Few criminal couples in American history have captured the public imagination like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Their names have become as familiar as Romeo and Juliet, inspiring countless books, songs, and films. During their lifetimes, they were blamed for nearly every high-profile robbery in Texas and neighboring states, prompting authorities to create a special unit dedicated to their capture.
For several years, their lives consisted of little more than robbing, killing, and constant travel. Their time together was brief but intensely vivid, and it continues to attract the attention of millions. This is the story of the most famous outlaw lovers, told from the other side of the law.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909, to Henry and Cumie Barrow near Telico, Texas. He was the fifth of seven children in a family that struggled financially. His parents worked as farmers in rented fields, leaving little time for a proper upbringing.
According to Clyde's younger sister Marie, the best moments of their childhood came when the family went to the movies in towns near the tent camps where they often lived. Clyde fell in love with Wild West adventures and spent weeks imagining himself as Jesse James after watching such films.
After harvest season, the Barrow family moved frequently, forcing the children to change schools. When the harvest required close attention, the parents separated the children and sent them to different relatives. Eventually, the family settled in a tent camp west of Dallas.
The camp was hardly an ideal place to raise children, crawling with gypsies, vagrants, and homeless people. Clyde attended school in the Cement City neighborhood of West Dallas and even took some courses at Sidney Lanier High School. He developed a passion for music, particularly the guitar, which helped him temporarily forget his difficult life.
Clyde spent many Saturday evenings gazing at musical instruments in Dallas store windows. Guitars, banjos, and saxophones especially attracted him. His family could not afford instruments or lessons, but that did not stop him from developing natural musical abilities. He first discovered these talents when he taught himself the basics of playing the saxophone while spending time with his older sister Nellie, whose husband led a traveling orchestra.
At seventeen, Clyde quit school and started working. He held jobs at eight different companies but changed them frequently due to problems with his superiors. Clyde had an explosive temper and could not always control his outbursts of anger.
Beyond music, Clyde loved cars. He bought his first automobile at seventeen for fifty dollars, and that was when his third passion emerged: making money illegally. Clyde was first arrested with his older brother Marvin, known as Buck, for stealing turkeys from a neighbor shortly after Christmas 1926. Buck received a week in jail, while Clyde avoided prison.
Shortly after this minor offense, Clyde committed his first armed robbery at a drugstore in the Oak Cliff neighborhood. He then teamed up with Buck, Frank Clause, and other friends from West Dallas to rob the Buell Lumber Company. The group was caught and arrested but only questioned and released.
Because they were closely watched and suspected of most crimes in the area, the group left Dallas to rob establishments in Waco and Sherman, Texas. In October 1929, Clyde's group stole an automobile and drove to Denton, where they robbed a garage and took a safe.
Clyde, acting as the driver, attracted police attention by driving extremely fast for no apparent reason. An attempt to evade pursuit ended in an accident. Clyde fled, but his brother Buck was caught and shot while attempting to escape. Buck was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison on January 14, 1930. Another participant, Sidney Moore, received ten years. Clyde was the only one who escaped punishment.
For a while after this incident, Clyde left crime and joined the family business. His father, with financial help from Clyde's sister Nellie, bought a small frame house near the campground. Clyde helped convert the front into a gas station and auto repair shop, using skills he had gained during his criminal activities.
It was a calm period in Clyde's life. He was not wanted by police, earned money through honest labor, and benefited his family. However, honest work did not remain his source of income for long. He soon met several girls in his neighborhood and encouraged them to monetize their libidos, acting more like an advertising agent than a typical pimp by supplying clients and taking a percentage.
None of these girls became the main woman in his life, because on the horizon was the one he would love to the grave. Bonnie Parker was born a year after Clyde, on October 1, 1910, in Rowena, Texas. The Parkers were more affluent than the average Texas family of the time.
Bonnie was described as mischievous and irascible, though young Bonnie is remembered as kind and vulnerable. At fifteen, she met a handsome young man named Roy Thornton who charmed her. Convinced she had found her knight in shining armor, Bonnie married Thornton at sixteen.
