Bonnie and Clyde: Lovers in Crime
The story behind America's most infamous gangster couple.
For two years, Bonnie and Clyde led their notorious gang on a bloody rampage across five states. They robbed banks at gunpoint, and left murder victims in their wake. The criminal couple were pursued relentlessly by law enforcement agencies across the American Southwest. Their reign of terror finally came to an end after the savage cop-killers were themselves killed in a flurry of police bullets.
Clyde Barrow
Clyde Barrow was born in Telico, Texas on March 21, 1909. He was the sixth child of Henry and Cumie Barrow. As a boy, he was especially close to his mother. Clyde’s family were impoverished tenant farmers. At the age of 12, the Barrows moved to Dallas in search of economic opportunity. Much of the Roaring Twenties saw affluence in the cities, rather than the rural regions. Many poor farmers migrated to Dallas to seize the newfound opportunities found in urbanized cities. Clyde dropped out of school at the age of 16. A slender and small man, he stood barely five foot seven. He possessed an innocent-looking face, but the reality was far removed from those appearances. Following the footsteps of an elder brother named Buck, Clyde embarked on a life of crime. At first, it began with small offenses, such as carjacking. Buck spent a week in prison, but authorities chose not to prosecute him. This did not deter Clyde, who continued his petty thievery. He too started stealing cars. Clyde’s criminality earned him the attention of Dallas police. In October of 1929, police were searching for him in connection with a number of robberies. While in hiding, Clyde met the woman who would become his notorious accomplice. Her name was Bonnie Parker.
Bonnie Parker
Bonnie was born on October 1, 1910. She had two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. Her father Henry died when she was aged four. Her mother Emma moved her to a suburb of West Dallas, known as Cement City. It was impoverished and full of restless young people. Thievery filled the place of honest work. Bonnie’s family managed to push her through high school. By all appearances, she was an ordinary girl. Attractive and sweet, she worked as a waitress. The 16-year-old girl married Roy Thornton, an abusive and alcoholic man who brutalized his wife. On many occasions, Roy disappeared for weeks at a time. Finally, Bonnie was fed up, and she expelled him from her life. However, she did not formally divorce him, keeping the wedding ring until her death. Roy was arrested and convicted of bank robbery. He was sentenced to the Eastham Prison Farm. Not long after, Bonnie met Clyde in January of 1930.
Mafia mistress
Clyde was age 20, while Bonnie was age 19. Their first encounter came when the gangster came to the aid of an ill girlfriend. Through this lady, Clyde met Bonnie. At the time, Clyde was already wanted for several murders. The two almost immediately fell in love. They were inseparable for the next two weeks until Clyde’s arrest. Clyde was convicted and sentenced for two years for five car thefts. He received a twelve year suspension for two burglaries. Clyde hoped to escape, and his new girlfriend Bonnie was more than happy to help. Bonnie smuggled a 32 Colt automatic gun into the prison, allowing Clyde to escape. He fled the state, but was captured in Minnesota within a couple of weeks. He was brought back for trial, where he received a fourteen year sentence. Clyde was sent to Huntsville penitentiary, and then taken to Eastham Prison Farm. There, prisoners were routinely beaten and abused. Allegedly, guards had a habit of killing convicts to terrify the other inmates. The prison experiences enraged Clyde, and he vowed to amass a gang to inflict revenge on the prison guards. Three years later, he implemented this devious plan. In the meantime, the relationship of Bonnie and Clyde grew more intense. The two lovers corresponded frequently through letters.
Great Depression
In February of 1932, Clyde was released from jail and sent home to Dallas. He attempted to find honest work, but frequent police inspections made it difficult to keep a job. This situation was only worsened by the Great Depression, where a full quarter of Americans were unemployed. Bread lines ran long. Poor people lined the streets. There was a stark disparity between rich and poor. Many farmers lost their agricultural homes. There was widespread resentment against banks, Big Business, railroads, and other forms of heavy industry. Many Americans were frustrated with the existing political system. Because of this widespread discontent, Bonnie and Clyde emerged as almost folkish heroes, who expressed this rage in visceral terms. Bank robberies became a media sensation, because they represented the secret fantasies of the impoverished masses. While organized crime bosses had prospered during the Prohibition era of the previous decade, a new class of criminals appeared in the Depression. Outlaws from the Midwest and Southwest gained reputations as Robin Hood figures, attacking the allegedly corrupt institutions of a declining nation. Public enemies such as John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ma Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, and Baby Face Nelson became household names. The Depression marked the beginning of a fascination with gangsters in real life and in the movies. Actors such as Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney were popular for their gangster portrayals. Gangster films were so popular, that government officials grew alarmed. It was one of the reasons the Hays Office, Hollywood’s self-censorship board, was formed.
