Boney and Clyde is a true story. Who are Boney and Clyde? What they looked like and what are they known for: the story of life, love and crime (8 photos)
For two years from 1932 to 1934, during the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had fun with crime, robbery and murder. During this time, public opinion in the United States was opposed to the government, and the young couple took advantage of this. They remained in the memory of the nation in the form of Robin Hoods, single-handedly fighting the system, not mass murderers.
Their relationship was very romantic. Bonnie and Clyde were a young and in love couple who took the "high road" to fight "bad laws." The hearts of many were won by the poetry of the excellent student Bonnie and the driving skills of Clyde, who created a gang of his relatives and friends.
Although the couple killed people, they abducted a police officer who was then released completely unscathed hundreds of miles away. They were having fun with adventure, easily violating the law.
Their image, created in the press, was far from the truth. Bonnie and Clyde have committed 13 murders. Among their victims were some innocent people who died due to unfortunate mistakes during the robberies of Clyde. The couple stole cars and lived off the money stolen from shops and gas stations. Sometimes Bonnie and Clyde managed to rob a bank, but they failed to steal a lot of money. They were a desperate pair of criminals, constantly fearful of persecution and confident that they would have to die under a hail of bullets from a police ambush.
Bonnie Parker
Bonnie was born on October 1, 1910 in the town of Rowena, Texas. She was the second child of three children to Henry and Emma Parker. They lived in abundance until Henry Parker, a bricklayer, died in 1914. Then Emma transported the children to her parents in Sement City (now part of Dallas). Clever Bonnie studied well at school and loved to write poetry. Having met Roy Thornton at 15, she dropped out of school and got married at 16. The marriage turned out to be unhappy, Roy began to disappear from home more and more often. In 1927 he was caught stealing and sent to prison for five years. They never officially divorced. Bonnie worked as a waitress and was often unemployed, like many during the Great Depression that began in late 1929.
Photo right: Bonnie Parker
Clyde was born on March 24, 1909 in Ellis (near Dallas), Texas. He was the sixth child of eight children in the family of farmer Gehry Barrow. Parents were often unable to feed their children. When they moved to Dallas, they lived first on the street and later in a tent. Clyde and his older brother Marvin stole turkeys in stores, then they began to steal cars. At the age of 17, he was first arrested in a stolen car, and in 1930 he ended up in a colony.
Clyde Barrow's personal file
Meet Bonnie and Clyde
In January 1930, Bonnie and Clyde met at a mutual friend's house. We liked each other instantly. A few weeks after they met, Clyde was sentenced to two years in prison and sent to a colony. Bonnie brought him a weapon, and on March 11, 1930, Clyde fled the colony. But soon he was caught, received a new term and on April 21, 1930, was sent to Eastham prison. There he was sexually harassed and killed a prisoner for the first time. For good behavior, he received parole and was released on February 2, 1932. He vowed that he would rather die than go to jail again.
How Bonnie became a felon too
When Clyde was released from prison during the Great Depression, it was impossible to get a job. With the experience of robbery behind him, he began to steal again. Immediately after his release, Bonnie went with him to rob a hardware store. While she was in the car, she was captured and sent to Kaufman Prison, Texas. Later, the girl was released due to lack of evidence.
While Bonnie was in prison, Clyde and Raymond Hamilton robbed a department store. Everything should have gone quickly and easily, but they were wrong, something went wrong. As a result, the innocent shop owner was injured and killed.
Bonnie and Clyde often photographed together
Now Bonnie had to make a decision - to stay with Clyde and live with him on the run, or leave him and live in peace. Bonnie knew that Clyde would never return to prison, which means staying with him means a very quick death. However, Bonnie decided to remain faithful to him until the end.
On the run
Over the next two years, Bonnie and Clyde robbed and killed across five states:
- Texas;
- Oklahoma;
- Missouri;
- Louisiana;
- New Mexico.
They stopped to rest near the border, taking advantage of the fact that the police pursuing them did not cross the border. To avoid arrest, Clyde often changed stolen cars, even more often changed license plates. He studied the maps in detail and knew every country road, which more than once saved them during the pursuit. Bonnie and Clyde always went back to Dallas, Texas, to their families.
Wanted gang of criminals
Bonnie loved her mother very much and could not help but see her after a couple of months of separation. Clyde also frequently visited his mother and his beloved sister, Nelly. The police set up ambushes, and meeting with families nearly cost them their lives.
