The apartment is at 3347½ Oak Ridge Dr (facing W 34th St), Joplin, MO. There is sufficient parking along the streets here, but please be careful to not block driveways or other access. There were plans for the apartment to be used as a bed and breakfast, but after the 2011 Joplin tornado, it has returned to being used as a dwelling. Please respect those who live here.
A Historic Joplin Historic Landmark sign in front of the apartment provides some background:
Bonnie & Clyde Garage Apartment 1933
Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, Buck and Blanche Barrow and W.D. Jones rented this apartment and holed up inside for several months. On April 13, 1933, law officers from the Joplin Police Department and from Newton County, seeking suspected bootleggers, approached the dwelling. The outlaws opened fire on them killing Joplin detective Harry McGinnis and Newton County Constable J.W. Harryman. The Barrow gang escaped leaving behind a roll of Kodak film that yielded the first publicly seen photographs of the infamous gang.
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The sign pretty much gives the gist of what occurred here, but for a good read, take a look at Jeff Guinn's "Go Down Together", a fairly comprehensive account about the lives and deaths of Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and those who rode with them or crossed their paths. On this particular trip, those involved were Clyde and Buck Barrow, Buck's wife, Blanche, Bonnie Parker, and Barrow gang member, W.D. Jones.
The irony of this incident is that the trip to Joplin was to have been a vacation from crime for Bonnie and Clyde. Buck Barrow had served part of his prison sentence -- for burglary -- before being given a pardon by Governor Ma Ferguson, partly to clear space in the crowded prison system, partly because of efforts on his behalf made by his wife and his mother. He'd promised Blanche that he was going to go straight, and wanted his brother, Clyde, to do the same. He felt responsible for pulling Clyde into a life of crime, and felt responsible for getting him out. So, they all agreed to travel far from Dallas, take some time off -- Clyde indicated that he had plenty of money to take care of them -- and just relax. Buck assured his wife that he'd gone straight, but just wanted to talk to his younger brother. Blanche wasn't hearing any of it, although she was eventually convinced to come along when Buck said he'g go alone if she wouldn't accompany them. She brought her little dog, Snow Ball, with her.
After staying at a motor court in Checotah, OK, the gang made their way to Joplin, and on April 1, they made arrangements to stay here. Their vehicles -- stolen, of course -- were parked in the garage under the apartment, and it wasn't long before they began to attract attention from the upper-middle-class neighbors. They lived an insular existence, sleeping well into the day with the blinds pulled down at all times, and entertained themselves at night with poker games and a case of beer, thanks to Prohibition's being repealed. They sent their laundry out and had food delivered regularly, but were careful to not let anybody into the apartment. Buck and Clyde continued their discussions. The idea of leaving the country was suggested, to no avail, and Buck's idea was that if Clyde turned himself in, he might get a life sentence and then a possible pardon through lobbying efforts. Unfortunately, at that point, Clyde was on the run from the law for murder, and it was clear to everyone but Buck that he wasn't going to go back to prison under any circumstances.
Shopping trips by Bonnie and Blanche were done to decorate the apartment, with the downside being that Clyde's money ran out, requiring "alternatives." The boys acquired money by doing what they did best, pulling robberies, and one night, they returned from the National Guard Armory with Browning Automatic Rifles (BARs). Obviously, the plan to get Clyde away from crime wasn't working, and Buck was being pulled back in. Then, Clyde accidentally fired one of their weapons while cleaning it. Nobody knocked on the door to ask what had happened, but the incident was reported to the police. They began to watch the apartment, and noting the late night activity, they suspected that they were dealing with bootleggers, possibly dealing in stolen cars, guns, or illegal moonshine. By April 12, Clyde and Buck had come to an understanding that the vacation was over, and Clyde would continue with his life as before.
On April 13, Bonnie and Blanche packed up while the boys got the cars ready for the trip back to Dallas. Late in the afternoon, the Joplin Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol pulled up, intending to raid the apartment, as W.D. and Clyde were closing the garage door. Wes Harryman, a county constable, tried to get into the garage before the door was closed, only to be met by a shotgun blast that fatally wounded him. Gunfire was exchanged, and W.D. Jones was badly wounded while Joplin Police Officer Harry McGinnis was fatally wounded. Clyde and Buck decided that they needed to get out immediately, leaving behind all their belongings. As they made their way out of the garage, Buck had to take a moment to move McGinnis's body, and they used their vehicle to push the officers's vehicle out of the way. In the course of things, Clyde was hit by a bullet that might have killed him if it hadn't hit a button in his shirt, and Blanche's beloved Snow Ball, ran off, frightened. They don't show it in the 1967 film, but as you see Blanche (Estelle Parsons) running off, screaming like a "horse's ass", this was actually her as she ran after the dog. They pulled her into the car, sped off, and Snow Ball's fate is unknown.
Unfortunately, those personal belongings yielded information that identified Buck, Blanche, and Clyde, and the suspicion was that Bonnie was with them. The authorities had no idea as to the identity of W.D. at this point. Discovered in the apartment were several rolls of film, and the photos taken did the 1930s version of going viral, being plastered all over the newspapers: All five were featured in the photos, which included shots of their vehicles with the license plates showing (which explains why Clyde later put a coat over a license plate on any vehicle they stole). The most spectacular photos were of Bonnie and Clyde, playing around, with Bonnie holding Clyde at mock gunpoint, and another of Bonnie, cigar in her mouth, clutching a pistol with her foot on the bumper of their car. Bonnie only smoked cigarettes, and spent what little time she had left trying to debunk the myth that she was some kind of cigar-smoking moll who was the real brains behind the operation. Also left behind was a draft of her poem, "Suicide Sal".
The gang continued on, but was separated in July when they were raided at a tourist court near Kansas City, MO, in which both Buck and Blanche Barrow were badly wounded. Buck's wounds ultimately proved fatal, and Blanche lost an eye to glass fragments. They would be captured by police just a few days later in a shootout near Dexfield, IA. Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D. continued on, but W.D. left the gang in September of that year, and Bonnie and Clyde met their end near Gibsland, LA on May 23, 1934.