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Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow) were famous bank robbers who traveled the southwestern United States during the Great Depression, often with various members of what came to be called the Barrow gang.
Their exploits, along with those of other criminals such as John Dillinger and Ma Barker, were notorious across the nation. They captivated the attentions of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as the public enemy era between 1931 and 1935, a period which led to the formation of the modern and more sophisticated F.B.I.
Bonnie Parker was born October 1, 1910, in Rowena, Texas. Bonnie married Roy Thornton on September 25 1926, but they were not together long. Bonnie, noted for homesickness throughout her short life, longed to be near her mother, Emma Parker. Her husband soon drifted away, once for over a year. In January 1929, she told him they were through. Although he was sentenced to 5 years in prison shortly thereafter, they never divorced, and Bonnie was wearing Roy Thornton's wedding ring when she died. Often portrayed as Clyde Barrow's equal in crime, Bonnie's role in the many robberies, murders, and auto thefts of the Barrow Gang was usually limited to logistics support. At only 4 feet 10 inches, she was a stalwart and loyal companion to Clyde Barrow as they evaded capture and awaited almost certainly violent and early deaths. She was fond of creative writing and the arts. Her poem "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde" is a remarkably personal account of her and Clyde's crime spree and looming demise.
Clyde Barrow was born on March 24, 1909, in Telico, Texas, (near Dallas), one of many children in a poor farming family. He was first arrested in late 1926 when, after police confronted Barrow over a rental car he'd failed to return on time, he ran. His second arrest, this time with brother Buck Barrow, came soon after — this time for possession of stolen goods (turkeys). In both of these instances there is the remote possibility that Clyde Barrow acted without criminal intent. However, despite holding down "square" jobs during the period 1927 through 1929, he also cracked safes, burgled, and stole cars.
After meeting Bonnie in 1930 in the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff, he was arrested and sentenced to prison for 2 years (seven concurrent, 2-year terms for burglary and auto theft). His subsequent escape attempt was only partially successful — he was free for a week before being caught in Ohio — and Clyde remained incarcerated in the Texas state prison at Eastham Farm until early 1932. It was there, at Eastham Camp 1, that it appears he first killed another man — a fellow prisoner named "Big Ed", alleged to have beaten and raped Barrow. A prisoner serving a life sentence took the blame willingly for this killing.
After his release, Clyde moved to Massachusetts, purportedly to make a clean start. However, he returned to Texas only weeks later, embroiled in a plan to raid Eastham prison and free associate Raymond Hamilton and others. In April 1932, Barrow and Ralph Fults were seen breaking into a hardware store, and they exchanged shots with a night watchman. The escape from this incident launched a pattern for Bonnie and Clyde that persisted until their deaths — desperate escapes at high speed, down often impassable roads, stealing one car after another. Though Clyde's astounding driving skill and ability to evade capture were later grudgingly respected by law enforcement, this situation ended poorly for Bonnie and Fults; they were arrested, while Clyde escaped. Bonnie claimed to have been kidnapped, and, after she had spent 2 months in jail, a grand jury failed to indict her. She returned to Dallas in June of 1932, and was soon back with Clyde.
While Bonnie was in jail, Clyde had participated in the murder of a store owner during a robbery, albeit only as the driver. However, the wife of the murder victim was shown a photo of Clyde by police, and she selected him as one of the shooters. In August 1932, while Bonnie was visiting her mother, Clyde and two associates happened to be drinking at a dance in Oklahoma (illegal under prohibition). When they were approached by the local Sheriff and his undersheriff, Clyde and Ray Hamilton opened fire, killing the undersheriff. That was the first killing of a lawman by what was later known as the Barrow gang.
Between 1932 and 1934, there were several incidents in which the Barrow gang kidnapped lawman or robbery victims, usually releasing them far from home, sometimes with money to help them get back. Stories of these encounters may have contributed to the unusual popular acceptance of Bonnie and Clyde, despite the crimes with which they are associated. However, though there's no incontrovertible evidence that Bonnie ever shot or killed anyone, Clyde and many of his partners would not hesitate to shoot anyone, civilian or lawman, if they felt their own safety or freedom were in serious jeopardy. Clyde was a probable shooter in approximately ten murders. Other members of the Barrow gang known or thought to have murdered are Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Buck Barrow, Joe Palmer, and Henry Methvin. The relatively long crime spree, combined with the large number of guns, cars, and people that floated through the Barrow gang, history books in some cases can only speculate with regard to direct responsibility for many robberies and killings assigned to Bonnie and Clyde. Many of their crimes were committed in remote areas, with few witnesses.
