The Texas 183 and Esters Road intersection is not too different from any other busy Irving intersection. On each corner, national brand names like Red Lobster, McDonald’s, and 7-Eleven can be found. But if you were to get in a time machine and go back to November 21, 1933, you would have witnessed the failed ambush of the criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde.

Aerial image of the area 25 years after the failed ambush. At the time Pioneer Drive was called Sowers Road.

Bonnie and Clyde had arranged a meeting with their family on this site. It is northwest of what was then called the Sowers community. Sowers was a small town annexed by Irving in 1956. Today, Sowers cemetery on Pioneer drive is all that remains of the town. Many of the city’s pioneers are buried there.

Same intersection today, almost 90 years after the failed ambush.

As the couple approached the meeting in a black 1933 Ford V8 coupe, law enforcement officers lay waiting, ready to confront the outlaws.

Sowers ambush location looking northeast from Blue Crab parking lot in 2023.
GSG Visual

Bonnie sensed an ambush and sped past the waiting family members. The officers opened fire with their Thompson sub-machine guns injuring the couple as they managed to escape. They eventually abandoned the stolen car.

Officers Smoot Schmidt, Ted Hinton, Ed Caster, and Bob Alcorns with items from the abandoned car.