Patrolmen Wheeler and Murphy Memorial
 
Southlake, Texas

A memorial dedicated to Patrolmen Edward Bryan Wheeler and Holloway Daniel Murphy of the Texas Highway Patrol who were killed Apr. 1, 1934. The stone states they were killed by the the infamous gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, however who actually pulled the triggers is in doubt. Most likely it was Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin were the shooters, however some believe it was an ex-member of the gang named Raymond Hamilton, who was supposed to meet Clyde at the site.

It will never be known for sure who the killers were since they got away. No one was ever tried in the deaths of the officers and the principal suspects Bonnie and Clyde were killed less than two months later on May 23, 1934. Methvin was arrested but not tried for the murders of the two officers, his father supposedly made a deal which kept him from being tried in for their murders in exchange for setting the trap which ended the careers of Bonnie & Clyde. He was later convicted of the murder of another police officer however.

This marker was erected in 1996 near the site of the murders in what is now the town of Southlake, Texas on Dove Road at State Highway 114.



Close-up of the text on the memorial.
(Photos courtesy of Taryn N. Stevens)
© 2012 Taryn N. Stevens all rights reserved





Page published Mar. 21, 2012