#blanche barrow

[outofeverythingthisnamewasleft]

L - Blanche Barrow, not long after her capture, July 1933

R - Mug shot of Blanche Barrow after her capture at Dexfield Park, IA, 7/27/33

[westdallasgang]

"We laughed about a lot of things that we should have taken more seriously. But no matter how serious or dangerous the situation was, we always found something to laugh about later on. It always seemed better to laugh than to cry. We had to laugh to keep from crying." — Blanche Barrow, from her book "My Life with Bonnie and Clyde"

[noxexistant]

i NEED to hear more about you opinions on musical!blanche cause the history about the actual blanche really intrigues me and i need to hear more about it-

blanche caldwell frasure barrow my everything. i would be oh so happy to talk about her ad nauseum — and i did. this post got super fucking long under the cut, and covers her real life backstory as well as the reality behind the events the musical covers, up to buck’s death - which is roughly 1930–1933. but that’s all sort of optional history if you’d like to read an overview of the actual events!! referenced from blanche’s memoirs “my life with bonnie and clyde”, her diaries, and the beautiful site ran by blanche’s cousin deborah moss, which can be found here.

as for my take on her portrayal in the musical:

my main problem with her portrayal in the musical is how unsympathetically they treat her. she is portrayed as whining and positioned as an antagonist to bonnie and clyde and even buck, demanding and spoilt and. almost matronly. she’s made to seem much older than she is, cut down to buck’s annoying wife — the old ball and chain — who is hated by clyde and bonnie. she’s a burden, she’s frumpy and rude, she’s snotty. and none of that was the case!!!

blanche was 19 years old when she married buck, who was eight years older than her. she was good friends with bonnie. clyde liked her and even made her gifts while he was in prison, including a beautiful jewellery box carved with her name.

blanche was young and full of love. she was the second youngest member of the gang, and younger than both clyde and bonnie. she wanted nothing more than a happy life with the man she loved and married, something which i would certainly argue is not insane for a teenage girl to want! she was a devout christian — she was raised that way — but this is played for laughs in the show rather than respected as the faith of a deeply traumatised young woman. her cousin, deborah, described her as a “classy lady” and “all she ever wanted [was peace]”. she was the total opposite of the cloying, squawking annoyance she’s portrayed as in both the musical and the 1967 movie (which blanche famously hated).

overall, she was just a deeply complex and utterly tragic person who deserves more gentle treatment in history than she gets.

content warnings for all sorts under the cut, though it’s all non-graphic — abuse, murder, guns, police violence, etc

blanche was born in 1911, the only child of matthew caldwell — a farmer, preacher, and devout christian, 39 years old — and lillian bell pond, who was 15. her parents divorced when she was young, and she was raised primarily by her father in a loving and devoutly religious home, though maintained a poor relationship with her mother. when she was seventeen, in 1927, she was forced into an arranged marriage by her mother with a man called john calloway. i can’t find any direct sources on how old he was, but he was much older than her — and abused her so horrifically that she was left infertile.

in 1929, she fled to dallas to hide from him with the help of a friend, and that’s where she met buck barrow. buck was eight years older than her and twice divorced, he already had children he’d abandoned, but blanche fell in love with him — and buck fell in love with her, so much so that despite being arrested in a burglary shortly after meeting her (a burglary which clyde was also involved in, but escaped), he broke out of prison and went and found her in 1930, and they hid out at buck’s uncle’s farm until 1931. blanche divorced from her first husband in june 1931, and married buck just a month later in july — and then pleaded he turn himself in to the police to serve the rest of his sentence so that they could start fresh and live freely, terrified of living the rest of their lives on the run.

buck made her a lot of promises, and did turn himself back in in december 1931. meanwhile, blanche moved to denison, texas, and worked at a salon owned by buck and clyde’s oldest sister artie. buck was paroled two years later in 1933, and came straight to pick blanche up for the beginning of their “normal life”. they travelled back to dallas, and were immediately stopped and questioned by police regarding clyde’s whereabouts — bonnie and clyde were well into their crime spree by this time.

buck and blanche were released after questioning, and headed to oklahoma to stay with blanche’s mother. bonnie and clyde (and w.d., another member of the gang, age sixteen, whom i can absolutely make another post about if you’d like to hear about him), arrived later that same night. bonnie was “roaring drunk”, and clyde immediately launched into a plan with buck — buck would join clyde’s gang, and help him raid eastham prison to free another gang member, raymond hamilton. buck immediately agreed.