She soon realized her mistake. He left her for months, disappearing inexplicably, and Bonnie was left to drown her longing in movies and romantic stories. In 1927, he disappeared for two years. At her mother's insistence, she did not take her husband back, though he was her first true love. Nineteen-year-old Bonnie was left alone.
After this emotional upheaval, Bonnie traveled to Dallas to visit a friend who had injured her arm and to help around the house. There, trying to dull the pain of her breakup, she met her new love. Clyde Barrow also knew Bonnie's friend and went to visit her in January 1930.
Upon meeting the beautiful young girl caring for his friend, Clyde became interested and offered his help. This was the beginning of a love story destined to captivate the world. The two liked each other at first sight, and soon Bonnie, revived after her recent love tragedy, took Clyde to her home and introduced him to her mother.
Clyde hoped to make a good impression on Bonnie's mother but failed miserably. He dressed smartly, tried to appear polite and nice, and then the morning after, police showed up at her house with a warrant for his arrest. Clyde was arrested for his part in the Denton robbery.
This incident, oddly enough, did not make Bonnie forget her new knight. A few weeks later, while in the Denton jail, Clyde received a letter from her expressing hope that this was the last time he would get into such trouble. On March 2, 1930, Clyde was transferred to the prison in Waco.
By then, Bonnie had not seen him for quite some time and longed to see him again. After assuring her mother she would be perfectly safe, Bonnie moved in with her cousin Mary in Waco to visit her lover. Clyde was placed in a cell block with four other criminals, including the notable William Turner.
When Bonnie came to visit Clyde, Turner told her of a plan whereby he and Clyde could escape with her help. Bonnie was to visit Turner's parents' home in East Waco, retrieve a gun, and bring it back during her next prison visit. After getting approval from Clyde, Bonnie agreed.
That evening, Bonnie convinced her cousin to drive her to the right neighborhood. Turner's parents were absent, and the mission succeeded. Afraid of getting caught with a gun, Bonnie immediately went to the jail and easily handed the weapon to her lover. These were the first known crimes in Bonnie's life.
Next came the main part of the plan. In the evening, Turner asked the jailer for a glass of milk to soothe his upset stomach. According to regulations, night jailer Stanford left his gun in his office before taking the glass to the prisoner.
When Stanford opened the cell door to hand the milk to Turner, the inmate suddenly dragged him into the cell. Turner's cellmate Emory Abernathy pulled out a gun and threatened to kill the jailer if he raised his voice. Stanford raised his hands in silence.
Clyde, Turner, and Abernathy ran out of the cell. Descending to the first floor, they attacked the jailer who kept the keys and unlocked the front door. A few blocks from the prison, the trio stole a Ford. To escape pursuit, they stole three more vehicles, one in Texas and two in Missouri cities.
Continuing through Illinois, the trio committed burglaries on homes and businesses. Meanwhile, Bonnie left Waco and returned to Dallas, where she anxiously awaited word from her lover. Her mother tried to change Bonnie's mind about Clyde, but it soon became clear her attempts were pointless.
After participating in her lover's escape, Bonnie only became more attached to Clyde. Soon, she received a message from him from Illinois, swearing his love and asking her to tell his mother he was all right. He and his former cellmate were indeed all right, something that could not be said for the firms they had robbed in Indiana.
By March 18, 1930, the trio had reached Middleton, where they committed a night robbery at a dry cleaner and then at a depot in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad office. The total proceeds amounted to sixty dollars. The next morning, the registration number of the suspicious automobile was reported to police.
On their way west to Middleton, they stopped for breakfast at a convenience store diner. Just as they were pulling away, two patrol cars pulled up nearby. Clyde's accomplices jumped out and attempted to flee, while Barrow continued driving. Turner and Abernathy were soon caught by police.
Unsuspectingly, Clyde returned for his friends in another vehicle and began driving around hoping to find them. Police spotted him and blocked the car. Clyde jumped out and ran, with Middleton patrolman Tom Carmody rushing after him.
