Scenario: War on Crime - Shootout in Platte City, Missouri; July 19, 1933

Hello!

This is a special treat for you.  I have been working on this entry for a long time (back in 2011!), but due to work and forgetting that I was working on this and misplacing the Word document, I forgot about it for years.  But earlier this year, around the anniversary of the deaths of Bonnie & Clyde, I came across this document again.  Every so often I would work on it some more to flush out missing information, including looking for pictures of the armored car that was used in the shoot-out that indirectly lead me to my discovery of the mysterious armored truck that was used by the Missouri National Guard (look at my previous blog entry).  This will be a long entry and picture heavy, so forgive me for that because I think you will find it all very useful.

This is a small skirmish scenario of one of the famous shootouts between law enforcement officers and the “Barrow Gang” or the “West Dallas Gang”, which is more famously known by two of its members, Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow.  Almost all of the shootouts that the Barrow’s gang were involved with were very one sided and would not make for a good game with the exception of the Platte City, Missouri (MO), shootout on July 19, 1933. This game could also be “camouflaged” to fit into a crime scenario, if you do not have 1930’s gangster miniatures.  
 

This particular scenario is not designed for any specific rules set, but I have provide historical information that one can use to customize them to use with whatever rules one wants to use.  However, I this scenario would actually work the best as a solo game with Two Hour Wargames (THW), Chain Reaction 3.0, especially if you tie it in with the campaign system in the free THW supplement, Gangsters! (link)  The reason I think that this would be best for a solo game is that really only the Barrow Gang is the active force in their need to escape from the surrounding police ring and escape off the game table, whereas the police basically will stay put and settle down for shooting.  Regardless of whatever rules one would decided on, I would suggest that those rules should have the criminal characters acting independently and have the police either acting independently or as in teams, plus hits should either be hard to get or just cause morale checks more often instead of wounds and kills.  

I am going to provide a Pre-Game Summary for both sides should you decided to have someone play the police force.  As part of the Pre-Game Summary, I listed of all of the individuals by name, if I could find it, that was involved and specific information that would be important to the scenario.  Then I am adding a Post-Game Summary of what really did happen in the shootout, so you can read about what happen or use it as part of a post-game briefing to tell the players about the battle.  After that, I will provide some suggestions for 28mm miniatures to game the shoot-out.  Throughout this blog entry, I will post some photographs for favor text and to see what the historical location looked like about the time of the shoot-out. 

A period map showing the major roads and the location of the Red Crown Travel Court Park & Tavern

Players Summaries

The Red Crown Travel Court Park’s cabins in 1936

Law Enforcement

MO Highway Patrol car for the period, Model A Ford Roadster.  In 1933, the MO Highway Patrol was issued new enclosed cab Chevrolet cars, but Troop A may have not gotten there issue before the shoot-out

Pre-Game Summary for the Law Men:   

You are Sheriff Holt Coffey of Platte County, MO.  You have been told by several people of a suspicious group of travelers that have taken up a cabin across the street to the Red Crown Tavern (There are two cabins attached at garage, see the picture earlier).  You have been told that there were only three people (two men and one woman) seen entering the cabin (the one to the right in the picture above.)  The female with dark hair, has been coming over and ordered food and beer for six people several times.  No one could identify her as a known criminal.  With a primary investigation of the information provided, you are able to determine that their car’s license plates number comes up for a stolen car from Oklahoma. You suspect that they are a band of car thieves from Oklahoma.

The Red Crown Travel Court office and Tavern across the street of the cabin in question.  If the yawning is looking directly to the 12 o'clock position, the cabin would be roughly at the 1 or 2 o'clock position from the main doorway.

