What a neighborhood boy saw when Bonnie and Clyde stole 'death car' 90 years ago in Topeka

It was April 29, 1934, and notorious crime couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were cruising the streets near Topeka's eastern edge, looking for a car to steal to replace the beat-up Ford they'd been driving.

They found the keys in the ignition of a speedy 1934 Ford V-8 sedan parked in the driveway of the home of Jesse and Ruth Warren at 2107 S.E. Gabler, three blocks west and one block north of S.E. 6th and Golden Avenue.

As Bonnie and Clyde made off with that car, 7-year-old Ken Cowan was playing with friends across the street.

Now 97, Cowan still recalls that day, which will be 90 years ago on Monday.

Cowan and his friends didn't realize the Warrens' car was being stolen, he told The Capital-Journal on Tuesday.

That vehicle became known as the couple's "death car" after they were killed in it during a law enforcement ambush the following month in northern Louisiana.

Who were Bonnie and Clyde?

Bonnie and Clyde were Dallas natives whose exploits captured the attention of the public and the press.

They robbed numerous banks, grocery stores and gas stations between 1932 and 1934, and also liberated five inmates in January 1934 from a Texas prison farm.

The couple was suspected of committing 13 homicides, including fatally shooting nine law enforcement officers, the FBI website said.

Bonnie and Clyde never married. When they met, Bonnie was the wife of Roy Thornton. who was serving prison time for robbery. She remained married to Thornton until she died.

Thornton was then shot to death during an attempted prison escape in 1937.

What did Bonnie and Clyde do in Topeka?

Topeka Capital-Journal archives show the capital city was seeing sunny skies and 80-degree temperatures on the afternoon of April 29 when the Warrens' car was stolen.

Cowan, the retired owner and operator of Cowan Muffler repair shops in Topeka, shared his recollections about that day in an interview Tuesday at the Topeka care center where he lives. Bethe, his wife of 73 years, accompanied him.

Ken Cowan had previously discussed that topic with the newspaper for articles it published in 2004 and 2014.

When the Warrens' car was stolen, Ken Cowan said, he was playing in a grassy, vacant lot across the street with Kenny Downs, Leo Weyler Jr. and one other boy, whose name he couldn't remember.

Topeka city directory records show Weyler lived with his family nearby at 2300 S.E. Gabler, Cowan lived with his family at 544 S.E. Burr and Downs lived with his family at 551 S.E. Burr.

Cowan told The Capital Journal in 2004 that one of the boys pointed out to the others that a woman was standing on the running board of a passing car and looking into vehicles. The boys then went back to playing.

On Tuesday, Cowan said he recalled Ruth Warren's subsequently coming out of her home and asking the boys if they'd seen anyone steal her car. They said they hadn't.

167 bullets battered Topeka family's stolen car

By the time the Warrens got their car back, it had holes from 167 bullets, which were fired as Bonnie and Clyde died in a hail of gunfire during a law enforcement ambush in northern Louisiana.

Bonnie and Clyde had driven the car south to that state to meet with Henry Methvin, a friend they had helped escape from the Texas prison camp earlier that year.

But unknown to Bonnie and Clyde, Methvin had made an agreement with law enforcement officers to betray them if the state of Texas would pardon him for his crimes. His father, Iverson Methvin, helped set a trap.

At 9:15 a.m. May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were driving on a gravel road in northern Louisiana when they came upon Iverson Methvin standing outside his logging truck, which was stopped and jacked up at the side of the road with a tire removed.

Six officers, four from Texas and two from Louisiana, were hidden in bushes nearby. They ambushed the couple as Iverson Methvin took cover.

Bonnie was 23 and Clyde was 25. A coroner's jury ruled that the officers killed them in the line of duty.

Nine decades after their deaths, some people are still fascinated by Bonnie and Clyde.

A movie put out in 1967 — "Bonnie and Clyde," starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty — triggered a renewed interest in their lives.

Actors Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson then starred in "The Highwaymen," a 2019 Netflix movie about the officers who killed them.

'It was a bloody mess'

Those officers contended they had a right to keep the death car.

But Jesse and Ruth Warren went to court and got it back. The car was towed back to Topeka and parked in their driveway.

"It was a bloody mess," Jesse Warren's sister, Josephine Van Orsdol, told The Topeka Capital-Journal in 1984 on the 50th anniversary of the ambush.

The bullet-riddled car has since been sold several times, each time for a profit.

It was most recently sold for $250,000 in 1988 to Primm Valley Resorts, a complex of hotels and casinos about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas at Primm, Nevada. The car is on display free of charge in that complex at Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino.

Ken Cowan stopped at that resort to see that car in 2002, he told The Capital-Journal two years later.

Cowan is only survivor among boys who were present

Cowan told The Capital-Journal in 2014 about how he went in 2005 to the Authentic Bonnie and Clyde Festival, held annually at Gibsland, Louisiana, near where they were killed.

Cowan said he talked at length with one of Clyde Barrow’s nephews, and was even called upon to “get up and say something” at a festival event.

Cowan said in 2004 that he was the only one still living among the boys who were playing across the street when Bonnie and Clyde's death car was stolen. Weyler died in 1968. Downs died in 1989.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Bonnie and Clyde stole their 'death car' 90 years ago Monday in Topeka