In this race, Clyde had the lead, but he soon turned onto a street that ended in a dead end. Shortly before being caught, Clyde disposed of his weapon, the same revolver Bonnie had given him in Waco jail, by throwing it into a nearby canal.
Abernathy and Turner, questioned earlier, said the man who drove away was merely a stranger who had picked them up as hitchhikers. This story received some corroboration when police captured Clyde and sent him for questioning. After receiving descriptions of the three men, Waco County Sheriff Less Stegal and Assistant District Attorney Jim Stanford arrived in Ohio and recognized the captives as wanted fugitives. The next day, Clyde and his friends were taken to the Waco jail.
After returning from Ohio, Clyde's troubles increased. About a year before his arrest, he was accused of killing a man in Houston. Clyde was not involved, but officials were looking for someone to pin the murder on, and Clyde appeared suitable. The testimony of alleged witnesses was discredited, and the murder charge was dropped.
On April 21, Clyde Barrow was transferred from Waco to the Texas Federal Penitentiary in Huntsville. He was twenty-one years old but said he was eighteen, hoping guards would treat him more leniently. Shortly after arriving, Clyde was sent to the East Prison Farm, forty miles from the main prison, where he began serving a fourteen-year sentence.
While at Eastham, Clyde was raped by a large and overbearing inmate named Ed Crowder. This criminal had increased his original fifteen-year sentence to ninety-nine after several escapes. Destined to live on Eastham Farm for the rest of his life, Crowder did not restrain himself.
Sodomy among prisoners was not uncommon, and Crowder was the kind of man other inmates and guards did not want to cross. Clyde's pleas for help were ignored. The assault and humiliation lasted almost a year, making Clyde's life hell. He thought of the only way to save himself: murder.
Teaming up with another criminal, Aubrey Skelly, Clyde devised a plan. They agreed Skelly would take responsibility for the murder, but the risk would fall entirely on Clyde. If the plan failed and an angry Crowder attacked Clyde, Skelly would not interfere.
On October 29, 1931, while returning from fieldwork, Clyde hid a piece of lead pipe in his pant leg. That night, when other inmates had gone to their bunks, Clyde headed toward the toilet. As expected, Crowder followed him.
When his rapist was within reach, Clyde brought the pipe down on his head with a furious blow, fracturing his skull and killing him instantly. His accomplice Skelly was hiding nearby, and as Crowder collapsed, he plunged a homemade shiv into the corpse.
The guard heard the scream and came running. Aubrey Skelly confessed to the murder. Even though Skelly's only weapon was a shiv and Crowder's cause of death was a fractured skull, no one questioned it. The fact that Skelly decided to take all the blame only made life easier for the jailers.
The grand jury did not indict Skelly, ruling he acted in self-defense. Crowder's reputation played against him, and he was buried and forgotten. Clyde had proven he would not hesitate to kill if he felt cornered.
As for Bonnie, her life was not as horrible as her lover's, but she was having a hard time as well. She was devastated by her separation from Clyde. The letters she wrote to him only added to her pain, and at one point she stopped corresponding.
Struggling with homesickness, Bonnie got a job as a waitress and started dating other guys just to distract herself. Cumie Barrow tried her best to help her son and get his sentence reduced, begging the district judge for leniency.
Unaware of his mother's efforts, Clyde was despondent. Being short and skinny, he barely coped with work on the prison farm. Then he heard rumors of Bonnie's infidelities, confirmed by the fact that her letters were getting shorter and less frequent.
Desperate, Clyde went to extreme measures. He persuaded a fellow prisoner to help him and faked an accident, forcing his friend to chop off two toes on his left foot with an axe. Ironically, his painful ruse was not necessary.
A few days later, as the hospitalized Clyde was learning to walk on the injured foot, news of his parole came. Cumie's incessant pleas were not in vain, and on February 8, 1932, Clyde made his way out of prison on crutches.
