July 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Dive into the gripping narrative of Thieves Like Us, also known as Your Red Wagon. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, it tells the story of Bowie Bowers, a young prison escapee who, along with two accomplices, sets his sights on a daring bank heist. As plans unravel, Bowie finds himself entangled in a passionate love affair with Keechie, a relative of one of his partners in crime. This classic noir tale of doomed lovers on the run has been immortalized in film not once, but twice. Originally by Nicholas Ray in 1940s They Live By Night and later by Robert Altman in 1973s rendition of Thieves Like Us. Join us as we delve into this captivating tale. - Synopsis by Ben Tucker
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter eighteen of Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
Chapter eighteen. The front of the Gusherton house parted and
there was the smell of cold bacon and raw onion,
and then in the crack of light was Lula's water
color face. The door opened further and Bowie went in,
(00:23):
and now he was shaking Tea Dub's rock like hand.
Where's chickamauw, Bowie said. Tee Dub nodded toward the rear
of the house, sleeping one off. For God's sake, don't
wake him up. Lula said. She had on a green
velvet dinner gown that reached her ankles and was adjusting
a gold ear ring in her lobe. I will absolutely
leave hey sure has been guzzling it, Bowie. Teet up said,
(00:48):
I don't know what's going to become of that boy.
He's sleeping, is he? Bowie said, don't you wake him
up now, Lulas said. Bowie lowered himself to the studio couch,
balancing his hat on his close pressed knees. Te Dub
looked tired, like the morning they had walked the railroad
ties all night. Take his hat, Lula, he said, boy,
(01:09):
you like you just dropped in to say hello. I've
been traveling pretty long and fast today, Bowie said. He
watched Lula carry the hat and place it on the
table by the door under the mirror. Where you been
keeping yourself, Bowie? Down south of here, say, Chickamau has
been drinking a whole lot. Oh christ Man, it brought
an old bata in here last night that I swear
(01:31):
to god he must have picked up in nigger Town
right in his house with Lula here. She was as
drunk as he was. And of all the goings on,
Lula said, I told tw there that if you weren't
here by nine o'clock tonight, I was packing up and
going to the hotel. She was too drunk to notice anything.
Te Dobe said that was one thing. As soon as
he passed out, I took her out and dumped her.
(01:52):
Lula had the other earring ofjusted now, and she smiled
at Bowie. We have something to show you, and if
you will just sit there, I'll bring it right back. Okay,
Bowie said. Lula disappeared in the back. She's been pretty
enough for two hours just because you were coming. I think,
Teetube said, now you been getting along, tee Dub, just
(02:13):
getting by. Check them all had to go over day
before yesterday to Master's and get fifty dollars off that
lawger friend of his to buy some gasoline and something
to eat. You don't mean you've thrown all that, do you?
I got a family on my back, Bowie. I sunk
twelve thousand dollars in tourist camp over Masters for that
butt of mine. And Maddie, how is he well, we've
(02:35):
had hard luck about him. Pro board turn him down.
I think the next year, though, he'll make it. That's
too bad. I guess poor old Maddie is still up
in there. Me and Lulu have been having a pretty
good time too. In that New Orleans. Money will just
naturally get away from you fast down there. Check them
all been with you? Teetub shook his head. I thought
(02:58):
he was with you all the time, and then I
figured too that he wasn't. But I haven't seen him.
He showed up here three nights ago. It was drinking, Jake.
I swear I wish he would ease up on that drinking.
A little Lula came in. She had a roll of
parchment looking paper tied in the red ribbon, and she
looked at Tea Dub. Now do you want me to
show it to him? Tee Dub was grinning and his
(03:18):
head went up and down. Lula, smelling of fresh perfume,
bent towards Bowie, unrolling the parchment and then spread it
on his knees. It was a marriage license. Did you
two go and get hitched? Tee Dub's head was still
going up and down. Why you got your right name
on here? T Dub? Bowie said, just turn the initials
round W. T. Maysfield. That sure floors me, Bowie said.