As the Red Crown Tavern across the street also happens to be a call-in station for Troop A of the MO Highway Patrol, you contacted Captain William Baxter of Troop A, MO Highway Patrol to assist you in the raid to arrest of this group of travelers.  In addition, with the memory of the Kansas City Massacre with killers unknown just only one month ago, you do not want to go in lightly armed if this turns out to a very violent gang of criminals.  So you also contact Sheriff Tom Bash of the Jackson County's Sheriff’s Department in Kansas City, MO,  to send up his armored car, a couple of armored shields, and few of his deputies. 

Uniform of the MO Highway Patrol at the time.  The pants are a dark navy blue as is the hat band and tie. There are no stripes on the pants.

You decide to wait until 1:00 a.m. so that the customers and staff of the Red Crown Tavern will have long departed from the area should any shooting start.  As you arrived early talk to the dinner’s staff to get any more useful information, an off-duty MO Highway Patrolman, Tom Whitecotton, who just got off duty and is now in plain clothes is also at the dinner when you arrived.  He states that he will assist you in the arrests as well.   Now with your team fully assembled and having gone over the plans with everyone involved, you now set up your force around the cabin to find out who are these individuals really are.  There are thirteen police officers in total, including yourself, that make up your force.

Another picture of the Red Crown Tavern at an unknown date.

Law Men Set-Up

Approach team (This team was designated to approach the cabin's door and knock to get permission to enter and inspect the cabin and question the suspects.)

• Sheriff Holt Coffey, Platte Co. – Thompson SMG and armored shield
• Captain William Baxter, MO Highway Patrol – Thompson SMG and armored shield
• (Note:  I have not found much information on the armored shields, but they were designed to stop pistol / SMG rounds.)

Blocking team (This team was designated to place the armored car to block the driveway to prevent the suspects from driving out of the garage and escaping.)

• An armored car from the Jackson Co. Sheriff’s Department and
• 4x Jackson Co. deputies inside the armored car, most likely armed with revolvers  

Quite possibly "the" armored car from the shoot-out.  This is an armored 1933 Plymouth car that belonged to the Kansas City Police Department, known as "the Hot Shot".  It was purchased because of the Kansas City Massacre.  As I can't find any references to Jackson County having an armored car, but with Kansas City being in Jackson County, this could have been loaned to them.  The armor was designed to provide protection from pistols and SMG rounds.  The armor plating added about 750 pounds to the weight of the vehicle.

Armored Car back-up team (on foot)

• SGT Tom Whitecotton, off-duty MO Highway Patrolman in a seersucker suit and Panama hat 
• 1x Platte Co. deputy

A period ad for the armored car kit that would be purchased by the manufacturer and then installed by the police department's mechanic or a local garage.

Red Crown Tavern support (across the street)

• Deputy Clarence Coffey, Platte Co. – (The son of Sheriff Holt Coffey, Thompson SMG and in the kitchen doorway at the Red Crown Tavern)
• 1x Platte Co Deputy (on the roof of the Red Crown Tavern) with a rifle 

Area Containment (Around the backside of the cabin to capture or shoot anyone attempting to escape for the backside.

• Trooper Leonard Ellis, Missouri Highway Patrol - shotgun (also on to the right rear corner of the cabin that the Approach Team was to knock on the door)
•  2x Police officers surrounding the back of the cabin and the two opposing sides taking cover near other cabins

A photo in the daylight after the shootout at the cabins.  You can see the Platte Co. deputies in their tan uniforms in the photograph.

And now it is time for a short musical intermission of Merle Haggard's "The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde"

The Barrow’s Gang

Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow of the Barrow's Gang

Pre-Game Summary for the Barrow Gang:   

You are Clyde Barrow of the “Barrow’s Gang” of West Dallas, TX.  You are all wanted for murder, bank robberies, hold-ups, kidnapping, car thefts, and a whole other sort of crimes.  The law is hot on your trail and you must continue to be vigilant and fast with your reactions, otherwise they will throw you back in jail…and you would rather die than go back to jail.

Your gang has been traveling through Missouri again just after the big shoot out with the police in Joplin, MO, about two months ago.  When you left Joplin, there were two law men laying dead in your wake.  Since Joplin, your gang has suffered several injuries from both the Joplin shoot out and two different car crashes.  

