Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are the most famous gangster couple in history. Between 1932 and 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, they went from petty thieves to world-famous bank robbers and murderers.
Despite the romanticization of their image, the couple committed at least 13 murders, including two policemen, as well as a series of robberies and kidnappings. How did it happen that they embarked on such a dangerous path?
Who is Bonnie Parker
Bonnie or Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born October 1, 1910 in Rowena, Texas. She had an older brother and a younger sister. When Bonnie was only four years old, her father passed away, and her mother moved with her children to her parents in the suburbs of Dallas. The girl went to a local school and made progress in her studies, especially being interested in poetry and literature. Petite, graceful and attractive, Bonnie dreamed of becoming an actress. In her youth, nothing foreshadowed her criminal future.
While in high school, she started dating a classmate named Roy Thornton. In September 1926, shortly before her sixteenth birthday, they married. As a sign of their love, the girl got a tattoo with their names on her right thigh. However, this marriage could not be called happy: Thornton did not hesitate to use physical violence against his young wife. Their union broke up, although they never officially divorced. In 1929, Roy was sentenced to five years in prison for robbery, and Bonnie moved in with her grandmother. They never saw each other again.
Who is Clyde Barrow
Clyde was born on March 24, 1909 in Telico, Texas. He was the fifth of seven children in a low-income, but very close-knit family. The family farm was devastated by the drought and they had to move to Dallas. Clyde was a modest and unpretentious boy. He attended school until the age of 16 and cherished the dream of becoming a musician, so he learned to play the guitar and saxophone.
However, under the influence of his older brother Buck, Clyde soon embarked on a criminal path. It all started with petty theft, then he began stealing cars and, finally, he degenerated into armed robberies. In 1929, when he was 20 years old, Clyde was already a fugitive from the law and was wanted for several robberies.
Acquaintance
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met for the first time in January 1930. She was 19 years old, and he was 20. The girl worked as a waitress, and they met through a mutual friend. Clyde, who was wanted by the authorities at the time, made a vow to himself that he would never return to prison. The young people quickly became friends. They spent a lot of time together, and mutual affection began to grow between them, which soon developed into a romantic relationship. The idyll was broken just a few weeks later, when Clyde was arrested and charged with several car thefts.
As soon as the young man found himself in prison, his thoughts immediately turned to escape. By this point, he and Bonnie were already in love with each other. The girl shared her feelings with her mother, but faced horror and disgust from her side. However, Bonnie was determined to help the man she called her soul mate. Soon after the arrest, the girl managed to transfer a loaded pistol to him in prison.
The hardships of imprisonment
On March 11, 1930, Clyde used a weapon given to him by a friend to escape prison with his cellmates. However, just a week later they were caught again. The young man was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor and transferred to Eastham Prison, where he was repeatedly sexually abused by another prisoner. During Clyde's time behind bars, he and Bonnie maintained a stormy and passionate correspondence, discussing plans for his escape. It was in Eastham Prison that he committed his first murder.
In February 1932, Clyde was released from prison when his mother managed to persuade the judges in his pardon case. However, the young man, not knowing about his imminent release, made a desperate attempt to soften the harsh prison regime for himself and allegedly cut off his big toe as a result of an accident. This led him to a subsequent lameness.
reunion
Despite the fact that two years had passed since the conclusion of Clyde, he and Bonnie remained true to their feelings. The couple reunited and Clyde began committing crimes again with a group of accomplices. They robbed banks and small private businesses.
In April, Bonnie joined the gang, but was caught in a botched robbery attempt and spent two months in jail. While awaiting trial, she whiled away the time writing poetry, most of which focused on her relationship with Clyde. Among her poems there is one that seems to anticipate her future fate. There are lines: “One day they will fall together and be buried side by side. Few will mourn for them, least of all the law.”
Bonnie knew that the path she had chosen would lead to death. But she apparently liked the romantic aura of the criminal more than the boring life and work as a waitress.
life of crime
In June, Bonnie was released after a trial. There was not enough evidence against her, and after her statement that Clyde Barrow's gang forcibly kidnapped her, the girl was released. She immediately reunited with Clyde, and the pair continued their crimes with a different gang. Their activities spanned several states. By 1933, gang members were wanted for several murders, including government officials. The couple collaborated with Clyde's brother Buck and his wife Blanche.
In April of this year, when the gang fled their Missouri apartment, they found a film of photographs that immediately went into print.
In June, Bonnie was seriously injured in a road accident: the girl's leg was badly burned by battery acid. Because of this, she was later practically unable to walk.
Despite all attempts by the government to capture the criminals, the couple successfully managed to elude the police for two years. This elusiveness has made them the most notorious bandits in America.
The death of criminals
After one of the gang members named Henry Methvin killed a police officer in Oklahoma, the hunt flared up with renewed vigor. On the morning of May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde finally got caught. They were ambushed by police on a highway in Louisiana. By the way, the initiator of the ambush was the father of Henry Metvin, who hoped to earn indulgence for his son. In a shootout, Clyde and Bonnie died under a hail of bullets: fifty charges hit each of them in the body.
By the time of their death, the criminal couple was so famous that souvenir lovers who visited the place of death left with tufts of their hair, pieces of clothing and even ... Clyde's ear. The bodies of the criminals were transported to Dallas. Despite their desire to be buried side by side, they were buried in different cemeteries. Thousands of people came to their funeral.
Heritage
Despite their violent crimes and the ugly details of their lives, Bonnie and Clyde are consistently romanticized in the entertainment media. Their story formed the basis of films and musicals. Their car, riddled with bullets, is on public display in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In early 2018, Netflix began filming a new work about the life of a famous criminal couple. Their story is told from the point of view of one of the representatives of the law and order, called upon to put an end to their illegal activities. Actors set to take part include Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson and Kathy Bates. What do you think about the history of this famous couple?
Their names have long become common nouns, and time has cast a gloss on the events of past years, softened compromising details, myths give them a romantic halo of outstanding personalities who challenge "unfair" authorities. Films are made about them, even poems are dedicated to them. And now their names are clearly connected by the phrase "story of one love." People tend to forgive, but what was it, the real life of Bonnie and Clyde, that real life, and not the Hollywood gloss of films?
