Forgotten Man
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,944
- Location
- City Dump 32 E. River Sutton Place.
The story I’m about to tell is true, this really happened and we (Josh Curtis and I) feel strong that the suit I’m about to share with you here could possibly have been owned by the infamous Clyde Barrow.
On April the 5th 2008 I paid a visit to my good buddy Josh Curtis. Over the last few years I’ve known Josh, he’s gotten into research of gangster history of the Great Depression. He was informed over a year ago that the family of Clyde Barrow was selling off swatches of the very pants that Clyde had worn when he and Bonnie Parker were ambushed. After shellin’ out some dough, he received a swatch of blue wool blend fabric with a certificate of authentication. He shows it to me and we both agree that there is something strangely familiar about the fabric. He then recalls a suit that I bought, then gave to him back in 2003. The story of the suit in of it’s self is rather interesting. I found at the Pasadena AAARDVARKS an electric blue wool blend, two button, single breasted, peaked lapel coat with flap pockets. I notice inside the inside pocket there is an NRA tag… so, that places it to be about 1933-1935 give or take. A year later, I’m in the same AAARDVARKS and I find a pair of pants… same fabric and color! Also, having an NRA tag on the outside of the back pocket! So, I pick up the pants… they aren’t mint but, are ok and I knew that Josh would appreciate having the pants to the coat seeing I gave him the coat in a trade for something else the year prior.
Now back to the swatch from the death pants of Clyde Barrow. Josh and I see how close the fabric is to this suit of his to the pants that Clyde Barrow wore that fateful day he and Bonnie were killed. However, this was over a year ago… and on the 5th of April when I last visited Josh is when an amazing connection comes together.
I told Josh that I was hungry so, he decided to get dressed in a nice suit because I was dressed up… so, as he gets ready, he gave me a book to look over wile I waited. It was a book about Bonnie and Clyde and of the places they visited and robbed then, and how the locations look today. I’m flipping through the pages and seeing some interesting stuff! Then Josh comes into the room with the suit I gave him nearly 5 years prior… and said that the suit Clyde is wearing in the famous pictures of him with Bonnie is cut the same as the suit he has! And, we both start looking at it carefully. The fabric on the swatch isn’t an exact match in color, however, it is very close and the pattern which is very unusual matches perfectly. So, we see a name in the pants on the outside of the right hip pocket… it reads: R. Bailey. Now, we just figured it was some random name to the original owner, then, we flip over the pocket to the other side and discover another name… barely visible, only could make out a letter “B” and five other letters. Now, I joked with Josh saying: Wouldn’t it be crazy if Clyde went by an alias! Josh then left the room and came in with a reprint of one of the many wanted posters of the time. The first alias after Clyde Champion Barrow was; Roy Bailey! Now we both agreed that the letter R. could stand for a few other names then Roy… however, we put the pants down and then looked into the coat for other identification.
As we pulled out the right sleeve, we saw it at the same time… Roy Bailey was written by hand on the top part of the liner where it is sewn to the jacket liner!!! We got quiet! Then, we pulled out the other sleeve… after looking over every inch of the sleeve liner, we found another name… it matched the color and font of the name we couldn’t read under the pant hip pocket… however, it wasn’t faded as bad as the word on the pants was… the name read: Barrow!!! We laughed and shook our heads in disbelief!!! Could it be true? Could this suit really have belonged to Clyde Barrow?
We then feel something in the watch/change pocket on the pants… it’s a match book cover from the 30’s. It’s from a restaurant from Tucson Texas! Clyde was from Texas! We also made the comparison that the suit is a little short on Josh… he’s about 5’8” and Clyde was around 5’7”! And the pants are tight on Josh, they measure a 29 waist and Clyde was a narrow guy.
The measurements seem to fit! So, what we need to do is find out something about the store the suit was sold from… then we could put some final pieces to the puzzle together.
Here are some photos of the suit I took when I was there last weekend.
Notice the pattern of the fabric! Not very common color or pattern.
Now, the sleeves:
There is the photographic evidence my friends, I am not going to claim that the suit IS a Clyde Barrow suit… but, the signs do point strongly in that direction. I will post more info on this research as I learn more about it… it is no longer my suit but, belongs to Josh. He and I and another friend are looking into more history regarding the label the suit was sold at.
It also turns out that Clyde’s sister and family helped Clyde and Bonnie buy clothes now and again… and they’d go in and buy the clothes, and then Clyde and Bonnie would leave their old clothes with the family or maybe even leave them with a dry cleaner. How this suit found it’s self separated and in the warehouse of AAARDVARKS is really quite remarkable! It is almost as if it was meant to be… how I found the coat first then the pants!
So, what do ya guys think?
