Bonnie and Clyde
The Romeo and Juliet of the
Crime World
Star Crossed Lovers…
• Like Shakespeare’s teenage lovers this
couple were doomed to die tragic
deaths
• This was however a tad expected due
to their lifestyle.
Their eyes met…
• Bonnie and Clyde met in Texas, 1930.
• Clyde was serving time for burglary.
• Bonnie was due to be married to a
murderer.
• He was 21, she, a sweet 19
Their first date…
• Their relationship grew and she helped
break him out of prison by smuggling in
a gun.
• He was recaptured and then paroled in
1932 – Bonnie joined him
Bonnie
• Bonnie stood at
4’11”
• She had Shirley
Temple-coloured
strawberry-blond
ringlets, was frecklefaced and, according
to those who knew
her,very pretty.
The Deprived Childhood
• Her father died when she was young so
her mother was forced into taking lowly
paid jobs to make ends meet.
• Her poverty made her want things she
couldn’t afford – hats especially.
• She wasn’t stupid, when she was at
school she was a good students with a
flair for English.
Clyde Barrow
• At 5’7” he was
deemed to be quite
attractive to the
women who knew
him.
• He was born into
dire poverty – tenant
farmers for parents.
The Crimes begin
• He tried to go straight but failed
• Clyde made a half-hearted attempt at
work in Massachusetts. That lasted all
of two weeks.
• He returned to Bonnie and off they went
-- in a stolen car.
Bonnie in Porridge
• The "laws" caught up with them, Clyde
escaped and Bonnie ended up in the
Kaufman, Texas jail for a couple of
months. It was at this time that Bonnie
wrote the poem "The Story of Suicide
Sal."
• Meanwhile, Clyde kept busy. He robbed the
Sims Oil Company in Dallas and escaped.
• The turning point came on April 13 when the
robbery of a jewellery store owned by John
Bucher ended up with Bucher's death.
• Although Clyde claimed he was in the car at
the time of the shooting, he and Raymond
Hamilton, a childhood friend, were then
known as the killers of John Bucher. Clyde's
career had began in earnest. A series of gas
station robberies followed and Clyde was
identified as one of the perpetrators.
Bonnie joins in
• Bonnie was released from jail in June
and joined Clyde. On August 5, while he
was in Atoka, Oklahoma with Hamilton
(it is unclear why Bonnie was not with
them), they killed two policemen, C.G.
Maxwell and Eugene Moore, who went
to investigate them while they were
drinking inside the car.
The Bizarre Car Theft
• Bonnie and Clyde stole a car belonging
to a Mr. Darby from a boarding house.
He saw them. He asked Miss Sofia
Stone if he could borrow her car to give
chase. They did, but realized they could
not keep up and turned their machine
around. When they looked in the rear
view mirror, they saw they were being
pursued by their own stolen car.
• They were taken in Mr. Darby's own car as
captives. As Miss Stone tells it, a gun was
kept in her side all the time by Bonnie and
she was told that if they weren't so likable
they would have been killed. Bonnie laughed
when she asked Mr. Darby his profession and
found out it was an undertaker. She said
maybe someday he would be working on her.
As it turned out, Bonnie couldn't have been
closer to the truth. They were let go. But Mr.
Darby would see Bonnie one more time
The Gang Grows
• W.D. Jones, a petty thief, was Bonnie
and Clyde's newest member on their
road to nowhere. Malcolm Davis was
the next police officer to lose the draw
to Clyde's deadly aim.
And again…
• In March of 1933, Marvin (Buck) Barrow was
released from the Texas Penitentiary after
serving a short term for burglary and, with his
second wife Blanch, joined his brother,
Bonnie and W.D. Jones in Joplin, Missouri.
The five set up house in a garage apartment
and stayed there until April when the police,
thinking they had found a gang of illegal gin
brewers, closed in. In the ensuing gun battle,
Clyde was shot as was Jones but two more
officers bit the dust.
Must be love…
• In the apartment,
officers found Buck's
pardon and a guitar.
A newspaperman
found some
undeveloped film.