A homosexual and an adventurer, both of them were obsessed with a passion for violence, longed for the glory of the great gangsters, numerous high-profile newspaper publications and photographs.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who roamed America in the early 1930s, were ruthless killers but have been immortalized in movies, songs and legends. They never became great gangsters - most of the thefts and robberies were committed at gas stations, in small shops and eateries in small towns. But cruelty and reckless audacity, and most importantly, the complete senselessness of the murders committed made them truly legendary.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow Born March 24, 1909 near Telico, Texas. He was the fifth child in a family of seven or eight children, his parents were poor farmers, and until the age of 13 he lived on a farm. He rarely appeared at school, preferring to play with wooden pistols, wander around the district, enviously looking at the cars of wealthy citizens. In 1922, the Barrow family went bankrupt and Clyde's father moved to West Dallas. At the age of 16, Clyde dropped out of school. Already in his youth, his older brother Buck taught Clyde the first lessons in stealing. The police first arrested Clyde for stealing a car in 1926, but could not prove anything. A second arrest soon followed, after Clyde, along with his brother Buck, stole turkeys. After several petty thefts, the teenager was placed in a juvenile reform school, but the school could not fix anything, and Clyde ended up robbing roadside restaurants and small gas stations. In such suburban places, you can often get hold of a very small amount, but he understood that it was much safer to rob on trifles.
In his further "exploits" Clyde significantly surpassed his brother, he joined the ranks of the teenage gang "Ruth Square", "undressing" cars.
In 1928, Clyde ran away from home and led his first independent criminal operation. With a broken gun, he broke into the gambling hall, disarmed the guards and seized the proceeds. The next time he tried to commit a night burglary, he nearly got caught. That same year, after an unsuccessful raid on a restaurant car, Buck was convicted, and Clyde, pursued by the police, went to Texas. In January 1930, hungry, he went into one of the Dallas cafes, where the meeting of two future accomplices took place - a pretty waitress served Clyde a hamburger.
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker She was born October 1, 1910 in Rowena, Texas. When Bonnie was four years old, her father, a bricklayer by profession, died, and her mother moved with three children to a suburb of Dallas, where a girl at the age of 14 went to school. Bonnie studied very well, getting high marks in literature, acting. The girl's biggest passion is photography, but after two years she got bored with her studies, and on September 25, 1926, Bonnie married a young man named Roy Thornton. Family life did not work out, and, leaving her husband, seventeen-year-old Bonnie got a job as a waitress at Marco's Cafe in East Dallas. Despite the breakup with her husband, Bonnie did not take off her wedding ring until her death. "Little blond lump" (with a height of 150 cm, she weighed 44 kg) - this is how Bonnie wrote about herself in her diary.
America, 30s, Great Depression. Bonnie Parker works as a waitress in a creepy outback and, not without reason, assumes that her future life will be boring, poor and hopeless. Therefore, when the charming, although not quite law-abiding Clyde Barrow suddenly appears in Bonnie's field of vision, he immediately attracts her attention by the fact that he does not accept the laws of this damn world, preferring to establish his own rules of behavior. She was interested in the exciting stories about the life of a reckless tramp, which Clyde told her. Thus was the beginning of a truly infernal union.
The relationship between the homosexual Barrow and Parker was rather strange. He changed his sexual orientation while still in prison and lost two toes under unclear circumstances. It was a surrogate for love, mixed with threats and violence. As a woman, she was of little interest to the leader of the gang. In the near future, Bonnie will be content with love affairs with other members of the gang.
They fueled their friendship with stories of robberies and violent fights. Bonnie moved with Clyde to a small furnished apartment in Dallas. The all-consuming passion of this strange couple was the weapon. Bonnie admired the pistols her suitor wore in a coat holster and the power that came from the deadly guns. They made regular trips out of town to practice shooting. Soon both of them were shooting with equal accuracy from almost all types of weapons. The couple loved to be photographed with weapons: Bonnie, with a gun in her hands and a cigarette in her mouth, posed in front of the lens. Clyde with a rifle in the photographs looked simpler - he lacked the artistry of his girlfriend.
Over time, Bonnie and Clyde began to "work" together. The robberies followed the same pattern. Bonnie got behind the wheel of a car, and they drove up to the intended object. Clyde burst into the premises and "took the cash register", then rushed to the car, jumped into it on the move and covered the flight with fire.
Perilous Adventures Excited BonnieParker is much more than intimate encounters with Clyde. Three months later, Clyde had a strong "legacy" at the scene of the theft in Texas. He was arrested at an apartment in Dallas and sentenced to two years in prison, but never served the term. His brother Buck escaped from prison, and Clyde gave him an encrypted letter to his accomplice asking him to organize his escape. Through a cursory search, she was able to give Clyde a weapon during a visit in prison. On the same night, the criminal escaped and reached Ohio on freight trains.
But Clyde Barrow was only free for a week. He was arrested again and this time sent to a maximum security federal prison.
The mother of the robber, Cammy Barrow, bombarded the state governor with requests for leniency. On February 2, 1932, Clyde was released on parole. After leaving prison, he swore to Bonnie that he would rather die than go back to jail. For the rest of his life, this villain remembered the dungeons of the "flaming hell", where he was beaten with whips and forced to do gymnastic exercises until the poor fellow fell exhausted.
Bonnie Parker was next in jail. The criminals stole another car and fled from persecution. The car crashed into a tree. Clyde managed to escape, but his accomplice was captured and sentenced to two months in prison. While Bonnie sat, Clyde continued to rob stores in small towns and gas stations on highways. In Hillsboro, Texas, he killed 65-year-old John Bacher, the owner of a jewelry store. "Proceeds" amounted to only ten dollars.
When Bonnie was released, they went back to their old ways. The catches are negligible, and Bonnie is indignant. She is a supporter of large-scale actions.Therefore, Bonnie introduced Clyde to her former lover, Raymond Hamilton. Hamilton was worthy of the duo he joined. He slept with Bonnie regularly... and Clyde. Such a sexual triangle suited all three.
On April 27, 1932, they go on a joint business - a robbery of a music store. However, the seller refused to open the cash register, resisted, and had to be shot. The booty was only 40 dollars, but now he is not afraid of anything, since he has already earned the death penalty in case of capture.
On August 5, 1932, Clyde was about to rob a usher at a country holiday in Atoka, Oklahoma. Two law enforcement officers - Sheriff Charles Maxwell and his deputy Eugene Moore - saw him wandering aimlessly around. "Come out into the light, boy, so I can get a better look at you," Sheriff Maxwell said to the suspicious type, and those were his last words. Clyde threw back his coat and, drawing two automatic pistols at once, shot both policemen at point-blank range.
After that, Bonnie told the guys that it was enough to play with toys, it was time to get down to real business. So the criminal gang began their deadly odyssey.
They robbed an armory in Texas and armed themselves to the teeth, then shot a dozen mounted policemen who were blocking the roads. Raiders ransacked liquor stores, gas stations, and grocers, sometimes for just a few dollars. One day, criminals kidnapped the sheriff, stripped him and tied him up, threw him on the side of the road with the words: "Tell your people that we are not a gang of murderers. Get into the position of people trying to survive this damned depression."
