Fults was first arrested at age 14, in Aspermont, Texas, after police found him carrying a suitcase full of stolen goods.
With the town sheriff attending the county fair, Fults started a mass jailbreak, letting the remaining inmates out of jail.
Nineteen year old Fults met Clyde Barrow in the back of a "one-way wagon", the name given to prison buses in Texas under Bud Russell.
He helped smuggle hacksaw blades to bank robber Ray Hamilton to escape from jail in McKinney, Texas on January 27, 1932.
Fults joined up with Hamilton on March 22 and, along with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, attempted to rob a hardware store in Mabank, Texas.
After stealing a car in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 24, he and Hamilton headed for Texas after managing to evade a police ambush while passing through McKinney.
After his arrival in Springfield, Illinois on April 5, Fults had learned of Hamilton's arrest at Fort Worth that same day and immediately took the first bus bound for Texas.
Fults reached Fort Worth on April 8 and, although perhaps planning to save his old partner from the electric chair, he instead drove to his mother's home in McKinney.