(03:43):
He handed the license back up to Lula. How are
you in? That little Oklahoma girl getting along? Teetub said.
Bowie's eyes quivered. Wh who's that? What's her name? Keechi
Keechie Mobley? What do you know about her? You remember, Bowie?
I met her when we were all up there at
D's place. I didn't know those you two had teamed
(04:04):
up until I began to see that stuff in the papers.
Bowie's Adam's apple ate like it had been hit and
he could not swallow. What stuff is that? Haven't you
been saying any of it. Bowie shook his head. I
read something just last Sunday. I think it was Lulis said,
had her picture picture? Bowie said, why hell, Bowie, I
(04:26):
thought you knew all about that. That d Mobley up
there claims you kidnapped her. And I told Lula that
all that guy had done was yelling up. Some log
got to pump in him and he just about let
out that kind of a squawk. I told Lula here
that was the way it was. I knew, damn well,
you wouldn't kidnap anybody, I mean, girl like that. And
it's in the papers, Bowie said. The last one was
(04:49):
just last Sunday. Lulis said it was a picture of her.
I know that she had taken when she was going
to high school. Huh, Bowie said, it will died Bowie.
I wouldn't let it worry me. Eh, don't worry me.
Lula went over and sat crosswise on Teetub's legs. He
spread them and she lay against him and put her
(05:10):
arm around his neck. The marriage license roll in her
left hand. That means you and me have come to
the parting of the way. His little soldier, Bowie thought,
you can't be running with me no more. Teet Dove
and Lula made a smacking sound as they kissed. You
can go on back up to Oklahoma and get everything
squared up, Bowie thought, let them think what they want.
(05:31):
You have some money now, little soldier, and you can
tell that old man of yours to go straight to
burn in Hell. You going back and pretty up some
more sugar, Teetub said. Bowie may want to talk a
little business. Don't you go and get a headache now.
Lula said, I'd like to see some law bother you
while I'm gone. Bowie thought, lay just one finger on you.
(05:52):
I'll take care of myself brother in law. But you
lay one finger on that girl, and goddamn you, I'll
get a machine gun hunt you down. Lowtly disappeared in
the back of the house. This bank here is a
bird's nests on the ground, Teetub said, and it'll go
for fifty thousand or not a dime. I can use money,
Bowie said. A man never knows when he's gonna need money,
(06:14):
and plenty of it in this business. You're not going
to get three boys like us together every day. Tee
Dub said. This is the way I look at it,
and chickamau has been feeling pretty low. Bowie, I think
he would charge that bank tomorrow by himself. If you
and me both backed out, well, he won't have to
do it by himself. They robbed the First National Bank
(06:35):
of Gusherton at ten oh one o'clock the following morning, Chickamaull,
looking like a man with galloping consumption and driving Bowie's
car teet Dub, complaining of rheumatism. There were no rumbles,
and at ten fifteen they were switching cars, setting a
match to Bowie's machine, and at ten thirty Chickamaull drove
Tetub's car Tee Dub and Bowie crouched in the back
into the garage of their house at the edge of
(06:57):
the city. Chickamaull went on in the house and fifth
ten minutes later Tea Dub and then after another interval Bowie.
The bank went for only seventeen thousand dollars. At noon,
Tea Dub fried bacon and eggs and made toast, but
only chick them all ate. Bowie drank coffee. That afternoon
there was a football game on the radio, and Bowie
lost ten dollars to Chicken mauf. You guys give me
(07:20):
the jitters. Chicken Mall said, why won't you say something?
You need a drink Tee, Dub said, I need something
tape her off on, and just as soon as it
gets dark, I'm going down and get it. A little
before dusk, a car entered the driveway and they picked
up guns, but it was only some damn bastard turning
around to go back to town. At dusk tea, Dub
(07:41):
said he was going up to the first drug store
and give Lula a ring at the Red Bonnet Hotel.
I might just going down and pick her up and
we'll shell out for New Orleans ride tonight. You want
to go down with me, either one of you I do.