Back in Dallas, Clyde was reunited with Bonnie. After learning to walk without crutches, he began looking for work, which was not easy during the Great Depression. Along with the recession, dust storms hit Dallas with disastrous consequences.
There were days in East Texas when the sky was colored a dirty brown instead of blue. Along with these disasters, Clyde's reputation as an outlaw played a role. His sister Nell found him a construction job in Massachusetts, but Clyde lasted less than two weeks and returned to his family and Bonnie on March 17, 1932.
His sister was furious, but Clyde promised he would soon find her a job she would be proud of. When Nell said he had better not get involved with the company that had driven him to prison, Clyde replied that he had learned his lesson. The only question was what that lesson was.
Soon, Clyde gave up on getting a regular job and began forming his own gang. He was joined by his buddy from Eastham, Ralph Fults, and eighteen-year-old car thief Raymond Hamilton. Along with Clyde was Bonnie, who lied to her mother that she had been offered a job with a cosmetics company in Houston to leave Dallas with her lover.
The first three weeks of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker's new life as career criminals were characterized mostly by mistakes and failures. As darkness fell on March 25, 1932, the trio of Clyde, Fults, and Hamilton set out to commit their first robbery.
The target was the Sims Refinery, located just a few blocks from the Barrow family garage in West Dallas. Clyde was convinced a large amount of cash would be in the company safe that night, information he had gotten from a Sims employee.
The plan was simple: break through the mesh fence, overpower the guard, break into the safe, fill bags with loot, and escape under cover of night. The expected profits were several thousand dollars. Breaking through the fence was easy, but contrary to Clyde's expectations, four other employees were working in the building.
The guards were quickly subdued and tied up. The room with the safe was found, and the trio broke down the door. At that moment, Clyde's plan collapsed. The safe was empty. The would-be thieves escaped successfully, and Clyde felt crushing defeat.
Neither he nor his companions were about to give up. While Bonnie waited for instructions to pack for the trip, the trio set up a series of small robberies in and around Dallas to build up a budget. They could not linger in the area after the Sims plant robbery.
The decision was made to go north and pick a bank to rob. It turned out to be the First National Bank in Lawrence, Kansas. The trio checked into the local Eldridge Hotel and spent two days exploring the city and the bank itself. After the Sims fiasco, they wanted to be certain of success.
The criminals discovered that the bank president would arrive at about 8:45 a.m. Other employees would arrive ten minutes later, and one guard was on duty at the entrance. On the third day, they decided to commit the robbery.
The president arrived at his usual time. Clyde and Fults, waving shotguns, rushed in after him, while Hamilton waited outside behind the wheel of a getaway car. Clyde forced the president to open the vault while Fults restrained two employees who had arrived during the robbery.
Clyde was given two bags of money, after which he and Fults locked their prisoners in the vault and ran out to join Hamilton. The whole affair seemed ridiculously simple. The bank guard did not even show up for work when Clyde's gang grabbed the money and fled.
The city cops tried to catch the robbers but failed to even get on their trail. In Illinois, the trio stopped to count the loot. The proceeds amounted to thirty-three thousand dollars, a staggering sum for the time.
After that, the robbers split up. Raymond Hamilton got the idea to continue raiding banks, while Clyde and Fults had completely different plans. Their goal was to carry out a long-planned mass escape of prisoners from Eastham Prison Farm.
Clyde and Fults spent their share of the bank robbery on forty-five caliber pistols, machine guns, and body armor before returning to Texas in early April 1932. They made a brief stop in West Dallas so Clyde could visit his family and spend a few hours with Bonnie.
After this short visit, Clyde and Fults drove forty miles north to Denton, where they met four local outlaws: Johnny Russell, Jack Hammett, Ralph Allsup, and Ted Rogers. The quartet were enthusiastic about the proposed raid on Eastham, probably because they had all served time there and knew of the horrors inmates had to endure.
The new group called themselves the Dallas Lake Gang. Clyde decided six assailants would be enough to carry out a raid. At night, four guards were on duty outside the Camp 1 dormitory in Eastham.
