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Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow) were infamous bank robbers and criminals who traveled the central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits, along with those of other criminals of the time such as John Dillinger and Ma Barker, were notorious across the nation. They captivated the attention 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 FBI. Ironically, though they are remembered as bank robbers, they were not. Clyde preferred small stores or even gas stations. Bonnie never shot anyone. Their legend is far larger than their life.
Bonnie
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born October 1, 1910, in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. She married Roy Thornton on September 25 1926, but the pairing was short-lived. Noted for homesickness throughout her short adult life, she longed to be near her mother, Emma Parker. Her husband soon drifted away in spurts — once for over a year — and in January 1929, she told him they were through. Although he was sentenced to five years in prison shortly thereafter, they never divorced, and Bonnie was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died. In her book about her year with Bonnie and Clyde Blanche Barrow also claimed Bonnie never shot anyone.
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. There is no reliable evidence that she ever shot anyone, nor was there any warrant alleging she committed any murder at the time she was ambushed and killed. In the book "Riding with Bonnie and Clyde" W.D. Jones made the statement (as he had under Oath to the authorities) "Bonnie never packed a gun, out of the five major gun battles I was with them she never fired a gun." At only 4 feet 10 inches, she was a stalwart and loyal companion to Clyde Barrow as they evaded capture and awaited the violent deaths they viewed as certain. She was fond of creative writing and the arts. Her poem "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde" is a remarkably personal account of their crime spree and looming demise.
Clyde
Clyde "Champion" Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909 (perhaps 1910, according to some reputable sources), in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico (just south of Dallas). He was the fifth of seven children in a poor farming family. Clyde was first arrested in late 1926, after running when police confronted him over a rental car he had failed to return on time. His second arrest, 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 acted without criminal intent. However, despite holding down "square" jobs during the period 1927 through 1929, he also cracked safes, burgled stores, and stole cars. Known primarily for robbing banks, he 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.
Meeting
There is some disagreement over how Bonnie and Clyde first met, but the most prevalent story is that it was through Clyde's friend Clarence Clay.
Prison and release
By mid-February 1930, Clyde and Bonnie were seeing each other regularly, to the point where the police staked out her mother's house hoping to catch the wanted Barrow. They arrested him there, and he was sentenced to prison for two years (seven concurrent, two-year terms for burglary and auto theft). Except for a one-week escape ending with his recapture in Ohio, 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 Clyde. A prisoner serving a life sentence took the blame willingly for this killing. Fellow inmate Ralph Fults said that it was Eastham where Clyde turned "from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake."
After his release in 1932, Clyde moved to Massachusetts, purportedly to make a clean start. However, he returned to Texas within weeks, embroiled in a plan to raid Eastham prison and free associate Raymond Hamilton and others. He recruited help and set about arming and financing the operation.
In April, a night watchman saw Barrow and Ralph Fults breaking into a hardware store (the location of the store is disputed; local newspapers reported that it was Mabank, Texas). They escaped after exchanging fire, rejoined Bonnie, and attempted to leave the "hot" area. The incident followed a pattern for Bonnie and Clyde that persisted until their deaths — desperate evasion at high speed down sometimes impassable roads, stealing cars and swapping stolen plates regularly. Though Clyde's astounding driving skill and ability to evade capture were later grudgingly respected by law enforcement, this situation ended poorly, perhaps because the gang was finally reduced to stealing mules for transportation in the Texas farm country. Clyde escaped, and Bonnie and Fults were arrested. She claimed to have been kidnapped, and a grand jury failed to indict her. Having spent two months in the Kaufman, Texas jail, Bonnie returned to Dallas in June 1932, and was soon back on the road with Clyde.
Murder
While Bonnie had been in jail, Clyde had participated in the murder of a store owner during a robbery, albeit only as the driver. However, the police showed the wife of the murder victim a photo of Clyde, 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, Ray Hamilton and Clyde opened fire, killing the undersheriff. That was the first killing of a lawman by what was later known as the Barrow gang.
Highwaymen
Between 1932 and 1934, there were several incidents in which the Barrow gang kidnapped lawmen 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 mythic aura of Bonnie and Clyde — a couple both reviled and adored by the public. However, though there is no solid evidence that Bonnie ever shot or killed anyone, Clyde and many of his partners would not hesitate to shoot anybody, civilian or lawman, if they felt their own safety or mobility were in 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. Given the gang's relatively long crime spree, combined with the large number of guns, cars, and people that floated through it, history books can only speculate with regard to details and direct responsibility for many robberies and killings assigned to Bonnie and Clyde. Many of their crimes were committed in remote areas with few witnesses and limited forensics capabilities.