Chicka Mall said, A few boys are going. I think
I'll just go with you too. Bowie said, you can
just drop me off at the bus station. I got
(08:02):
some business to attend to and I want to get
it over with. Chickama had his hat on his head.
Won't you hang around with it some Bowie, I believe
you're getting stuck up or something. I'll see you boys
pretty soon. You want to watch yourself on these buses,
Tee Dub said, when I get down the line a
couple hundred miles, I'll hop off and get me a car,
(08:23):
Bowie said. Tee Dub named the nightclub on Bourbon Street
in New Orleans and said he and Lula would be
in it the night at December first. Okay, Bowie said,
I guess you'll be there too, Chickamau. But if I
don't stump my toe, Chickamau said. The child in the
shrunken coat slid off the waiting room bench stood there
(08:45):
the drawer's leg, hanging her hands behind her, looking at Bowie.
He winked again. The child approached, and when she got
close she thrust out her hand, palm up, fingers stretched.
Oh you want a nickel, Bowie said. The mother got up,
a woman in a faded ris coat with a cheap
fur collar, and came toward them with her hands outstretched.
Is she bothering you? She said, I should say not.
(09:07):
Where are you going? Little lady Grandpa's little lady? Said?
She extended the other hand. Now, why of all things, honey,
the woman said. Bowie placed the quarter on the child's
palm and the fingers closed about it. How about you
sitting up here by me a little while, Bowie said,
He patted the bench. The child looked at the coin,
(09:28):
and then up at her mother. The woman helped her
up on the bench. The hard heels of the policeman
scraped on the tile floor toward the ticket window, and
he talked for a moment, went to clerk there, and
then turned and moved back toward the door. At the door,
he stepped back and then aside, and two girls in
fur coats carrying weakend bags entered a man in a
tweed top coat following. The policeman went on out, and
(09:49):
the girls and the tweed coated man stood at the
ticket window. Now Bowie carried little lady in his arms,
and inside the crowded bus a bald headed man and
the third seat got up and gave Bowie and the
mu his seat. The woman talked. The skin in the
hollows of her eyes had the coloring of tobacco stained
cigarette paper. She said her husband was a barber and
couldn't find work, and she was going now to her
(10:11):
father until things got better. The child was just getting
over a bad cold. Little lady slept on Bowie's lap,
and now he shifted her a little sower head would
not touch the hardness of the gun under his arm.
The mother said she was hoping her husband had worked
by Christmas. The fingernails a little lady's limp fingers were
black rimmed and looked like paper Keeche's nails are always
(10:31):
clean and rounded, short and pretty, not long and sharp
like lulas. The night before he left, she had trimmed
his toenails. All right, now, big boy, don't start that stuff. Now.
This woman here was having a tough time. She could
stand a little piece of money, and here he was
with almost six thousand dollars on him. The mother was
silent now, her head pressed back against the seat, eyes closed.
(10:55):
Pasteboard showed through the pain of the purse on her lap.
What if he slipped at twenty in that par If
he picked up that perse and she grabbed out and
started yelling, it would win the fur lined bathtub. It
would bring him luck to get some money in that purse. Though,
if he got five twenty dollars bills in that purse
and she didn't wake up, it would break any jinks
that was waiting up this road here. If he counted
(11:16):
to thirteen and got five twenties in that purse. There
wouldn't be anything stop him on this trip. The woman
was snoring now the money in her purse. A little
after daybreak, the little lady and her mother left a
bus and at eight o'clock in San Angelo, Bowie got off,
and at ten o'clock he was driving south in the
new automobile. The clouds above the lowering sun looked like
(11:37):
a picture of sea waves in the moonlight. A tiny
flame was burning in Bowie's stomach. I've got to eat something.
I haven't had anything to eat since Jesus Christ. I
haven't eaten since the day before yesterday. I'll be dog gone.
I'm gonna fool around and starve myself to death thinking
about other things. And here I am starving myself to death.
(11:57):
The sign read Eatso he drove into the broad Parkway
and stopped close to the screen door of the roadside
lunch stand, a low frame structure plastered with ten beer signs.
