Wanted Dead or Alive

You've read the story of Jesse James

Of how he lived and died

If you're still in need of something to read

Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

 (written by Bonnie Parker)

I'm a big fan of the Golden Age of Piracy, that time from the late 1600s through the early 1700s when pirates like Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and Anne Bonny and Mary Read roamed the seven seas (or at least the Caribbean), pillaging and plundering and engaging in all those romantic piratical adventures. Authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and "Captain Charles Johnson," artwork by such painters as N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle, and actors from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp have all captured the imagination of book-lovers, movie-goers, and people of all ages for centuries. The fact that the reality of historical pirates was often brutal, bloody, and filled with a decidedly unglamorous violence doesn't deter the popular imagination from picturing pirates as lovable figures of swashbuckling derring-do.

So, while I'm hardly an expect on them, I do understand the appeal of Bonnie and Clyde. A staple in our popular culture since their two-year criminal careers during the Great Depression, they are remembered as figures somewhere between Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and Romeo and Juliet. But to get at the real story, we need to take a closer look.

Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow was the fifth of eight children, born to a poor Texas tenant farmer and his wife. The family long struggled to support themselves; Clyde dropped out of public school when he was 16 to get a job at a Proctor and Gamble plant. Clyde's older brother, Marvin, first drew Clyde into a life of crime (their first attempted robbery involved trying to smuggle turkeys). It wasn't long before Clyde had quit his job and followed Marvin into a gang of vandals who robbed various small businesses. And it wasn't long before Clyde, intelligent and charismatic, was in charge.

Bonnie Parker

(Parker later said she was not the tough, cigar-smoking, gun-wielding type this photo made her out to be; the pictures were taken in fun.)

Bonnie Parker was the second of three children, born to a brick mason and his wife. Her father died when she was five, and the family relocated to a Dallas suburb. Bonnie grew up in a happy home, was a good student, and had a knack for writing and reciting poetry. She married a schoolmate at the age of 16, though the marriage was a rough one, with her husband disappearing on and off for long periods of time.

At age 19, Bonnie was still technically married when she started doing household chores for an injured neighbor. The neighbor was Clyde's girlfriend, and when Clyde showed up to visit her, he ended up paying more attention to Bonnie. The feeling was mutual, and Bonnie and Clyde were sweethearts when Clyde abruptly found himself arrested for burglary. Nothing daunted, Bonnie wrote letters to Clyde while he was in prison, cajoling him to give up his criminal lifestyle -- until, on a visit to the prison, she discovered that Clyde and his cellmate were coming up with an escape plan. At their request, Bonnie smuggled a gun into the prison for them.

Eventually, Clyde made it out of prison (his initial escape attempt worked, but he was caught quickly and thrown back in for another two years). When he was paroled in 1932, Bonnie was waiting for him.

The next two years saw Bonnie and Clyde join up with various outlaws to form small gangs of four or five. (The gang members rotated as they were caught by law enforcement, but Bonnie and Clyde themselves always managed to evade capture.) The gangs held up gas stations, grocery stores, and the occasional bank. It was Bonnie's job to keep watch, and the gang would escape the scenes of their crimes in stolen cars. Both Bonnie and Clyde enjoyed kidnapping bystanders -- and the occasional police officer -- and taking them on wild joyrides before releasing them unharmed. (Clyde was particularly fond of dropping off police officers hundreds of miles away from where they'd been taken, relishing in the opportunity to embarrass them.)

In late April of 1932, fellow gang member Raymond Hamilton shot and killed the owner of a gas station; later that year, Clyde murdered a grocer who was refusing to cooperate with the gang. While most accounts suggest that Clyde never took any pleasure in killing the grocer (or several police officers he fired upon), the line between robber and murderer had still been crossed.

Bonnie and Clyde both seemed to understand that their life of crime would have one inevitable outcome. In May of 1934, they were in Louisiana with their current gang when one member -- Henry Methvin -- was accidentally left behind. (Methvin had ducked into a cafe to grab lunch for the group; a passing police car alarmed Clyde, waiting with the rest of the gang outside, and the group sped off without Methvin). Methvin promptly made his way to his father's, where he let slip the location the gang was most likely heading towards. Methvin's father passed the information on to the authorities.

Police officers from Louisiana and Texas gathered along a country road outside Sailers, Louisiana. The gang drove in the morning of May 23, 1934, and were instantly surrounded by the waiting officers. Clyde went for his gun, and the police opened fire. Over 150 bullets shot through the Ford sedan, and Bonnie and Clyde both died almost instantly.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker

Nearly 80 years later, the names Bonnie and Clyde still conjure up images of flashy heists, daring exploits, and the romantic adventures of two glamorous lovers. The public had been fascinated by the couple during their two-year crime spree, but interest hardly seems to have waned as the decades have rolled by. (In 1998, the pants that Clyde Barrow had been wearing at the time of his death were sold by a Texas rarities dealer at $199 per square inch.) From movies and novels to historical reads and documentaries, Bonnie and Clyde have been forever cemented in the public imagination as star-crossed lovers on a romantic run from the law.

Were they simple criminals or the Robin Hoods of the Great Depression?  It's for you to decide.

Read:

-- The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde by E.R. Milner.

Relies on primary sources (articles, interviews, diaries, and letters) to paint a picture of the couple.

-- Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn.

An in-depth biography about Bonnie and Clyde.

-- Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend by Paul Schneider.

A well-researched but somewhat glamorized account of their lives.

-- Bonnie and Clyde: A Love Story by Bill Brooks.

The story told in fictionalized, novel form.



Watch:

-- Bonnie and Clyde [1967]

The famous movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

-- Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem

This documentary looks at other outlaws of the era (such as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson), along with Bonnie and Clyde. Includes the bonus feature Bonnie and Clyde: The Story of Love & Death.




-- Post by Ms. B