Wandering, they lived like robbers in the old days: they slept by the camp fires, ate game. Whiskey was drunk at night, and Bonnie wrote pompous romantic poems in which she lamented her fate. Persecuted by the law, in reality they were a new generation of heroes - this is how the failed poetess presented her "exploits". In the fall of 1932, Bonnie and Clyde went to New Mexico with Roy Hamilton who joined them, but the profit seemed to them not as big as in Texas, and they returned back.
They killed people frequently and indiscriminately. So, Clyde took the life of a butcher who rushed with a knife to protect his 50 dollars; finished off Doyle Johnson at the Temple as he tried to prevent his car from being stolen; shot and killed two policemen who were waiting in an ambush in Dallas for another robber. Joins the gang in DallasWilliam Jones. In the future, he will tell the police the details of the life of a criminal couple.
As gypsies, they traveled around the southwestern United States, robbing stores and garages. Soon Hamilton was arrested and sentenced to 264 years in prison.
Robbery attacks became more frequent when Buck and his wife Blanche reappeared in the gang. In Kansas, they robbed the office of a loan society. There, Bonnie first saw a Wanted by Police poster with her picture. The fact that she and Clyde became "celebrities" shocked Bonnie so much that she immediately sent a dozen letters to major newspapers with pictures that she and Clyde took on their criminal path. Bonnie, by all means available to her, supported the version that she and Clyde were fighters for justice. After all, the banks they rob belong to the powerful, not to poor farmers and small businessmen. Bonnie, of course, did not mention the morbid pleasure they both derived from killing the same farmers.
During this time, Bonnie was working on a bombastic autobiographical poem. In the future, this opus was published in newspapers.
In 1933, the robbers switched mainly to small banks in the provincial towns of Indiana, Minnesota and Texas.
Once they were hiding in rented log cabins in Missouri. The raiders did not draw attention to themselves, but the manager became suspicious when they paid the rent in small coins. He reported his suspicions to the police.
The description of the appearance of the guests matched the description of the criminals, and a hundred "cops" were sent to lay siege to the alleged hideout of the gang.
To everyone's surprise, the criminals disappeared again, leaving three dead officers.
Blanche was shot in the leg, Clyde was slightly wounded in the head, Bonnie had a bullet caught in the rib, and Buck... Buck got his last bullet in his life.
In the wooded area of Iowa, the bandits licked their wounds and did everything to save Buck, but they could no longer help him.
They were deciding where to leave the dying Buck when Clyde sensed some movement in the undergrowth, and immediately bullets rained down on the camp. The criminals responded with fire. Even the mortally wounded Buck fired several automatic bursts at the police. Bonnie, Clyde and Jones managed to slip into the undergrowth and escape. The tank was riddled with bullets. The police found Blanche sobbing inconsolably over the body of her murdered husband.
Feeling the breath of the chase behind them, the duo hurriedly retreated north to Minnesota, reasonably believing that in a state where they committed fewer crimes, they would not have so many problems. They stole clothes from the ropes and ate garbage.
Jones, who rejoined them, later told police, "It wasn't the same life anymore. We were like ordinary vagrants."
Jones was the first of the gangsters to get fed up with this life and fled from his accomplices to Texas, where he was immediately arrested. He told the police everything he knew about the actions of the gang. "These two are monsters," said the fugitive. "I've never seen anyone else enjoy killing so much."
The following month, Bonnie and Clyde snuck into Texas to meet Clyde's mother at a suburban vacation spot. Then this couple almost got caught - Cammy Barrow was followed by the sheriff's people who surrounded the picnic area. Warned by some kind of sixth sense, Clyde rushed as fast as he could to the car parked nearby. The trunk of the car was riddled with bullets, he and Bonnie were slightly injured, but they were lucky.
In January 1934, Clyde launched a daring attack on the prison farm where Hamilton was being taken to work, and after a shootout with the guards, freed him and several other prisoners. Joe Palmer and Henry Methvin join the gang. The Barrow gang was gaining strength again. Again, a wave of murders, car thefts, and theft of weapons swept through different towns. Soon, however, after a quarrel in the division of the loot, Hamilton leaves his colleagues.
The wild customs of the raiders, their unbridled passions and base desires terrified people.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation instructed police personnel to shoot to kill before asking questions. It was tantamount to declaring war on the bandits terrorizing the population. The head of the FBI, Edgar Hoover, said: "Clyde is a psychopath. He must be destroyed like a mad animal."
What and with whom did Bonnie and Clyde fight? Why were rivers of human blood shed? Readers who have recently admired Bonnie Parker's romantic poem have already realized that the characters are far from being Robin Hoods. They were greedy, ruthless killers.
Meanwhile, the ring around the Barrow gang was shrinking inexorably. Texas Sheriff Frank Hamer, who neutralized 65 known criminals during his career, was tasked with tracking down Bonnie and Clyde. Hamer analyzed each of their attacks, created maps and diagrams of their movements over the years, studied all the places of the raids and the paths they took. "I wanted to penetrate their diabolical designs," he said, "and I did." Several times during the first months of 1934, Hamer and his men followed the trail of the bandits, but the police were constantly unlucky - they were always late.
At this time, Hamilton was detained in Texas, and in order to avoid the death penalty, he attributes all the crimes to Bonnie and Clyde. Having learned about this from the newspapers, Clyde writes a mocking letter to the judge, fully confirming Hamilton's testimony.
In April, the remnants of the criminal group headed to Texas, hoping to quietly sit out with Bonnie's relatives, but as they approached the city of Grainwyn, policemen Ernest Wheeler and Harold Murphy rode past on motorcycles. Sensing something was wrong, Clyde stopped the car.
The police, who were suspicious, turned back. When they came abreast, Clyde fired two barrels at once.
The criminals managed to escape again. Two weeks later in Oklahoma, when Clyde's car got stuck in the mud, two "cops" approached them. One of them received a bullet in the head, the second was more fortunate - he was slightly wounded. Thus, the total number of victims was about one and a half dozen.
The police discovered the house where the criminals hid from time to time. What was needed was a key to the door, which could be with the third member of the gang - Metvin. His father promised to help lure the gang into an ambush if Hamer spared his son. The sheriff, who was primarily interested in capturing Bonnie and Clyde, went for it.
Henry Methvin agreed to act in concert with his father and quietly slipped out of the bandits' lair.
Soon the police surrounded the shelter and blocked the road leading to it. They were armed with machine guns, automatic rifles, a large number of tear gas grenades. This time, the police had every chance to overtake the criminals.
On the morning of May 23, 1934, a Ford appeared on the road, which the couple had stolen a week earlier. Clyde was driving. He wore dark glasses that protected him from the bright spring sun. Sitting next to Clyde was his inseparable companion, wearing a new red dress that had been stolen along with other things a few weeks ago. Two thousand rounds of ammunition, three rifles, twelve pistols and two gas guns were hidden in the car.