Buck and Blanche
Bonnie and Clyde had been in hiding for about a year when Clyde's brother Buck was released from prison in March 1933. The couple have already committed several murders, robbed a number of banks, shops, gas stations and stole many cars. They were hunted by police in several states. Bonnie and Clyde decided to rent an apartment in Joplin, Missouri to meet Buck and his wife Blanche.
Blanche Barrow after arrest
For two weeks they enjoyed life, played cards. When neighbors spotted a car with Texas license plates, they called the police. On April 13, 1933, a shootout began. After killing several police officers, the criminals fled, but many of their photographs with weapons in their hands and Bonnie's poems about their crimes remained in the apartment.
Car on fire
In June 1933, in the vicinity of Wellington, Texas, they had an accident. Clyde realized too late that the bridge was closed for repairs, turned and the car rolled down the embankment. Clyde and Jones jumped out, but Bonnie was left in the burning car. Oncoming drivers helped her out, but she was badly burned and sustained a serious injury to one leg. In hiding, they could not seek medical attention. Clyde himself nursed Bonnie after the injury.
Ambush at the Red Crown Tavern
A month after the accident, Bonnie and Clyde's entire gang, including Buck, Blanche and Jones, stopped at the Red Crown Tavern. On the night of July 19, 1933, local residents alerted the police. This time the police were better prepared and armed. They surrounded the building and began to take over. Mass shooting began, during which Buck was shot in the head. The whole gang was able to leave by car, firing back from a machine gun. The police managed to hit a couple of tires and smash the glass of the car. Blanche's eyes were badly damaged.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were famous American robbers during the Great Depression. The expression "Bonnie and Clyde" has become a household name for lovers involved in criminal activities. Killed by FBI agents.
The names Bonnie and Clyde are known in our time, probably the same as 70 years ago. Their criminal history to this day remains one of the most tragic and romantic. What led them to such an ending? 
Bonnie Parker was born in 1910 in the small Texas town of Rowena. At school, Bonnie was an excellent student, with a rich imagination, a penchant for acting and improvisation. She loved to dress fashionably. At the age of 16, she dropped out, and, having fallen in love with a certain Roy Thornton, Bonnie married him.
In 1927, Bonnie got a job as a waitress in a cafe, but two years later the great economic depression began and the cafe closed.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow is also a Texas native. He was born in 1909 to an illiterate farmer with seven children and lived on a farm until he was 13. He rarely appeared at school, preferring to play with wooden pistols, wander around, enviously looking at the cars of wealthy citizens. In 1922, the Barrow family went broke and Clyde's father moved to West Dallas. Like Bonnie, at the age of 16, Clyde dropped out of school and went to work. Another Bonnie analogy - Clyde also liked to dress elegantly.
One day at the end of 1929, they met. The little red-haired girl amazed Clyde at first sight. And when Clyde is arrested for an armed raid, Bonnie helps him escape from prison by handing over a weapon during a date. A week later, the police again grabbed Clyde, and the court "sold" him 14 years in prison. In protest, Clyde chops off two of his toes, but it doesn't help. Then, on the contrary, he turns into a model prisoner and in 1932 earns parole.
Released, Clyde continued petty robberies and thefts. The catches are paltry, and Bonnie is indignant. Once the seller refused to open the cash register, resisted, and he had to be shot.
This was the first murder of Clyde Barrow. He ceased to be afraid of anything, since he had already earned the death penalty in case of capture.
Soon Bonnie learned to shoot, - writes the biographer of the crime couple John Chevy, - showing a real passion for firearms. Their car turned into an excellent arsenal: several machine guns, rifles and hunting rifles, a dozen revolvers and pistols, thousands of cartridges. With the help of Bonnie, Clyde masters the art of snatching a rifle out of a pocket sewn along the leg in seconds. This kind of virtuosity is very entertaining for both. They develop their own elegant killing style.
Real photo. 
Still from the film
In all this, Bonnie is attracted primarily by the romantic-heroic side of the matter. She realizes that she has chosen death. But this is more pleasant for her than the previously experienced boredom. The monotony of life is over for her forever. She knows that they will talk about her. And she deeply does not care about morality, about the souls of those killed. Money, the easy and short life of a one-day butterfly is her choice. You can work for a long time and earn pennies, but you can like this - rob, kill and not think about anything.