blanche was petrified. she was adamant that she wouldn’t let buck join the gang, and both bonnie and then buck echoed her fears that clyde’s plan was dangerous — so clyde changed the plan. they’d all go up to joplin, missouri, and hide out there for what would essentially be a two week vacation. buck was adamant he was going with his brother, and blanche couldn’t stomach letting him go alone, so she went too. buck promised her they could convince clyde to give up the gang and go straight.

he lied. a few days into their stay in joplin, he and clyde robbed a national guard armory of as many guns as they could get their hands on. when two weeks had passed, blanche pleaded she and buck leave as promised — and bonnie agreed that they should. she and blanche had become good friends, often going to the movies and shopping together, and bonnie didn’t want blanche and buck to suffer on the run the way she and clyde were.

buck promised blanche again that they would leave on april 14, but then once again changed his mind and promised clyde that they would stay a few more days. this time, however, blanche won the argument, and they were all getting ready to leave on april 13. she was cleaning up the apartment they were staying in, when she heard gunshots raining from outside, and buck screamed that the cops had shown up and they all had to run. blanche, unaware of buck’s involvement in the robberies, asked why they had to run when they hadn’t done anything wrong, but the gunfight with the two police officers turned brutal. buck, clyde, and w.d. were all injured, and the two police officers were killed — something which severely traumatised blanche.

so, the gang went on the run. clyde, buck, and w.d. committed regular robberies to get money. the boys robbed another armory in july, adding to their arsenal, and finally stopped just outside of platte city, missouri, in rented cabins later that same month, because clyde was exhausted and desperate to rest somewhere. he and buck had started to fight viciously, and buck now wanted to leave too, but he and blanche had no way to without their own car.

things in the rental park were not good. they had a lot of suspicion on them, and blanche pled constantly to leave, but clyde was exhausted and adamant she was just paranoid — until around july 21, 1933, when blanche was awoken by a police officer knocking on the door. he demanded to know where the men were, and she spoke loudly to alert buck and clyde as she lied about their whereabouts. buck picked up a gun while clyde crept into the garage to start the car, and they ran outside in the firefight to try and make it the car and get away — and buck was shot, a bullet connecting with his head and knocking him to the ground. blanche was sure he was dead, but he was still conscious enough to make it to the car where he then collapsed. further gunfire shattered the windscreen, and blanche was severely injured by the glass, which blinded her in one eye.

clyde managed to drive away. they drove near nonstop for several days, and made it to the woods of dexfield park, iowa. buck was dying. july 24, after a couple days camped out in the park, the cops caught up to them and began firing on them again. clyde and w.d. fired back, but both were injured, and the car was stuck on a tree stump and couldn’t be started, so they ran instead. buck, barely conscious, made it a few feet before he collapsed, and blanche went down with him as she failed to bear his weight. buck rolled on top of her to protect her from the rest of the gunfire, and was shot five more times. this time, she was sure he was dead, and gave up. she raised her arms to surrender. the cops kept shooting. she was dragged away from buck crying and screaming and blinded, and the two were taken in separate cars to a nearby town’s doctors office.

there, blanche was able to talk to buck one last time. he asked her to stop crying and told her to go and rest. she kissed him and was pulled away by one of the doctors, and was left not knowing buck’s fate. on july 26, 1933, she was taken to missouri and charged with assault and intent to kill, and she pled guilty. she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. buck died on july 29, 1933. blanche was not allowed to attend his funeral.

[verilyproductions]

Weirdly normal facts about The Barrow Gang:

Bonnie ate boiled eggs. Blanche sometimes boiled them for her

Bonnie and Blanche would sometimes sneak off to movies. But sometimes they all went to the movies together.

Bonnie and Clyde Playing poker, cleaning their guns and making noise until 2am which Blanche said she disapproved of.

Clyde once worked as a movie theatre usher!

The gang rarely woke before noon

Bonnie and Clyde lived messily, everything covered in guns and clothes, but Clyde was an efficient packer.

[larosebisou]

Blanche Barrow, member of The Barrow Gang.

[niamhthefae]

blanche did nothing wrong btw

[this-world-will-rememeber-me]

Why you shouldn’t joke about Ed Crowder. (An unfortunate rant)

I won’t be sharing the persons username, please don’t share it if you know it but I just wanted to talk about it since although it may have been like 90 years ago but it’s still an issue that is very relevant now.

Key:

Purple = Info Source

Blue = Wikipedia Page

All mentions to the musical are referring to the uk versions (Tour/West End) unless specified

Before I actually start I just want to put out there that I talk about SA, Abuse and violence in general in this post.

This post also isn’t me defending the gangs actions, i’ve spoken about this before and people have told me i’m apparently defending them when that is not the purpose, this is simply just to educate people of what happened to these VERY REAL PEOPLE. Not just musical characters.

Who was Ed Crowder?

