Bonnie and Clyde + The Barrow Gang plan the Eastham Prison raid:
Bonnie and Clyde were back in Texas after an ambush attempt. Ray Hamilton was incarcerated at Eastham when word got around and he began to resurrect Clyde's revenge plan to raid the prison. Ralph Fults originally planned the raid with Clyde years ago before Ray. But Ralph couldn't be included because he was jailed outside of town. That's when an Eastham convict named James Mullens came into the picture. James was 48 and bunked next to Ray at Eastham. He was about to be released after serving a 21 year sentence for robbery. The downside was that Clyde knew him to be a drug addict—unpredictable and wholly unreliable. Nevertheless, because he was due for release, Ray promised him $1,000 if he could locate Clyde and arrange to have a number of weapons planted in the prison farm compound.
On January 12, 1934, James visited the house of Ray's brother, Floyd Hamilton, hoping to contact Clyde through him. James then accompanied Floyd to a deserted road near Irving, TX. After waiting several minutes, a black V-8 pulls up alongside them. Bonnie and Clyde were inside, staring intently at James Mullens. James was just about the last person on earth Clyde wanted to see. Floyd and James outlined the plan to him as Clyde sat in peeved silence, playing with the safety catch on his automatic rifle. 3 things bothered him: Ray's big mouth, the memory of Ray's refusal to help with the raid in 1932, and James Mullens. Convinced that James was setting a trap, Clyde wanted no part in it unless James took front row action and planted the guns himself. James went pale. He turned to Floyd and said, "I'm not doing that alone. You're coming with me!" Floyd reluctantly agreed.
Before dawn on January 14, Bonnie and Clyde dropped off Floyd and a trembling James half a mile from the main prison compound of Eastham Camp 1. Floyd and James made it through the thick pine forest and through the barbed wire perimeter surrounding the prison. Inside a bound rubber inner tube, a pair of Colt .45 automatics were concealed beneath the drainage culvert near the woodpile at the prison's Camp 1. They exited across the brightly lit prison yard crawling on their hands and knees to the main road. At one point the camp dogs started howling and barking in their kennels, but the guards paid no attention. Clyde then drove to Dallas and dropped off Floyd, but he kept James in the car so he could keep an eye on him. He still didn’t trust James.
Floyd Hamilton returned to Eastham the following day for his regular biweekly visit with his younger brother, Ray, who was serving 266 years in prison for auto theft, armed robbery, and murder. During that visit, Floyd filled Ray in on the details of the prison break. On Monday, an inmate named Aubrey Skelley set out to retrieve the weapons. Aubrey was a building tender, a trusty position that allowed him to move about the prison with a certain amount of freedom. He managed to smuggle the inner tube into the Camp 1 dormitory and deliver it to Joe Palmer. Joe, serving 25 years for robbery, hid the tube and its contents in his mattress. Word that the break would take place the following morning reached the two other prisoners who would take part—Henry Methvin, serving 10 years for robbery and attempted murder, and Hilton Bybee. Hilton was a killer who tried escaping from the Wichita County Jail with Ralph Fults. At Ralph's request, he was added to the list.
At 6am on January 16, 1934, the gang slipped quietly in their black Ford V-8 through the dense fog rising from nearby the Trinity River. With lights extinguished, the Ford parked just beyond a narrow bridge. Clyde and James stepped out with loaded BARs tucked under their arms, capable of firing a 20-round clip of 30.06 armor-piercing shells in less than 3 seconds. The two men crouched along the creek bank and waited. At 7am Clyde detected movement beyond them. The ghost-like images of a line of prisoners slowly materialized in the distance. The white denim of their prison uniform glowed with an eerie radiance. Guards bearing weapons accompanied the line. Soon the field was covered with prison work crews, each preparing to clear the land for the spring planting and cutting wood to stoke the camp stoves. Guard Olan Bozeman had already noticed Ray moved from his own group and joined Joe Palmer, Henry Methvin, and Hilton Bybee.
The guard chose not to take action. Until they moved farther. He then called for a mounted guard to hold a gun on Ray so that he could be whipped with a trace chain, just as he had planned. At that point, the men were less than a 100 feet from the creek where Clyde and James were hiding. Major Joseph Crowson, who had repeatedly beaten Joe in the past, was called on by Bozeman. While the two guards conversed, Joe walked up as if to ask a question. He turned to Crowson, leveled his gun, and fired a single round into the guard's stomach, knocking him off his horse. Crowson died instantly. Shocked at what just occured, Bozeman pulled the trigger at Joe. Joe ducked just as a charge of buckshot sailed past his head, a lone pellet creasing his temple. Joe fired two shots. A bullet teared the shotgun from Bozeman's hands and another wounding him in the hip.
Ray fired one shot when the clip popped from its housing and tumbled to the muddy ground. Virtually disarmed, Ray searched for his clip in the mud as Joe helplessly fought it out alone. Clyde and James then reared up and fired shots above the heads of the startled men in the field. While guards and prisoners alike were diving on their stomachs, Ray, Joe, Henry, and Hilton ran for their life. Bonnie sounded the car horn from the getaway car, using it as a beacon for the fleeing men. 3 guards started running as fast as they could in the opposite direction, leaving the 4 of them unguarded. Taking advantage of this, a convict named J.B. French slipped quietly into the pines and made his way to the Trinity River on foot. He was captured the following day without ever meeting the men responsible for his brief taste of freedom.
"Nobody but Ray and Joe can get in the car," James called out. "Everybody else go back." Clyde snapped. "You shut your damned mouth, Mullens, this is my car! I'm handling this!" The fleeing men jumped in the vehicle. As the distant whine of prison sirens came closer, Clyde shifted to first and sped away. Roadblocks sprang up in nearly every town between Dallas and Crockett, but Clyde outflanked them all by driving cross-country through farm after farm. In Hillsboro, TX, Clyde stopped for gas. The attendant spoke excitedly as he serviced the getaway car. "Did you hear about Ray Hamilton escaping from prison?" he asked. "No, really?" Clyde said. "Yeah! Bonnie and Clyde just walked right into the dining room this morning and took Ray out while everybody was eating!" Bonnie and Clyde were amused. As they fled Texas, the gang switched vehicles often. They decided to rob a bank to pay James his $1,000. The gang eventually split and went their seperate ways until things cooled down. Hilton was the only one who got captured and was sent back to prison.
