Bonnie and Clydes B-400 mystery hood ornament

This subject came up on the Deuce Limited board and after I did a lot of searching I haven't came up with any clues.

I noticed it a few years ago in the photo but never really did much research.

Anyone know anything about it or what it's from ?HRP,,



and enlarged,,

 

i thought they drove a '33?

 

Who thinks Bonnie is Hot? Man I am getting Old!

 

They drove whatever Clyde stole,,some of the more infamous photo's were taken with a 1932 B-400,,

They met their maker in a 1934 Ford. HRP

 

They were killed in a '33. They stole lots of cars, Clyde preferred V8 Fords. I believe he even wrote Henry a letter praising his cars as the best getaway cars on the road!
That swan looks like one of hundreds of accessories available back then.

 

Looks like a Cadillac "Heron" mascot. Several OEMs had similar looking birds but their sizes would be different and look even more disproportionate. Hispano Suiza also had a heron style ornament but I'm thinkin Caddy here.

 

I don't know for sure what it came off of, but you can bet it was STOLEN.

 

Strange,that 33 Ford was sporting a 34 hood,,,

Correct me if I'm wrong but the 33's had a single hood latch in the middle of the side panel and the 34's had two,,one in the front and another in the rear. HRP

 

Came off a Schwan's truck.

 

You are correct about the letter. HRP

 

Here's a photo of the '34 with them still in it

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...e=1&ndsp=9&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0&biw=978&bih=549

 

The B400 was supposedly stolen in South Western Kansas and was used extensively in one of their midwest crime sprees. It was recovered and returned to the original owner. There was a rumor around in the last year that it may have been found alive and well and now lives in a collection in Colorado but that was never confirmed

 

Packard ornament...

 

You might also find this interesting,, HRP

http://texashideout.tripod.com/warrencar.html

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but the 33's had a single hood latch in the middle of the side panel and the 34's had two,,one in the front and another in the rear.

[/QUOTE]....That's right, HRP, and the louvers are definitely '34. The '33 louvers were slightly concave in appearance to more closely match the bit of concaveness of the grille.

 

Good try but,,,,

Rolls Royce used The Spirit of Ecstasy,,it was also call the silver lady or flying lady. HRP

 

Packard used a winged lady holding a wheel in the thirties , but not the flying lady / spirit of ecstasy . That was well protected by rolls royce.
The swan was a later Packard ornament , I'd guess one of the many accessory ornaments.

 

I dont think Ive ever seen a goose ornament so no help on the hood ornament, but everything I read, and the car in the pictures with the bullet holes and their bodies .........well they died in a 34, on May 23, 1934, thus the car was pretty much brand new when they stole it.

As far as the pictures they took, it would make sense that they were in probably a few 32's since they reportedly linked up in 1930 and died in 1934, and conducted most of their crimes in 1930 through 1934.

This site has good pictures and info:
http://debez.com/blanche/bonnienclyde.html

 

I saw that letter years ago on display in henry's office during a tour.

I guess the final word is that the handwriting on the letter does not match known samples of Clyde's handwriting...and it is signed "Clyde Champion Barrow", while his middle name was actually "Chestnut".

FYI

 

That made me laugh !!!

 

I won't argue the letter's authenticity but have known my people sign letters with a taken name rather than a given one.

Case in point,,,Veda Orr,,,Karl Orr's wife that kept hot rodding alive during the war,,did you know her name was actually Frieda? HRP

 

How about J.C. Whitney? They were in business then.

 

How 'bout a fancy Wills Saint Claire?

 

I appreciate that no one has suggested tha it is from a Henway or Dekfer. Maybe it is from a Canardley.

 

I found it on this website no info.
http://maxibabe.blogspot.com/2009/06/fabulous-automobile-hood-ornaments.html

 

I was thinking Wills St Claire but it's 'not exactly'. Alvis seems closer but still no cigar....

 

I checked my 1959 J.C. Whitney catalog, but the one in there (Custom Built Bugler/$6.95 each) has a curved neck/not straight out like the one on the B-400.
In the early '60s my friend and I made a 2 door Phaeton out of a B-400 with a hacksaw and chisles...OMG!!
As far as Bonnies "Beauty"....NO women ****ed on a cigar back then, so she probably had other "talents" not well known for the times and was VERY popular like a lot of ugly girls are now!

 

As for the middle name, see snopes...
http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/barrow.asp

But who, except Clyde, would know he had previously used, and perhaps liked (even as a joke), the middle name Champion?

 

Not a Duesenberg

1931 & 1932

 

Hey Primer,

This web page is interesting reading up until it says that the car was on display at Whiskey Pete's in Primm, NV.

That car absolutely was NOT the actual car. Every hole in the car is .45 caliber and most of the shots are in the side of the car. In the actual ambush there were in front of car firing towards the front of it.

Either someone sprayed the Whiskey Pete's car with a Thompson submachine gun or several magazines were fired at it from a Colt 1911. This fraud has perpetuated a lot of "Bonnie & Clyde" myth. What a waste of a good hotrod body.

In the ambush that took place on May 23, 1934, there was a posse of four Texas officers (Frank Hamer, B.M. "Manny" Gault, Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton) and two Louisiana officers (Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley).

Several different kinds of firearms were used in the ambush including pistols and rifles. In the reports from the posse members, none of them had a firearm in .45 caliber.

An interesting side note, one rifle in particular used was a Remington rifle in 7mm caliber. It is currently owned by a gentleman in TX who is a member of the Remington Society of America. In one of the reports, the officer who was firing the Remington said that he fired the first shot and was fairly certain that he had hit Clyde Barrow in the head.

- The Whiskey Pete's car has no bullet holes in the windshield -

A few year's ago I was at the Greg Martin antique & collectible firearms auction in San Francisco that was auctioning several of Bonnie & Clyde's personal effects including the hat that Clyde was wearing in the ambush.

I saw for myself that there is clearly a bullet hole about the size that a 7mm round would make through the hat band.

Anyway, just thought I'd p*** along some research I had done several years ago on the subject.