The worst off is Bonnie Parker, your lover.  Her leg was seriously burned in a recent car crash.  She can hardly get around without crutches now, but she is also small and light enough, that if it is necessary, one of the men can carry her even at a run.  “Buck”, your brother, has one of his hands all smashed up and a broken ankle from a different car crash from Bonnie.  W.D. Jones, one of your gang members, is still recovering from his chest wound during the Joplin shoot out, but is almost back to at his normal abilities, other than not being able to run for any real length of time.  

You are all pretty well armed with forty-six Colt .45 automatic pistols, some bolt action rifles, and more than enough ammunition from your recent break-in at a National Guard armory in Oklahoma.  Plus your gang has two Browning Automatic Rifles (B.A.R.s), besides your own “scattergun,” which is a cut down B.A.R. at your disposal. 

Clyde Barrow's "Scattergun" captured after the Joplin, MO, shoot-out on April 13th, 1933.  Now located at the MO Highway Patrol Museum in Jefferson City, MO.

Against your normal better judgment, you decided to rent a cabin from the Red Crown Travel Court Park in Platte City, MO, to rest up for a couple of days.  You pulled your normal trick of hiding someone in the truck of the car and another under some covers so that the cabin management staff only saw three people.  Blanche Barrow has been walking over the Red Crown Tavern and buying food and beer for all of you a couple of times.  She is getting really nervous about staying any longer and wants to leave now.   She is also saying that people at the tavern are looking at her oddly and she is ordering too much food for the number of people that you told them was staying in the cabin.  She is always talking this way, but you decided that leave tomorrow morning.

The Red Crown Tavern in 1947.  It has now since been destroyed to make way for the Kansas City Airport.

Barrows Gang Set-up

The cabin the after the the shoot out

In the first cabin (the left one just out of the picture above) has a door that connecting into the garage from the inside that houses their car.  In this cabin, the following three members of the Barrow's Gang are staying: 

Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow: Clyde is the leader of the gang.  He will not surrender and is loyal to Bonnie and “Buck”, his brother and will risk his life to go back for them.  He was almost always able to get the first shots off in any of the shoot-outs he was involved with so he should have initiative almost all the time.  He is armed with a modified B.A.R. know as his “scattergun” that has been cut down and supposed to have a modified magazine to hold more ammunition, but was probably two magazines taped together to quickly switch over when the first was empty, plus two Colt .45 pistols on him at all times.  He was known to be an excellent driver.  He starts asleep at the beginning of the scenario.

Bonnie Parker

Bonnie Parker:  Bonnie was known to be very loyal to Clyde and will not abandon him except if instructed by Clyde.  Bonnie was also suffering from serious burns to her leg at this time and has to use crutches to walk.  She can’t run and can only walk at ½ speed if using crutches or at ¼ of walk speed without crutches and she can’t drive in her current condition.  According to interviews of the surviving members of the gang and her family, Bonnie almost never fired a gun and even shot off one of her toes when trying to learn how to use a shotgun showing how poorly she was at shooting.  However, some law enforcement officials and later historians have attested that Bonnie was more than willing to shooting it out with the police and Hollywood has made her being competent when shooting…go with what you feel is right.  She starts asleep the beginning of the scenario.

W. D. Jones

W.D. Jones:  W.D. Jones is still suffering from a chest wound from the Joplin, MO, shoot-out about three months earlier.  He can’t run more than one turn in a row, then will only be able to walk until he has a full turn of resting only.  He will have a hard time carrying Bonnie, if she would need to be carried, and even a harder time carrying anyone else.  Each time he does something physically demanding, he needs to make a check to see if he must stop to rest.  He is armed with a B.A.R. and a .45 automatic pistol.  He was known to be a better than average driver.  He starts asleep at the beginning of the scenario.

