Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow was born on March 24, 1909, in Telice, Texas, and was one of eight children. He was known to be sadistic and without remorse for his acts of cruelty. He had a criminal history of burglaries and auto thefts. After spending nearly 2 years in prison in Eastham, Texas, for an earlier prison escape, Clyde persuaded another inmate to cut off two of his toes in an effort to gain an early release.

After his release, he joined up with Bonnie Parker, and they became legendary in their criminal pursuits. Bonnie was born on October 1, 1910, in Rowena, Texas. Her father, a bricklayer, died only 4 years later. Bonnie was an honor student in school and at 16, married her high school sweetheart, Roy Thornton. After Roy was sent to prison on a murder charge, Bonnie soon met Clyde, in 1930.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow terrorized small banks and storeowners in five states in a crime spree lasting 4 years during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Bonnie was caught and jailed in 1932 after one failed bank robbery but was soon released when the grand jury delivered a no-bill. Their hit-and-run heists cost the lives of 13 victims, almost all law enforcement. Clyde, who liked to drive, was known for crashing into lampposts, ditches, and off-road forays while fleeing crime scenes. They enjoyed taking photographs of one another with their Kodak Brownie, and taunting law enforcement. Six rolls of film were recovered after a shoot-out in Missouri at the home of Barrow's brother and sister-in-law, Buck and Blanche, in which two policemen where killed. The film showed Bonnie and Clyde posing with their machine guns and the rest of their gang. The legend grew as Clyde was dubbed the “Texas Rattlesnake,” and Bonnie circulated poems to the newspapers about their crime forays. They were joined by others such as Ray Hamilton and William Daniel Jones, a 16-year-old whom they kidnapped from a service station. Jones was so enthralled by Clyde that he stayed with the gang and served as their driver.

Admired by many citizens for their adventurous and rebellious gangster image, “Bonnie and Clyde” were a symbol of many Americans' disenfranchised attitude toward the government and big business. Law enforcement and government officials were incensed, fearful, and embarrassed over the numerous crimes and murders committed in the course of their spree. Eventually, law enforcement caught up to the gang, and Buck was the first to die in a shoot-out. Hamilton had left the gang over disputes, and Blanche was captured. Ironically, Bonnie and Clyde would be betrayed by one of their own kind. An old prison friend of Hamilton's, Henry Methvin, himself on the run from the law, disclosed the whereabouts of the gang in order to earn his own freedom.

[Page 349]On May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde met their end when Texas Ranger Frank Hamer and the government caught up with them in an ambush outside of the town of Sailes, Louisiana. Both were killed when the stolen beige 1934 Ford V-8 sedan they were driving was riddled with more than 160 bullets.

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