~by Denise O’Brien Van for the Greene County Historical Society
A berry picking expedition and the discovery of bloody bandages in the woods led to Iowa’s most infamous gun battle, starring Bonnie and Clyde.
Rod Stanley of Panora, a retired middle- and high school history teacher, will fill in the details of the tale Sunday, April 14, at 2 pm at the Greene County Historical Museum, 219 E. Lincoln Way in Jefferson.
The notorious Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and their gang had been on a crime spree across the Midwest, and were licking their wounds at Dexfield, a former amusement park and campground north of Dexter. There were no fatalities In the furious gun fight, which took place July 24, 1933, but one member later died of pneumonia at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry.
Stanley, a Dexter native, has researched the event thoroughly, and given many programs about that Monday in July that eventually garnered a little renown for his hometown.
In conjunction with the museum program, Jefferson’s Sierra Community Theatre will have 7 pm showings on Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18, of the movie “Bonnie and Clyde,” released in 1967 and starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.
