John Neal Phillips: Running with Bonnie & Clyde

John Neal Phillips will outline some of the known Dallas County activities of Bonnie and Clyde, including the County Avenue gunfight of January 6, 1933, and the November 22, 1933, attempt to ambush the outlaws.  Contemporary photographs will be used to support the talk.

John Neal Phillips was born in 1949 in Houston, Texas.  He was educated in Texas and Italy and holds BA, MA, and MFA degrees.

Phillips is a recognized expert on Texas prison history and Depression-era Texas outlaws, particularly Bonnie and Clyde.  His research on these topics, including interviews with more than sixty eyewitnesses on both sides of the law, has resulted in much new information never-before made public.

Phillips is the author of, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, the Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults (University of Oklahoma Press 1996) and editor and co-author (of contextual notes and other material) of Blanche Barrow’s prison memoir, My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (University of Oklahoma Press 2002).  Phillips is a contributing author for publications like Literary Dallas (University of North Texas Press 2008), Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (University of Nebraska Press 2004) and periodicals like American History Magazine.

Phillips has appeared in more than twenty documentaries about Bonnie and Clyde and related topics for networks like PBS, History Channel, Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel, and the BBC.

Phillips’ latest book, Sitting on a Keg of Dynamite (University of Oklahoma Press 2022), documents the events leading to the explosion of thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate at Texas City, Texas, in 1947, to date the worst industrial accident in U. S. history resulting in nearly 600 deaths.

Phillips is an Associate Professor at Tarrant County College, Southeast Campus, in Arlington, Texas.