gunn believed he was referring to Deputy Ernest Hayes of Stone County, who was aided in the battle by Deputy Sam Thompson. Gunn said little conversation took place between the members of the gang during the 46-mile drive to Berryville. On the edge of Berryville, Hamilton left the car and approached a pedestrian asking directions to Eureka Springs. The second victim, like the first, did not have a chance to answer before Hamilton started gunplay. Shanghaied into the front seat, the newcomer directed them toward Eureka Springs. About eight miles south of Berryville, Barrow stopped the machine, tweaked Bonnie’s nose, and announced: There’s no use carryin’ this dead weight, baby. The captives took their cue when nudged, Gunn said, and alighted.

We have been pretty good to you boys, so I want you to give us a 40-minute start, Clyde was quoted as demanding before his sedan rode away in a cloud of dust. It was about nightfall when the captives were liberated and Gunn said the two walked back to the edge of Berryville without exchanging a single word. Gunn, a community oddity, has never talked on the telephone and his interview this afternoon had to be repeated by a telephone operator. He has other eccentricities, his friends at Reed Springs said. Gunn was found walking along the main highway 5 miles south of Reeds Spring shortly after 11 o’clock this morning by R. H. Sharp, a road contractor. His heavy cap, overcoat and overalls were ruined with dust, and he was famished and fatigued. Suede jackets, apparently belonging to Clyde and Bonnie, who are known to delight in them, were found in the recovered Thompson car. A man’s hat was found a the site of the shooting.

Joe Gunn was interviewed when he was 77, so that should tell the date of this original material.

Much of it was published when Joe Gunn died. Here is the complete interview:

“They were being chased by Stone County officer,” Gunn recalls. “Raymond Hamilton and another man were with them. They turned off on a country road west of Reeds Springs. I was living on lower James River, and was walking to town that day for my weekly groceries. They stopped me near Fred Tolbert’s farm. They said they were lost and ordered me to get in the green Chevrolet four-door with them, and show them how to get into Arkansas”. “The car was full of guns. I got in the back seat between Hamilton and the other man they called ‘Gibbons’. Clyde was driving. Bonnie was by him with an automatic rifle in her lap. They were all pretty calm. They didn’t seem nervous or scared. I had them drive to the Cape Fair road and turn toward Highway 13, south of Reeds Spring. Just before we got to the junction, in a low gap by Yocum Pond, we saw a load of armed officers blocking the road ahead. They were Galena men”. “Bonnie cursed and said, ‘There they are! We had just as well stop and have it out with them!’. “They piled out of the car and starting shooting the automatic rifles at Deputy Sheriffs Ernest Hayes and Sam Thompson, who dived for cover under their car after emptying their pistols. One of their bullets came through the windshield and plunked into the car by my head. Pellets from a shotgun rattled all over the car. There was an awful noise from the guns”. “About that time Deputy Willard Kissee and Reeds Spring’s Marshall Dale Davis drove the car over a hill behind us. Hamilton turned his rifle on them. They backed the car out of sight. I never saw them anymore. The outlaws then piled back into the car and gave it the gas. We ran out into the ditch going around the officer’s car. Hamilton and Bonnie showed the car with bullets as we drove by. Bonnie cursed a lot. I thought they might think I had led them into the trap, and would shoot me. I was scared stiff. They all looked mean and hard now.” “I told Clyde to turn south on 13. We went about two miles when we saw another carload of officers parked at the side of the highway. Clyde didn’t even slow down. Hamilton and Bonnie opened up with the rifles as we passed”. The officers ran.” “When we got to Berryville, Ark., they stopped, gave me $10 and told me to get out. They didn’t harm me at all”.

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