If the Lake Dallas Gang succeeded in eliminating them, they could free the prisoners from the dormitory before the guards sleeping on the second floor woke up. What to do with a large number of prisoners was apparently not discussed. They were only planned to be pulled out of Eastham and armed if possible.
If Clyde was worried about anyone, it would be Aubrey Skelly, who had helped him kill his rapist Ed Crowder and had taken full responsibility for the murder. In preparation for the raid, Clyde, Fults, and their new partners found an isolated spot on the shores of Lake Dallas to check out the guns and vests they had bought in Illinois.
They were joined by an acquaintance of Jack Hammett known as Red. The test near the lake brought disappointment. The vests leaning against trees were punctured by every bullet that hit them, and many of the guns did not fire at all.
The man who had resold Clyde and Fults the guns had tricked them, but they had gone too far and had no intention of abandoning their goal, although they delayed its fulfillment. At first, the gang members planned to commit a simultaneous robbery of two banks in Denton, but their plans were thwarted by a pair of Texas Rangers sitting in a parked car in the plaza.
It was odd that the Rangers were hanging around town. Usually, they were there to investigate a crime that had already been committed. Clyde had a sneaking suspicion that someone in his new gang might be an informant, but he had no proof, so he decided to proceed with the raid on Eastham after all.
The members of the gang doubted their numbers would be sufficient for such a grand enterprise, so they decided to admit the Amarillo brothers of crime into their circle, familiar to Clyde and Fults. Clyde, Fults, and Red traveled northwest to find them.
They arrived in Amarillo on April 13, but the brothers, whose names Barrow's gang history had not preserved, were nowhere to be found. The trio turned back toward Dallas, but their car broke down in the small town of Electra, about two hundred miles east of Amarillo.
Normally, situations like this were not a problem for Clyde. He could easily steal another car. But this time, three strangers parked in front of the warehouse for some reason seemed suspicious to the town clerk, who reported them to Electra Sheriff James Taylor.
The sheriff arrived just as Clyde, Fults, and Red got out of the stalled car and were about to head into town to steal another automobile. When asked by Taylor if they had any problems, Fults replied that he and his friends had come from Wichita Falls and their car had suddenly broken down.
The sheriff then said he would have to take Fults and his companions into custody and check their story. Instead of surrendering, Clyde pulled out a forty-five caliber pistol and told the sheriff and the accompanying city clerk to raise their hands.
At that very moment, McCormick, the man who had summoned the sheriff, drove up, and Fults pointed the revolver at him. Then Clyde and Fults, along with the three hostages, squeezed into McCormick's car. As for Red, who had followed them, he had run away when the confrontation first began, and Clyde later decided that Red was the informant in his gang.
About eight miles from Electra, the bandits pulled their car over and let the hostages out. It was a risk. The hostages had time to get a good look at them, and kidnapping was considered a much more serious crime than carjacking or bank robbery. But neither Clyde nor Fults at the time had any intention of hurting people they did not think were guilty of anything.
To avoid potential prosecution, Clyde drove back north toward Oklahoma. Once past the state line, he planned to drive east for a while and then south back to Denton, where they could reunite with the gang. But soon, the stolen Chevy ran out of gas, and the outlaws again needed to deal with a sudden problem.
At that very time, a mailman named Bill Owens drove by, slowing down. The poor man was greatly surprised when two men standing beside the stalled car jumped up on his running board and at gunpoint forced him to stop. Clyde took the driver's seat and assured Owens that, provided he cooperated, his life was in no danger.
Clyde and Fults needed to drive across a toll bridge on the Texas-Oklahoma border. Clyde simply sped through the barrier and flew into Oklahoma, whereupon a couple of bridge guards opened fire on the car. Although their bullets missed, the guards soon issued an APB on Owens's car.
Clyde turned the car radio to a local station, and as they approached the town of Fletcher, an announcement was heard that the state police were setting up roadblocks on the main roads in the area. Clyde immediately turned onto a small road and told Owens to get out.
