Bonnie and Clyde

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Lore & Background

Bonnie Parker was born on October 1, 1910, in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, a bricklayer, died when she was four. Her widowed mother moved the family to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb in West Dallas, where she worked as a seamstress. Parker wrote poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal" and "The Trail's End" (also known as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"). She met Roy Thornton in her second year of high school; they married on September 25, 1926, six days before her sixteenth birthday. They never divorced, and when she died, Parker was still wearing the wedding ring Thornton had given her. After leaving Thornton, she moved back with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas. Clyde Barrow was born March 24, 1909, into a poor farming family in Telico, Texas, near Dallas, the fifth of seven children. The family moved to Dallas in the early 1920s, living under their wagon before buying a tent. Barrow was first arrested at age 17 for failing to return a rental car. He met Parker through a mutual friend in January 1930. Their romance was interrupted when Barrow was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years. On March 11, 1930, while awaiting transfer, Barrow escaped from the McLennan County jail using a gun Parker smuggled in. Recaptured, he was sent to Huntsville State Prison, then to Eastham Prison Farm. There, he was sexually assaulted and retaliated by killing his tormentor, Ed Crowder, with a pipe—his first murder. Barrow purposely had two of his toes amputated in late January 1932 to avoid hard labor. He was paroled on February 2, 1932. His sister Marie said, "Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison because he wasn't the same person when he got out." Fellow inmate Ralph Fults said he watched Clyde "change from a school boy to a rattlesnake." After release, Barrow robbed grocery stores and gas stations at a rate far outpacing the ten or so bank robberies attributed to him. His favorite weapon was the M1918 Browning automatic rifle. According to John Neal Phillips, Barrow's goal was revenge against the Texas prison system for abuses he sustained while serving time.

Reader's Guide

Bonnie and Clyde's criminal spree began in earnest after Barrow's release from Eastham in February 1932. On April 30, Barrow was the getaway driver in a robbery in Hillsboro, Texas, where store owner J.N. Bucher was shot and killed. On August 5, Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, and Ross Dyer opened fire on Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and Deputy Eugene C. Moore in Stringtown, Oklahoma, killing Moore—the first law officer the gang killed. On Christmas Day 1932, Barrow and new recruit W.D. Jones murdered Doyle Johnson while stealing his car in Temple. On January 6, 1933, Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis when the trio wandered into a police trap. By then, the gang had murdered five people since April 1932. In March 1933, Clyde's brother Buck and his wife Blanche joined them at a hideout at 3347½ Oakridge Drive in Joplin, Missouri. According to family sources, Buck and Blanche tried to persuade Clyde to surrender. The group ran loud, alcohol-fueled card games; Blanche recalled they "bought a case of beer a day." The couple's exploits captivated the American press during the "public enemy era" (1931–1934). The 1967 film *Bonnie and Clyde*, though highly fictionalized and historically inaccurate, was a critical and commercial success that glamorized them with a romantic aura. The 2019 Netflix film *The Highwaymen* depicted their manhunt from the lawmen's point of view.

Did You Know?

• Bonnie Parker was still wearing the wedding ring from her husband Roy Thornton when she died, even though they had not seen each other since January 1929.
• Clyde Barrow purposely had two of his toes amputated in late January 1932 to avoid hard labor in the fields at Eastham Prison Farm.
• Barrow's first murder was killing his tormentor, Ed Crowder, with a pipe while at Eastham Prison Farm; another inmate already serving life claimed responsibility.
• The Barrow gang is believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians during their spree.
• Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed on May 23, 1934, on Louisiana Highway 154 by a posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer.