We the people of the State of
Texas
acknowledge and thank troopers
Edward Bryan Wheeler
and
H.D. Murphy
for the great sacrifice they
made to keep the public safe.
Troopers Wheeler and Murphy
were shot to death Easter Sunday,
April 1, 1934 near this site on
West Dove Road by the infamous
criminals Bonnie Parker and
Clyde Barrow. Wheeler and Murphy
stopped their motorcycles near
Parker and Barrow's car, thinking
a motorist needed assistance. When
they approached, they were shot.
Their efforts will stand the
test of time.
May God bless their souls.
Erected 1996
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While Bonnie and Clyde were already on Frank Hamer's radar, this incident helped to turn up the volume, as it were, on his pursuit. The memorial does describe the incident fairly accurately, but Bonnie Parker was not involved in the shooting. That does not absolve or exculpate her, as she was still present, but the actual killings were done by Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin.
According to Jeff Guinn's "Go Down Together", the three in the car on that Easter morning were Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and Henry Methvin. Bonnie and Clyde were in Dallas to see their families, and Methvin had tagged along. As they drove from Louisiana to Dallas in early March, they were blissfully unaware that Methvin's parents were trying to make a deal with Hamer and other authorities to get their son off the hook for crimes he'd committed in Texas, as well as for his escape from the Eastham Prison Farm. All three met up with the Barrows and the Parkers several times over the next month, before Clyde indicated that they'd be getting on the road for a few days, but they'd return on Easter, April 1.
Barrow Gang member, Joe Palmer, briefly rejoined them as they made their way back to Dallas. After the four parked along Dove Road, Palmer hitchhiked back to Dallas and spoke with Clyde's father, Henry, letting him know where they and the Parkers could meet up with Bonnie and Clyde later. Bonnie had a little surprise -- a pet rabbit -- for her mother.
As it was, Clyde didn't expect any trouble on Easter, and he let down his guard a bit when a radio report indicated that sometime Barrow Gang member, Raymond Hamilton, had kidnapped someone: Certainly, the authorities would be on the lookout for Hamilton, then. Bonnie and Clyde napped in the front of the car, while Methvin, new to the gang and nervous, lurked near the car with his BAR within reach.
Around 3:30 PM, three motorcycle officers were at Dove Rd as they drove along Highway 114 towards Roanoke. The senior officer, Polk Ivy, drove a little ahead of the other two, Wheeler and Murphy, and Ivy passed Dove Rd completely. Wheeler and Murphy, on the other hand, spotted a car there, and thinking it to be in need of assistance, they headed towards the vehicle.
Alerted to the presence of the two officers, Clyde prepared to do what the gang had done in the past: Do their best to catch the officers unaware -- neither Wheeler nor Murphy had unholstered their weapons -- and then kidnap them, dropping them off far away, unharmed, at some point. Unfortunately, Methvin was not familiar with Clyde's methods, so when Clyde whispered, "Let's take them," Methvin interpreted that as an order to shoot. Methvin shot Wheeler with his BAR, killing him instantly, and when Clyde realized that they were now committed, he shot Murphy with his shotgun. Clyde later told his family that it was Henry Methvin who then shot Murphy again, delivering wounds that were ultimately fatal.
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Who actually did what has long been a subject for conversation, but Clyde's account jibes with that of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Giggal, who were enjoying a nice drive that day along the same stretch of Highway 114. They saw the two officers turn up Dove Rd, and then they heard "explosions". They also saw the taller of the two men -- Methvin -- roll over the prone body of one of the officers and shoot him several times. They then saw the two men get into the car, which they described correctly, and speed off.
Unfortunately, Bonnie and Clyde legend and lore has been enhanced by the account of a "witness", William Schieffer, who lived on farmland near the site, with a house several hundred yards away. He couldn't have possibly seen the shooting from his front porch, and he later recanted, saying he'd fibbed for the sake of publicity and any possible reward money. The damage was done, though. He told Officer Ivy, who doubled back when he noticed that Wheeler and Murphy weren't with him, that it was a man and woman who shot one of the downed officers, laughing as his head bounced on the road "like a rubber ball". The media loved that story, and they ran with it. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram indicated that a cigar with small teeth marks was found at the scene of the crime, "identifying" Bonnie Parker. The problem is that, despite the famous photo of her clowning around, Bonnie didn't smoke cigars, and she despised the "cigar smoking moll" image of her that the media had created. What was found at the scene was a whiskey bottle with a fingerprint -- Methvin's -- and bits of lemon peel that Bonnie chewed in order to mask the scent of liquor on her breath. That was common practice for her.
Murphy was about to be married, and his fiancée, Marie Tullis, wore her wedding gown to Murphy's funeral. Wheeler's widow, Doris, remarried but lost two other husbands, to natural causes. She was present at the dedication of this memorial, and she lived to be 96. As for Bonnie and Clyde, they had just over a month to live before they met up with Frank Hamer and his posse near Gibsland, LA. Methvin's parents managed to keep their son from facing the music in Texas, as they hoped, but authorities in Oklahoma got a hold of him for the murder of a constable in another Barrow Gang incident. He was initially jailed for life, but his sentence was changed to life imprisonment, and then he was paroled. He continued his ways until he died, struck by a train as he drunkenly crossed the railroad tracks.