The gang's "work" methodology was of the same type. Bonnie sits in the car with the engine running, and Bonnie breaks into the bank shouting: "Robbery!" In most cases, the weapon did not even have to be used.
It makes no sense to retell in detail all the gang's numerous adventures, the incredible luck of Bonnie and Clyde, who many times got out of the most seemingly hopeless situations. Once, when the police almost seized the criminals, an unfinished manuscript of the poem "Dirty Murder" was found in their temporary refuge. It was written by Bonnie.
In January 1934, Clyde launched a daring attack on the prison farm, freeing his accomplice and several other prisoners. In late February, Clyde kills two police officers, in April another. Thus, the total number of his victims approached one and a half dozen.
In May of that year, after many setbacks, Sheriff Frank Heimer, who had vowed to find and neutralize Bonnie and Clyde, managed to set up an ambush on a country road. On May 22, 1934, Clyde and Bonnie's Ford was ambushed by six police officers. 167 bullets hit the car, 50 of them hit the bandits.
Frank Haymer told reporters: "It's a pity that I killed the girl. But it was like this: we are theirs, or they are us, or they are many others."
The Ford car in which they were shot in the museum.
Both Bonnie and Clyde knew what they had doomed themselves to, but the thirst for a bright life led them exactly where it was supposed to lead - to the same colorful and tragic ending.
Here is a sad end. Common grave. A trace about them remained in the bad memory of people who lost their relatives, sometimes for a couple of hundred dollars, in a remote place of the cemetery. They wrote several books and made a film. Was there love? But why blood?
A squad of police officers led by Texas Ranger Frank Haymer waited for a Ford V8 to appear 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 dead bodies belonging to the world's most famous pair of robbers, named Clyde and Bonnie.
Bonnie Parker Origins
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is the daughter of a bricklayer from Rowena, 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 the subsequent events) a love story. Soon her husband disappeared in 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 in prison learned that his wife had died.
Meet 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 was working as a waitress at that time, according to another, for the first time they met at a friend's house Bonnie. The girl was just making hot chocolate when Clyde entered the house.
Clyde's past
The latter was already an avid gangster at the time of this fateful meeting. Along with Buck, his older brother, this son of poor people from Dallas has already committed a sufficient number of robberies of roadside cafes and shops. After Buck was imprisoned 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 never parted for a minute. Clyde was an excellent shot and always carried a pistol with him. The girl asked to be taught how to shoot her. Clyde soon began to take his girlfriend "on business": she usually sat in the car when he broke into a gas station or cafe and robbed the cash register, threatening the staff with a weapon. A few months later he was arrested, but Bonnie managed to make an escape by passing the gun to his partner. Soon she herself went to jail, and then, for two years, again Clyde. Parker at that time wrote him letters in which she promised to wait.
First murder by Clyde
He was released from prison in 1932 as a completely different person. Barrow Marie, his sister, said that "something terrible" happened there. This "gruesome" - the first murder of Clyde - he beat to death the prisoner who raped him.
The love of these two people seems to be a dark story. According to some reports, she was platonic, since the young man was homosexual. According to another version, they had sexual relations not only with each other, 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 the relations within this "collective" 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 realized this immediately, as soon as Bonnie introduced her beau to her. “I saw it in her eyes,” she said.
Development of events
Soon Buck, Clyde's brother, and Blanche, his wife, joined the company. They all together committed murder and robbery 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 to unconsciousness, as if they had a presentiment of their future death, knowing that they would not survive. Bonnie, during her last meeting with her mother, asked her not to talk bad about Clyde when they were killed.
"Fighters for Justice"
They considered themselves fighters for justice. It seemed an honorable thing to do during the Great Depression to deprive those who had at least a little money. Despite the fact that the crimes of these people were high-profile, their prey was very small: in May 1933, they stole $ 2,500 from the Bank of Minnesota, which was the most significant amount. John Dillinger, a famous contemporary of the couple, said at the time that Bonnie and Clyde "put the bank robbers to shame." Lovers in October 1930 shot the owner of a grocery store in Texas. His life cost only 28 dollars.
The couple loved cars and guns. Shortly before his death, Clyde 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, prisoner, then left him on the sidelines, ordering goodbye to inform their people 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 a stranger in this company. The policeman noted that they loved each other, and told the detail: the lovers had a rabbit in the car, which the girl was carrying to her mother as a gift.
