Our Missouri Podcast Explores Gang-related Crime Wave in the Summer of 1933

Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barrow Gang spread terror across the country, including Missouri, during the Great Depression years. Mayhem from the outlaws gripped several large and small communities in the state during the summer of 1933 and is explored in the podcast series Our Missouri, produced by the State Historical Society of Missouri.

The first episode in this new four-part series features the Barrow Gang and is available on the SHSMO.org website and other podcast streaming sites. Clyde Barrow and his companion, Bonnie Parker, became the most notorious crime couple in American history. Co-hosts and SHSMO historian Sean Rost and archivist Kathleen Seale, examine the couple’s travels and their suspected criminal activity throughout the southwest region of the state.

The next episode, available beginning July 17, delves into a shoot-out at the intersection of Highway 40 and Highway 63 that left the Boone County sheriff dead and the state’s law enforcement agencies scrambling to find the occupants of a mysterious car. Episode three, available July 31, looks back at the Union Station Massacre that followed a mid-Missouri shootout and the path of Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti that took them from Polk County to Kansas City. The final episode concludes with the events at the Red Crown Tavern in Platte City and a hail of gunfire by one of the most wanted gangs in the United States and put the Barrow Gang on a path toward the end of their crime spree.

Our Missouri is a free podcast series with new episodes posted twice a month. The series features the people, places, culture and history of Missouri, and is produced by the State Historical Society of Missouri. For previous programs and topics featured in the series, visit Our Missouri Podcast.