Cassandra Goss of Brodhead, Wisconsin, previously lived in Houston, Texas, and is the owner of bullets reputed to be the "death bullets" taken from the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde. Originally, there were twenty-six of them, now only five remain. Along with the bullets, were rare pictures of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and some mug shots. Cassandra's former husband's grandfather was J.D. Goss, a onetime ballistics expert from Dallas, who had been contracted by the Houston Police Department in 1934 when they were investigating the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde. Goss had helped the forensic scientist with the autopsy and also with the recording of evidence. J.D. Goss was allowed to keep some of the bullets and photos after his work was completed. He kept twenty-six bullets and photos, some of which have never been published. They were passed on to his son and eventually ended up in the possession Cassandra's ex-husband. She had obtained the bullets and photographs when she and her husband divorced a couple years ago. During her move from Houston to Brodhead a year and a half ago, she was informed by the Houston Police Department that her Houston home had been broken into. All but five bullets turned up missing. The photos of Bonnie and Clyde were not discovered by the vandals and had remained untouched. Although, not on the coroner's jury or notes, J.D. Goss, was, assisting in the Houston crime lab with the investigation of the 1934 Easter killings of Officers Murphy and Wheeler. The crime lab where J.D. Goss worked, had received the rounds removed from Murphy and Wheeler's bodies, along with bullets fired from weapons found inside the car Clyde Barrow was driving. The crime lab confirmed that the officers were killed with weapons from the Barrow vehicle, which in turn had cleared Bonnie's sister, Billie Mace, who was on trial at the time, for the Grapevine killings. It could not be determined conclusively that the Goss bullets were from that homicide investigation, because many of the weapons are no longer available, but the photos themselves were official crime scene photos from the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. |
Photo above, shows two .38 caliber bullets and the original Peters Cartridge Co. box which were seized from the gang in a police raid in Dallas County, Texas in 1933. The rounds are "live", with brass casings and soft lead bullets. The box in which they are contained is marked "50 .38 S&W Special Central Fire Cartridges", and indicates they were manufactured by the Peters Cartridge Company in Cincinnati. They were recovered from the attic of the former home of Dallas Co. Chief Criminal Deputy Allan L. Sweatt by a retired Massachusetts police officer - who in turn, sold them to a consignor. A trove of other Barrow Gang items were found along with this ammunition, including additional ammunition of other calibers, two hand guns, and Sweatt's personal photographic file with images of the gang members, given to Sweatt for identification purposes. Click on link below, to see photo of the bullets etc., abandoned by Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker and recovered by Deputies following the raid at Sowers in 1933. Exclusive photo images, career histories and more accompany the Barrow Gang ammunition. This ammo, recovered alongside other significant Clyde Barrow Gang artifacts, and earlier considered lost by the Sweatt family for over three decades, and now rediscovered, has since been authenticated through extensive research and personal interviews with surviving relatives as having been among those items abandoned by Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in their disabled automobile following a Sheriff's Department raid in Dallas County the year prior to their deaths, and were procured as keepsakes by Allan L. Sweatt's older brother - the first of whom, to have pursued the Barrow Gang in Dallas under the direction of Sheriff R.A. "Smoot" Schmid and future Sheriff, Bill Decker. |
Allan and Millard Sweatt, both brothers, were Chief Deputy Sheriffs in Dallas under Decker, although Allan joined years after his brother because he served as a military investigator with the U.S. Marine Corps until the early 1950s. Millard had joined the sheriffs dept. in 1932. There was another brother named Stanley, who had died in the 1950s, who was also with the sheriff's department. The three brothers had unusually close & long friendships with Smoot Schmid, Bill Decker and Henry Wade - among other Dallas politicians. Millard and Allan had both witnessed the assassination of JFK in Dealey Plaza at the same time. Allan was outside of Decker's office, on the street and Millard was up in District Attorney Henry Wade's office looking down on Jackie and the President. By that time, Millard was the chief investigator for the DA's office. He died in the early 1990s. |