With the criminals' permission, Owens took his bag of mail and asked a favor: not just to abandon his car, but to burn it so the government could buy him a new one. Clyde agreed, and a day later, the remains of a smoldering Ford were found near the site.
Meanwhile, Clyde and Fults stole another automobile and returned to Denton. Things did not go as planned. Instead of adding two more Amarillo outlaws to their ranks, they lost Red, and their number of gang members was once again reduced to six.
In addition, the Lake Dallas Gang still did not have the large-caliber weapons that would allow them to break past Eastham guards. But the boys were still determined to make a raid on the prison. Jack Hammett offered to steal a new arsenal of weapons in a neighboring town.
Clyde and Fults promised to steal two automobiles large enough to hold the escaped prisoners and fast enough to evade pursuit. Clyde also wanted to relay a message about the impending raid to Aubrey Skelly, and for that endeavor, he needed Bonnie's help.
Up until then, Bonnie's involvement in gang affairs had been purely decorative. She had been Clyde's lover, helping him relax between jobs. But now, it was her time to prove herself.
On April 17, Clyde and Fults took her to Eastham Prison, and Bonnie introduced herself as Cousin Skelly. The diminutive girl who showed up to visit a relative aroused no one's suspicion, and Bonnie was let in without a problem. Skelly's position allowed him private conversations, and there was no security present when he spoke to the girl.
Back with Clyde and Fults, Bonnie reported that Skelly had approved the plan and would be ready when they arrived to retrieve him. It certainly meant a lot to Bonnie that Clyde trusted her enough to use her as a go-between.
The visit with Skelly had gone so smoothly, and she had enjoyed being involved so much, that it seemed natural for the girl to accompany Clyde and Fults when they went to the town of Tyler to steal cars for the upcoming raid on Eastham. Fults had no objection to her following them. He found Bonnie thoughtful and witty.
Bonnie, for her part, felt that the trips to Eastham and Tyler gave her a new status as a permanent member of her lover's gang. Before leaving for Tyler, she told her mother that she was finally moving to Houston to take a job selling cosmetics there.
Everything went smoothly in Tyler, and the outlaws were returning in new, bigger, and faster cars. But on the way back, they decided to stop at a store in Kaufman and steal guns in the middle of the night.
While Bonnie waited in the stolen Chrysler, Clyde and Fults began picking the lock on the store door. A night watchman, whom the robbers did not know existed, appeared nearby, and there was a brief exchange of gunfire between him and Clyde.
The watchman then ran for help, and Clyde and Fults jumped into the stolen cars and drove away from town. Kaufman's townspeople were quick to respond to the watchman's call, and in the few minutes it took Clyde and Fults to find the main road leading to Dallas, the highway was blocked by a couple of giant graders.
The criminals had no choice but to turn around and drive through Kaufman, then turn east onto a narrow country road strewn with mud. The stolen cars were undoubtedly much cooler than the local cars, and the criminals had no trouble evading pursuit. But then, a violent storm began to brew.
The already water-soaked road flooded completely, and the cars quickly became stuck. Realizing they could now be overtaken, the criminals continued on foot. Around 1:00 a.m., they reached a farmhouse. The owner had no car to steal but offered the use of two mules.
The fugitives had no choice. Bonnie and Clyde climbed on one mule and Fults on the other. The town of Kemp was a few miles from the farm, and the outlaws moved in that direction. The merry adventure Bonnie had expected turned out to be a misery.
She was soaked to the skin and was returning home on the uncomfortable back of a mule. The farmer did not even have saddles, and the outlaws had to ride without them. It was almost dawn when they reached the outskirts of Kemp.
Here, they met the car of Scarsdale, the local doctor, which they had stolen without trouble. Now they could continue their journey in it, and this brought the trio some relief. But soon, their pursuers appeared.
A motley crew of farmers and residents of the small town led by Marshall Kemp and the chief of police of the nearby town of Maybank. The criminals managed to remain undetected until about 5:00 in the evening when they ran across the road to steal a car parked outside a small store instead of the one being pursued.
