The Bonnie and Clyde Shoot-Out Dexter Iowa July 24th, 1933 By G.C Stevens

 

24, July 1933

The Bonnie and Clyde 

Dexfield Iowa Shootout

It's been 92 years since Henry Ney, a resident of Dallas County Iowa, decided to take a stroll in search of black berries on a warm summer day, by the old Dexfield amusement park, which closed doors in 1932 because of the great depression. It was now a remote location. While Henry was looking for berries, he stumbled upon a group of rough looking people, who looked all bloodied up, and had blood covered rags on the ground. Henry knew something was deeply wrong, he did not make eye contact with the people and exited Dexfield Park in haste. He contacted Dexter town Constable John Love and notified him of what he had seen. He told Love that he had found some unusual things, including a partially burned road map with blood all over it, and a shirt with bullet holes in the back covered with blood stains. John Love then accompanied Henry Ney back to the area to check on the situation there. Upon seeing the presence of two autos, Constable Love was immediately suspicious and returned to Dexter to contact people for additional help, and he called Sheriff Clint Knee. Suspecting that the trespassers might be the notorious Barrow gang, a large posse made up of locals and law enforcement was assembled. 

On Sunday evening the posse met at Webb's lunch stand in Dexter Iowa to discuss a plan.  At 06:00 AM the following Monday on July 24th, In the morning, Constable Love returned to Dexfield Park with several other men armed with weapons. Constable Love, said he saw a man he identified as Clyde Barrow, roasting a hotdog over a fire. one of the Lawman yelled "You're surrounded raise your hands." Clyde immediately put down the hot dog and picked up one of the Browing automatic rifles that had been stolen from a National Guard Armory, and opened fire, spraying gun fire all around the woods. 

The people of Dexter would go down in history by becoming involved in the biggest gunfight to ever occur in Iowa. Bigger than the gunfight at the OK Corral. And the townspeople were facing off with a very dangerous gang, armed with 20th century military grade full auto weapons. The following article, video(s), and photos are part of my research on my book "Scoundrels of Iowa"

This is the Dexter Historic Museum. This is where I met Historian and Author Rod Stanley, who is a Bonnie and Clyde, / Dexter Iowa Historian. He has assembled an extensive collection of Bonnie and Clyde memorabilia ,and artifacts. The collection includes many documents and photos of the Barrow gang and that includes their activities in Iowa. 

DEXTER HISTORIC MUSEUM 

Thanks to Rod Stanley of Dexter Iowa for taking his time to talk to me and to allow me to use his narration here.

-Gene Stevens

Watching the video(s) first is highly recommended 

PART I Of my interview with Rod Stanley

From the beginnings of Dexfield Park, to the day that

the Barrow gang was detected there.

Part II of my interview with historian Rod Stanley.

                                                  

Part III 

The Shootout,  About Bonnie and Clyde. Artifacts Found,  Witness stories and more

A famous photo of the aftermath of the shootout Buck Barrow lay on the ground.

He is dying, but does not die in Dexter. He dies later in Perry Iowa

Picture by the author, taken at the Dexter historic museum

Included in the posse, were two state police officers, Bill Arthur and "Rags" Riley, a small force from the DesMoines Police Department and a National Guard Officer Dr. H.W. Keller. 

Keller has brought with him a Thompson .45 caliber machine gun, which he borrowed from the National Guard. Constable John Love with Dallas County Sheriff Clint Knee and two deputies were also present. Also present  were a number of Dexter residents,  including Virgil Musseman, Jim Young, Harry Leeper and Kirt Piper. The group was armed with Winchesters, revolvers and shotguns. 

Framed photos at the Dexter Historic Museum. Three views of Dexfield Park in its heyday.

The main attraction of Dexfield Park. The Olympic size spring fed pool.

Another view of Dexfield Park

Dexfield Park was a popular attraction as one might guess from

 the numbers of automobiles in this photo

The Barrow gang was at Dexfield Park for several days. No knows the exact reason of how the Barrow gang ended up there. But locals have speculated on several theories. Clyde may have been there in the past, possibly attending a rodeo,  or he may have simply seen a sign for Dexfield park. But that information is lost to history. 

While hiding out there Clyde frequented Dexter several times buying food, clothing, and medical supplies. It's the middle of the great depression,  so the people of Dexter are probably happy with Clydes money. But they do not know who he is. And due to the location being on the "White Pole Road," it wasn't unusual for strangers to be in town

The Above photos are of the historical marker north of Dexter on Dexfield Road 

Photos by the author

A view of Dexter Iowa looking north

Pohles Pharmacy where Clyde Barrow bought medical supplies.

On the East of the street.

-James L Graham Bonnie and Clyde and the Iowa Connection

The Dexter Iowa Train Depot Year unknown

Members of the Posse after the shootout Photo by the author at the Dexter Hist. Museum

The Stevens .410 single shot, shotgun, carried by Doyce Pitts. A young member of the posse.

Outlaw W.D. (Deacon) Jones

Bonnie and Clyde, Date unknown

Constable John Love. The lawman who sounded the alarm

Bonnie and WD Jones

WD Jones and Clyde Barrow

Military grade weapons stolen by the Barrow gang from National Guard Amories.

The Barrow had in their possession, .45 cal, automatic pistols, and multiple Browning Automatic full auto rifles

More weapons

"Rags" Riley at the Grave of Clyde and Buck Barrow   

                                                                  Blanche Barrow 

                                                   Captured at Dexfield Park

  

The meeting location of the posse

A "BAR" Recovered after the shootout

An unverified letter allegedly sent to Henry Ford by Clyde Barrow signed

"Clyde Champion Barrow" 

The Saga of Bonnie And Desperate Clyde

By Bonnie Parker

You have read the story of Jesse James, of how he lived and died.

If you still are in need of something to read. Here is the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang, I'm sure you all have read how they robbed and stal, And how those who squeal, are usually found dying or dead.

There are lots of untruths to their write-ups, 

They are not merciless as that: 

They hate all the laws, the stool pigeons, spotters and rats.

They class them as cold blooded killers, they say they are heartless and mean, But I say this with pride, that I once knew Clyde when he was honest and upright and clean.

      Someday they'll go down together, and they'll bury them side by side.  To few it'll be grief, to the law a relief. 

But its death for Bonnie and Clyde.

                                -Bonnie Parker

        

Jefferson Iowa Civil War Day's June 14th & 15th 2025

 Army of the Southwest at Chautauqua Park Jefferson Iowa. 

Group photo posted 

by Miranda Sebourn

Armies of the blue and gray met in Jefferson Iowa for two days. Parades were marched in, the rattle of musketry and the thunder of muskets and cannon were heard. American history was kept alive by the many members of the Army of the Southwest.  

Black and white photos courtesy of Dennis Sasse.

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About Dusty Trails: My reenacting and writing experiences are inherently connected. I've travelled the country doing research and reenacting our history since the 1990's. I also donate my work to historic sites such as the Fort Dodge Museum in Iowa and the John Wayne Birthplace Museum. I do this because I totally support historic preservation. Please help to support Dusty Trails. Even the smallest donation would be appreciated and would help with travel expenses and printing fees. You can use the link below to support my efforts.

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Jesse James As a Suicide: By Michelle Pollard

 Jesse James As A Suicide 1 By Michelle Pollard

The home of George Hite where Jesse James one stayed.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Pollard

                                            Fletch Taylor (L) Frank James (M) Jesse James (R)

                                                        Photo courtesy of Michelle Pollard 

Jesse James was shot twice in the chest during the Civil War, the first while attempting to steal a saddle from the home of George Heisinger in the fall of 1864, and the second while contemplating surrender just outside Lexington on 15 May 1865.2 Found by a local farmer, Jesse was taken into Lexington and lodged at the Virginia Hotel before being taken to the home of his uncle, John W. Mimms, owner of a boarding house in Harlem, later part of Kansas City.3 Once there, Jesse was attended by Drs Lykins and Wood, the latter recalling that Jesse “lay in an upstairs room, and had two bullet wounds in his right breast, and through these the air and blood and matter came every time he breathed.” When asked how Jesse was as a patient, Dr. Wood replied, “He did not seem to care much about the wounds, although they were very serious ones. He was quite a boy then, but he had plenty of grit.”4 