When developed,
one of the shots was
Bonnie holding a
shotgun on Clyde
Fleeing the Scene
• By now, it was all downhill. Near
Wellington, Texas, their stolen Ford
plunged off a bridge under construction
and Bonnie was pinned underneath.
The machine caught fire. Rescued by
some farmers, who saw the arsenal of
weapons in the car, one ran off to call
police.
Help on the way…
• One of the women neighbours who came to
help was shot by a nervous W.D. Jones.
• He blew her hand off. When two policemen
came to investigate, the Barrow gang
overpowered them. Along with Bonnie, they
were loaded into the car and later released.
Bonnie's leg would never be the same.
The Police close in
• Their next place of residence was the
Red Crown Tourist Camp in Platte City,
Missouri. They rented a double cabin
with a garage in between. The police
paid them another visit. In this gun
battle Buck was hit in the forehead.
Blanche was hit in the eyes with flying
glass. The gang put a set of sunglasses
on her face.
Continued
• Once again, they escaped but were found
three days later in a park in Dexter, Iowa on a
tip from a waiter who informed police that a
man had for the past few days ordered five
meals and taken them into the woods. Clyde,
in his haste to escape, ran his car into a
stump and the police proceeded to riddle it
with bullets. Buck was hit several more times
-- in the hip and shoulder.
The Gang is split
• Clyde and Jones took Bonnie and
escaped through a stream and proceeded
through a cornfield to a farm. Holding the
farmer and his son at bay, they took his
car. Buck was captured and died from his
wounds a few days later in an Iowa
hospital. Blanche, probably the most
innocent of all (she was constantly trying
to reform Buck) was sent to the Missouri
State Penitentiary.
The Police close in again
• Bonnie's leg became deformed for lack
of good medical attention. In November,
while trying to visit their parents, sheriff
Smoot got wind of it, set up an ambush
and with other law officers, blasted the
car. Bonnie and Clyde, both hit in the
legs, once again escaped. Clyde had
more lives than a cat.
The Gang Grows
• In January, Clyde
and Bonnie
sprang Raymond
Hamilton from
Prison
• Along with
Hamilton was one
Henry Methvin.
Crime Spree (again)
• Another police officer, Major Crowson,
would not see the days end. Between
January and March, several banks were
robbed and were attributed to the
Barrow gang.
More Police Dead
• On Easter Sunday, 1934, on a side road off
Highway 114 in Texas, Clyde and Methvin
killed two police officers who thought they
needed help.
• Five days later they kill police officer Cal
Campbell and kidnap Chief Percy Boyd in
Oklahoma. They let Percy go but not before
Bonnie asks him to tell the public she does
not smoke cigars.
The Chase Heats Up
• The Texas Governor hired a special agent.
That special agent was retired Texas Ranger
Frank Hamer.
• Hamer, working for a salary of $150 a month,
took to Clyde's trail on February 10. He used
a Ford V8 which he knew Clyde was partial
to. He picked up their trail in Texarkana but
always seemed to be a day late. While the
chase was on, Clyde killed three more
policemen.
The Trap
• Ivan Methvin, Henry's father, had in the past
let Bonnie and Clyde use his place to hide.
Now fearing for his son's life, made a deal.
• A full pardon for his son in Texas for
information on the Barrow gang. Hamer was
informed of a "post office" that was used by
the Barrows. It was a large board which lay
on the ground near a large stump of a pine
tree.
The Ambush is set
• At this time, Hamer picked up his old friend
B.M. Gault. The other men who were in on
the kill were Bob Alcorn, Ted Hinton,
Henderson Jordan and Paul Oakley. At 1:30
a.m. they set up blinds with tree branches
approximately 25 feet from the road on the
east side so that they could look down on the
road. They placed themselves approximately
ten feet apart. Then they waited.
• They waited for approximately seven
hours when at about 9:10 a.m. they heard
a machine approaching at a high rate of
speed. It is unclear whether Hamer or
Alcorn stepped into the road to challenge
them. When the car stopped they were
told to give up.