Methvin Sr.'s truck was parked at the side of the road. When Clyde came abreast of him, he asked if his son had appeared. Methvin, seeing the approaching car with the police, trembled with fear and ducked under his truck. The sheriff jumped out of the car and ordered the bandits to surrender. But this team acted on a criminal couple like a red rag on a bull.
With a lightning movement, Clyde opened the car door and grabbed the shotgun. Bonnie pulled out a revolver.
But this time they had no hope. Lead hail hit their car. 167 bullets pierced the car, of which 50 hit the bandits. The front pages of American newspapers were filled with reports of the death of Bonnie and Clyde. The mutilated bodies of the criminals were put on public display in the morgue, and those who wished for one dollar could look at them. There were quite a few curious people. 
Ten years later, Roy Hamilton was also sentenced to death. Before his death, he recalled: "They loved to kill people, to see how blood flows, and enjoyed this spectacle. And they never missed the opportunity to enjoy the sight of someone else's death. These people did not know what pity and compassion are."
The family of the deceased criminal tried to create a different, romantic image of Bonnie. The inscription on her gravestone reads: "As flowers bloom under the rays of the sun and the freshness of dew, so the world becomes brighter thanks to people like you."
Such an epitaph for the one that left behind such an unkind bloody memory sounds somewhat strange.
Victims of the Great Depression. Lost generation. This can somehow explain the end, but it cannot justify the means to achieve it. Time leaves its marks on everything. On the lives of Bonnie and Clyde, it left the stamp of a myth. And numerous stories, true and not quite, give the robbers a romantic halo of outstanding personalities who challenge the authorities, but in reality, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Burrow turned out to be just ruthless killers.
Bonnie and Clyde are famous American robbers active during the Great Depression. Killed in 1934 FBI agents. Bonnie was 24 at the time of the murder, Clyde was 25.
Bonnie was born into a poor mason and seamstress family with three children. Clyde comes from a family of poor farmers with seven children. Bonnie studied well, was a fashionista, wrote poetry. Clyde, apparently, did not shine with education.
Everything in their life happened extremely quickly and concentrated.
Bonnie left school at the age of 15. She got married at 16. At 17, she got a job as a waitress. At 18, she separated from her husband. At 22, she met Clyde, and away we go...
(pictured is Bonnie and her first husband, whom, by the way, she never divorced)
Clyde stole a car at the age of 17 (rented and did not return), for which he was arrested. A little later, he stole turkeys, and was arrested again. At the age of 18-20, he began to crack safes, rob shops and steal cars, for which he was sent to prison at the age of 21. There he was raped. Clyde killed the rapist. In the same place, Clyde lost two toes, which he chopped off in protest against the orders that prevailed in this institution.
It is believed that it was in prison that Clyde finally "ripened". His sister Mary said, "Something terrible must have happened to him in prison, because he was never the same." Ralph Fults, who served his sentence at the same time as Clyde, said that before his eyes he turned from a schoolboy into a rattlesnake. At 23, Clyde was released early, after which he met Bonnie, and away we go ...
They had only two years of life left, during which they had to have time to become famous as frostbitten killers and robbers, about whom many legends would then be made, films would be made, and their names would become household names.
Bonnie and Clyde are usually represented as romantic lovers who were devoted to each other to the end. But, there are also some other opinions.
According to some sources, it is believed that Clyde was a homosexual. According to others, it is stated that Bonnie and Clyde were lovers, but at the same time entered into sexual relations with other members of the gang. For example, it is known that Roy Hamilton was the lover of both.
(Pictured - Raymond Hamilton)
And then Roy also brought a girlfriend to the gang, because of which relations within the team escalated to the limit.
(Hamilton's girlfriend, whom he, by his own admission, loved more than anyone in the world, with the exception of his mother)
By the way, what is remarkable - Raymond Hamilton was sentenced to 264 years in prison for drunkenly shooting the sheriff and his deputies.
Based on such "free" relationships and Clyde's difficult orientation, some people believe that there was no unearthly love between Bonnie and Clyde by definition. Although there was no doubt that they were really very devoted to each other: Bonnie had pulled Clyde out of prison at one time, giving him weapons on a date, and Clyde later, when the police detained Bonnie, recaptured his girlfriend by impudently attacking the police station .
Yes, and Bonnie's mother, Emma Parker, said: “I immediately realized that there was something between them when Bonnie introduced him to me. I saw it in her eyes, in the way she held onto his jacket sleeve.”
It is believed that Bonnie became the think tank of the gang and thanks to her, the crimes reached a new level.
Nevertheless, they explained their crimes, of course, not by their bloodthirstiness or passion for profit, but by "hard fate" and "struggle against the system."
Here, for example, are Bonnie's poems that she wrote in those two years:
"Now Bonnie and Clyde are a famous duet,
All the newspapers are talking about them.
After their "work" there are no witnesses,
Only the stench of death remains.
But there are many false words about them,
And they are not so cruel.
They hate snitches and liars
And the law is their mortal enemy."
One day, the criminals kidnapped the sheriff, stripped him and, having tied him up, threw him on the side of the road with the words: “Tell your people that we are not a gang of murderers. Get into the position of people trying to survive this damn depression."
“The country shuddered from cold murders,
And their cruelty is a grave sin,
But I knew Clyde back then
When he was like everyone else.
He was a good Texas guy simple,
Nothing to blame him for
But life was harsh with him
And pushed on the devil's path.
After meeting, Bonnie and Clyde immediately became close. They often went out of town and learned to shoot accurately. Perhaps, marksmanship from all types of weapons has become the only science in which they have reached perfection.
They also liked to be photographed with weapons: with a pistol or rifle in their hands, they often posed in front of the lens. In fact, they took pictures all the time. And in 1933, fleeing from the police, the criminals left some things on the site of their dwelling - a series of photographs and Bonnie's poems about the difficult fate of highway robbers. The evidence was left "accidentally", but here's what's interesting. The photographs were extremely poser: Bonnie and Clyde appeared as daring thugs with huge guns, cigars, fashionable outfits and a cool car in the background.
Bonnie's poems told about love and the expectation of an imminent death under police bullets. After all this was published in the newspaper, the popularity of Bonnie and Clyde skyrocketed - they became the main characters of gossip columns.
Once in Kansas, Bonnie first saw a Wanted by Police poster with her image. The fact that she and Clyde became "celebrities" shocked Bonnie so much that she immediately sent a dozen letters to major newspapers with pictures that she and Clyde took on their criminal path.
In general, they loved to promote. Actually, that's why they eventually became so famous.
“If suddenly a policeman is killed in Dallas
And the "cops" have no leads,
The real killer will not be revealed
Bonnie and Clyde carry the answer.
If suddenly the couple decides to calm down
And rent an apartment
In a couple of days they will get tired of life,
And again with a gun in his hand.
