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Before dawn on May 23,1934, a posse composed of heavily armed police officers from Louisiana and Texas concealed themselves int HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — « It's been 64 years since the last es~* cape from death row in Texas, j when a member of the notorious* Bonnie and Clyde gang broke out J — six months after an earlier es~ ! cape.* According to prison historians, j it occurred in mid-1934 at the Walls 5 Unit in downtown Huntsville, so* named for the tall, red brick walls | that surround it.j One of the escapees was Ray-* mond Hamilton, He'd been sprung j from prison six months earlier }• when, in a hail of gunfire, Bonnie* Parker and Clyde Barrow liberat-j ed him and four other prisoners j from the nearby Eastham State » Prison. He was serving a prison j term of more than 200 years.g Two guards were shot to death* during the Jan. 16,1934 breakout, j and the jailbreak triggered an all-* out manhunt for Barrow and hisj paramour.{ Hamilton, Barrow's cousin, re-* joined the gang in Vernon, Texas, j and helped hold up a National* Guard armory in Ranger, Texas.I In April, Hamilton robbed the First* National Bank of Lewisville, but » was captured by police, biograph-j er Sid Underwood told the Wichi-* ta Falls Times Record News.* Hamilton was convicted, sentenced« to die and returned to Huntsville. »bushes along the highway near Sailes, La.The outlaws drove into the deadly ambush and were killed in- ' stantly.Two months later, Hamilton again became a fugitive.During Sunday dinner on July 24,1934, a convict named Charlie Frazier used a smuggled ,45 caliber pistol to get the drop on a guard.After locking the guard in a cell, Frazier freed two death row convicts — Joe Palmer and Blackie Thompson — and hollered to others that if they wanted in pn the escape, they should call out.Raymond Hamilton and two other prisoners'did so.The six convicts made theirbreak for freedom amidst a fusilade of bullets.The prisoners made their way into the prison yard and, with a tall ladder stolen from the paintshop, began to scale ..the wall near aguard tower.Guards opened fire. Hamilton, Palmer and Thompson made it over the wall.One of the other inmates was killed and Frazier and another inmate were wounded and captured.
Newspaper Details
Seguin Gazette Enterprise
Seguin, Texas, US
Sun, Nov 29, 1998
Page 23
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 31 Jul 2019
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