National outlaws
Despite their infamy, Bonnie and Clyde were not particularly intelligent or crafty criminals. They were haphazard predators who robbed along the countryside. The sums of money were very tiny, sometimes as low as ten dollars. They risked their lives to perpetrate these crimes, even for such underwhelming monetary rewards. Clyde presented himself as a modern-day Wild West cowboy, whose getaway was a car instead of a horse. He tried avoiding innocent victims. He tended to take lawmen hostage, rather than outright killing them. What distinguished Bonnie and Clyde from other gangsters was their status as a loving couple. It imbued their crimes with an irresistibly romantic quality. The criminal couple committed their robberies together. On one occasion, Bonnie was arrested and jailed in Kaufman, Texas. She was acquitted for lack of evidence in June of 1932. She quickly rejoined her husband, whose crimes had made him front-page news. After robbing a packing company, Clyde fled to Stringtown, Oklahoma. In August of 1932, at a country dance, the fugitive senselessly murdered law enforcement officials. In March of 1933, Clyde’s brother Buck was pardoned and released from jail. Bonnie and Clyde began living at a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri. When law enforcement suspected they were bootleggers, Bonnie and Clyde opened fire and drove away. Newspapers printed the sensational photos of the two, and reported their apparent triumph over the law. It sparked the interest of the American public. Their life of crime was jolted after Bonnie was seriously injured in June of 1933. They attempted to evade justice by crossing state lines. By July, the criminals settled down in Platte City, Missouri. But the law was tipped off regarding their whereabouts. The bank-robbing lovers were surrounded by overpowering force. But Bonnie and Clyde opened fire on the police, and made a daring escape. Bonnie and Clyde escaped to an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa. After four days, the police discovered their new hideout. Again, the two escaped. In January of 1934, Clyde masterminded a jailbreak at the Eastham Prison Farm, fulfilling his vow from years earlier.
Riddled with bullets
After a string of murders and bank heists, Bonnie and Clyde fled toward Grapevine, Texas. The newly created highway patrol found the pair, and decided to investigate. But the two criminals murdered the patrolmen in cold blood. This final crime sealed their doom. Every police officer in the Southwest was now determined to bring the murderous cop-killers to justice. Hundreds of officials swarmed on the case. The most famous was a former Texas Ranger named Frank Hamer. After 102 days of surveillance and intelligence gathering, Hamer singlehandedly tracked down the criminal couple. On the morning of May 23, 1934, an unsuspecting Bonnie and Clyde were driving down a country road near Arcadia, Louisiana, close to Henry Methvin’s father’s house. There, Texas Rangers and sheriffs waited for them to arrive. It was a carefully crafted ambush. Henry Methvin’s father had betrayed Bonnie and Clyde in exchange for legal immunity for his son. For three days and three nights, the officers waited along the road. Frank Hamer suspected that the weakening criminals would soon settle down on home ground. Although a return to Dallas was too obvious, Bonnie and Clyde had previously sought refuge at the Methvin farm. Setting up Methvin’s father’s truck as a trap, the police lured Bonnie and Clyde into their sights. They opened fire, unleashing a flurry of lead bullets into the criminals. Actual footage was filmed on the scene shortly after the shootout, showing Bonnie and Clyde dead and riddled with bullets in their car. The unsightly image became seared into American pop culture. “As accustomed as I am to slaughter of humans, I was sickened at the sight of Bonnie’s body nearly torn to pieces with bullets,” Hamer reflected. Masses of people came to catch a glimpse of the dead criminals. Their criminal career was now over.