Despite his resilience, the wounds refused to heal and, by 1867, Jesse was travelling to Nashville with his brother, Frank James, who had received a nasty gunshot wound to the hip during a fight at Brandenburg, Kentucky, in 1866, and Fletch Taylor, a Civil War friend who had suffered an arm amputation. Dr. Paul Fitzsimmons Eve, a well-known Confederate surgeon, told Jesse his lung “was so badly decayed that I was bound to die, and that the best thing I could do was to go home and die among my own people.” Jesse subsequently travelled first to Kentucky, then, briefly, home to Missouri, where a young Leonidas W. Leavell Jnr. recalled Jesse coming to his home and needing to drain the wound after dinner.5 Returning to Kentucky, Jesse continued to suffer until, at 7 o’clock one “early January” morning in 1868, Dr. Demarcus Green Simmons was called to the home of Maj. George Hite, uncle of the James brothers by marriage. “I found [Jesse] apparently in the embrace of death,” he recalled, “in a profound stupor, insensible to his surroundings, except under the influence of the strongest excitement; pulse slow, full and very forcible, and respiration of that heavy, slow and stertorous nature, characteristic of opium poisoning.” The doctor observed that Jesse was, at that time, “suffering from the effects of a gunshot wound in his right breast and from the long continued discharge was rather thin and in feeble health.” He concluded that “there had been some degree of tolerance to the drug [morphine] acquired by a resort to it some weeks previously, to mitigate the violence of the sufferings incident to the wound.” The doctor “found willing and very capable assistants in Frank and Susie,” he said, who all continued through the night until Jesse finally failed to respond to “appeals and circumambulatory stimulants”. Still needing his patient to remain alert, Dr. Simmons called on Frank to keep his brother awake. “I shall never forget the powerful excitement he evinced,” the doctor recalled, “and the prompt response he continued to make when Frank would whisper certain warning words to him, as if certain persons who were very obnoxious to him were coming and it was very necessary to escape or defend to the death.”6

Another view of the home of George Hite courtesy of Michelle Pollard

Another view of the home of George Hite courtesy of Michelle Pollard

Frank’s words of warning worked until 4am, at which point “all efforts to keep him awake proved futile. His pulse had reduced in volume to a mere thread, his breathing was feeble and very slow and it seemed the death angel was hovering over him.” The doctor suggested Jesse be left to rest and prepared the family for the worst. “I sat with my finger on the pulse for perhaps half an hour,” he said and in that time the doctor noticed improvement. “Within an hour he was sleeping a natural and refreshing sleep” and at 6am he woke and ate breakfast.7 

                                                 

Dr. Demarcus Green Simmons from The Adairville 

Banner, Adairville Kentucky

Although it was entirely possible that Jesse had accidentally overdosed on morphine, as the headline suggested there were more sinister suggestions as to his motivation. “In a fit of despondency,” the doctor offered, “produced partly by his low state of health, and partly, as I afterward learned, by his bitter opposition to the prospective marriage of his sister, Susan, to Allen Parmer, Jesse determined to [die by] suicide. For this purpose,” the doctor continued, “he rode to town and procured sixteen grains of morphine, which he took at one dose immediately on his arrival at his uncle’s.”8 As Susan did not marry until 1870, it appears the doctor may have been mistaken, with the Governess of the Hite household, recorded only as Jennie, providing an alternate version during an interview published some years later. “I discovered that [Jesse] was desperately in love with his cousin, Mary,” the Governess recalled. Although “she was ever with him, watching and tending him with true cousinly devotion,” it seems Jesse’s feelings were not returned. In fact, unlike Susan, Mary was preparing to marry in a matter of weeks. One evening before her marriage, Mary confided to Jennie that, “I have often spoken of the unreasonable love [Jesse] has for me. Last night he told that if I did not consent to break my engagement and marry him he would die, if it had to be by his own hand.”9 Whether or not Jesse deliberately overdosed on morphine, either due to the persistent pain resulting from gunshot wounds, despondency over a failed love, or both, Jennie testified it was Mary Hite who assisted the doctor that night at Maj. Hite’s home, not Susan James.  And on 21 January 1868, Mary married local farmer, Rufus Tully.10

1. The Kansas City Journal, Missouri, 6 May 1882.

2. “Judge T. R. Shouse, After 56 Years, Explains Why Jesse James Was Killed”, Richmond Observer, Missouri, 9, 16, and 23 January 1939. Contains extracts from the manuscript – ‘My Father and Jesse James’; A Terrible Quintette, St. Louis Dispatch, Missouri, 22 November 1873. 