Bowie went in. There were a counter and five stools
and a playing electric gramophone by a slot machine. A
man in a white apron came from the back through
the arch door and moved up inside the counter. The
(12:19):
face of a woman peered through the kitchen slot. Soft
boil me too and coffee, Bowie said. He straddled the
first stool. The man had a double chin, lumpy and soft,
looking like a belly of a frog. The gramophone was
playing El Rancho Grande. Next to the cash register, held
by the bottle of cats up and white mustard, was
(12:40):
a folded newspaper. Bowie reached toward the newspaper and then
brought his hand back to hell with them damned newspapers,
the music in it, and the machine made a clicking
sound and was still frogchin moved around the cash registered,
and presently the coin slot jingled, and then the machine
was playing again, eld Rancho Grande. Bowie stirred the soft
(13:01):
boiled eggs and then broke crackers and dropped the crumbs
into the glass. He got the salt and pepper, and
then picked up the newspaper. It was the San Antonio paper.
He took a baton and spread the front page. Gusherton,
Texas November sixteenth. One bandit was dead here tonight, another wounded,
and the wife accomplice of the slain Desperado was in
jail as a vengeful aftermath of the bold seventeen thousand
(13:23):
dollars hold up of the First National Bank here this morning.
The dead bandit is t w Tommy Gahn Maysfield escaped
Oklahoma convict and sought for two months in connection with
a half dozen bank robberies in West Texas. He was
shot to death by officers as he sat in a
car parked in front of the Red Bonnet Hotel. His companion,
Elmo three toed mobbly, badly wounded, was in the hospital
(13:43):
here under heavy guard. Bowie A. Bowers, fast triggered killer
and leader of the bank bandit gang had still eluded
late to night the combing search of a posse that
numbered more than three hundred piece officers and outraged citizens.
Missus Lula Maysfield, reputed wife of the slain bandit, was
capture a few minutes after the shooting and lodged in jail.
The downtown gun battle terrorized scores of pedestrians and sent
(14:05):
motorists scurrying for safety. The officers beat their quarry to
the draw, and neither bandit was able to fire. Ten
thousand dollars of the First National Bank loot was recovered
in the bullet riddled automobile. Credit for the heavy blow
against the gang was being given tonight to hotel detective
Chris Lawton. It was he who secured the tip that
resulted in the laying of a trap for the bandit gang.
(14:26):
What is the matter, Frogchin said, aren't they eggs all right? Sure?
Bowie said, he dipped the spoon into the glass. At
least three men and possibly two women participated in the
sensational robbery here. Two bandits identified as Bowie, Bowers, and Mazefield,
entered the bank at ten o'clock, forced a half dozen
(14:46):
bank workers and officials and a dozen customers into the
vault at the points of six shooters, rifled the safe
and tills, and escaped in the waiting car of Confederates.
Witnesses who saw the bandit machine speed away declared there
was a woman in it. Bowers, who escaped from the
Oklahoma penitentiary while serving a life term for murder, is
wanted in connection with the murders of two Texaco City
(15:07):
peace officers and a half dozen bank robberies in Oklahoma, Kansas,
and Texas. Phantom like he has been seen traveling about
the country in high speed motor cars with a woman
companion said by Oklahoma authorities to be Kee Chee Mobley,
cousin of the bandit wounded and captured here tonight. Whose
I've done enough for you, fine, Bowie said. He took
(15:29):
a bat and the food was like the man's phlegm
in his mouth. A woman is believed to have figured
in bowers escape in Texico City, just as authorities here
believe his disappearance here was abetted by a woman. Mobley
was suffering from wounds in the head and chest, but
attending physicians declared he had a fighting chance to live.
If he survives, however, he faces the electric chair. District
(15:49):
Attorney Herbert Morton announced here tonight that he would ask
the Supreme penalty in the event Mobley went to trial.
I loved Tommy more than anything in the world, pretty
nineteen year old lou Masefield sobbed in her jail cell tonight.