Despite his reputation for robbing banks, Clyde Barrow preferred smaller jobs, robbing grocery stores and filling stations at a rate far outpacing the ten to fifteen bank robberies attributed to him and the Barrow gang.
On March 22 1933, Clyde's brother Buck was granted a full pardon, and by April, he and his wife Blanche were living with Clyde, Bonnie, and W.D. Jones in a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri, presumably, according to some accounts, merely to visit and attempt to talk Clyde into giving himself up. As was common with Bonnie and Clyde, their next brush with the law arose from their generally suspicious behavior, not because their identity was discovered. Not knowing what awaited them, local lawmen assembled only a two-car force to confront the suspected bootleggers living in the rented apartment over a garage. Though caught by surprise, Clyde, noted for his cool under fire, had the benefit of far more experience in gun battles than most lawmen. He and W.D. Jones quickly killed one lawman and fatally wounded another. The surviving lawmen later testified that they had only fired a combined fourteen rounds in the conflict. And contrary to the account popularized in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, after the initial volley, Blanche Barrow was seen walking down the driveway and into the street with almost surreal calm, trying to coax her runaway dog back to the garage and into the car. The Barrow gang was able to get away from Joplin, but W.D. Jones was wounded, and they had left most of their possessions at the rented apartment — including a camera with an exposed roll of pictures. The film was developed by the Joplin Globe, yielding many now famous photos, two of which are shown above.
Despite the glamorous image often associated with the Barrow gang, they were desperate. Blanch Barrow recounted in a recently discovered manuscript much of what it was like to be constantly running. Clyde was a machine behind the wheel, driving dangerous roads and searching for places where they might sleep or have a meal without being discovered. One member was always assigned watch. Short tempers led to regular arguments.
In June 1933, while driving with W.D. Jones and Bonnie, Clyde missed some construction signs, dropping the car into a ravine. The car rolled, trapping Bonnie in the passenger seat, while battery acid leaked onto her right leg. She was seriously injured, and Clyde insisted that they allow her to convalesce. After meeting up with Blanche and Buck Barrow again, they stayed at one place until Buck bungled a local robbery with W.D. Jones, and killed a city marshal. The gang moved several times, eventually renting two cabins near Platte City, Missouri in July.
After the Joplin shootout, several states had issued alerts for any unknown people buying medical supplies. A Platte City druggist called the sheriff after Blanche bought medical supplies for Bonnie. Combined with the other reports of suspicious behavior, he was confident he was on the trail of the Barrow gang. He assembled a large group, complete with an armored car, but they were still no match for the firepower of the Barrows, who had recently robbed an armory. Still, Buck Barrow was shot in the head, and Blanche was nearly blind from glass fragments in her eye. They escaped, but with few prospects for holding out against the ensuing manhunt.
On July 24 1933, the Barrow gang was ambushed at an abandoned park near Dexter, Iowa. Buck was shot several more times, and he and Blanche were captured. Amazingly, Clyde, Bonnie, and W.D. escaped on foot. Buck died five days later, in a Perry, Iowa hospital.
Bonnie and Clyde regrouped and, on November 22 1933 were ambushed yet again, but this time as they were meeting family members at an impromptu rendezvous near Sowers, Texas. Again, they escaped.
Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin killed two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas, on April 1, 1934, and another policeman five days later near Commerce, Oklahoma.
Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and gunned down on May 23 1934 near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, by Texas and Louisiana officers, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer.
Clyde Barrow is buried in the Western Heights Cemetery and Bonnie Parker in the Crown Hill Memorial Park, both in Dallas, Texas.
They were among the first celebrity criminals of the modern era. Barrow is alleged to have written a letter to the Ford Motor Company praising their "dandy car," signing it "Clyde Champion Barrow", though the handwriting has never been authenticated. (Ford received a similar letter around the same time from someone claiming to be John Dillinger and used both for car advertisements.) Bonnie's aforementioned poem, "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde," was published in several newspapers.
In 1967, Arthur Penn directed a rather romanticized film version of the tale. Bonnie and Clyde, which starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was critically acclaimed and contributed significantly to the glamorous image of the criminal pair. The next year Brigitte Bardot interpreted a Serge Gainsbourg song about them.
Dorothy Provine also starred in the 1958 movie The Bonnie Parker Story. The first film based on Bonnie and Clyde was made only three years after their deaths and titled You Only Live Once, starring Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sydney. Furthermore, the 2003 Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles song and music video, "Bonnie and Clyde '03" is based on the two bank robbers.
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