Ed Crowder was initially serving a sentence for Bank Robbery up to 99 years and was also believed to have been behind a prison break at Ferguson State Farm where 35 convicts had escaped. As of June 26 1927, 23 convicts had been recaptured and a guard called Will Ruder (if i read it correctly) was killed during the prison break. On May 6 1929, Crowder and another inmate had escaped from solitary confinement but ultimately was recaptured. Here are two articles taking about the events.

Ed Crowder’s name is only said twice in the musical and it is never said what exactly he did to Clyde however, if you watch the UK Tour version, after Clyde receives his sentence to Eastham State Penitentiary/Farm you can see him push his head in between two of the cell bars and then a man approaches him from behind. This man is most likely Crowder judging by how Clyde literally screams after. In West End, you don’t physically see him screaming or see Ed but you can hear him screaming during the blackout before Raise a Little Hell.

What did Crowder do to Clyde in Prison??

Ed Crowder used to prey on Clyde. Quite literally. Barrow was quite small his entire life, according to William Daniel ‘W.D’ Jones, “he was only about 5 feet, six inches tall and he weighed no more than 135 pounds.” It’s believed that Clyde was between 125-135 pounds. Crowder on the other hand was 6 foot and weighed 200 pounds. For most of Clyde’s time in the prison, Crowder had harassed him. Barrow was s3xually assulted and beat by Crowder and possibly other inmates.

Despite Barrow reporting it to the guards several times, nothing was ever done about it. considering it was around sometime around 1930-1931 when this was happening to him, incidents like this in prisons were incredibly common. Guards simply didn’t see any point in doing anything. Most of the guards were amused at how Barrow was being tormented. Some guards even joining with beating him.

Ralph Fults, a member of the Barrow Gang who was also at Eastham at the time, claimed he watched barrow “change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake”.

Alongside not being helped by the people who were meant to be the good guys in situations like this, Barrow also was teased by other inmates. One example of someone who teased him was Wade Hampton McNabb, an Inmate Building Tender in Eastham Building 1. He was in was the same building as Clyde, despite Barrow not hearing what was being said at the time it was a motive for something the Barrow Gang did around 3 years and 2 months later which I’ll come back to.

Raise a Little Hell

The song Raise a Little Hell takes place on October 29/30th 1931 (the wording of the news report confused me so i’m not exactly sure) and is about Clyde’s plan to end the abuse he is being subjected to in prision. Towards the end of the song, Barrow completes the murder by (although it isn’t exactly said it’s pretty obvious) beating and crushing Crowder’s skull with a Lead Pipe.

Top two gifs by @dontyouknowemma-itsyou ! Bottom gif by @noxexistant

Note about continuity: Although in the Proshot it shows that Clyde got the pipe from his bed, in the West End/UK tour version, he is shown to get the pipe from another inmate. Clyde actually got the pipe on his way back inside from the outside work they were made to do in the prison and hid it in his trousers.

Although, yes, Clyde did kill him, another inmate called Aubrey Scalley took the blame for the murder. The article about Crowder’s death mentions he was stabbed 15 times, Scalley was the one who stabbed him.

“One of the men left his bunk and went back to the rear part of the building” refers to Clyde. Apparently he somehow lured Crowder to the area and that’s how it all went down.

For reference, here’s a picture of Eastham Building 1 (1930). The murder happened just behind the furthest pillar.

Wade Hampton McNabb

This is a separate murder from Crowder. It happened on April 3rd 1934, 50 days before Bonnie & Clyde were ambushed and killed.

During Clyde’s time at Eastham, McNabb would call him his “Prison Wife” without him knowing. Not much longer than two years after his early release from prison Clyde found out what McNabb had said about him and whilst McNabb was on a 60 day furlough he was found dead with his face down somewhere between Texas and Louisiana. Apparently he looked like he had been kneeling down like he was saying a prayer before being hit in the back of the head and a gun being emptied into his head. Read a newspaper article about it here.

Joseph Conger Palmer (Usually just referred to as Joe Palmer) was the one to actually kill McNabb.

Palmer was executed by Electric Chair alongside Raymond Hamilton on May 10th 1934 for the murder of Prison Guard Major Joe Crowson. Crowson was shot 11 times on January 16th 1934 with a rifle and machine gun, he survived for 11 days after before dying due to his wounds.

My point is, maybe don’t make jokes about literal SA. If it isn’t meant to be harmful, still just don’t say it. SA is still a very real issue that happens daily and can be incredibly traumatic. Whether you’re joking about a criminal or not. just don’t. <3

[iloveplayrehersal]

BROOOO BONNIE AND CLYDE WOULD LOOK LIKE LITTLE KIDS COMPARED TO HIM😭