Career
Hinton, then twenty-nine, was assigned to accompany Deputy Sheriff Bob Alcorn on the premise that Hinton knew Clyde Barrow and could identify him. Hinton and Alcorn were assigned by Dallas County Sheriff Richard A. "Smoot" Schmid to assist Frank Hamer and his assistant Benjamin Gault in a shoot-to-kill order against Bonnie and Clyde that originated with the Texas prison system chief Lee Simmons. When the Texans reached Bienville Parish on the trail of Bonnie and Clyde, they enlisted the aid of Sheriff Henderson Jordan and his deputy, Prentiss Oakley, as required for jurisdictional purposes.
Hinton became a Sheriff"s Deputy in 1932 following the election of Schmid.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and reared in Dallas, he knew the Barrow family in his youth. Ted Hinton was also once acquainted with young Bonnie Parker while she was working in Marco"s Cafe in Dallas.
Because of her good looks, many of the male customers would flirt with her. Hinton was always gentlemanly and treated Bonnie with respect.
Hinton admitted in a later biography that he had a crush on Bonnie, which made it difficult for him as one of the men on the team sent to kill her and her lover, Clyde.
Hinton wrote a book called Ambush in 1977, which was published in 1979, two years after his death, in which he maintained that Ivy T. Methvin was forced to lure Bonnie and Clyde into the ambush site by Frank Hamer. This member happened to be Hinton. His version of events is disputed.
Hinton remained a deputy sheriff until 1941.
Hinton subsequently owned a motel and restaurant. The couple had at least one child, Linton Jay "Boots" Hinton (born January 1, 1934), who has since 2004 operated the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, Louisiana.
"Boots" Hinton was about four months old at the time of the ambush.