"Buck" & Blanche Burrow

In the other connecting cabin (the one on the right in the picture above) is where "Buck" and Blanche Barrow are staying.  This cabin does not have a door connecting into the garage  from the inside.

Marvin "Buck" Barrow

“Buck” Barrow has one hand and one ankle that are broken from a car wreck recently.  Due to the broken wrist, he can only shoot with one hand.  The broken wrist also causes him to have difficulty in handing a steering wheel of a car.  The effect of his broken ankle is that he cannot run.  He is armed with a B.A.R. and two .45 automatic pistols.  He starts asleep at the beginning of the scenario.

Blanche Barrow

Blanche Barrow is Buck’s wife and is very loyal to “Buck”, so she will not abandon him, even if means that she faces capture by the law.   She doesn’t know how to use a gun and has normal driving abilities.  She is the only one that is awake at the start of the scenario as she was not able to fall asleep because she is nervous about staying and are convinced that the people at the diner are on to them.

1933 Chevy V-8 Coupe

In the connecting garage next to cabin with Bonnie & Clyde:

One 1933 Chevy V-8 Coupe parked facing out of the garage so it does not need to back out.  It is filled with .45 automatic pistols (possibly up to 40+ pistols!) and some bolt action rifles scattered all around in the passenger compartment along with almost unlimited supply of ammunition.  Once the gang members are in the car, there should be no ammunition restrictions applied.

Post-Game Summary 

Sheriff Coffey and Captain Baxter approached the cabins armed with Thompson sub-machine guns and armored shields, they knocked on the door containing “Buck” and Blanche Barrow and identified themselves as the police and to open up the door.  Blanche, who was unable to sleep, woke up “Buck” and yelled that she was not dressed and needed some time to get dressed before opening the door.  This yelling by Blanche woke up Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D. in the next cabin, plus Blanche gave the code for “trouble” with the phrase “need time to get dress”.  Sheriff Coffey and Captain Baxter decided to wait about a minute to give them time to get dress, not realizing that this was the Barrow Gang. 

Clyde ran over to the front window of his cabin and opened fired on Sheriff Coffey and Captain Baxter with his “scattergun."  This was followed shortly by “Buck” firing his B.A.R. one handed from his window.  W.D. went to start the car by going through the interior door to the garage.  Bonnie made her own way to the car also during this time.  Thanks to the armored shields, both Sheriff Coffey and Captain Baxter where able to survive the volley of gunfire that was directed towards them with neither one getting hit, but did pinned them in the front of the cabins, where they couldn't return fire. 

 W.D. either suddenly had a case of “cold feet” or was too winded from the physical activities with his chest wound and could not go and open the garage door.  So Clyde came over through the interior door to the garage and opened it.  Both Clyde & W.D. then started to lay suppressive fire with B.A.R.s from the garage opening.  “Buck” and Blanche were forced to leave the cover of their cabin and to run out their front door into the returning gunfire from the police to get to the car in the garage.  Blanche was leading when “Buck” was shot in the head and collapsed.  Clyde rushed out and grabbed “Buck” and continued to fire with one hand with his "scattergun" while getting “Buck” into the car. 

At this point, Clyde then started to fire at the armored car that was blocking the driveway.  While the armored car was designed to stop pistol and sub-machine gun caliber rounds, the heavy rifle round of the B.A.R. started to punch holes into the armored car.  At least eight rounds were found to have completely punched through the armor.  One of these rounds wounded one of the Jackson Co. deputies in both knees.  This caused the crew of the armored car to lose confidence in the ability of the armored car's protection and started to pull away from the gunfire.  In doing so, the driveway was no longer blocked. 