• They reached for their guns but never had
a chance to use them. The posse opened
fire with steel jacketed, high velocity
bullets. The car leaped ahead and came to
a halt in a ditch beside the road. The firing
continued after the car came to a halt.
The Final Scene
• The officers, even after pumping 167 rounds
into the car, approached the machine
carefully. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
couldn't have been any deader. Fifty rounds
had smashed into their bodies. Some through
the driver's door, through Clyde, through
Bonnie and out the passenger door.
• The fingers on Bonnie's right hand had been
shot away. Her left hand held a bloody pack
of cigarettes. She died with her head slumped
between her legs, a gun across her lap.
Bonnie was 23 years old, Clyde 24.
The Deadly Find
• Inside the car, Hamer found the
following: 1 saxophone, 3 Browning
automatic rifles, 1 10 gauge Winchester
lever action, sawed-off shotgun, 1 20
gauge sawed-off shotgun, 1 Colt 32
caliber automatic, 1 Colt 45 caliber
revolver, 7 Colt automatic pistols, and
approximately 3,000 rounds of
ammunition.
Famous or Infamous?
• The car was towed with the bodies in it
to Arcadia, Louisiana. The crowds were
already waiting
• Their bodies were placed in the
undertaker's parlour, which was the rear
room of a furniture store. The crowds
were uncontrolled to the point where the
undertaker had to squirt embalming fluid
on them to keep them back.
The Aftermath
• Clyde was buried in a West Dallas
cemetery on May 25 next to his brother
Buck. Thousands of thrill seekers were
present, some snatching the flowers
from his grave.
And Bonnie…
• Was she buried next to her love?
• Bonnie's mother had refused to have
Bonnie buried next to Clyde and so she
was buried on May 27 at the West
Dallas Fishtrap cemetery.
The Pardon…
• Henry Methvin received his pardon from
Texas as promised -- but not from
Oklahoma. He was arrested for murder,
sentenced to death which was later
commuted to life. He served 12 years,
was released and run over by a train in
1948.
The Trade on Crime
• Twenty-three persons were brought to trial
on charges of harbouring Bonnie and Clyde.
• Clyde's and Bonnie's families tried to gain
ownership of the guns that they were found
with because they realized their worth to
collectors. They did not receive them
• The gray V8 Ford was shown for years after
that at State Fairs for 25 cents a look.
Robin Hood and Maid Marian
• While they terrorised banks and store
owners in five states -- Texas, Oklahoma,
Missouri, Louisiana, and New Mexico -Americans thrilled to their "Robin Hood"
adventures. The presence of a female,
Bonnie, escalated the sincerity of their
intentions to make them something
unique and individual -- even at times
heroic -- and above similar activities of allmale motor bandits like John Dillinger,
"Baby Face" Nelson and "Pretty Boy"
Floyd
Why?
• "Anybody who robbed banks or fought
the law were really living out some
secret fantasies on a large part of the
public."
• Historian Jonathan Davis
The Poem
You've read the story of Jesse James,
of how he lived and died.
If you're still in the need
of something to read,
here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
But the 'laws' fooled around,
kept taking him down
and locking him up in a cell
'till he said to me
"I'll never be free
so I'll meet a few of them in Hell.
Now Bonnie and Clyde are the
Barrow gang.
I'm sure you have all read
how they rob and steal
and those who squeal
are usually found dying or dead.
If they try to act like citizens
and rent them a nice little flat
about the third night,
they're invited to fight
by a sun-gun's rat-tat-tat.
The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see
but it's flight, man to man,
and do all you can,
for they know they can never be free.
If a policeman is killed in Dallas
and they have no clue or guide;
If they just can't find a fiend
they just wipe their slate clean
and hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.
A newsboy once said to his buddy:
I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
in these awful hard times
we'd make a few dimes
if five or six cops would get bumped.
They don't think they're too smart or
desperate.
They know that the 'laws' always
wins;
They've been shot at before,
but they do not ignore
that death is the wages of sin.
Some day they'll go down together.
They'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief To the law a relief but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde