In the early morning hours of January 16, 1934
amid a dense fog rising from the Trinity River,
Clyde Barrow along with a man named James Mullens
lay in a patch of weeds, waiting for the line of
prisoners to assemble at their work areas nearby.

At 7:00 am, the prison work crew had appeared
along with their customary escorts known as
"longarm guards".

Among them were prisoners Raymond Hamilton and
Joe Palmer both armed with loaded .45 automatics
retrieved from a hiding place near a woodpile.

As the prisoners reached the point near Clyde
and Mullens, Ray and Palmer produced their
weapons and began firing on the guards.

Major Crowson, fired upon Palmer, inflicting a
superficial scalp wound, Palmer returned fire.

One round from Palmer's pistol struck Major
Crowson in the stomach, an injury which later
proved fatal.

Ray's bullet, hit guard Olin Bozeman in the
hip, knocking him to the ground.

Bozeman was later treated at Huntsville hospital
and released, Crowson, age 24, died shortly after.

To cover the escaping men, Barrow and Mullens
jumped up from their posts and began firing
their Browning automatic rifles in the air.

The other prisoners not involved in the escape
plan, dropped to the ground, in an effort to
avoid being struck in the crossfire.

Meanwhile, Bonnie had remained in the black
Ford V8 coupe, at a distance of about one mile.

Upon hearing the thundering sounds of gunfire,
she depressed the car's horn, to guide the
escapees in the fog, towards the getaway car.

Hamilton, Palmer, and Methvin along with two
other convicts, Hilton Bybee and J.B French
all met up at the small Ford coupe.

Just then, Clyde and Mullens approached the
group, hearing Raymond complaining that there
wasn't enough room in the coupe to accommodate
them all.

Clyde retorted: "shut your mouth, this is my
car and I'm handling it".

Although cramped and uncomfortable, they all
managed to find their places in the car.

They made their way to Hillsboro by evening,
and with Clyde driving, continued on to Houston,
dropping off French and Bybee before turning
north toward Forth Worth.

To read Major Crowson's dying declaration "CLICK HERE"

Eventually, Raymond Hamilton broke off his
ties with the Barrow gang.

Bonnie and Clyde were content with the small
robberies that sustained their daily survival.

Raymond however, had visions of greater wealth
and big bank jobs, and wasn't content with the
small take from filling station hold ups.

After the split, Raymond made it known in a
public statement, that he was in a different
league than Barrow.

He stated that he was a "gentleman bandit" and
not to be connected to Clyde Barrow any more.

This infuriated Clyde so much, that he
sent the following letter to the district
attorney's office in Dallas.

On March 19th 1934, Raymond and his brother
Floyd, relieved the Grand Prairie State Bank of over $1,500

In the early evening hours of February 24th
1935, Raymond Hamilton and Ralph Fults were
driving through Fult's hometown of Anna Texas,
in a stolen grey 1935 Ford V8.

They had a planned rendezvous with a couple
of bootleggers, to pick up some guns belonging
to Fults.

They took the Weston cut off, a seldom traveled
road that traverses the Trinity River, just
north of McKinney, Texas.

A freezing rain had begun to fall when they
reached the culvert where the two bootleggers
were supposed to meet up with them.

When he didn't see them waiting at the planned
meeting place, Fults had become suspicious.

Fults then told Hamilton that they had better
leave, as something didn't seem right!

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire had erupted
from both sides of the darkened culvert.

Hamilton floored it in an attempt to escape
the volley of bullets, which had now begun
to riddle their car to pieces.

The car was being reduced to rubble under
the heavy blows delivered by the lawmens
powerful barrage of gunfire.

Raymond had sustained a head wound, but was
able to keep going.

Fults had begun to fire back at the posse
with his Browning automatic rifle, through
the rear window which had been blown away.

The freezing rain was now entering the car
by way of the openings left by the windows
which were now blown away by the gun blasts.

Eventually, they made it far enough away,
to escape the wrath of the attacking lawmen.

It had been a "set up", but the outlaw pair
managed to escape.

Photo above shows the Constable of McKinney
Texas, who organized the ambush attempt of
Raymond Hamilton and Ralph Fults.
He poses in front of Hamiltons abandoned
getaway car, with a Browning automatic rifle
which was used in the attack on the outlaws.

Ray graduated to "Major Crime" when he met
Bonnie and Clyde.

During an escape from Prison, Joseph Crowson,
a guard was slain.

For that crime, Raymond was to die in the
"electric chair."

He did, on the evening of May 10, 1935

Raymond and fellow inmate Joe Palmer, were
both to die that evening.

Because of Raymond being so upset, Palmer
agreed to go first.

Raymond finally composed himself and followed.

Just before the current was applied, Raymond
turned momentarily to the assembled witnesses
and said, "Well...goodbye all".