In an odd chance of fate, one of Clyde’s B.A.R. rounds struck the horn on the armored car as it was backing away from blocking the drive way causing it to blare out a long, continuous sound.  Hearing the armored car’s horn blaring out while it was backing away, the remaining police officers mistook it for a signal to cease fire and quite firing.  In the confusion of this event, Clyde was able to get in the driver's seat of the car and make their escape from the garage to the end of the drive way during the lull of shooting.  Now recovering from the confusion caused by the horn of the armored car, the police officers again opened up on the car as it got the road.  The car was hit at least seventeen times as it sped away into the darkness.  The law men choose not to pursue them as they had three men wounded. 

Other then “Buck’s” mortal head wound, only Blanche Barrow was injured in the shoot-out among the gangsters.  She was temporary blinded with flying glass from the car when it was struck by the bullets during the getaway down the road.  This blindness lasted for several days.  

Of the three law men that were injured in the shootout, one was the Jackson Co deputy in the armored car that was mention earlier.  Another was Deputy Clarence Coffey who deliberately exposed himself by stepping out in the open from across the street at the Red Crown Tavern to draw fire away from his father, Sheriff Holt Coffery, while he and Captain Baxter were pinned down in front of the cabin. The remaining police officer wounded was Sheriff Holt Coffey.  Sheriff Holt Coffey was shot by Trooper Ellis of the MO Highway Patrol when he confused the retreating sheriff as one of the gang members shortly after "Buck" was shot and the gangsters fire shifted from them to the armored car.

Five days later, the Barrow gang was involved in another shoot out with police in Dexter, Iowa.  Blanche Barrow would be able to see enough to surrender to the police while standing next to her dying husband “Buck”. “Buck” Barrow would die of his head wound on July 29^th, just ten days after the Platte City shoot out. But Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D. Jones were able to escape from the Dexter shootout.  W.D. later separated from Bonnie and Clyde and was arrested and sent to prison. 

Blanche Barrows captured in Dexter, Iowa, while posse members stand over the wounded "Buck" Barrow

The days were numbered for Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and they both knew it.  In Sowers, TX, Dallas County Sheriff Smoot Schmid and some of his deputies laid an ambush for them with the orders “shoot to kill” on November 22, 1933.  But they failed in getting Bonnie & Clyde. 

On May 23, 1934, outside of Gibsland, Louisiana, retired Texas Ranger, Captain Frank Hamer along with five other police officers from different two different states ambushed the infamous couple. They fired hundreds of rounds into a nearly stopped car at a very short range.  This time the law men were finally able to kill Bonnie & Clyde sitting side by side and fulfilling their wish of going down together.

Bonnie & Clyde, sitting side by side after the ambush in Gibsland, LA

Miniatures Availability

I am aware that there are several scales of figures that cover this period of time (15/18mm, 1/72 or 20mm, 28mm, and 54mm for example), but I am specifically going to discuss 28mm figures that will work the best for this specific shoot-out. 

First, Copplestone Castings has probably the most excellent miniature that really captures the spirit of Bonnie Parker based off one the more famous photographs of her.  This would be the best figure for a "Hollywood" version of her, inside of the seriously crippled historic version of her at the time of the shoot-out.  This figure in Copplestone's pack, GN7 - Gun Molls.

A most excellent painted version of the Copplestone's Bonnie Parker painted by FunkyFantasyFigures - Unfortunately, I failed to win this figure on Ebay.

The rest of the Barrow's Gang, as well as some of the police, for this scenario would be best from Brigade Miniatures’ Mob War line.  Their pack of Gangsters with B.A.R.s (BG-MWG004), would provide you with the three figures for Clyde, Buck, and W.D. (but make sure to cut down the barrel for Clyde’s B.A.R.). The best figure I think for Blanche Barrow would be the panicky women from their Gangster Dolls #1 pack (BG-MWG015).  But if you really want to be correct, if you can find the old Grenadier's Call of Cthulhu line's Dauntless Dame, that would also work as Blanche was wearing jodhpurs pants and a baggy shirt on that night of the shoot-out.

Two of the miniatures from Brigade Games Gangster Dolls 1 painted by Calimero 34.  I included the second female figure with the B.A.R. as an alternative for a Bonnie Parker if one does not want to get Copplestone version.