3. A Terrible Quintette, op. cit.; correspondence with Mark Lichte. 

4. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Missouri, 6 April 1882. Jesse mentioned these two doctors and their care of him in A Terrible Quintette, op. cit.

5. Samuel Anderson Pence, I Knew Frank, I Wish I Had Known Jesse, Two Trails Publishing, 2007, pp122-3.

6. The Kansas City Journal, Missouri, 6 May 1882. The Louisville Courier, Kentucky, 24 March 1883, quoted Dr. R. P. Townsend as saying that "he did not attend Jesse James at Mr Hite's house when he had a gunshot wound, but thought that Dr. Simmons had attended him as he had heard the doctor speak of Jesse James having taken an overdose of morphine." 

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. The Kentucky Observer, August 1992 – quoting the recollection of Jennie, Governess to the Hite House, 1885.

10. Ibid; Kentucky County Marriages, 1797-1954.

With many thanks to Paul Saeli and Linda Gay Mathis. 

For more information on Dr. Demarcus Green Simmons see Jesse James’ Physicians by Michelle Pollard, available from lulu.com. 

Please help to support Dusty Trails and the CSL&OH.A.

Dusty Trails Magazine Issue # 2 Has the Story, A New Jesse James Photo Located?

     Now Available in The Dusty Trails Book Store!                   Dusty Trails of the Old West  Issue  #2

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In this issue, Dusty Tails investigates a new photo of Jesse James!

Dusty Trails books and Magazines can be purchased through our online book store!

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A Piece of History Goes up For Sale

Western Actor/ Reenactor Doc Hinck puts a historic saddle up for sale, this from his post on Facebook;

An authentic piece of American Western History! I picked the saddle up in Stillwater Oklahoma years ago. It’s an absolutely beautiful piece of history. After I brought it home and was cleaning it up I found that It had family inscription on it, the name Jenny Stevenson was engraved on the inside. 

I contacted the owner that I had previously bought the saddle from to get a little backstory on it. He didnt know much,  but was a huge history buff and big time artifact dealer. After doing a ton of research, I discovered there was a gal in the 1890s with the same name that was from the Stillwater area. Rumor has it, a pair of girls who went the names of Cattle Annie, and little britches were known to have rode with the Dalton, Doolin gang.  A lady by the name of Jenny Stevens/Stevenson lived in the area until her death. (author note: I wrote an article about Cattle Annie and Little Britches. Little Britches, or Jennie Stevenson, was Annie's partner in crime.and apparently Jenny/ Jennie faded into history) I have spoke with the national cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City and although there is no written documentation, proving this saddle to be hers, it is very unique, however, and a mighty big coincidence. I learned that one night after a shootout with marshals, Jenny’s horse spooked during the commotion and was lost. She was arrested at that time, and the horse and saddle were not recovered. 

Anyhow, I acquired this saddle at Stillwater, and would truly love to know its history although it’s not likely will ever know 100%! I proudly rode in the saddle during the filming of Death Alley, A story on the Dalton gang. As much as I hate to do it, Asking $600 but would take $500 cash today. I’ll entertain other offers if the price is right.

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Fort Dodge Iowa Frontier Day's 2025

 

Art work by Kelly Hynes

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   Fort Dodge Frontier Days 2025

I had the honor of doing a book signing at the Fort Dodge 2025 Frontier Days. It was such a great pleasure to visit the Fort Dodge Museum and to talk to so many awesome people and to see families with their kids enjoying all of the festivities. This article covers the history related aspects of the event, because that's what this blog is about. But there were many other entertainment activities for families. A big shout out to the many people who came up to my table to talk to me.  I'm especially grateful to the folks who bought my books and all of the Fort Dodge Museum staff and volunteers who worked at the event. Im looking forward to returning next year. And hopefully I'll have a new book to sell.

Army of the Southwest Saturday battle reenactment

My book signing at Fort Dodge 2025. The CSL&OH.A. Was mentioned in the Fort Dodge Messenger!

Frontier Days News Article

The Many Moccassins Dancers

The Hole in The Sock Gang Western reenactment group

Hole in the Sock Gang Shootout

History Events in Iowa

 2025 Civil War. reenactment

 Event schedule 

 Fort Dodge – June 7-8

Jefferson June 14-15

Sioux Rapids July 26th 

Albert City – August 8-10

Vinton – August 23-24

Madrid – Aug. 30-31

Winterset – Oct. 11-12

        Army of The Southwest