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By Root 2271 0

in a fawn-colored Stetson. Afterward he rarely spoke of what had happened, and never gave a detailed public interview on his role in the affair. But in 1958, shortly before his death, he consented to discuss it with his nephew, a history professor named Glenn Jordan. In this interview, Jordan traced the genesis of Bonnie and Clyde’s demise to early March, after their first visit to the Methvins’ shack. Whether it was Henry Methvin or his father who initiated the idea, the two men were of one mind on the proposal the elder Methvin took to one of their neighbors, a man named John Joyner: if the state of Texas would pardon the younger Methvin for his crimes, the Methvin family would betray Bonnie and Clyde. Ivy Methvin sent Joyner to make the proposal to Sheriff Jordan in Arcadia, fifty miles east of Shreveport.

As Sheriff Jordan told the story, he knew Henry Methvin had been in some kind of trouble in Texas. But he initially had no idea that he was traveling with Bonnie and Clyde:cv

In the early spring of 1934, I got word that Ivy Methvin, who lived down in the southern part of the parish, wanted to talk with me. I was also told that we had to meet Methvin in private and that no one was to know that I was meeting with him. I did not know what Methvin wanted to see me about. I did know that he had a son, Henry, who had been in trouble with the law in Texas and a couple of other places . . . It took several days to set up a meeting. I attempted to do what Methvin asked and keep the meeting quiet. Finally, and I think that it was early March, Prentiss Oakley, my chief deputy and friend, and I met with Methvin.

At a roadside clearing late one night, Ivy Methvin told the sheriff that his son had escaped from prison with the help of Bonnie and Clyde and was now traveling with them. As Methvin described it, the trio had begun visiting his home in February, about two weeks after the prison break, and had dropped by a time or two afterward. They arrived without notice, stayed several days, and then disappeared. Ivy Methvin was deathly afraid of Clyde. He was certain he would get his son killed.

As Jordan remembered the conversation:

I suggested that Henry simply give himself up. He would have to answer for his crimes in Texas and would serve time in jail but he would be alive. Methvin would not listen to that. He said that if Henry surrendered to the law, Bonnie and Clyde would kill him and his wife. Methvin said that the only way for all of the Methvin family to be safe was for Bonnie and Clyde to be dead. He said that if he agreed to help the law captured [sic] Bonnie and Clyde if some agreement could be made that would help his son. He said that if he agreed to help the law with Bonnie and Clyde, his son should not have to return to jail. Methvin said that his help should wipe his son’s slate clean.

Jordan told Methvin he had no power to make such a deal, but would think about who might. Jordan spent several days mulling Methvin’s offer before telephoning the FBI office in New Orleans, where he was passed to an agent named Lester Kendale. The two men had several conversations, and at some point the FBI man suggested they meet with Hamer. According to testimony at Methvin’s 1936 trial, the meeting occurred at an isolated roadside clearing in Bienville Parish.cw In attendance were Sheriff Jordan, Agent Kendale, Hamer, the Dallas deputy Bob Alcorn, and Methvin’s intermediary, John Joyner.

As Sheriff Jordan remembered the meeting:

Hamer agreed that a deal could be offered to the Methvin family . . . While Hamer did not promise that all charges against Methvin would be dropped by the state of Texas, he came real close to saying that. Before the meeting was over, I came to realize that was the offer that I was to make to Methvin. If he would help capture Bonnie and Clyde, Henry would not have to go back to prison.

Hamer carried Methvin’s proposal to Lee Simmons in Dallas. Simmons took it to the Texas governor’s mansion, where Ma Ferguson approved it in principle. She wrote a letter explicitly stating that if Henry Methvin would