"PR campaign" organized by Bonnie Parker
These two were always happy when they saw notes about themselves in the newspapers. Bonnie even specially developed a "PR campaign": she sent staged photos to newspapers with a car in the background, with weapons at the ready. She attached her poems to these pictures. A notebook in which several poems were handwritten was sold for $ 36,000 in 2007 at Bonhams.
The fame of the robbers grew. The best forces of the FBI and the police were thrown to their capture, for them they were promised a reward of $ 1,500. Note that well-known crime bosses also spoke out against the gang, for example, Handsome Floyd, who absolutely did not want to share with a bunch of visiting hooligans the already small booty.
Ambush
In 1933, the gang was ambushed - Blanche Barrow was wounded in the leg, and Buck (her husband) was shot. 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 staying there with Bonnie's relatives. They found a refuge, but the whereabouts of the lovers were given away by Henry Methvin, the father of one of the gang members, in exchange for the fact that his son was found innocent. It was his allegedly broken car that served as a bait on that fateful day - May 23, 1934.
How does Bonnie and Clyde's story end?
The end of this story was as follows. Clyde and Bonnie did not even have time to take their weapons when a flurry of lead hit their car: a lot of bullets stuck into the bodies of the lovers. The evening papers immediately reported the deaths of these notorious robbers, with a front page photo of their bodies riddled with bullets. Clyde's jacket, which counted 40 bullet holes, and his gun with 7 notches, one for each of the killed, were shown to the public.
However, this was not enough: the bodies of Clyde and Bonnie were exhibited in the morgue, and everyone could look at them for just a dollar for several days. This was done in Dallas by 40 thousand people who looked at the body of Bonnie, and 30 thousand - at Clyde.
20 relatives, including friends and mothers of the couple, were also brought before the court for harboring, and the criminals themselves, against Bonnie's wishes, 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 for the couple in Gibsland, housed in a former cafe where the criminals bought their last meal. The son of Ted Hinton, a ranger who took part in the shooting of the gang, works there as a caretaker. Every closest weekend to May 23, the city hosts a Bonnie and Clyde festival, during which a fatal ambush is played out.
Adaptations of the story
For all couples of the underworld, the names of these robbers have become household names today. They are cited 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 after hearing a rejection) applied for the role. Arthur Penn finally made up his mind - the choice fell on the actress Faye Dunaway, whom he saw in the film "Accident", the debut for this girl, and immediately noted.
Bonnie and Clyde (film) tells the story of this famous couple from the very moment they met until the fatal shootout. Clyde was portrayed as a simple-minded 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 to 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 shots with models, whose image resembled the heroine - girls in midi skirts and blouses posed in front of cameras with weapons in hand. Faye Dunaway initially wanted to star in slacks that were more comfortable for shootouts 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 she was right. Modern Bonnie and Clydes have taken their idols as a model of style. The popularity of the painting 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 as Estell Parsons) and the cinematography.
This tape greatly influenced the further development of American cinema. According to Quentin Tarantino, who cited this story in his work "Natural Born Killers", this film began the Silver Age in Hollywood, which lasted until the early 1980s. Of course, it was also a breakthrough for the actors. When Warren Beatty was honored in 2008 at the American Film Institute's 36th award ceremony, Faye Dunaway took the stage and delivered a touching Bonnie Parker-style speech, ending with the words "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 (Bonnie and Clyde respectively) played the main roles. Episode 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 groups "Spleen", "Night Snipers", Bad Balance have a composition of the same name, or, for example, we note the song performed by Kristina Si - "Bonnie and Clyde".
The story of Bonnie and Clyde, perhaps the most famous criminal couple, is reminiscent of the tale of Beauty and the Beast, only with a bad ending. But how did the relationship of these dangerous people actually develop?
Bonnie's unfortunate fate
Of course, it is very difficult to attribute the girl to the category of real seducers, but she was not devoid of charm. Even being a real monster inside.
Childhood
Miss Parker was born on October 1, 1910 in one of the dull and unremarkable townships of Texas, Rowena. The girl's mother did not work, her father had the profession of a bricklayer and somehow supported the family. The trouble came to the house of little Bonnie with the death of her father. How exactly he died is unknown. However, according to some information, one can understand that his life was interrupted by an accident at work.