And he somehow confessed bitterly to me:
"I can't see the age of freedom.
My life will end on a hellish fire,
And retribution will not be avoided!
Everything is darker and more terrible unreliable way,
More and more senseless struggle.
Let's get rich someday
But free - never!
They didn't think they were the strongest
After all, the law cannot be defeated!
And that death will be retribution for sin,
They both knew for sure.
They began by robbing an arms depot in Texas in the spring of 1930. There they were armed to the teeth. After that, they began to rob eateries, shops, gas stations. By the way, in those days there was not much money to be made from robbing banks - the Great Depression raked all the big money out of the banks, and the gang sometimes received more by robbing some roadside shop.
The robbery scenario was usually as follows: Bonnie was driving a car, Clyde broke in and took the proceeds, then jumped into the car on the go, shooting back. If someone tried to resist, then he immediately received a bullet. However, they ruthlessly removed innocent bystanders. They were not just robbers, they were murderers, and on their account were both ordinary people like the owners of small shops and gas stations, and policemen, whom Clyde preferred to kill in order to avoid prison.
After the murder of the first policeman who decided to check the documents of a suspicious couple from the car, there was nothing to lose: now they were probably facing a death sentence. Therefore, Bonnie and Clyde went all out and, without hesitation, fired at people in any situation, even when they were practically not in danger. On August 5, 1932, two policemen spotted Clyde at a village festival. When they asked him to come up, the bandit put both of them down on the spot. A month later, breaking through the police posts on the road, the gang shot twelve guardians of the law.
Of course, they were constantly hunted by the police. However, for the time being they were incredibly lucky. However, they had absolutely nothing to lose, so any attempts by the police to get this gang ran into shooting.
However, the father of one of the gang members, in exchange for pardoning his son, offered his help in catching the criminals. He gave the police the key to the house where Bonnie and Clyde were hiding. The house was surrounded by two dense rings of policemen, all entrances to it were blocked.
On the morning of May 23, 1934, a stolen Ford appeared on the road. The driver was wearing dark glasses, and a woman in a new red dress was sitting next to him. Two thousand cartridges, three rifles, twelve pistols, two pump-action shotguns and ... a saxophone were hidden in the car. It was Bonnie and Clyde. Apparently, they still hoped to escape.
However, they did not succeed. Without having time to fire a single shot, they were shot dead by the police. They write that more than five hundred bullets pierced the bodies of the gangsters, and they were almost torn to pieces.
“Let you suffer from the pains of the heart,
And death will carry away the decrepit.
But with the misfortunes of Bonnie and Clyde fate
Do not compare your petty adversities!
The day will come and they will fall into eternal sleep
In the unmourned loose earth.
And the country and the law will breathe a sigh of relief,
Sending them into oblivion."
The mutilated bodies of the criminals were put on public display in the morgue, and those who wished for one dollar could look at them. There were quite a lot of curious people ... Photos of the killed bandits were published by all the newspapers.
After death, they became natural symbols, like moths, who lived their lives in the fight against the law and poverty. And even on Bonnie's grave they wrote:
“As flowers bloom under the rays of the sun and the freshness of dew, so the world becomes brighter thanks to people like you.”
What kind of alternatively gifted person thought to write this on the killer's grave - I can only guess. But, this is very revealing in the sense that crime can be romanticized. People even make tattoos with their images. So you can imagine their popularity.
By the way, several films have been made about Bonnie and Clyde. But I don't think there's anything interesting to see there. At least, judging by this photo, it shows nothing more than glamorous gangsters in love with each other.
A squad of policemen, led by Frank Hamer, a Texas Ranger, waited for the appearance of a Ford V8 car on the road, hiding in the bushes. A few minutes later, the car was already smoking on the side of the road, and inside lay the dead bodies that belonged to the most famous robber couple in the world, whose names were Clyde and Bonnie.
Origin of Bonnie Parker
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is the daughter of a bricklayer from Roven, Texas. Her father died when she was not yet four years old. Together with her sister and mother, the girl moved to Dallas. She was not yet 16 years old when she married Roy Thornton, a petty crook. This marriage could hardly be called (especially considering subsequent events) a love story. Soon the husband disappeared into the criminal world, and after 1929 the newlyweds no longer crossed paths, although the girl did not take off her wedding ring until the last day. Thornton learned in prison that his wife had died.
Meeting Bonnie and Clyde
The main characters of our story, Clyde and Bonnie, met when she was 19 and he was 21. According to some version, it happened in a diner where the girl worked as a waitress at that time, according to another, they first met at Bonnie's friend. The girl was just making hot chocolate when Clyde entered the house.
Clyde's past
The latter was already an avid gangster by the time of this fateful meeting. Together with Buck, his older brother, this son of the poor, originally from Dallas, has already committed a sufficient number of robberies of roadside cafes and shops. After Buck went to prison in 1928, Clyde, the younger Barrow, became the leader of a criminal gang.
The beginning of the story of two lovers
It is not known what he said to Bonnie when they met, but she moved in with him the very next day. The lovers did not part for a minute. Clyde was an excellent shot and carried a pistol with him at all times. The girl asked me to teach her how to shoot. Clyde soon began to take his girlfriend "on business": she usually sat in the car when he burst into a gas station or cafe and robbed the cashier, threatening the staff with a weapon. A few months later he was arrested, but Bonnie managed to arrange an escape by handing over the gun to his partner. Soon she herself went to jail, and then, for two years, Clyde again. Parker at that time wrote him letters in which she promised to wait.
Clyde's first murder
He was released from prison in 1932 as a completely different person. Barrow Marie, his sister, said that "something terrible" happened there. This "terrible" - the first murder of Clyde - he beat the prisoner who raped him to death.
A dark story is the love of these two people. According to some reports, she was platonic, since the young man was a homosexual. According to another version, they had sexual relations not only among themselves, but also with other members of the gang. Roy Hamilton, as you know, was the lover of both, and then he also brought his girlfriend, because of which relations within this "team" heated up to the limit.
However, everyone who met Clyde and Bonnie said that they truly love each other. For example, Emma Parker, the girl's mother, noted that she understood this as soon as Bonnie introduced her to her boyfriend. "I saw it in her eyes," she said.
Development of events
Soon Buck, Clyde's brother, and Blanche, his wife, joined the company. Together they committed murders and robberies with unjustified cruelty. 13 deaths are on the conscience of this gang.
The life of Bonnie and Clyde was the life of real vagabonds: they ate what they managed to get in the shops, slept on the street, drank themselves unconscious, as if foreseeing their future death, knowing that they would not survive. Bonnie, during her last meeting with her mother, asked her not to speak ill of Clyde when they were killed.
