The Highwaymen on Netflix

[Absalom]

The car was stolen, although I can’t recall from where off the top of my head. ....

Here is a summary, largely plagiarized from places in web space:

B and C stole the 1934 Ford Deluxe from Ruth Warren of Topeka, Kansas. She bought the car for $835 (15,000 in today’s worth) in March 1934 and in April it was already stolen by Bonnie and Clyde. One month later, the car reappeared, but it had over 160 bullet holes and was stained with blood.

The 160 bullet holes and the duo’s blood were not the only problem for the owner of the car. When Ruth Warren went to reclaim her stolen car she was told that she had to pay $15,000 to get it back. At least that was what the local Sheriff, named Henderson Jordan, told her. Warren decided to sue, hired an attorney, named W.D. Goff, to represent her and with his help, she managed to win the case and finally get her car back.

In the years that followed, the car was leased several times, and it was displayed at the Topeka Fairgrounds. In 1945, it was sold for $3,500 (nearly $50,000 in today’s money) to Charles Stanley, who used the death car as a sideshow attraction at his traveling carnival. Stanley even brought the car to the Nevada race track where he allowed people to sit inside it for the price of 1 dollar.

When Stanley retired in 1960, he sold the famous car to Ted Toddy for $14,500 (nearly $120,000 in today’s worth). The death car again changed its owner in 1977 when Toddy sold it for $175,000 ($725,000 in today’s worth) to Peter Simon II, who displayed it at his casino Pop’s Oasis in Nevada. Several years later, the casino closed and he sold the car to the owners of Whiskey Pete’s Hotel and Casino in Primm, Nevada.

And I think that's where it still resides today.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Love those Old Fords!
Not so much when shot full of Holes.
I Like them like this!

 

[03hemi]

I liked it, but Stephan Kings "1922" is a lot better. Check that one out, not giving anything away, but it's about this farmer that kills his wife with the help of their son and all just goes to Hell after that.

 

[soFlaNative]

Just finished watching this movie with the wife. She thought it a bit slow but I appreciate a film with a focus.
Not being familiar with the time, place or law enforcement of the era I found the settings and attitudes likely.
May not speak well for my state of mind when I say what struck me in particular was when Hamer asked Gault what took him so long and Manny's answer was "There's a fella in the toilet."

 

[Rustyt1953]

I just finished watching it and was well entertained.

I downloaded Netflix to my tablet so I am going to do some up-close analyses later after I have sedated the kids.

Woody delivers again.

 

[Old TexMex]

Hamers Colt from Corpus

Here is a photo of the engraved silver plated Colt that the Citizens of Corpus Christi, Texas presented to Capt. Hamer
(from my copy of the American Gun, 1961)

 

[Mark S.]

Remember the Black thief and drug-dealing bully Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri a few years ago?
Quite a turnout for his funeral too, I think.

Many think the thug/gangster rappers and their followers are a recent phenomenon.

It's not

 

[rdcl]

Well, since I got rid of my 12 year old 34" Sony TV...I'm gonna watch this movie again on my new 55" Samsung!

I can already tell the pic quality will be better. Now I can see those guns in better detail

Russ

 

[S&WIowegan]

The movie was good and I enjoyed it. If it has Costner in it you know there's going to be substantial amounts of contemplation(a fancy word for just standing there saying nothing).

I have read a lot of material on B&C and I don't believe Hamer went driving around trying to catch them on the run. He tracked their journeys and plotted them on maps until he had a very good idea of their pattern. He then made educated guess where to go snooping. It worked.

They would have been fools to let Clyde get a gun up.

PS My Dad's all time favorite car was a 32 Ford coupe with a rumble seat. His brother was two years older and got to drive. Dad and Mom had their first date riding in the rumble seat.

 

[keith44spl]

Just a lit'l historical trivia;

On May 23, 1934...Bienville Parish, Louisiana,


Frank Hamer was 50 years old

Ben Maney Gault was 48 years old

( Gault and Hamer are buried in the same small area of the cemetery in Austin, TX )

Ted Hinton 29 years old

Bob Alcorn was 36 years old
(Alcorn died 30 years to the day on May 23,1964)

Henderson Jordan was 37 years old

Prentiss Oakley 29 years old.
(it is believed Oakley fired the first shot hitting Barrow in the head killing him instantly)

Barrow was 25 and Parker was 24 years of age.