A mother with three children did not linger in her hometown and moved to live in Syment City. Here the sad story began, which led to the death and grief of many people.
When did it all go wrong?
As before, the Parker family was very poor. Earning from sewing clothes was barely enough for girls, especially when they reached school age. Despite this, Bonnie was almost an excellent student. She had an ability for theatrical art, loved to improvise. Her classmates noted the presence of restless fantasy, as they often listened to Bonnie's fictional stories.
While in high school (circa 1925), the girl met a certain Roy Thornton. He exuded danger, knew how to dance and dressed beautifully. Which, probably, turned the inexperienced quiet head.
They were married on September 25, 1926. Neither mother nor sisters were present at the wedding. Bonnie was left without family support, dropped out of school and soon went to work as a waitress at Marco's Cafe in Dallas. Her dreams of a happy marriage, prosperity, a beautiful life crumbled to ashes. The cruel and merciless reality crushed everything that the girl had fantasized about for so long.
Roy almost immediately stopped paying attention to his young wife, preferring other women to her. Soon he completely disappeared, and Bonnie after a while became unemployed. America was swallowed up by the Great Depression, and the cafe went bankrupt. However, Bonnie never officially divorced her husband and wore a wedding ring until her death.
Ugly life of a boy with high hopes
Bonnie's future accomplice Clyde Barrow was also born in Texas. His parents earned their living by farming, and the boy learned from early childhood to hard work in agriculture. However, Ellis County was considered not the most successful in terms of money, soon a large family went bankrupt and was forced to give land and a house to the bank.
In 1922, the Barrow couple with 7 children moved to West Dallas. My father got a job at a gas station. Clyde was placed in a school closest to his home. The boy studied frankly poorly, conflicts with teachers became commonplace, and at sixteen he dropped out of school.
Broken dreams
Beautiful life beckoned Clyde with lacquered cars, expensive suits and fine food. But what could a young, albeit handsome, illiterate guy count on? .. The place of a loader or a tanker, and even if he is lucky.
At first, Clyde still wanted to live like everyone else and enrolled in the US Navy, but he was not taken. Childhood illness crossed the path to the military. Only the "USN" tattoo on the left hand remains.
How Bonnie and Clyde's story began
The first steps in the gangster field
Then Mr. Barrow chose a different path. Lighter and full of dangers. In 1926, he stole his first car. Everything turned out to be very simple: supposedly rent a car. Meanwhile, the police were unable to prove anything, the firm dropped the lawsuit, and Clyde was released. He soon joined one of the major Dallas gangs. He was no longer interested in "trifle".
Oddly enough, Clyde's share of the raids did not suit either. Therefore, in 1928, he committed the first serious crime. He robbed the gaming hall on his own, although he did not even have a valid weapon with him. The pistol that Clyde had used to threaten the guards was broken. 
Start
The joint story of Bonnie and Clyde began in 1929. The true date of their acquaintance is unknown: some researchers, for example, date it even to 1932. Nevertheless, they immediately liked each other and did not part until their death.
In the same 1932, Bonnie first went to prison for attempting to rob a store. Only for three months, but the girl did not waste time there. In addition to letters to Clyde, she managed to write a collection of ten odes of poetry.
Clyde Barrow received his first imprisonment a little earlier - in 1929. Then Bonnie brought a gun to the date, thus helping him escape. Only after three weeks the guy was caught and planted for fourteen years. Clyde was not taken aback: in protest (or simply unwillingness to work), he cut off two of his toes. However, in vain: some time after the action of disobedience he was released.
Crimes
From that moment, the two-year epic of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow began. Together, and sometimes even three (together with Raymond Hamilton - Bonnie's former lover), they robbed everything that came their way. These were not always banks. For the most part, the couple smashed gas stations and grocery stores. Sometimes their earnings were only ten dollars. But the glory went ahead of them.
In many ways, Bonnie and Clyde became famous thanks to rumors and staged photos taken by the bandits themselves, in which Parker is standing near an expensive car with a cigar in hand. Or aiming a rifle at Clyde's chest. Although Bonnie never smoked cigars, preferring regular Camel cigarettes. Her accomplice smoked the same. 
Soon Hamilton was caught and sentenced to 264 years. At the same time, Bonnie learned how to use a weapon to replace the retired shooter. And quite aptly, according to the testimony of eyewitnesses.
