Ford V-8 Coupe Ambushed at McKinney, Texas

In the Hunt for Remnants of Clyde Barrow’s Gang

By John Emmering

Speeding up Texas Highway 75 through freezing rain the 1935 Ford V-8 Coupe suddenly slowed as the driver, prison escapee Raymond Hamilton, made the turn onto the unpaved Weston cutoff, near the town of McKinney.  Earlier on that day of February 24, 1935, Hamilton and his partner Ralph Fults, former members of Clyde Barrow’s gang, had stolen the coupe in Oklahoma.  They were now heading for a rendezvous with two bootleggers named Royce and Lewis. The bootleggers were holding a load of Browning Automatic rifles and ammunition that Hamilton and Fults had stolen in a night time burglary of the National Guard Armory in Beaumont, Texas on February 16.   The isolated and seldom traveled roadway seemed a perfect place to transfer the stolen rifles and ammunition.  When the bootlegger’s car was nowhere to be found Fults smelled a trap and as the V-8 Ford approached a culvert, he told Hamilton, “Step on it we better get out of here!”

Both sides of the roadway lit up with gunfire, as Hamilton downshifted to accelerate. With the accelerator floored the V-8 began to move out but not quickly enough to evade a volley of bullets striking the rear of the Ford as it sped away. Most of the bullets passed between Hamilton and Fults, although Hamilton suffered a grazing wound to the forehead.   Tubes inside the dash radio exploded as well as the rearview mirror and accessory clock as a hail of bullets struck them.   Glass flew everywhere and bullets struck fenders, side panels and doors.  Fults grabbed his Browning automatic rifle and returned fire through the shattered rear window.  The Ford V-8 Coupe’s interior was a ruined mess and the gas tank sprung a leak. 

In search of another car further down the highway Hamilton forced a Model “T” Ford off of the road.  Instead of switching to the Model “T” Hamilton and Fults took the driver, L.B. Harlow along with them in the V-8 as a hostage.  When a Ford Model “A” Coupe approached, driven by 16 year old J.C. Loftice, Hamilton flagged down the coupe and told Loftice to move over as he and Fults joined him in the front seat. Harlow was assigned to the rumble seat where he hung on for dear life.  The isolated farm house of Bill Mayes and his family near Weston was chosen as an overnight refuge.  Hamilton and Fults forced the Mayes family to put them and their hostages up for the night and feed them.  In the morning after learning the family had a 1929 Chevrolet sedan the bandits forced Bill’s son Roy to drive them and the hostages to Ft. Worth to evade the local police manhunt.

Marguerite’s Café in Ft. Worth was the first stop. Fults picked up five bacon and egg sandwiches for the group before starting a hunt for a new car. On a residential street a new 1935 Ford V-8 sedan was spotted warming up in a driveway, left unattended for a few moments by the proud owner Earl Penix. The car had only 400 miles on it and was still being broken in.  Hamilton bounded from the Chevrolet and slid behind the wheel of the new V-8, backing out of the driveway and darting off with the Chevrolet following behind.

Parting ways with the hostages and their Chevrolet, Hamilton and Fults decided to head due north in the new Ford V-8 to avoid the swarms of Texas lawmen hunting them. Even as the criminals fled, criticism of the botched ambush at McKinney was being voiced from as high up as the Governor’s office. Allegations were made that McKinney Constable John Record had a friendly relationship with the bootleggers, who had informed on Hamilton and Fults. It was further alleged, that Record had hoped to make a name for himself by killing Hamilton and Fults in the ambush without the help of other agencies and use his fame to win election to the office of Collin County Sheriff.

Traveling all the way up to Minnesota, Fults and Hamilton robbed a bank.  After the robbery the pair was caught in a snowstorm and was marooned on a rural highway, forced to burn maps and newspaper to keep warm after the Ford’s heater fan burned out.  The experience convinced them to return to Texas.

The first order of business back in Texas was a long desired meeting with reporter Harry McCormick, a muckraker who had exposed the brutality of the 1930’s Texas prison system.  Two female acquaintances helped set up the meeting.  McCormick met the pair near Houston and drove out into the country with them.  One of the girls followed in McCormick’s car, also a Ford V-8. Hamilton and Fults gave the reporter an interview and Hamilton explained how he had escaped the death house at Hunstville Prison. He also asked him to pass on some money to a lawyer for a friend’s defense.  To keep McCormick out of trouble for harboring felons, Hamilton tied McCormick up in his car to make it look like they had kidnaped him and left a full set of his fingerprints on the windshield of the reporter’s V-8.

After a harrowing escape from a final bank robbery in Prentiss, Mississippi on March 28, Fults and Hamilton parted ways in Memphis, Tennessee on March 30, 1935.  They abandoned another 1935 Ford V-8 coupe stolen in Mississippi and headed for the Memphis Train station. Fults boarded a passenger train to Louisville, Kentucky while Hamilton chose to hop a freight train to Dallas. 

On the way to Dallas Hamilton befriended a young hobo named Noland and asked him to bring a message to Hamilton’s Mother.  Nolan was picked up by police during his errand and led them to Hamilton in the Railroad yard.  When Fults heard news of the apprehension he headed back to Texas to help his friend, but he was soon captured himself after a police pursuit.  21 year old Hamilton was put to death May 10, 1935 at Huntsville Prison, charged with the death of prison guard Major Crowson during an escape.  Fults was extradited to Mississippi and avoided plotted retribution from the Texas Prison System.  Ralph Fults’ story had a more pleasant ending than Hamilton’s.  Fults was paroled in 1944 and received a full pardon in 1954.  He married, had three children, converted to Christianity and was employed by the Buckner Baptist Home for Boys in Texas.  He was very active in the movement to rehabilitate offenders and died at age 82 in 1993.  Hamilton and Fults had been pretty ruthless characters in their day but you have to give them credit for one thing; they had a very deep appreciation of Ford V-8’s, even though they never paid for one.