"Fighters for Justice"
They considered themselves fighters for justice. It seemed an honorable thing during the Great Depression to deprive those who had even a little money. Despite the fact that the crimes of these people were high-profile, their booty was very small: in May 1933, they stole 2.5 thousand dollars from a Minnesota bank, which was the most significant amount. John Dillinger, a famous contemporary of the couple, said at the time that Bonnie and Clyde were "a disgrace to bank robbers." The lovers in October 1930 shot the owner of a grocery store in Texas. His life was worth only $28.
The couple loved cars and weapons. Clyde, shortly before his death, even wrote a letter of gratitude to Henry Ford, in which he promised that he would only steal cars of this brand.
Robbers in Oklahoma took Percy Boyd, the sheriff, captive, then left him on the sidelines, telling his people goodbye that they were "not a gang of murderers", but ordinary people trying to survive the Depression. The undisputed leader, according to the surviving police officer, was Clyde. And he even liked Bonnie - according to the sheriff, she seemed like a stranger in this company. The policeman noted that they loved each other, and told a detail: the lovers had a rabbit in the car, which the girl was taking to her mother as a gift.
"PR campaign" hosted by Bonnie Parker
These two were always happy when they saw articles about themselves in the newspapers. Bonnie even developed a "PR campaign" on purpose: she sent staged photographs to the newspapers in front of a car, with weapons at the ready. She attached her poems to these pictures. The notebook, in which several poems were written down by hand, was sold in 2007 for $36,000 at a Bonhams auction.
The glory of the robbers was growing. The best forces of the FBI and the police were thrown into their capture, they were promised a reward of $ 1,500. Note that well-known crime bosses also opposed the gang, for example, Handsome Floyd, who absolutely did not want to share with a bunch of visiting hooligans, the already small prey.
Ambush
In 1933, the gang was ambushed - Blanche Barrow was wounded in the leg, and Buck (her husband) was shot dead. Hamilton was arrested and then sent to the electric chair in April 1934. After that, Clyde and Bonnie went to Texas with the intention of sitting there with Bonnie's relatives. They found a haven, but Henry Methvin, the father of one of the gang members, betrayed the location of the beloved in exchange for the fact that his son was found not guilty. It was his supposedly broken car that served as a bait on that fateful day - May 23, 1934.
How does the story of Bonnie and Clyde end?
The end of this story was as follows. Clyde and Bonnie did not even have time to take weapons when a flurry of lead fell on their car: a lot of bullets stuck into the bodies of lovers. The evening papers immediately published reports of the deaths of these notorious robbers, with a front-page photo of their bodies riddled with bullets. Clyde's jacket, in which 40 bullet holes were counted, and his gun with 7 notches, one for each of those killed, were shown to the public.
However, this was not enough: the bodies of Clyde and Bonnie were put up in the morgue, and everyone could look at them for only a dollar for several days. This was done in Dallas by 40 thousand people who looked at Bonnie's body, and 30 thousand - at Clyde.
20 relatives, including friends and mothers of the couple, also appeared before the court for harboring, and the criminals themselves, against the wishes of Bonnie, were buried in different cemeteries. Such is the life and death of the robbers named Bonnie and Clyde, whose true story was told in this article.
Bonnie and Clyde Museum
There is a museum of this couple in Gibsland, located in the former cafe where the criminals bought their last meal. The son of Ted Hinton, a ranger involved in the shooting of the gang, works there as a caretaker. Every weekend leading up to May 23, this city hosts a festival dedicated to Bonnie and Clyde, during which a fatal ambush is staged.
Screen adaptations of the story
For all the couples of the underworld, the names of these robbers today have become common nouns. They are quoted in music, fashion, cinema. There are several adaptations of this story, including documentaries, but the most famous of them is the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. The film is directed by Arthur Penn and produced by Warren Beatty who plays Clyde. For this film, they were looking for a female lead for a long time. Natalie Wood, Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Beatty's sister, and Leslie Caron, his then girlfriend (who dumped Warren when she was turned down) were considered for the role. Arthur Penn finally made up his mind - the choice fell on the actress Faye Dunaway, whom he saw in the film "The Incident", the debut for this girl, and immediately noted.
"Bonnie and Clyde" (film) tells the story of this famous couple from the moment they met until the fatal shootout. Clyde was presented as an ingenuous romantic who loves to talk about justice and suffers from impotence, which explains his supposedly platonic feelings for Bonnie. The latter was depicted as an enthusiastic young girl in love with her hero. She longs to escape from the gray everyday life of American life, take risks, live on the limit and love, no matter what.
After the release of the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" (the true life story of the robbers became very popular), women began to copy the style of the actress who played Bonnie Parker, and magazines began to publish various shootings with models whose image resembled the heroine - girls in midi skirts and blouses posed in front of cameras with weapons in their hands. Faye Dunaway initially wanted to act in slacks that were more comfortable for gunfights and chases. But Theadora van Runkle, the costume designer, came up with a more glamorous look with a beret, tight pencil skirt and heels. And I didn't guess. Modern Bonnies and Clydes have taken their idols as a model of style. The popularity of the picture was great.
"Bonnie and Clyde" (film) came out at a time when a huge wave of student protests swept the West. Therefore, the youth of the late 60s perceived these robbers as heroes. The film was nominated for an Oscar and received two statuettes - for the female supporting role (played by Blanche Barrow Estelle Parsons) and camera work.
This tape greatly influenced the further development of American cinema. According to Quentin Tarantino, who quoted this story in his work Natural Born Killers, this film began the Silver Age in Hollywood, which lasted right up to the early 1980s. Of course, for the actors, he also became a breakthrough. When Warren Beatty was honored at the 36th American Film Institute Awards in 2008, Faye Dunaway took the stage and delivered a touching Bonnie Parker-style verse speech, ending with "this is the end of the story" where Faye Dunaway is Bonnie and Warren Beatty is Clyde.
In 2013, the mini-series "Bonnie and Clyde" appeared. The film was a great success with the audience. Holliday Granger and Emile Hirsch (respectively Bonnie and Clyde) played the leading roles. Series 2, for example, tells us about how it all began (there are 20 episodes in total).
Many songs have also been created based on this story. The composition of the same name is in the groups "Spleen", "Night Snipers", Bad Balance, or, for example, we note the song performed by Kristina Si - "Bonnie and Clyde".
1935, May 23, morning - a dark red Ford was driving along a country road. Behind tall bushes, six riflemen armed with carbines were waiting for him. Inside the Ford were a man and a girl whose heads the American police valued at $50,000. When the car arrived at the ambush site, all six shooters rose to their full height and opened heavy fire.
More than a hundred bullets riddled the car and everyone in the cabin. "Ford" after driving a few more meters, stopped on the side of the road. The two bloody bodies of a minute ago were the legendary raiders Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. They were ranked among the most famous bandits in the United States. The reasons for this were more than solid.