On the night of June 10, 1933, Bonnie was wounded in the leg. Not from a stray bullet. The culprit was Clyde himself, who was driving at top speed and lost control. The girl's right leg was badly corroded by acid. Naturally, she did not go to the hospital, and remained permanently crippled. Barrow blamed himself and supported Bonnie as much as he could. During periods of severe pain, she walked leaning on Clyde.
When Buck Barrow and his friend William Jones came out of prison, the life of the gang sparkled with new colors.
Fatal contradictions
Bonnie was in the car, the engine was running. She waited while the men did their dirty work. As soon as they got into the car, the reckless driver Parker took off. The police could only bite their elbows - no one could catch up with Bonnie.
The couple flew as if on wings. They forgot that luck can be fickle, and made ever more daring robberies. Soon the police managed to kill Buck, and Jones himself came to the hands of justice. Such a life was not for him. However, these events not only did not stop Bonnie and Clyde, but also spurred them even more.
Together they freed Hamilton from custody and again took up "work". Only they did not take into account that the former accomplice did not forget about the loot and soon demanded to return his share in full. Clyde, unwilling to share, drove Hamilton out of the gang.
The loner was quickly arrested. Under the threat of death, he told everything about how the story of Bonnie and Clyde began, including the smallest details. The make of the car, the approximate number of weapons, places and people with whom the couple was in contact. The ring around the elusive bandits narrowed.
The last adventure
Strange, but Clyde, having learned from the newspapers about his friend's case, wrote a detailed letter to the editor, and Bonnie gave their photo. It seemed that the young people had gone crazy, since they were actually giving the police a confession of their own sins.
On the night of May 23, 1934, Sheriff Frank Hammer, along with nine colleagues, ambushed the road. Unsuspecting Parker and Barrow were driving another stolen car and did not even have time to take out their weapons when they began to shoot.
Later, the police considered that about 168 bullets were fired into the criminals' car, more than half of them hit the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde. She was twenty-three, and he was twenty-five.
Eyewitnesses almost tore the corpses to pieces, some even managed to cut off strands of Bonnie's hair. 
Despite the girl's desire to be buried with Clyde, her mother acted differently. She could not, and did not want to, forgive the man who broke the fate of her daughter. Bonnie Parker's tombstone reads: "Just as flowers are more beautiful from the dew and in the sunshine, so this world, the old world, is brighter - by the rays of people like you."
Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933. / Public Domain
Behind the beautiful picture, created by journalists and Hollywood, there is a story full of blood ...
In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was a trend in Russian culture associated with the romanticization of crime. Bandits and murderers were presented as victims of circumstances, unhappy, rejected by society, in need of compassion and understanding. “We are not like this - life is like that” - this deceptive thesis became the leitmotif of an entire era.
However, it should be admitted: the romanticization of crime has a long history, and not only in our country, but also in the world. Often, real villains, years and decades later, appear in the images of "romantic Robin Hoods", evoking sympathy, not rejection.
A classic example is the famous Bonnie and Clyde, American gangsters of the 1930s. Hundreds of books, dozens of songs have been written about them, a lot of films and television series have been shot.
The 1967 Hollywood film Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, garnered a large number of awards, including two Oscars.
And what were Bonnie and Clyde really like before they became part of popular culture?
Their history is directly related to the Great Depression: an economic crisis that stretched out for almost a decade, ruining and plunging millions of Americans into poverty. The same period saw the heyday of the gangster era, when gangsters in the country became the "second power", sometimes more significant than the first.
However, this does not apply to Bonnie and Clyde. They were not part of a powerful mafia structure, but were what in the 1990s in Russia would be called "scumbags": criminals who did not obey anyone, sowing chaos and death around them.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were Texas natives. She came from a working-class family, where her father worked as a bricklayer and her mother as a seamstress. He grew up in a large but poor family of farmers.
Bonnie was one of the first students in school, had a rich imagination and, according to the teachers, had good acting skills.
Good girls are often attracted to bad boys. And at the age of 15, Bonnie was drawn to Roy Thornton, a bully and a bully, whom others promised a place behind bars. Despite this, they got married in September 1926. Bonnie got a job as a waitress.
Marital ties lasted a year. Roy began to disappear from home for whole weeks, and Bonnie, having endured this behavior of her husband for a while, decided to part with him. Thornton didn't mind. Soon, he still ended up in prison, where he spent the time when his wife became a criminal legend.