The Grenadier's Call of Cthulhu's Dauntless Dame

The Missouri State Highway Patrolmen can be best represented by Brigade's City/Town Police #1 (BG-MWP003) pack, especially the figure with the shotgun for Trooper Ellis. Trooper Whitecotten could be any gangster or G-Man figure with a suit and pistol, but the Panama hat could be altered by adding putty to the fedora, unless you don’t want to worry about it.  Captain Baxter would be a bit harder to do as he was carrying an armored shield and a Thompson SMG, but the figure on the far right could work.

Brigade Games' City/Town Police 1

As for the Platte and Jackson County deputies, I have not found anything that would work the best for them.  In a pinch, use regular old blue coat police men.  To do the historical armored car, the armored shields and the windows would all have to be scratch built, but luckily you only need one.  Otherwise, just look for a suitable 1920-30s-ish armored car to do a stand-in.

One of the biggest problems will be the buildings.  No one makes anything that looks like Red Crown Travel Court's cabins or Tavern across the road.  I know that there are several model railroad programs out there that will allow someone to create a paper model similar to the building, but I am not comfortable to do that design work.  Otherwise, some other buildings that can be substituted instead as long as you can show a garage between the two cabins. 

Hollywood vs Reality vs Conflicting Accounts

The real couple vs the actors

Needless to say, Hollywood never gets anything historically correct for various reasons.  There are several movies about the life and crimes of Bonnie & Clyde and most of them includes a scene of this famous shoot-out at the Red Crown Travel Court (Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula does not include this shoot-out for an example).  In the famous 1967 version with Faye Dunaway & Warren Beatty is still probably my favorite version, even if it is totally off.  I was not able to find a YouTube clip of the battle scene, but below are thee picture stills of the armored car in that movie.  As you can see, there is a great difference between the real armored car and the one in the movie.  

Also below that, I am adding a YouTube clip of the 1992 version of Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story made for TV movie of this shoot-out.  Again you can see how inaccurate from the real events.  The reason I bring this up is that don't think that you have to be 100% accurate with everything in the scenario, go what you have available for your game and go with what you think is the best for a good game...like Hollywood.

But lets take a second along that same lines about getting things accurate to historical events.  My scenario is based more off of the personal accounts of Blanche Barrow and WD Jones or their family members as well as the family members of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.  I think that logically, they were more accurate accounts for what the gang members were doing at the time of the shoot-out, but even them can be wrong for many reasons (faulty memories, not wanting to place bad light on someone, including themselves, etc.)  That is why I think it is important to include this account by Tom Whitecotton, years later after he retired from the MO Highway Patrol as a Captain.  It is a very interesting account and you will quickly notice how different this account is to the Barrow Gang's account.  This account can be found at the Missouri Highway Patrol site here.  I am copying it completely without editing.

“We had no two-way radios in our patrol cars then, so when the troop headquarters had a message for us, they’d phone restaurants where we made regular stops. The Red Crown Tavern near Platte City was one of these stopping places. They served good food and a lot of the boys ate there.

The owner also had several tourist cabins next to the restaurant. Word came to our office that three men and two women had rented two of the cabins and were acting suspicious. They never set foot in the Red Crown, but would instead send one man to the restaurant across the highway for carryout meals. When a license check on their car revealed that it had been stolen in Oklahoma from a doctor and his girlfriend, we knew we had some hot customers.

Captain Baxter, the commanding officer of Troop A, Trooper Leonard Ellis, and I drove to the scene, arriving about 11 o’clock on the night of July 19. I’d been working in the office all day and was wearing a seersucker suit and a Panama hat instead of my uniform. We met the Platte County Sheriff Holt Coffey and several deputies. Holt had asked Sheriff Tom Bash of Jackson County to bring his armored car and a few of his deputies, too. The cabins were connected by a double-car garage.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were in one cabin, and Blanche and Buck Barrow and W.D. Jones were in the other.

