Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows were the most famous gangster couple in U.S. history. Their public popularity was rejuvenated once more with the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967. The movie starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and the movie did win an Oscar....The popularity of Bonnie and Clyde rose to national attention during the Great Depression, in the years 1932-1934. The national press...the newspapers, magazines, newsreels, and such reported to the public the ongoing saga of Bonnie and Clyde in a romantic and almost light-hearted way that began to capture American hearts...when in reality numerous robberies and murders had actually taken place.
In the end however, Bonnie and Clyde had lost much of their public appeal after the Grapevine Texas incident off of Highway 114. Two police officers lost their lives to the Bonnie and Clyde gang, where it seemed the inner relationships between members of the gang had become quite divisive and Bonnie herself was given notoriety of being a cold-blooded killer after a report emerged she was unloading a gun over and over into the chest of one of the slain policemen in the Grapevine incident. It was later learned this report could have been and was most likely false, but it was too late...the public now demanded the popular duo be apprehended and receive the Death Sentence.
In May of 1934 it turns out Bonnie and Clyde did indeed meet their death, betrayed by one of their own friends...and when the "dust had settled", there were at least 13 murders including 2 policemen that had met their fate at the hands of this outlaw group who was known as "The Bonnie and Clyde Gang".
"Bonnie", her full name being Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, was born on October 1st, 1910, and died on May 23, 1934.
"Clyde", his full name being Clyde Chestnut Barrow, was born on March 24, 1909, and died on the same day as Bonnie when their car was rattled with bullets by the police on a dirt road in the state of Louisiana...with trees adorning each side of the road.
During the Great Depression in the United States, numerous outlaws and gangs began to make their way to public attention, forming gangs and roaming the countryside robbing and killing to sustain a living. The economy of the nation was quite low, many out of work and life being hard in general, coupled with national Prohibition, a national ban on the sale, production, and transportation of alcohol...made the general American way of life hard to face during these times.
"Bonnie and Clyde" were among those who became popular outlaws, including the members of their gangs...a common thing most outlaws needed... the need to be accompanied by others around them in order to have success in their choice of lifestyle.
The Bonnie and Clyde gang included: Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Joe Palmer, Ralph Fults, and Henry Methwin.
Buck was the older brother of Clyde, and he and his wife Blanche accompanied Bonnie and Clyde...until....
It was April of 1933. Buck and Blanche were involved in a shootout with police...in Joplin, Missouri. Two police officers, Newton County Constable Wes Harryman and Detective Harry McGinniss, were both killed. Buck and Blanche has joined the Bonnie and Clyde gang...for a little over 4 months.
In June of the same year, Buck was in another shootout, this time in Arkansas. Buck received a head wound, which was treated at a local hospital. 5 days later, Buck was yet involved again...in another shootout, and this time Buck was shot in the back.
Buck was again put in the hospital and died on July 29th, 1933 from a series of complications.
Blanche, the wife of Clyde's older brother Buck, had also received wounds from the gun battles with police, and in one incident shattered glass had lodged in her eye. She later lost her sight to that eye.
Blanch was captured and extradited to Missouri in the summer of 1933, and on the day of her capture...Blanche was 5' 1" and 22 years of age ...and weighed a mere 83 lbs. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Both Bonnie and Blanche seemed to like writing poetry, and in 1933 Blanche had wrote this poem entitled: "Sometimes".
Sometimes
"Across the fields of yesterday
She sometimes comes to me.
A little girl just back from play
The girl I used to be.
And yet she smiles so wistfully
Once she has crept within.
I wonder if she hopes to see
The woman I might have been." Blanche Barrow 1933
Blanche Barrow lived to be 77 years old, and died from cancer on December 24th, 1988. Blanche was not happy with how she was portrayed in the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967. Although Estella Parsons played the part of Blanche Barrow, and won an Academy Award in a Supporting Role, Blanche Barrow herself commented: "That movie made me look like a screaming horse's ass!"
The Saga of Bonnie and Clyde has been examined, studied, and researched from various views and angles, leading to many numerous, well documented, and detailed articles on Bonnie and Clyde, and the members of their entire gang.
During the lifetime of Bonnie and Clyde, the depiction in "the press" was at times in stark contrast to the reality of their lives on the road. Like many people who are in their early adult years, the national attention was attractive, and they seemed to be overwhelmed by their publicity.
It does appear Bonnie Parker herself was portrayed in a much different manner than what her life was actually like. Though it has been recorded she was present at perhaps as many as 100 felonies that occurred, with their public image being almost immortalized with great bank robberies, the truth was many of the robberies that took place were those of small "Ma and Pop" stores and rural gas stations...something that Clyde Barrow catered to.
Evidence seems to conclude Bonnie was not the "machine gun-wielding killer" the national press and dime store novels had depicted of her. One member of the Bonnie and Clyde gang, W.D. Jones commented he was unsure if he had ever seen her fire a gun...particularly at any police officers.
It appears that if the truth be told of the real story of Bonnie and Clyde, it was a much different lifestyle that what had been depicted in the newspapers and what had at least for a while captured the American hearts.
Other outlaws of that era, like John Dillinger, with his "movie star looks", and Pretty Boy Floyd, his nickname itself had turned him into a seemingly American idol, was not the same criteria that made "Bonnie and Clyde" famous.
For Bonnie and Clyde, it was that young and wild couple, portrayed as a couple with an attitude, given to sex and a lifestyle that was almost magical...breaking through the hard reality of how people were actually living, facing hard times, and searching for a time when the American Dream...would come true once more. The bottom line: Bonnie and Clyde gave what the world seemed to be craving: A wild life wrapped in sex appeal!
Yet, in all reality, Bonnie was the key element to the ultimate success of the "Bonnie and Clyde Gang". Without Bonnie, Clyde Barrows would have most likely been dismissed as just another gun-toting punk who needed apprehension...if the public would have even taken notice of him at all.
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