By TEDDY ALLEN/Designated Writers

My friend Richard in Ruston wrote me about our Sunday column on The Highwaymen, the Netflix film about Frank Hamer and Maney Gault tracking down and killing Bonnie and Clyde back in May of 1934 on LA Hwy 154 near Gibsland.

Great movie. Screenplay by John Fusco, who spent 17 years trying to get the movie made and clear the name of Hamer, portrayed as a buffoon in the 1967 movie about the same subject but who was a Stud Lawman in real life. And he was the point man who ended the killing spree that was Bonnie and Clyde.

You can read about that here if you missed it and care to. http://www.designatedwriters.com/column/the-movies-and-cajuns-and-bonnie-and-clyde/

Richard had a story to tell about May 23, 1934. Pretty interesting. It’s below in italics. And it was definitely a different time back in the day.

My dad was a young boy in Arcadia riding his bicycle back to school from eating lunch at his house. When he got to town he noticed a large crowd. He went over and there was Bonnie and Clyde’s car, with Bonnie and Clyde still in it!

He said he held the door open while Conger’s Funeral home got her out of the car. Needless to say, it was a gruesome scene for a young boy. Her shoe fell off and Daddy reached down and picked it up.

Some grown man stranger standing behind him asked for it, so Daddy gave it to him. Later said he wished he’d kept it. Also said there was enough guns and ammunition on the back seat and in the trunk to carry on a small war.

People would take their pocketknife and cut small patches of blood-stained seat covers to keep as souvenirs. They hid the car in Mr. Pettigrew’s old detached garage and piled tarps, old tires, etc., over it. They still found it and kept getting souvenirs.

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