We stationed two Platte County deputies on top of the Red Crown Tavern. The armored car, with two Jackson County men inside, was parked in the driveway, blocking the only escape route. A deputy and I were set up at the end of the driveway as backup, and the rest of the officers were arranged strategically around the cabins. At 1 a.m., Baxter and Coffey, carrying machine guns and protected by armored shields, walked to the door of Bonnie and Clyde’s cabin and knocked. “Who’s there?” asked Clyde. “The sheriff. Open up!” said Coffey. “Just a minute,” said Clyde, reaching for his 30.06 machine rifle. He blasted several rounds right through the closed door. Baxter staggered backward, unhurt and still holding his gun and shield, but Holt Coffey ran for cover. You really couldn’t blame him with those slugs flying around. In the uncertain light I mistook him for one of the gang members. I ran after him and yelled at Leonard Ellis, who was closer to the cabins, “There’s one of ‘em! Get him!” He did, too. Fortunately, Holt only received a superficial buckshot wound in the neck. He believed ‘til his dying day that Clyde Barrow shot him, but it was actually a state trooper.

Bonnie and Clyde could reach the gang’s car by an interior door, but Buck, Blanche, and Jones had to come out the front. When they did, Captain Baxter opened up with his machine gun, hitting Buck in the head. He stumbled to the car with Blanche’s help, and with Clyde at the wheel, they roared out of the garage. The hail of bullets from both sides was terrific. I hit the dirt, seersucker suit and all. Bullets whizzed overhead for a few seconds, then stopped. I guess they thought they’d hit me. Jones and Clyde concentrated their fire on the armored car, which blocked the exit, and one slug actually penetrated the armor, slightly wounding one of the deputies. If the lawmen had left that armored car where it was, the gang would never have escaped, but the deputies panicked and moved it out of the way. Clyde zipped the car through the opening. At the end of the road where I had been standing, before I mistakenly chased Sheriff Coffey, the deputy fired and shattered a pane, blinding Blanche, but the way was clear now and the Barrow gang escaped. Several of the lawmen were wounded, but none seriously.

Only a day or two later the Barrows engaged in another gunfight with officers in Iowa. Buck was killed and Blanche was captured. Jones left Bonnie and Clyde a few months afterward, only to be apprehended and returned to Dallas to face multiple charges. I understand he turned state’s evidence on Bonnie and Clyde, claiming they’d forced him to participate in the robberies and killings, but he received a long prison sentence anyway. Bonnie and Clyde were killed a few months later in Louisiana.”

Cheers,
Sapper

Mystery armored car is almost most solved!!!!

Back on 9/25/14 (link), I posted an entry asking help in identifying an unknown armored truck that was used by the Missouri Army National Guard.  I think that I was able to identify to which unit that the truck belong to as well, the separate Machine Gun Company created on July 7, 1920, under Captain James A. Frow in Nevada, Missouri.

By a chance of fate I think I know what the vehicle was in the picture.  It is a variant of the Jeffery Armored Car No. 1 built by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company in Kenosha, WI.  While web surfing, I stumbled across this photo of a Jeffery armored car being use by an army unit on the Mexican border during 1916.  It is very clear that they are the same vehicle except some modifications to the upper armor and the searchlight.  Looking at other photos of the Jeffery armored cars used by different forces, there are difference in the vehicles, so they were made for custom builds.

Now that I know this, I am going to have to start looking for a model kit of a Jeffery that I can modified to make it look like the one in the original picture.  Plus, one day I will need to get a hold of the Missouri Army National Guard's 135th Historical Detachment or their Historical Museum and see if they can run down more information for me on this vehicle.

Anyways, I wanted to posted the good new about my discovery.

Sapper

What a strange trip it has been...new gaming projects

OK, before I get to the topic that is in the title of this post, just a couple of things...