The law pursued Bonnie and Clyde in a dozen states. They did not hesitate to shoot anyone who tried to stop them. The news of their death flew through all the world's newspapers, but no one believed in it. “This is another police duck,” said one of the respected American newspapers. “Someone needs political dividends in the upcoming elections, and he (and most likely “they”) intends to get them even with official recognition, based on gossip at best.” And only when the public was presented with photos of the corpses and an expert opinion on death, the Americans were convinced that they had lost their unlucky heroes.
Bonnie and Clyde became celebrities in two short years. They really were to become folk heroes - modern-day Robin Hood and Maid Maryam. But not for their victims, and not for the cops who tracked them down and killed them. For the police, they were simply trophies that could be shown to the whole world. Naked and unwashed, they were laid out on mortuary tables and photographed for history. Bonnie Parker is only 23, her partner is a year older.
Clyde Barrow was born on March 24, 1909 in Teleko (Texas), in a small town near Dallas. He was the sixth, penultimate child in the family. At the age of nine, Clyde was sent to an institution for juvenile delinquents as an incorrigible truant and petty thief. Teleko was located in a sandy basin. This was the name given to a vast area in the American Southwest, devastated by drought and intensive farming. 2/3 of the inhabitants dispersed in search of a better life. Among them was Clyde's father, who sold the farm for next to nothing. Clyde tried to provide for his family, but all his noble attempts were beyond the law.
1929 - young Clyde Barrow met young Bonnie Parker. Petite and slender, cheerful and smart, she was able to charm anyone. Bonnie's father died when she was only 4 years old. The mother, having taken the children, moved to live in Dallas, in a gloomy area, which was called the "cement city". Bonnie and her sister Billy married early, and both were petty criminals. A year after the wedding, the first husband of the future raider, Roy, ran away with his mistress.
Bonnie did not long for long: three months later she sheltered Clyde, who was hunted by the police with might and main. Clyde Barrow, a thief and swindler, spent only one night in bed with his beloved. Dawn had barely dawned when the door ripped off its hinges with a crash and three guys in uniform fell on the sleepy thief in unison. Clyde received 2 years in prison and 12 years on probation.
And although the prison term looked ridiculous for a professional thief, the energetic Clyde decided not to sit it out. His faithful Bonnie, having hidden a loaded Colt under her dress, was able to pass the weapon through the bars during the next date. The stern jailer at the checkpoint was ashamed to search the sweet and friendly girl, who exuded genuine timidity and chastity.
That same night, an armed Clyde escaped from prison, but two days later he was already caught and again yearned behind bars. He was now facing a full 14 years in prison. I had to resort to a small but painful operation. A local chamber "surgeon" chopped off two toes on his cellmate's leg with a homemade knife, moreover, at his request. The wounded prisoner was released.
In the United States in those days, banditry flourished thanks to Prohibition. The mafia ruled in the big cities, and in the provinces there was a hunt for gangsters like John Dillinger. The country was gripped by a depression that followed the stock market crash on Wall Street. More than three million families were forced to live on welfare. Employers were not interested in yesterday's prisoners.
Bonnie and Clyde, armed with revolvers, began to rob trading establishments throughout Texas. Bonnie, covering her face with a dark silk handkerchief, fearlessly fired upwards, while her partner hurriedly packed the money into a bag. This went on for several months until the hijackers fell into a police ambush in Kaufman.
Clyde, firing back, took to his heels and escaped with only a slight wound in the shoulder. The police roughly tied up Bonnie, who was squealing and biting, and dragged her to the car. When the judges looked at the young, pretty raider, they did not believe for a long time that they actually faced the object of criminal proceedings. Appearance and touching notes took their toll: the raider was sentenced to only three years.
Bonnie, after serving two, was released early for good behavior. Behind the prison walls, all her virtue disappeared again. Bonnie and Clyde were still together. Raid followed raid. During breaks, they had fun and posed for the camera. The pictures only increased their popularity. The press portrayed the gangsters as ruthless lovers who, wandering through the cities of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, robbing and killing, at the same time remained a romantic couple.
In reality, everything was much more prosaic and even piquant. The prison turned the passionate Clyde into a bisexual. Very soon, the formidable gang was replenished with a third member - Ray Hamilton, with whom Clyde spent his prison term in love joys. Jealous Bonnie for a long time could not treat same-sex sex with understanding, then got used to it and tried to simply ignore it.
During the year, the criminal trio killed 4 people, the first of which was a jeweler. The raiders stole weapons, stole cars, and even swung at banks. Bank locks and employees, whose hands lay a few centimeters from the red button, could not resist their audacity. Ray Hamilton, although he considered himself lucky, got caught first.
Bonnie and Clyde hid for a month and decided to leave the state. A few days before leaving, they were again ambushed and opened fire with revolvers. In a desperate shootout, a sheriff's deputy was killed. The raiders managed to get away again, but now they were being hunted by the entire Texas police force. Bonnie, who sensed her near death, decided to play with death already openly. The gang was replenished with Clyde's brother named Buck and a certain 16-year-old youth named Wu De.
The raiders needed firearms. Bonnie offered to organize a raid on the federal arsenal in Springfield, Missouri. The operation went brilliantly. Success was immediately celebrated with a robbery of a loan company in Kansas City. While the police were looking for gangsters in six states, they made their way back to Dallas to visit their relatives. After the robbery of a jewelry store in Neosh, Bonnie and Clyde rented a house nearby, but a neighbor managed to notice how suspicious trunks migrated into the house along with bags and boxes.
The police arrived 15 minutes later and immediately began to suffer casualties. The first volley from the window of the surrounded house killed two policemen. The guards did not expect such a rebuff. Taking advantage of the confusion, the bandits jumped out of the house, got into the car and rushed along the dusty road. That night they drove almost 400 miles from Neosh to Texas. Clyde's hand was bleeding, it was bandaged right on the go. Before that, Bonnie was able to pull a bullet out of the wound with a hairpin.
Despite all their fame, the money the bandits got was tiny. The biggest prize - $ 2,500 they captured in May 1933 at the Okobino bank. The legendary John Dillinger commented on this event: “A couple of scumbags. They dishonor the bank robbers." A week later, Clyde was driving at his usual crazy speed when the accident happened. The car caught fire and overturned.
Clyde was able to open the door and jump out of the blazing salon. Bonnie was less nimble. She received serious burns and was barely able to hobble to the nearest village. A compassionate family that sheltered a young couple offered to call a doctor. Bonnie refused. The owner then called the police.
Two officers arrived at the house and a few minutes later were ambushed. The hijackers declared them hostages, got into a police car with them and at the same frantic speed rushed to the state line. The officers were released at the border.
