Raymond Hamilton was a member of the notorious Barrow Gang during the early 1930s. By the time he was 21 years old he had accumulated a prison sentence of 362 years.
The Barrow Gang
Little is known about Hamilton's childhood. His father abandoned the family when he was 10. He was born in Oklahoma and raised in Dallas, Texas, where he received his minor public education. He met Clyde Barrow who lived in the same neighborhood when they were boys, and later joined the "Barrow Gang". Hamilton was involved in the killing of Deputy Sheriff Eugene C. Moore when Moore and Sheriff Charlie Maxwell became suspicious of the men at an outdoor country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma. Sheriff Maxwell also sustained six gunshot wounds in the exchange, but survived. It was Barrow's and Hamilton's first murder of a police officer. Hamilton's presence in the group was often problematic, with Clyde Barrow and other members of the gang commonly referring to his girlfriend Mary O'Dare as "the washerwoman." When Hamilton was imprisoned at the Eastham prison farm north of Huntsville, Texas, Bonnie and Clyde raided the farm to free him and four other prisoners on January 16, 1934. One of the other escapees, Joe Palmer, mortally wounded guard M. J. Crowson and caused a series of events which led to Texas Prison System chief Lee Simmons to issue a shoot to kill order against Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Simmons hired ex-Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who formed a six-man posse in order to execute this order. Hamilton left the Barrow Gang after a fight about O'Dare and was recaptured on April 25, 1934. He was in prison when Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were ambushed and killed by Hamer's posse on May 23, 1934.
Death
Hamilton was executed on May 10, 1935 at the Texas State Penitentiary, Huntsville, Texas, by electric chair. Hamilton walked calmly and firmly to the chair and seated himself with the words "Well, goodbye all." He was preceded to the electric chair by Joe Palmer. Raymond Hamilton never publicly admitted killing anyone, although to his brother, Floyd, he admitted that in the case of the killing of Undersheriff Eugene Moore he was not so sure. "Clyde and I were both shooting," Raymond told Floyd. "It could have been either one of us. Or both." Raymond Hamilton was convicted of the murder of John Bucher of Hillsboro May 1, 1932, though he had nothing to do with it. The actual killer was Ted Rogers. Clyde Barrow and Johnny Russell were accomplices.