Clyde Barrow, who was a year older than Bonnie, was jailed for the first time at the age of 16 when he did not return his rented car on time. He was quickly released, but soon detained again with his brother when they were stealing turkeys. Clyde was not afraid of the first arrests: despite the fact that the young man, unlike many others around him, had a job, he continued to commit petty thefts and steal cars.
Finally, in April 1930, Clyde, who had just turned 21, was sent not to the local jail, but to Eastham Prison.
Mary Barrow, Clyde's sister, later recalled: "Something terrible must have happened to him in prison, because he was never the same again." The prankster and the bully turned into a sullen, embittered person who hates the whole world around him. As those who sat in Eastham with Clyde later said, from a schoolboy he became a "rattlesnake".
Some biographers of the criminal couple believe that the reason was that in prison Clyde became a victim of sexual abuse. The young man liked one of the prisoners, who raped him several times. As a result, Clyde killed his abuser.
However, in 1932 he was released.
In early 1932, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow first met at the house of a mutual friend. He was a 22-year-old worldly embittered criminal; she was a 21-year-old bored waitress with a rich imagination, a craving for "bad boys" and "dangerous adventures." Bonnie kept a diary and wrote poetry. She did not dream of a long life and a large family, she wanted to "have fun". Clyde Barrow liked Bonnie and could provide her with the "fun" she wanted.
Contrary to subsequent legends, the Bonnie and Clyde gang, which included several other people, did not specialize in bank robberies. The main targets of the raiders were small shops and gas stations.
Clyde Barrow dreamed of taking revenge on the prison in which he had to endure terrible humiliation. The revenge was to be the massive escape he intended to organize. To get money for it, gangsters began to rob small shops.
On April 30, 1932, during another raid on the store, in which Bonnie did not participate, the owner tried to resist, for which he was killed on the spot.
Clyde was not frightened by this outcome, but only provoked. On August 5, 1932, Barrow and his accomplice Raymond Hamilton were drinking in one of the bars in Stringtown. When the sheriff with assistants appeared on the doorstep of the institution, the bandits shot them.
On October 11, Clyde massacred shop owner Howard Hall. The killer's booty was $ 28 and food.
Bonnie was not afraid of the murder, but she told Clyde that it was all "toys" and that serious things needed to be done. After that, the bandits moved on to raids on banks.
Raymond Hamilton fell into the hands of the police and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. The new accomplice was 16-year-old W. D. Jones, who begged Clyde to accept him into the gang. The boy turned out to be a "worthy student": the very next day he killed the owner of the car, who tried to prevent it from being stolen.
Bonnie and Clyde's apartment in Joplin. Photo: Public Domain
The bandits set up their headquarters in Missouri, in the city of Joplin, which was reputed to be the main "gangster hideout" in the United States. In a three-room apartment with a garage, first three of them lived, and then five of them: they were joined by Clyde's brother Buck, who had been released from prison, and his wife Blanche. It is said that Buck came to his brother to convince him to "quit", but then decided that Clyde was "on the right track."
It just so happens that the legend of Bonnie and Clyde was born in Joplin. The creative nature haunted Bonnie, and she asked accomplices to photograph her in various ways. Clyde got into this game too.
The bandits did not observe any precautions. The endless noisy fun began to annoy the neighbors. And when one day a shot sounded in the house (Clyde fired accidentally while cleaning weapons), they called the police.
In the United States at that time, there was a "dry law", and local police decided that they were talking about persons involved in smuggling alcohol.
In the early morning of April 13, 1933, the police arrived at the criminals' house, blocking the entrance to the garage. The gangsters were not going to surrender, and a fight began at the house. After killing one of the police officers and wounding the second, Bonnie, Clyde and their accomplices broke free. And the police got the gang's photo archive, clinging to which the newspapermen began to spin the story of a respectable gangster couple.
The fame created a lot of problems for the gang. They could be recognized, so it became impossible to appear in crowded places, hotels and restaurants. At best, they spent the night in roadside motels away from big cities, at worst, in the woods by the fire.
In June 1933, a car with bandits got into an accident. Bonnie suffered more than others: due to damage to her right leg, she began to limp severely.