Joplin
On March 22 1933, Clyde's brother Buck was granted a full pardon and released from prison. By April, he and his wife Blanche were living with W.D. Jones, Clyde, and Bonnie in a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri — 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 identities were 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 remaining cool under fire, was gaining far more experience in gun battles than most lawmen. He and W.D. Jones quickly killed one lawman and fatally wounded another. The survivors later testified that their side had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict. 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 at 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, and yielded many now famous photos, two of which are shown above. Afterward, Bonnie and Clyde used coats and hats to cover the license plates of their stolen vehicles when taking pictures.
Discord
Despite the glamorous image often associated with the Barrow gang, they were desperate and discontent. Blanche Barrow recounted in a recently published 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. Even with thousands of dollars from a bank robbery, sleeping in a bed was a luxury for a member of the Barrow gang. Sleeping peacefully was nearly impossible.
Bonnie hurt
In June 1933, while driving with W.D. Jones and Bonnie, Clyde missed some construction signs, dropping the car into a ravine. It rolled, and Bonnie was trapped in the passenger seat as battery acid leaked onto her right leg. Though she was seriously injured, Clyde's first requirement was to get them out of the area — a difficult task with the attention drawn by the accident. When finally away, their latest hostages released, Clyde insisted that Bonnie be allowed 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, the evening of July 18 1933.
Platte City
After the Joplin shootout, several states had issued alerts for any unknown people buying medical supplies. A Platte City druggist called the sheriff when a stranger (probably Blanche, though her account states that it was Clyde and W.D.) bought medical supplies for Bonnie, July 19 1933. Combined with the other reports of suspicious behavior, the sheriff was confident he was on the trail of the Barrow gang. He assembled a large group, complete with an armored car, and moved in that night. But law enforcement was still no match for the firepower of the Barrows, who had recently robbed an armory. At a high price, the gang escaped once again. Buck Barrow was shot in the head, and Blanche was nearly blinded from glass fragments in her eye. The prospects for holding out against the ensuing manhunt dwindled.
Death of Buck Barrow
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. Clyde, Bonnie, and W.D. escaped on foot. Buck died five days later in a Perry, Iowa, hospital.
Final run
Bonnie and Clyde regrouped and, on November 22 1933, were ambushed yet again, this time as they were meeting family members at an impromptu rendezvous near Sowers, Texas. Again, they escaped.
In January 1934, Bonnie, Clyde, Floyd Hamilton (brother of Raymond Hamilton), and Jimmy Mullens launched a successful raid on Eastham prison farm, rescuing Raymond Hamilton, Joe Palmer, Henry Methvin, and Hilton Bybee. Joe Palmer killed one guard and, apparently, wounded another.
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.
Death
Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed May 23 1934, on a desolate road near their Bienville Parish, Louisiana, hideout. They were shot by a posse of four Texas and two Louisiana officers (the Louisiana pair added solely for jurisdictional reasons — an aspect of pre-FBI America that Clyde had exploited to its fullest when selecting robbery and hideout locations). The posse was led by former Texas Ranger captain Frank Hamer, who had never before seen Bonnie or Clyde. He had begun tracking the pair on February 10 1934, after being specifically hired by the Texas Department of Corrections with orders to put an end to Bonnie and Clyde, and within a month or two had met in Bienville Parish with a representative of Henry Methvin's parents.
On May 21 1934, the four posse members were in Shreveport, Louisiana, when they learned that Bonnie and Clyde were to go there that evening with Methvin. Clyde had designated Methvin's parents' Bienville Parish house as a rendezvous, in case they were later separated. Methvin was separated from Bonnie and Clyde in Shreveport, and the full posse, now with the two Louisiana members, set up an ambush along the route to the rendezvous — Highway 154, between Gibsland and Sailes. They were in place by 21:00, waiting all through the next day (May 22), but with no sign of Bonnie and Clyde.
Around 09:10 on May 23, the posse, concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat, heard Clyde's stolen Ford V-8 approaching. When he stopped to speak with Henry Methvin's father — planted there with his truck that morning to distract Clyde and force him into the lane closest to the posse — the lawmen opened fire, killing Bonnie and Clyde while shooting a combined total of approximately 130 rounds.
Clyde Barrow is buried in the Western Heights Cemetery, and Bonnie Parker in the Crown Hill Memorial Park, both in Dallas, Texas
Controversy and Aftermath
Controversy lingers over whether Bonnie Parker should have been killed, and whether the first shot, fired into Clyde Barrow's head by Prentis Oakley with a borrowed Remington Model 8, was too hasty. Oakley is reported to have been haunted for the rest of his life by his actions that day. However, he appears to have been the only posse member bothered in any way by his actions. Bonnie unfortunately did not die as easily as Clyde, who died instantly with Oakley's head shot. The posse reported her uttering a long, horrified and pain filled scream as the bullets ripped the car (and her) apart. There was no legal authority to kill Bonnie Parker, who was not known to have killed anyone, and had no warrants on her which would have justified lethal force in her capture, but Hamer made it clear that he had intended to kill her. He had a reputation for not being overly solicitous with regard to law details.