He was the best thing in the world too. BOWI
folded the newspaper and placed it back behind the bottle
and jar. Then he got up and reached in his
(16:11):
pocket before the cash register. It is getting so that
you can't please anybody these days, Frogchin said, I just
wasn't hungry, Bowie said. As he walked toward the car,
his feet felt like clumps of prickly pear. End of
Chapter eighteen.
Chapter eighteen of Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
Chapter eighteen. The front of the Gusherton house parted and
there was the smell of cold bacon and raw onion,
and then in the crack of light was Lula's water
color face. The door opened further and Bowie went in,
(00:23):
and now he was shaking Tea Dub's rock like hand.
Where's chickamauw, Bowie said. Tee Dub nodded toward the rear
of the house, sleeping one off. For God's sake, don't
wake him up. Lula said. She had on a green
velvet dinner gown that reached her ankles and was adjusting
a gold ear ring in her lobe. I will absolutely
leave hey sure has been guzzling it, Bowie. Teet up said,
(00:48):
I don't know what's going to become of that boy.
He's sleeping, is he? Bowie said, don't you wake him
up now, Lulas said. Bowie lowered himself to the studio couch,
balancing his hat on his close pressed knees. Te Dub
looked tired, like the morning they had walked the railroad
ties all night. Take his hat, Lula, he said, boy,
(01:09):
you like you just dropped in to say hello. I've
been traveling pretty long and fast today, Bowie said. He
watched Lula carry the hat and place it on the
table by the door under the mirror. Where you been
keeping yourself, Bowie? Down south of here, say, Chickamau has
been drinking a whole lot. Oh christ Man, it brought
an old bata in here last night that I swear
(01:31):
to god he must have picked up in nigger Town
right in his house with Lula here. She was as
drunk as he was. And of all the goings on,
Lula said, I told tw there that if you weren't
here by nine o'clock tonight, I was packing up and
going to the hotel. She was too drunk to notice anything.
Te Dobe said that was one thing. As soon as
he passed out, I took her out and dumped her.
(01:52):
Lula had the other earring ofjusted now, and she smiled
at Bowie. We have something to show you, and if
you will just sit there, I'll bring it right back. Okay,
Bowie said. Lula disappeared in the back. She's been pretty
enough for two hours just because you were coming. I think,
Teetube said, now you been getting along, tee Dub, just
(02:13):
getting by. Check them all had to go over day
before yesterday to Master's and get fifty dollars off that
lawger friend of his to buy some gasoline and something
to eat. You don't mean you've thrown all that, do you?
I got a family on my back, Bowie. I sunk
twelve thousand dollars in tourist camp over Masters for that
butt of mine. And Maddie, how is he well, we've
(02:35):
had hard luck about him. Pro board turn him down.
I think the next year, though, he'll make it. That's
too bad. I guess poor old Maddie is still up
in there. Me and Lulu have been having a pretty
good time too. In that New Orleans. Money will just
naturally get away from you fast down there. Check them
all been with you? Teetub shook his head. I thought
(02:58):
he was with you all the time, and then I
figured too that he wasn't. But I haven't seen him.
He showed up here three nights ago. It was drinking, Jake.
I swear I wish he would ease up on that drinking.
A little Lula came in. She had a roll of
parchment looking paper tied in the red ribbon, and she
looked at Tea Dub. Now do you want me to
show it to him? Tee Dub was grinning and his
(03:18):
head went up and down. Lula, smelling of fresh perfume,
bent towards Bowie, unrolling the parchment and then spread it
on his knees. It was a marriage license. Did you
two go and get hitched? Tee Dub's head was still
going up and down. Why you got your right name
on here? T Dub? Bowie said, just turn the initials
round W. T. Maysfield. That sure floors me, Bowie said.
(03:43):
He handed the license back up to Lula. How are
you in? That little Oklahoma girl getting along? Teetub said.
Bowie's eyes quivered. Wh who's that? What's her name? Keechi
Keechie Mobley? What do you know about her? You remember, Bowie?
I met her when we were all up there at
D's place. I didn't know those you two had teamed
(04:04):
up until I began to see that stuff in the papers.
