Editing Bonnie and Clyde (section)

== Aftermath ==

=== Personal effects===
The posse never received the promised [[Bounty (reward)|bounty]] on the perpetrators, so they were told to take whatever they wanted from the confiscated items in their car. Hamer appropriated the arsenal<ref>Phillips, ''Running'', p.  207</ref> of stolen guns and ammunition, plus a box of fishing tackle, under the terms of his compensation package with the Texas DOC.<ref group=notes>Hamer was interested in the Barrow hunt assignment, but the pay was only a third of what he made working for oil companies. To sweeten the deal, Texas Department of Corrections boss Lee Simmons granted him title to all the guns that the posse would recover from the slain murderers. Almost all the guns, which the gang had stolen from armories, were the property of the National Guard. There was a thriving market for "celebrity" guns, even in 1934 (Guinn, p. 343).</ref> In July, Clyde's mother Cumie wrote to Hamer asking for the return of the guns: "You don't ever want to forget my boy was never tried in no court for murder, and no one is guilty until proven guilty by some court so I hope you will answer this letter and also return the guns I am asking for."<ref name=tre224>Treherne, p.  224</ref> There is no record of any response.<ref name=tre224 />

Alcorn claimed Barrow's [[saxophone]] from the car, but he later returned it to the Barrow family.<ref name="Guinn, p 343">Guinn, p. 343</ref> Posse members took other personal items, such as Parker's clothing. The Parker family asked for them back but were refused,<ref name="posse" /><ref>[http://texashideout.tripod.com/emlet.jpg ''Emma Parker letter''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804050023/http://texashideout.tripod.com/emlet.jpg |date=August 4, 2018 }}. TexasHideout. Retrieved May 26, 2008.</ref> and the items were later sold as souvenirs.<ref>Steele, p ?; Phillips, pp. 209–11.</ref> The Barrow family claimed that Sheriff Jordan kept an alleged suitcase of cash, and writer Jeff Guinn claims that Jordan bought a "barn and land in Arcadia" soon after the event, thereby hinting that the accusation had merit, despite the complete absence of any evidence to the existence of such a suitcase.<ref name="Guinn, p 343" />

===Death car===
Jordan attempted to keep the death car, but Ruth Warren of [[Topeka, Kansas]], the vehicle's legal owner, sued him.<ref>Ramsey, p. 234</ref> Jordan relented and allowed her to claim it in August 1934, still covered with blood and human tissue.<ref>Knight and Davis, p. 197.</ref> The engine still ran, despite the damage the vehicle took during the ambush. Warren picked up the car in Arcadia and drove it to Shreveport, still in its gruesome state. From there, she had it trucked to Topeka.<ref>Ramsey, p. 272</ref>

The bullet-riddled Ford became a popular traveling attraction. The car was displayed at fairs, amusement parks, and flea markets for three decades, and once became a fixture at a Nevada race track. There was a charge of one dollar to sit in it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2894|title=Bonnie and Clyde's Death Car, Primm, Nevada|website=Roadside America|access-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331025222/https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2894|archive-date=March 31, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1988, a casino near Las Vegas purchased the vehicle for about $250,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|250000|1988|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}). {{as of|2024}}, the car and the shirt Barrow was wearing when killed are displayed behind a glass panel at Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino in [[Primm, Nevada]] alongside [[Interstate 15]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Lane |first=Taylor |date=24 March 2024 |title=How the 'Bonnie and Clyde Death Car' ended up in Primm |url=https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/how-the-bonnie-and-clyde-death-car-ended-up-in-primm-3019565/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240624144046/https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/how-the-bonnie-and-clyde-death-car-ended-up-in-primm-3019565/ |archive-date=June 24, 2024 |access-date=June 24, 2024 |website=Las Vegas Review Journal}}</ref>

Barrow's enthusiasm for cars was evident in a letter he wrote from [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]] on April 10, 1934, to [[Henry Ford]]: "While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got every other car skinned and even if my business hasn't been strictly legal it don't hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8." There are some doubts as to the authenticity of the letter.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letter from Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford Praising the Ford V-8 Car, 1934 – The Henry Ford Organization|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/281082/ |website=www.thehenryford.org |access-date=April 11, 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Gang and family members===
[[File:HenryMethvinMugshot1931.jpg|thumb|[[Henry Methvin]] escaped prosecution for the two Grapevine, Texas, murders because of his father's cooperation with the posse. He was prosecuted for other crimes in Oklahoma, where he was convicted and served eight years.]]

[[File:BlancheBarrowMug1933.jpg|thumb|Blanche never carried a gun. She was convicted of [[attempted murder]] and served six years.]]

In February 1935, Dallas and federal authorities arrested and tried twenty family members and friends for [[aiding and abetting]] Barrow and Parker. This became known as the "harboring trial" and all twenty either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. The two mothers were jailed for thirty days. Other sentences ranged from two years' imprisonment for Floyd Hamilton, brother of Raymond, to one hour in custody for Barrow's teenage sister Marie.<ref>Guinn, pp. 354–355</ref> Other defendants included Blanche, Jones, Methvin, and Parker's sister Billie.