.

 

[Benton Quest]

Many think the thug/gangster rappers and their followers are a recent phenomenon.



It's not

But, a White House delegation did not attend B&C's funeral. They were there for Brown's.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

 

[Rustyt1953]

I just finished watching it again.

Best line: "he's got the mental range of a windshield wiper".

Best scene: Frank letting Ben drive at the end.

 

[sigp220.45]

I just finished watching it again.

Best line: "he's got the mental range of a windshield wiper".

Best scene: Frank letting Ben drive at the end.

I agree on both counts. The windshield wiper line was made all the better because the fellow in question was standing right there.

The scene you mentioned is a classic case of “show, don’t tell”. Good job by the filmmakers.

 

[doublesharp]

I watched for the 2nd time and saw much that I'd missed. I'm still unsure of who the guy was that was killed in a farm house near the end of the movie. He was bloody and there was a baseball bat beside him. Was he just a random victim or was he someone known to B&C?

 

[Rustyt1953]

That was the furloughed Wade McNabb.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I need to watch it again!
It’s worth a second watch.
And you guys who haven’t seen it the first time?
Dah! You know what to do!

 

[rdcl]

Ok I watched it twice. Worth seeing again just to savor the wonderful dialogue, as this is not so much an action movie but is a character driven movie.

Loved the scene with Hamer and Clydes pop.

Russ

 

[keith44spl]

I understand screenwriters taking licences in their depictions of their characters....

I wish they had portrayed Maney Gault's circumstances a lit'l
closer to the real deal between Hamer and Gault.

I believe it was Hamer who ask for Gault to accompany him on the trail.

Maney Gault was not living as a pauper as depicted in the movie, but lived in Travis County,
working for the highway dept. and attended Capt. Hamer's weekly poker games.

But all in all, just a purty good movie. I may watch it again.

.

 

[Pig Hunter]

From my reading after he two Highway Patrol officers were killed on Easter, the patrol insisted on one of their officers join Hamer. His first choice was Gault who was in the Patrol at the time. Both had been Rangers together before Ma shut the agency down when so many Rangers supported the other candidate for governor in the previous election. Gault and Hamer's wives were best friends. Gault did call Hamer Poncho and Hamer did have a pet Javalina.

 

[Mule Packer]

While Hollywood has definitely taken some liberties with the film, it's still probably the most accurate on the actual pursuit of Parker and Barrow.

Did Ms. Parker shoot the dying patrolman in the face when he lay there helpless, or did she sit in the car horrified as Barrow and Methvin executed them? We will probably never know...

Apparently, from what I understand, a local farmer, William Schieffer, had observed Parker and Barrow “kissing and petting” all afternoon while a white bunny hopped about and grazed. Schieffer was hauling rocks by the edge of the road when he witnessed the barrage of automatic gunfire. According to him, the “little girl” gimped up to a downed and dying young cop and fired a point-blank kill-shot to his head from a sawed-off 20-gauge. There was laughter, and something said by the female that sounded like “Ya’ll see that? His head bounced like a rubber ball!”

Also, Maney Gault wasn't poor and destitute at the time as the movie depicted. As keith44spl pointed out, he was actually employed by the Texas highway department and doing fairly well financially in relationship to the times. Frank Hamer, Jr., who was a pre-teen at the time, remembered that Gault was "smooth as satin with a pistol."

Also, we see Frank Hamer picking up some spent yellow 20-gauge hulls. Just a bit of trivia here...most shotgun shells back then were mostly red, no matter what gauge. Remingtons were green and Peters were blue, but those were about the only exceptions. It wasn't until the 1960's that Federal started making 12-gauge in red, 16-gauge in purple, and 20-gauge in yellow as a preventative from people inserting the wrong gauge into a shotgun. Other manufacturers soon followed the idea.

But, hey, that's Hollywood.

From what I've read, other officers claim Gault was covering Hamer at the end of the shootout as Frank was walking up to the car and was reported as yelling, "Careful, Cap, they might be possum'n!"

Bottom line, as we all seem to agree, Parker and Barrow were nothing more than a couple of ruthless killers that Hollywood and the early press tried to glamorize. Hamer, Gault, Hinton, Alcorn, Oakley, and others saw them for what they were. Whether the officers confronted them and told them to "Stick 'em up" or not is beside the point. I mean, you don't give a rabid dog a warning. Do you?