1) I am on the road again (Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway...Stop that, Willie!)  I am working out of town this week and next and of course, working weird and long hours.  So, I probably will not get up any info on the guerrilla war in Missouri this weekend.

2) I am plugging away on inventorying my 28mm figures to keep or sell.  I am got a lot sorted out already, but I still have more to go through, but probably less than 25% of all that I have that is unpainted (which is almost all of my 28mm's!)  I am hoping to have this completed by the end of the month.  A lot of stuff is going to go.  But I also realized after I started to inventorying what I plan to keep and start boxing them for storage as if they where finished miniatures (i.e., actually painted and based vs. just throwing a bunch of unpainted figures in a box) I am realizing that I will have to trim down some more of what I am going to keep to make sure that I have enough room for storage.  I am going to start looking at my 15mm next and downsizing those by tons as that scale makes up probably 80% of all my miniatures.  So, probably by the end of the month I will be sending out my list of 28mm to go to the local gamers in St Louis first (so I don't have to mail stuff) and then I will be posting on this blog probably around late Sept or Oct you my readers. 

3) I sent my first round of figures to be painted off already.  These are all 15mm, mostly Sci-Fi stuff for THW's 5150 Urban Renewal or The Department solo/co-op games.  The next batch will most like be 15mm Fenian Raids miniatures and either Triple Alliance War miniatures or French Indian War miniatures.  The third wave will be which ever group that I didn't send off in the last batch and probably the first of 28mm figures.  

4) I have listen to quite a few radio plays and I think a couple of audio books since listening to Border War, so I am going to try to get caught up on my list on the 2015 commitment tracker page.  As for books, I really have not been reading anything other some Amazon Kindle samples for various books that you can download for free to see if you want to order that book.  After I get caught back up on my notes for the guerrilla war in Missouri, I plan to finish that book off and get into the final book of the series.

So, back to the title of this entry...in an odd full circle of things, I am going to start not one but probably two new 28mm projects.  There is an odd connection on how these two projects are related to each other on why I want to do them, which I will explain later.  First, the one project that I will do is the 1910-20's Banana Wars.  I actually have a head start on this project to my surprise as I was sorting through my 28mm to sell.  When I found that I had several USMC figures in Montana hats from Pulp Figures and Brigade Games, I was confused as I couldn't remember why I had them since while at one time I was interested in doing the Banana Wars, I really was not interested in doing Marines (ah, yes, that US Army-USMC Inter-service rivalry does run deep in me).  Later, I remember that I bought them to do National Guard troops for 1920's-30's gangster games.  But the idea of doing Banana Wars had take root again in me, even if they were USMC :)

So I am going to order some more figures to do a platoon level skirmish game for this and looking to re-read With the Old Corps in Nicaragua by George B Clark (yes, I really did read this book years ago).  So, why the interest in doing the Banana Wars?  Many moons ago, back in the dark ages, yours truly, got a full paid for vacation to Honduras by my Uncle Sam, not once, but twice!  Plus he gave me another trip to Panama too!  As I have fond memories of Honduras of being shot at and held up (I even got to camp on an old abandon United Fruits plantation in Honduras!) , I have always had an interest in Central America for military actions.  So that is where my interest in doing the Banana Wars in 28mm's.  But what is this other project?  Why it is the US intervention in Northern Russia during the Russian Revolution!

How does that relate to my Banana Wars project?  Well, when I was in Honduras the first time, I brought one book with me to read and it was The Ignorant Armies by E. M. Halliday, about the US intervention into Northern Russia.  I was quite taken with the book and always wanted to do this a game since way back when, but never found figures that worked for me.  While I saw that there were greatcoat Russians out for long time, I never saw US troops until recently from Tiger Miniatures.  I don't know how long that they have been available, but there you go.

So as I wade through 28mm figures to get rid of, I am starting to buy 28mm figures to replace them...and the wheel keeps on turning...

Cheers,

Joe