Some of the posse, including Frank Hamer, took and kept for themselves stolen guns that were found in the death car, with the approval of Lee Simmons, "Special Escape Investigator for the Texas Prison System". Probably the most horrific thing about the ambush, afterwards, was that the men left to guard the bodies, Gault, Oakley, and Alcorn, allowed people to literally cut off locks of Bonnie's hair, tear pieces from her dress - a man was even trying to cut off Clyde's finger when Hinton returned! See The Strange Life of Bonnie and Clyde by John Treherne, and Ambush by Ted Hinton. With the growing outcry over the Bonnie and Clyde crime spree in which law enforcement had been thwarted repeatedly, even officials from outside Louisiana had been given a free hand toward the goal of ending it. Most of these souvenirs were later sold, rendering even more disgraceful the conduct of Hamer and the posse who killed Bonnie and Clyde.
In his article "Romeo and Juliet in a Getaway Car" Joesph Gerringer writes of the ambush: "But, Hamer chose not to call out a warning -- not to Bonnie and Clyde...in a voice audible only to those around him, void of drama, void of malice, Hamer ordered, "Shoot!" Also in Hinton's book, the best source on the ambush, he makes clear Hamer had ordered firing without warning no matter what happened prior to the car's arrival. The car was hit over 130 times, with the entry in the passenger, or Bonnie's, side. Hinton's book records Bonnie uttering one long agonized scream , saying in "Ambush," Hinton tells the rest: Hamer says Shoot! then "...Bonnie screams, and I fire and everyone fires!" At no point did anyone in the posse ever claim that they told Bonnie and Clyde to halt or surrender. Hamer himself admitted in I'm Frank Hamer that he intended an ambush where the duo would have no chance. In The Strange Life of Bonnie and Clyde John Treherne also records the ambush as having the posse simply opening fire on Hamer's command without warning.
Every year near the anniversary of the ambush, a "Bonnie and Clyde Festival" is hosted in the town of Gibsland, Louisiana. The ambush location, still comparatively isolated on Highway 154 south of Gibsland, is commemorated by a stone marker that has been defaced to near illegibility by souvenir thieves and gunshot. A small metal version was added to accompany the stone monument. It was stolen, as was its replacement.
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Bonnie and Clyde in popular culture
Bonnie and Clyde were among the first celebrity criminals of the modern era. Clyde 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 poem, "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde", was published in several newspapers.
The first film based on Bonnie and Clyde was made only three years after their deaths. You Only Live Once (1937) was directed by Fritz Lang and starred Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sydney.
Dorothy Provine starred in the 1958 movie The Bonnie Parker Story, directed by William Witney.
In 1967, Arthur Penn directed a 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. In December of that year, Serge Gainsbourg recorded his song "Bonnie and Clyde" as a duet with Brigitte Bardot.
The lead characters of Mickey and Mallory Knox in the 1994 Oliver Stone film, Natural Born Killers bear many similarities to Bonnie and Clyde, particularly in the media attention that the pair received for their crimes.
In 1968, Merle Haggard had a hit single with his song "Legend of Bonnie and Clyde", from the album of the same name. In his 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend," rapper Tupac Shakur says that he and his gun are the "'96 Bonnie and Clyde." Eminem's 1999 album The Slim Shady LP features a song called "'97 Bonnie & Clyde". Tori Amos did a cover of it on her album, Strange Little Girls. The duo is also referenced in The Tears' song "Refugees" and "'03 Bonnie and Clyde" by Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Country Singer Travis Tritt also recorded a song called Modern Day Bonnie And Clyde, about a Man and Woman on a crime spree.
References
- Barrow, Blanche Caldwell; Phillips, John Neal (Ed.) (2004). My Life With Bonnie & Clyde. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806136251.
- Knight, James R.; Davis, Jonathan (2003). Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update. Eakin Press. ISBN 1571687947.
- Phillips, John Neal (2004). Bonnie & Clyde's Revenge on Eastham. American History Magazine. Accessed June 18 2005.
- Washington Times, The (2004). Bonnie and Clyde live on. Accessed June 17 2005.
- Butler, Steven (2003). In Search of Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana. Accessed June 17 2005.
- Took no chances, Hinton and Alcorn tell Newspapermen Wednesday Night's Extra, Dallas Dispatch. Accessed Jan 17 2006.
External links
- Bonnie and Clyde's Hideout (pictures and documents)
- Riding with Bonnie and Clyde, by W.D. Jones (Playboy Magazine, November 1968)
- Bonnie Parker's poem, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- Genealogy of Bonnie and Clyde (and links to postmortem newspaper articles)
- Bonnie Parker On-Stage
- Famous Cases
Ambush site
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