Blanche was permanently blinded in her left eye during the 1933 shootout at Dexfield Park. She was taken into custody on the charge of "[[attempted murder|assault with intent to kill]]". She was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison, but was paroled in 1939 for good behavior. She returned to Dallas, leaving her life of crime in the past, and lived with her invalid father as his caregiver. In 1940, she married Eddie Frasure. She worked as a taxi cab dispatcher and a beautician, and completed the terms of her parole one year later. She lived in peace with her husband until he died of cancer in 1969.<ref name="auto">Barrow and Phillips, p. 249 n</ref>

[[Warren Beatty]] approached her to purchase the rights to her name for use in the 1967 film ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'', and she agreed to the original script. She objected to her characterization by [[Estelle Parsons]] in the final film, describing the actress's Academy Award-winning portrayal of her as "a screaming horse's ass". Despite this, she maintained a firm friendship with Beatty. She died from cancer at age 77 on December 24, 1988, and was buried in Dallas's Grove Hill Memorial Park under the name "Blanche B. Frasure".<ref name="auto"/>

Barrow cohorts Hamilton and Palmer, who escaped Eastham in January 1934, were recaptured. Both were convicted of murder and executed in the electric chair at [[Huntsville, Texas]] on May 10, 1935.<ref>Knight and Davis, p. 188</ref> 
[[File:WDJonesMug1973.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Jones served six years in prison, convicted of one murder, indicted for another, and suspected of an additional two committed as a juvenile.]]

Jones had left Barrow and Parker six weeks after the three of them evaded officers at Dexfield Park in July 1933.<ref>Ramsey, p. 196</ref> He reached Houston and got a job picking cotton, where he was soon discovered and captured. He was returned to Dallas, where he dictated a "confession" in which he claimed to have been kept a prisoner by Barrow and Parker. Some of the more lurid lies that he told concerned the gang's sex lives, and this testimony gave rise to many stories about Barrow's ambiguous sexuality.<ref>Toland, John (1963). ''The Dillinger Days''. New York: Random House. {{ISBN|0-306-80626-6}} (1995 Da Capo ed.), p. 83</ref> Jones was convicted of the murder of Doyle Johnson and served a lenient sentence of fifteen years.

He gave an interview to ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine during the excitement surrounding the 1967 movie: "That Bonnie and Clyde movie made it all look sort of glamorous, but like I told them teenaged boys sitting near me at the drive-in showing: 'Take it from an old man who was there. It was hell. Besides, there's more lawmen nowadays with better ways of catching you. You couldn't get away, anyway. The only way I come through it was because the Good Lord musta been watching over me. But you can't depend on that, neither, because He's got more folks to watch over now than He did then.'"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cinetropic.com/janeloisemorris/commentary/bonn&clyde/wdjones.html |title=Riding with Bonnie and Clyde by W.D. Jones |publisher=Cinetropic.com |date=May 23, 1934 |access-date=June 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309154647/http://www.cinetropic.com/janeloisemorris/commentary/bonn%26clyde/wdjones.html |archive-date=March 9, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

W.D. Jones was killed on August 20, 1974, in a misunderstanding by a jealous boyfriend of a woman whom he was trying to help.<ref>[http://texashideout.tripod.com/wd1.jpg "Bonnie and Clyde driver loses life to shotgun blasts."] ''The Houston Post,''  August 21, 1974.</ref>

Methvin was convicted in Oklahoma of the 1934 murder of Constable Campbell at Commerce. He was paroled in 1942 and killed by a train in 1948. He fell asleep drunk on the train tracks, although some have speculated that he was pushed by someone seeking revenge.<ref>Knight and Davis, p. 190</ref> His father Ivy was killed in 1946 by a [[hit-and-run]] driver.<ref name="Guinn, p 358">Guinn, p. 358</ref> Parker's husband Roy Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary in March 1933. He was killed by guards on October 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham prison.<ref name="roy">[http://texashideout.tripod.com/bonroy.html "Bonnie & Roy."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621122306/http://texashideout.tripod.com/bonroy.html |date=June 21, 2007 }} [http://texashideout.tripod.com/bc.htm Bonnie and Clyde's Texas Hideout.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221181414/http://texashideout.tripod.com/bc.htm |date=February 21, 2010 }} Retrieved May 24, 2008.</ref>

[[File:BonnieParkerStory-poster.jpg|thumb|upright|right|1958: Parker was portrayed in the media as a dominant tough girl who ran a gang of several subservient men, such as in ''[[The Bonnie Parker Story]]''.]]
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=== Law enforcement===
Hamer returned to a quiet life as a freelance security consultant for oil companies. According to Guinn, "his reputation suffered somewhat after Gibsland"<ref>Guinn, p. 356</ref> because many people felt that he had not given Barrow and Parker a fair chance to surrender. He made headlines again in 1948 when he and Governor [[Coke Stevenson]] unsuccessfully challenged the vote total achieved by [[Lyndon Johnson]] during the election for the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]]. He died in 1955 at the age of 71, after several years of poor health.<ref>Knight and Davis, p. 191</ref> Bob Alcorn died on May 23, 1964, 30 years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.<ref name="Guinn, p 358" />

Prentiss Oakley admitted to friends that he had fired prematurely.<ref name="Guinn, p 357" /> He succeeded Henderson Jordan as sheriff of Bienville Parish in 1940.<ref name="Guinn, p 357" />

On April 1, 2011, officials of the Texas Rangers, [[Texas Highway Patrol]], and [[Texas Department of Public Safety]] honored the memory of patrolman Edward Bryan Wheeler, who was murdered along with officer H. D. Murphy by the Barrow gang on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934. They presented the Yellow Rose of Texas commendation to his last surviving sibling, 95-year-old Ella Wheeler-McLeod of [[San Antonio]], giving her a plaque and framed portrait of her brother.<ref>Davis, Vincent T. "Texas honors officer killed by Bonnie and Clyde, sister given commendation 77 years later", ''Houston Chronicle'', April 2, 2011</ref>