When Bonnie and Clyde Got into a Shootout in Iowa

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, otherwise known as Bonny and Clyde, were a pair of young criminals who went on a near two-year escapade of crimes across the United States.

The two became infamous in America due to the nature of their interactions with the police, as well as the newspaper industry sensationalizing their stories of robbery, kidnapping, and murder.

Their barrage of crimes started in 1932 after the two had met in early 1930, and Clyde had served two years in a Texas prison for burglary.

In the following two years after Clyde's release, one of their stops included Dallas County in Iowa.

According to dallascountyiowa.gov,

This was not their first trip to Iowa; several past bank robberies had been attributed to them. On this occasion, their travels took them to a rural area north of Dexter in Dallas County. They chose the remote location of old Dexfield Amusement Park and set up their camp on a wooded hilltop overlooking the park site.

Following a shootout in Missouri, one member of their gang had been shot, and the team settled in Iowa to recuperate.

A local man, Henry Nye discovered their campsite as the crew had traversed into town to purchase supplies. Upon inspection, Nye discovered a bloody map, a shirt with blood stains and used bandages. Nye then contacted a local police officer, John Love, and the two men returned to the park, observing from afar with binoculars.

Love then deemed it necessary to reach out to Dallas County Sheriff Clint Knee and determine if any outlaws had been seen in the area.

The site continues:

Sheriff Clint Knee quickly organized a posse that included Des Moines police officers and detectives; a Des Moines dentist, Dr. Hershel Keller, who brought his own submachine gun, and many locals, in total about 50 people. The posse converged on the campsite at 5:00 a.m. on July 24, 1933 in what quickly became the biggest shootout in Dallas County history.

Unable to confine themselves into a working car, Bonnie, Clyde, and another gang member took off, leaving Blance and Buck Barrow behind to be arrested. Buck was Clyde's brother, Blance was Buck's wife.

Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D. Jones, the other gang member, would steal a car from a local family and escape the Dexter area wounded, but still alive.

Finally, the Dallas County website says this:

Bonnie and Clyde had escaped this time, but the shoot-out in Iowa was the beginning of the end for them. In less than a year, on May 23, 1934, they were ambushed and killed in Gibsland, Louisiana.