By Michelle Bates
A ribbon cutting, hosted by the Arcadia Bienville Parish Chamber of Commerce, was held Monday at the ambush site where Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow lost their lives following a robbery and murder spree.
The monument, which is adorned by a plaque, pays tribute to the law enforcement officers who ended the infamous couple’s crime spree. Near Gibsland, on Hwy. 154, the marker replacement was paid for by the Chamber of Commerce and the Bienville Parish Police Jury.
Perry Carver, owner of the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, said the replacement comes after the original was vandalized and the original plaque was stolen.
“The people just need to leave it alone,” he said. “It’s not locals that mess it up. It’s not a memorial to Bonnie and Clyde. It’s a site marker; it’s an historical plaque, not a memorial for any one.”
Bienville Parish Police Juror Darryl Ryder, District 3, said the police jury was glad they were in a position where the marker could be replaced.
“Like everyone else, we just wish everyone would leave it alone,” he said. “It’s an historical fact, and it’s part of the history of Bienville Parish. It affects everyone.”
John Cole, Bonnie and Clyde Festival committee member, said the annual festival in Gibsland is in its 32nd year.
“We have a lot of visitors that come to the Town of Gibsland; the reason the Bonnie and Clyde Festival began in the 1990s is because people would come into town and want to visit the ambush site,” he said. “They would come out here (to the ambush site) and come back into town and asking people questions.”
Cole said a small group began what is today’s festival committee to continue to spread the message about the lawmen and the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
During the night of April 3 or the morning of April 4, 2023, a thief or thieves stole the plaque from its concrete stand at the ambush site. For 17 months, visitors to the site saw the original granite marker, which says, “At this site, May 23, 1934, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were killed by enforcement officers.” To the right of the granite marker, they saw a concrete stand where another plaque had been mounted.
The location of the stolen plaque remains a mystery.
The replacement marker says, “On this site, May 23, 1934, at 9:15 a.m., the famous outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met their demise at the hands of these dedicated law enforcement officials. Lest we forget these brave and vigilant conservators of the peace.” Included on the plaque is the famous photo of the ambush posse.
People have mixed opinions when it comes to the “ambush” or “trap” of Bonnie and Clyde. At 9:15 on the morning of May 23, 1934, a posse consisting of Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan, his Chief Deputy Prentiss Oakley, former Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and B.M. “Maney” Gault, and Dallas County Deputies Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton killed Bonnie and Clyde in a hail of bullets on LA 154 near Sailes. It is now referred to as the ambush site. Bonnie and Clyde both had weapons on their laps.
At the 50th anniversary of the ambush, then Arcadia Town Council member Charles Butler told a Shreveport Times reporter, “Bonnie and Clyde is the most famous thing that’s happened in Bienville Parish – not the most important, the most famous.”
People come from all over the world to see the spot where Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree ended. Thanks to the Bienville Parish Police Jury and the Chamber of Commerce, visitors will get more of the story when they see the newly replaced historical marker.
Brad Dison, a columnist for The Bienville Democrat, and avid historian, contributed to this report.