Bowie's Adam's apple ate like it had been hit and
he could not swallow. What stuff is that? Haven't you
been saying any of it. Bowie shook his head. I
read something just last Sunday. I think it was Lulis said,
had her picture picture? Bowie said, why hell, Bowie, I
(04:26):
thought you knew all about that. That d Mobley up
there claims you kidnapped her. And I told Lula that
all that guy had done was yelling up. Some log
got to pump in him and he just about let
out that kind of a squawk. I told Lula here
that was the way it was. I knew, damn well,
you wouldn't kidnap anybody, I mean, girl like that. And
it's in the papers, Bowie said. The last one was
(04:49):
just last Sunday. Lulis said it was a picture of her.
I know that she had taken when she was going
to high school. Huh, Bowie said, it will died Bowie.
I wouldn't let it worry me. Eh, don't worry me.
Lula went over and sat crosswise on Teetub's legs. He
spread them and she lay against him and put her
(05:10):
arm around his neck. The marriage license roll in her
left hand. That means you and me have come to
the parting of the way. His little soldier, Bowie thought,
you can't be running with me no more. Teet Dove
and Lula made a smacking sound as they kissed. You
can go on back up to Oklahoma and get everything
squared up, Bowie thought, let them think what they want.
(05:31):
You have some money now, little soldier, and you can
tell that old man of yours to go straight to
burn in Hell. You going back and pretty up some
more sugar, Teetub said. Bowie may want to talk a
little business. Don't you go and get a headache now.
Lula said, I'd like to see some law bother you
while I'm gone. Bowie thought, lay just one finger on you.
(05:52):
I'll take care of myself brother in law. But you
lay one finger on that girl, and goddamn you, I'll
get a machine gun hunt you down. Lowtly disappeared in
the back of the house. This bank here is a
bird's nests on the ground, Teetub said, and it'll go
for fifty thousand or not a dime. I can use money,
Bowie said. A man never knows when he's gonna need money,
(06:14):
and plenty of it in this business. You're not going
to get three boys like us together every day. Tee
Dub said. This is the way I look at it,
and chickamau has been feeling pretty low. Bowie, I think
he would charge that bank tomorrow by himself. If you
and me both backed out, well, he won't have to
do it by himself. They robbed the First National Bank
(06:35):
of Gusherton at ten oh one o'clock the following morning, Chickamaull,
looking like a man with galloping consumption and driving Bowie's
car teet Dub, complaining of rheumatism. There were no rumbles,
and at ten fifteen they were switching cars, setting a
match to Bowie's machine, and at ten thirty Chickamaull drove
Tetub's car Tee Dub and Bowie crouched in the back
into the garage of their house at the edge of
(06:57):
the city. Chickamaull went on in the house and fifth
ten minutes later Tea Dub and then after another interval Bowie.
The bank went for only seventeen thousand dollars. At noon,
Tea Dub fried bacon and eggs and made toast, but
only chick them all ate. Bowie drank coffee. That afternoon
there was a football game on the radio, and Bowie
lost ten dollars to Chicken mauf. You guys give me
(07:20):
the jitters. Chicken Mall said, why won't you say something?
You need a drink Tee, Dub said, I need something
tape her off on, and just as soon as it
gets dark, I'm going down and get it. A little
before dusk, a car entered the driveway and they picked
up guns, but it was only some damn bastard turning
around to go back to town. At dusk tea, Dub
(07:41):
said he was going up to the first drug store
and give Lula a ring at the Red Bonnet Hotel.
I might just going down and pick her up and
we'll shell out for New Orleans ride tonight. You want
to go down with me, either one of you I do.
Chicka Mall said, A few boys are going. I think
I'll just go with you too. Bowie said, you can
just drop me off at the bus station. I got
(08:02):
some business to attend to and I want to get
it over with. Chickama had his hat on his head.