Bonnie recovered slowly. The raiders had a chance to hide in Kansas and Iowa. Despite all their caution, the police tracked them down again. Early in the morning, a dozen or two policemen surrounded the house, where Clyde and his Bonnie were basking in the early morning slumber.
Sensitive Bonnie heard a slight noise, looked out from behind the curtain and was horrified. She woke Clyde, and together they tried to sneak out of the house unnoticed. The first shots rang out, and the bandits, shooting right and left, rushed ahead. They were able to get to the river and started swimming. Fortune again and again helped Bonnie and Clyde, who seemed drunk on the risk.
In the next 4 months, they shot four more policemen. By that time, Brother Buck was already resting in a better world, struck down by a bullet from a carbine. Baby Wu De, captured at the border, was able to avoid the electric chair. At the trial, he cried and shouted that he was forced to shoot and cut by force. Wu De asked for a pardon and was sent to federal prison for 15 years.
The elusive Bonnie and Clyde were dealt with by Sheriff Schmidt, who ordered his best agents to get the bandits alive or dead. The same, inspired by luck, attacked the farm where the prisoners worked, killed the guards and selected five prisoners from the striped crowd. The new team began to smash banking institutions, leaving behind corpses. Everything would be fine, but Clyde's sexual orientation manifested itself again.
Shameless Clyde flirted with two members of the gang, and they reciprocated. The third bandit brought his girlfriend to the group, and away we go. While the press treated the gangsters as sensational, a quarrel developed among them, not so much because of a sexual partnership, but because of the booty. The raids yielded a meager catch. Having quarreled and almost shot each other, the bandits split into two camps and dispersed.
Bonnie and Clyde traveled around the states, robbing and killing. During a long road trip, they stopped between corn fields, deciding to rest. The loving couple drank whiskey, shot birds and made love. Soon, two police officers from the highway patrol noticed her. The officers drove up to the car, not even suspecting who they would have to deal with. Smiling amiably, Bonnie and Clyde unanimously opened fire. After this cold-blooded murder, they signed their own verdict: the romantic and sentimental part of the United States turned away from them. Now a reward has been posted for the capture of Bonnie and Clyde.
The federal authorities joined forces to capture the daring hijackers. The search was led by Mounted Policeman Frank Hamer, who had shot 60 bandits in his time. Hedged by two fighters, he followed the trail of the raiders, not allowing them to rest and gain strength and ammunition. Bonnie and Clyde were heading northeast toward Oklahoma.
A random police patrol tried to stop a suspicious car with bullet holes in its windshield. But a machine gun shot out of the window. Two policemen fell on the road. One of them fell already dead. Local police chief Percy Boyd received minor head wounds and was taken hostage. The bandits kept him for a day. In the end, they somehow liked him and were generously released.
Percy Boyd began to share his impressions. According to him, Clyde stood out for his vanity and arrogance. As for Bonnie, the chief of police liked her:
She is not at all the same as shown in the picture with a revolver in her hands and a cigar in her mouth. She was annoyed by the caption under the photo "Clyde Barrow's girlfriend smokes cigars", and she regretted that she had once posed. Bonnie looks like herself in another picture. Where a smiling and cheerful girl stands. And you know, she really loves Clyde. This couple constantly carries a little rabbit named Sonny Boy with them in their car. They are going to give it to Bonnie's mother.
The last fact was a clue. A small squad of police headed to Dallas and visited the mother of Texas' most famous raider. The aging lonely woman sorted through the photographs and stared blankly at the armed policemen. “I haven't seen Bonnie for 5 years,” she said. “And even if I knew where she was, I still wouldn’t say. A mother cannot betray her child, no matter what it may be and no matter what is written about it.”
The deadly tired officers hoped for the mistake of the raiders and still waited. Clyde's Ford was spotted outside a cafe in Louisiana. The police suggested that the bandits were looking for a meeting with their former accomplice Henry Methven, whose father lived on a local farm. For some reason, all local robberies were attributed to Bonnie and Clyde.
Six police officers hid near the Methven Sr. farm. There was a whole arsenal of automatic weapons in their car, but there was nothing to brighten up the long wait. The officers were mortally tired, soaked, and exhausted by mosquito bites. For three days and three nights they sat in ambush. However, Bonnie and Clyde were on the lookout. On May 23, at 4 am, officers stopped the car where Henry Methven's father was driving. The old man was dragged out of the car, handcuffed to a tree, and the car was left in the middle of the road as bait.
At ten o'clock in the morning, a familiar Ford appeared on the horizon. Clyde was driving. Noticing the bait, he slowed down, but the next second he pressed the gas again. But it was already too late. A friendly volley of carbines rang out from the bushes. The Ford, shot almost point-blank, stopped. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker died a violent death, died the way they lived. Bonnie fell onto Clyde's shoulder.
Clyde was an excellent shot. Few managed to stay alive if Clyde fired the first shot. Pistols and a carbine lay next to Bonnie, but the ambush took her by surprise. A few hours later, the first onlookers appeared at the shooting site. A bullet-riddled Ford escorted a long escort of 50 cars to the police station.
The crimson Ford was put on public display behind a high mesh fence. This fence appeared after souvenir hunters tried to dismantle the car for parts. Some even got pieces of Bonnie's clothes and locks of hair before her body was removed from the car. Three light machine guns, two shotguns, a dozen pistols and at least 1,000 rounds of ammunition were found in the back seat. They were of no use to the bandits. More than a hundred bullets lodged in two corpses.
The officers who shot the raiders became national heroes. Chaos reigned around the morgue. The crowd was eager to see the famous corpses. Filming was done at the morgue to visually witness the death. Bonnie's body, put on display in Dallas, could be seen by almost 40,000 onlookers. A few less came to gawk at Clyde's corpse. The most curious were shown Clyde's torn jacket and his carbine, where seven notches flaunted on the butt - one for each victim.
20 people were brought to trial on charges of harboring criminals. These were relatives and friends. The men were shackled with one long chain to prevent an attempt to attack the guards.
Clyde was buried next to his brother Buck in West Dallas Cemetery. A huge flower wreath was dropped from an airplane on his grave. Bonnie wanted to be buried next to Clyde, but her body was taken to Fishtrap Cemetery.
Between robberies and murders, Bonnie sent her poems to many newspapers. Examination proved their authenticity. Among them was her own prophetic epitaph:
They don't consider themselves too cruel
They know that the law always wins.
They've been shot at before
And they remember that death is the punishment for sin.
Someday they'll be killed together
And buried side by side.
It will be sadness for the few
And it will be a relief to the law
And it will be death for Bonnie and Clyde.
On Bonnie's grave, someone's hand carved the inscription: "As flowers become sweeter from the sun and dew, so our old world becomes better thanks to people like you."
And yet she was America's most cold-blooded and cruel raider.