The Crime Book

28 BONNIE AND CLYDE

The Dallas Morning News issue

announcing the death of Bonnie and

Clyde sold 500,000 copies. A group of

Dallas newsboys later sent the largest

floral tribute to Parker’s funeral.

It is much better that they

were both killed, rather than

to have been taken alive.

Blanche Barrow

Texas. There he committed his first

murder, using a lead pipe to beat

an inmate who had assaulted him.

After Parker smuggled a gun inside

the prison, Barrow escaped, but

was later recaptured.

The spree begins

In February 1932, Barrow was

paroled, emerging from jail a

hardened and bitter criminal

seeking revenge against the prison

system for the abuses he suffered

behind bars. Reuniting with Parker,

Barrow assembled a rotating core of

associates, robbing rural petrol

stations and kidnapping and killing

when cornered.

Between 1932 and 1934, the

gang is believed to have killed

several civilians and at least nine

police officers. Barrow was officially

accused of murder for the first time

in April 1932, when he shot and

killed a storeowner after a robbery.

A few months later, Barrow and

another gang member killed a

deputy and wounded a sheriff who

approached them at a country

dance in Oklahoma. It was the first

time a Barrow Gang member had

killed an officer of the law.

In April 1933, Clyde’s brother

Buck was released from prison.

He and his new bride, Blanche,

joined the gang at the apartment

in Joplin, Missouri, eventually

attracting the attention of the

police after 12 days of loud, alcohol-

fuelled parties. The gang’s

newfound notoriety after the

shootout made it increasingly

difficult to evade capture, hunted

by the police, pursued by the press,

and followed by an eager public.

For the next three months, the

gang moved from Texas to

Minnesota and Indiana, sleeping at

campgrounds. They robbed banks,

kidnapped people, and stole cars,

committing the crimes near the

borders of states to exploit the pre-

FBI “state line rule” that prevented

officers from crossing state lines

while in pursuit of a fugitive.

Public opinion changes

Eventually the killings became so

cold-blooded that the public’s

fascination with the duo soured.

The Texas Department of

Corrections commissioned former

Texas Ranger Captain Frank A.

Hamer with the specific task of

taking down the Barrow Gang.

Hamer formed a posse, comprising

a unique collaboration of Texas and

Louisiana police officers. It was one

of the most highly publicized and

intense manhunts in US history.

By the summer of 1933, the

gang began to fall apart. Then

on 10 June, while driving near

Wellington, Texas, Barrow

accidentally flipped their car into a

ravine, and Parker sustained third-

degree burns to her right leg. Her

injuries were so severe that she

could hardly walk and was often

carried by Barrow.

A month later, during a 19 July

shootout with police in Missouri,

a bullet struck Buck in the head.

Blanche was also wounded and

blinded in one eye. Despite his

terrible injuries, Buck remained

conscious and he and the rest of

the gang escaped.

The trail ends

Days later, on 24 July, Buck was

shot in the back during another

shootout, and he and Blanche were

captured. Buck was taken to a

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29

The death car became the subject of

so much interest that fakes began to

appear. The local sheriff tried to keep

the car but was sued by the owner. It is

now on display at a casino in Nevada.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS

hospital where he died on 29 July,

from pneumonia after surgery, but

not before doctors injected him

with stimulants so that he could

answer police questions.

Barrow and Parker’s trail ended

on a road that cut through

Louisiana’s Piney Forest on State

Highway 154, south of Sailes.

Led by Hamer, the posse of police

officers had tracked and studied the

pair’s movements and discovered

that the gang camped on the edges

of state borders.

Using a tip that the couple

would be in the area, Hamer

predicted their pattern and set up

an ambush point along the rural

Louisiana highway. At around

9:15am on 23 May 1934, six officers

concealed in the bushes saw

Barrow’s stolen Ford V8

approaching at high speed and

sprayed the car with a total of 130

rounds. Barrow and Parker were

shot dozens of times, each

sustaining multiple fatal wounds.

When the bullet-ridden Ford was

towed to town, with the bodies still

inside, a crowd of curious onlookers

surrounded the car. Spectators

collected souvenirs, including

pieces of Parker’s bloody clothes

and hair. One man even tried to cut

off Barrow’s trigger finger. Items

belonging to the pair, including

stolen guns and a saxophone, were

also kept by members of the posse

and sold as souvenirs.

The ambush remains highly

controversial, given that there were

no attempts to take the pair alive.

Celebrity criminals

Bonnie and Clyde emerged as the

first celebrity criminals of the

Depression era, partly due to the

intense newspaper and radio

coverage of their crimes.

Outlaws like George “Baby

Face” Nelson and “Pretty Boy”

Floyd also became legends, with

their deadly stories appearing

on front pages of newspapers

across the country. During this

time, a disillusioned, angry

public, faced with unemployment

and extreme poverty, held the

gangsters in high esteem, with

magazines, newspapers, and

radio programmes covering their

daily exploits.

Bonnie and Clyde’s legend

intensified with the 1967,

Academy Award-winning film

Bonnie and Clyde, which

exposed the couple’s exploits to

a new generation. It was

considered groundbreaking for

its relaxed presentation of sex

and violence. However, such a

glamorized portrayal elicited

troubling questions, as several

couples have attempted similar

sprees, claiming to have been

inspired by the famous outlaws.

The 1967 adaptation of the pair’s

crime spree starred Warren Beatty

and Faye Dunaway and presented

them as attractive and even chic.

Prentiss Oakley, the Louisiana

officer who fired the first shot, later

expressed regret that the outlaws

had not been offered a chance to

surrender to them.

The bloody end of Bonnie and

Clyde was the end of the “Public

Enemy Era” of the 1930s. By the

summer of 1934, the federal

government enacted statutes

that made kidnapping and bank

robbery federal offences – a legal

breakthrough that finally allowed

FBI agents to apprehend bandits

across state lines. ■

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