Won't you hang around with it some Bowie, I believe
you're getting stuck up or something. I'll see you boys
pretty soon. You want to watch yourself on these buses,
Tee Dub said, when I get down the line a
couple hundred miles, I'll hop off and get me a car,
(08:23):
Bowie said. Tee Dub named the nightclub on Bourbon Street
in New Orleans and said he and Lula would be
in it the night at December first. Okay, Bowie said,
I guess you'll be there too, Chickamau. But if I
don't stump my toe, Chickamau said. The child in the
shrunken coat slid off the waiting room bench stood there
(08:45):
the drawer's leg, hanging her hands behind her, looking at Bowie.
He winked again. The child approached, and when she got
close she thrust out her hand, palm up, fingers stretched.
Oh you want a nickel, Bowie said. The mother got up,
a woman in a faded ris coat with a cheap
fur collar, and came toward them with her hands outstretched.
Is she bothering you? She said, I should say not.
(09:07):
Where are you going? Little lady Grandpa's little lady? Said?
She extended the other hand. Now, why of all things, honey,
the woman said. Bowie placed the quarter on the child's
palm and the fingers closed about it. How about you
sitting up here by me a little while, Bowie said,
He patted the bench. The child looked at the coin,
(09:28):
and then up at her mother. The woman helped her
up on the bench. The hard heels of the policeman
scraped on the tile floor toward the ticket window, and
he talked for a moment, went to clerk there, and
then turned and moved back toward the door. At the door,
he stepped back and then aside, and two girls in
fur coats carrying weakend bags entered a man in a
tweed top coat following. The policeman went on out, and
(09:49):
the girls and the tweed coated man stood at the
ticket window. Now Bowie carried little lady in his arms,
and inside the crowded bus a bald headed man and
the third seat got up and gave Bowie and the
mu his seat. The woman talked. The skin in the
hollows of her eyes had the coloring of tobacco stained
cigarette paper. She said her husband was a barber and
couldn't find work, and she was going now to her
(10:11):
father until things got better. The child was just getting
over a bad cold. Little lady slept on Bowie's lap,
and now he shifted her a little sower head would
not touch the hardness of the gun under his arm.
The mother said she was hoping her husband had worked
by Christmas. The fingernails a little lady's limp fingers were
black rimmed and looked like paper Keeche's nails are always
(10:31):
clean and rounded, short and pretty, not long and sharp
like lulas. The night before he left, she had trimmed
his toenails. All right, now, big boy, don't start that stuff. Now.
This woman here was having a tough time. She could
stand a little piece of money, and here he was
with almost six thousand dollars on him. The mother was
silent now, her head pressed back against the seat, eyes closed.
(10:55):
Pasteboard showed through the pain of the purse on her lap.
What if he slipped at twenty in that par If
he picked up that perse and she grabbed out and
started yelling, it would win the fur lined bathtub. It
would bring him luck to get some money in that purse. Though,
if he got five twenty dollars bills in that purse
and she didn't wake up, it would break any jinks
that was waiting up this road here. If he counted
(11:16):
to thirteen and got five twenties in that purse. There
wouldn't be anything stop him on this trip. The woman
was snoring now the money in her purse. A little
after daybreak, the little lady and her mother left a
bus and at eight o'clock in San Angelo, Bowie got off,
and at ten o'clock he was driving south in the
new automobile. The clouds above the lowering sun looked like
(11:37):
a picture of sea waves in the moonlight. A tiny
flame was burning in Bowie's stomach. I've got to eat something.
I haven't had anything to eat since Jesus Christ. I
haven't eaten since the day before yesterday. I'll be dog gone.
I'm gonna fool around and starve myself to death thinking
about other things. And here I am starving myself to death.
(11:57):
The sign read Eatso he drove into the broad Parkway
and stopped close to the screen door of the roadside
lunch stand, a low frame structure plastered with ten beer signs.
Bowie went in. There were a counter and five stools
and a playing electric gramophone by a slot machine. A
man in a white apron came from the back through
the arch door and moved up inside the counter. The
(12:19):
face of a woman peered through the kitchen slot. Soft
boil me too and coffee, Bowie said. He straddled the
first stool. The man had a double chin, lumpy and soft,
looking like a belly of a frog. The gramophone was
playing El Rancho Grande. Next to the cash register, held
by the bottle of cats up and white mustard, was
(12:40):
a folded newspaper. Bowie reached toward the newspaper and then
brought his hand back to hell with them damned newspapers,
the music in it, and the machine made a clicking
sound and was still frogchin moved around the cash registered,
and presently the coin slot jingled, and then the machine
was playing again, eld Rancho Grande. Bowie stirred the soft
(13:01):
boiled eggs and then broke crackers and dropped the crumbs
into the glass. He got the salt and pepper, and
then picked up the newspaper. It was the San Antonio paper.
He took a baton and spread the front page. Gusherton,
Texas November sixteenth. One bandit was dead here tonight, another wounded,
and the wife accomplice of the slain Desperado was in
jail as a vengeful aftermath of the bold seventeen thousand
(13:23):
dollars hold up of the First National Bank here this morning.
The dead bandit is t w Tommy Gahn Maysfield escaped
Oklahoma convict and sought for two months in connection with
a half dozen bank robberies in West Texas. He was
shot to death by officers as he sat in a
car parked in front of the Red Bonnet Hotel. His companion,
Elmo three toed mobbly, badly wounded, was in the hospital
(13:43):
here under heavy guard. Bowie A. Bowers, fast triggered killer
and leader of the bank bandit gang had still eluded
late to night the combing search of a posse that
numbered more than three hundred piece officers and outraged citizens.
Missus Lula Maysfield, reputed wife of the slain bandit, was
capture a few minutes after the shooting and lodged in jail.
The downtown gun battle terrorized scores of pedestrians and sent
(14:05):
motorists scurrying for safety. The officers beat their quarry to
the draw, and neither bandit was able to fire. Ten
thousand dollars of the First National Bank loot was recovered
in the bullet riddled automobile. Credit for the heavy blow
against the gang was being given tonight to hotel detective
Chris Lawton. It was he who secured the tip that
resulted in the laying of a trap for the bandit gang.
(14:26):
What is the matter, Frogchin said, aren't they eggs all right? Sure?
Bowie said, he dipped the spoon into the glass. At
least three men and possibly two women participated in the
sensational robbery here. Two bandits identified as Bowie, Bowers, and Mazefield,
entered the bank at ten o'clock, forced a half dozen
(14:46):
bank workers and officials and a dozen customers into the
vault at the points of six shooters, rifled the safe
and tills, and escaped in the waiting car of Confederates.
Witnesses who saw the bandit machine speed away declared there
was a woman in it. Bowers, who escaped from the
Oklahoma penitentiary while serving a life term for murder, is
wanted in connection with the murders of two Texaco City
(15:07):
peace officers and a half dozen bank robberies in Oklahoma, Kansas,
and Texas. Phantom like he has been seen traveling about
the country in high speed motor cars with a woman
companion said by Oklahoma authorities to be Kee Chee Mobley,
cousin of the bandit wounded and captured here tonight. Whose
I've done enough for you, fine, Bowie said. He took
(15:29):
a bat and the food was like the man's phlegm
in his mouth. A woman is believed to have figured
in bowers escape in Texico City, just as authorities here
believe his disappearance here was abetted by a woman. Mobley
was suffering from wounds in the head and chest, but
attending physicians declared he had a fighting chance to live.
If he survives, however, he faces the electric chair. District
(15:49):
Attorney Herbert Morton announced here tonight that he would ask
the Supreme penalty in the event Mobley went to trial.
I loved Tommy more than anything in the world, pretty
nineteen year old lou Masefield sobbed in her jail cell tonight.
He was the best thing in the world too. BOWI
folded the newspaper and placed it back behind the bottle
and jar. Then he got up and reached in his
(16:11):
pocket before the cash register. It is getting so that
you can't please anybody these days, Frogchin said, I just
wasn't hungry, Bowie said. As he walked toward the car,
his feet felt like clumps of prickly pear. End of
Chapter eighteen.
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