A few days later, they stayed at the Red Crown Motel in Arkansas. The vigilant owner of the establishment suspected something was wrong: three people registered, and five got out of the car. The guests covered the windows with newspapers, bought food and alcohol for a large company. In addition, the owner did not like the fact that Blanche Barrow, who was sent to resolve issues with the settlement, appeared in front of him in trousers. In the patriarchal Arkansas of those times, it was believed that a woman in this form could only be a criminal.
The owner reported to the police, and at night law enforcement officers attacked the motel. The criminals managed to escape, but Buck and Blanche Barrow were seriously injured.
The police followed on their heels. They had to stop at an abandoned amusement park in Iowa, but they were spotted there as well. The police attacked a makeshift camp of bandits. Three managed to escape, and the Barrow spouses fell into the hands of law enforcement officers. Clyde's brother died of his wounds a few days after his arrest.
Dream come true
On August 20, in Illinois, the criminal trio robbed an arms store, adding to their arsenal. After that, they went to visit their relatives. In Houston, where Jones's mother lived, he was arrested.
In November, Bonnie and Clyde, who remained together, arrived in Texas to visit their relatives, making an appointment for them in an abandoned village. The local sheriff, having learned about the date, prepared an ambush, but the criminals noticed the catch and escaped from the trap again.
Clyde did not forget about his main goal, and on January 16, 1934, he implemented the plan: gangsters attacked Eastham prison, provoking a mass escape of prisoners, during which a security officer was killed.
It was a challenge to the system, so the best forces from both the federal government and the Texas authorities threw in to put an end to the gang.
To fight against criminal "thugs" they called on a person who caused no less confusion. Retired Texas ranger Frank A. Haymer was a bounty hunter who arrested dozens of criminals and personally killed over 50 offenders.
Haymer and his henchmen followed on the heels of the criminals. The same behaved like beasts cornered: on April 1, 1934, two patrol officers were shot. In response, the authorities announced a reward for the corpses of Bonnie and Clyde: they were not going to catch them alive after all that had been done.
The last victim of the bandits was Constable William Campbell, who was killed in Commerce, Oklahoma.
Frank Haymer by that time thoroughly studied the dossier of the bandits and prepared a trap. An ambush awaited Bonnie and Clyde on a rural road in Bienville, Louisiana.
Frank A. Haymer. Photo: Public Domain
On May 23, 1934, Heimer's six-man group opened heavy fire on the Ford, which was carrying the bandits. The car was hit by 167 bullets, most of which went to criminals. In the corpse of Clyde Barrow, forensic experts counted more than 50 bullets, in the corpse of Bonnie Parker - over 60.
After the death of the criminals, they began to do business on them immediately: to look at the killed, you had to pay a dollar, and there were a lot of people willing. The gangsters' personal belongings were taken by people from Heimer's group, who then auctioned them through third parties. Haymer took the gangster weapons and fishing tackle that the bandits used to feed themselves on their worst days.
Bonnie and Clyde's car. The shooting was so loud that Haymer's squad suffered from temporary deafness all day. Photo: Public Domain
Bonnie and Clyde were not buried together, as they wanted, but their graves almost immediately became tourist sites that remain to this day.
Bonnie and Clyde were forced to rethink the US insurance system. The fact is that at that time life insurance guaranteed payments to relatives even if the insured were criminals and were killed by the police. When the Parker and Barrow families received the money, the system was quickly changed.
In 1934, twenty friends and relatives of Bonnie and Clyde were convicted of harboring criminals. Even Clyde's underage sister Mary Barrow was awarded a symbolic hour of arrest.
Bonnie's husband Roy Thornton, with whom she did not have time to officially divorce, after learning about the death of his wife, said: “I'm glad they had so much fun. It's much better than being caught. " Three years later, Thornton will be killed while trying to escape from prison.
Historians for many years have been struggling with the question: why did Bonnie and Clyde gain popularity from the mass of criminals of the Great Depression? Most agree that Bonnie's artistic nature, the press, and the puritanical customs of America of that era played the main role.
The staged photographs of Bonnie, absolutely harmless from the point of view of today, then seemed the height of depravity and licentiousness. The challenge for society was not only the crimes of Bonnie and Clyde, but also their fornication, which in many Americans, thanks to the efforts of the press, awakened secret desires.
The audience did not want to think that ruined human lives, blood and dirt were behind this beautiful picture. As he does not want now.
Watch the documentary: "Famous robbers of the 20th century"