But before Clyde could start it, they were attacked by an armed posse. The criminals jumped out of the car and fled. They managed to make it to the banks of a nearby parched tributary of Cedar Creek. Fults was wounded in the left arm and was no longer able to keep up with Clyde. Bonnie was not particularly fast either.
Clyde faced a difficult choice: stay with Bonnie or run away himself. He realized that moving at Bonnie's pace, they would soon be caught, and he remembered that when he had left Eastern prison, he had promised himself he would never go to jail again.
The only option was to escape alone and then try to help Bonnie and Fults somehow. There was no way to be sure what Bonnie thought when her boyfriend Clyde blurted out that he was leaving her on the muddy bottom of the creek where a lot of angry men were shouting at her.
If she begged him not to leave her, Clyde was not convinced. Perhaps she was too panic-stricken to realize what he was saying. In any case, Clyde jumped out of the creek bed and ran straight toward the men shooting at them.
This time he was lucky. The two closest members of the squad he attacked were reloading their weapons. Taking advantage of everyone's confusion, Clyde was able to escape while the squad attacked Bonnie and Fults.
Clyde returned to Kemp where he stole one car, drove a short distance, stole another, and finally made it to his family in West Dallas. Meanwhile, Fults told Bonnie to turn herself in. He suggested she tell the posse that she had been kidnapped and forced to go along with him and Clyde on a failed convenience store robbery.
Bonnie came out of hiding and was immediately captured. Fults, still bleeding in the creek bed, was captured a little later. The posse took Bonnie and Fults back to Kemp where they were locked up for the night in the town's tiny one-cell jail.
Promising to return for Bonnie and Fults, Clyde did not lie. When he reached his family on April 20, he informed them of what had happened and asked his younger brother Buck and his fiancee Blanche to go to Kaufman immediately and find out where his associate and lover were being held. He himself set out to get weapons.
Over the next few days, all the plans of Clyde and his gang again fell apart one after another. The reason was the active law enforcement agencies that sent out tip sheets and responded to them quickly. Clyde was desperate. His gang was down to just three men, and a raid on Eastham seemed a hopeless endeavor.
Clyde himself was wanted by the police. After a few days in custody, Fults was sent to trial. His situation was unenviable. The criminal faced a return to Huntsville and possibly to Eastham Farm. Bonnie was temporarily stuck in the Kaufman jail awaiting the court's decision.
It was hoped that the grand jury would believe the story that she was merely a hostage for Clyde and Fults, and the girl would be released. This time, Clyde decided to think carefully about his next steps instead of acting impulsively as usual.
He realized that trying to get Bonnie out before the trial would prove she was more than just a hostage and put her in danger. He had informed the girl through his relatives, and she had taken the news quite calmly. What Bonnie felt at that moment in relation to Clyde remains a mystery.
The girl spent the days of her imprisonment writing poetry. Between April 20, when she was arrested, and June 17, when Kaufman's grand jury convened, Bonnie composed a collection of poems called Poetry from the Other Side of Life.
During this time, her boyfriend was planning a robbery after which he could get a gun and free Ralph Fults from the Wichita Falls jail before he was transferred to Huntsville. His new target was the store of wealthy John Boucher, which carried a wide variety of merchandise from jewelry to musical instruments.
Upon exploring the store, Clyde and his accomplices, Ted Rogers and Johnny Russell, discovered a large safe. However, there was a big risk involved. The landlord's apartment was located directly above the store, and Boucher's wife noticed Clyde and his company.
Feeling uneasy, Clyde wanted to abandon his goal. But the imminent trial of Fults and the determination of his comrades forced him to still go to the robbery on April 30, 1932. He had no idea how the scheme would turn out.
Late in the afternoon, Clyde drove up to Boucher's store. He stayed in the car while Rogers and Russell went inside and asked the downstairs proprietor to show them guitar strings. The owner's spouse also came downstairs, and the criminals pulled out guns.
Boucher opened the safe, which, in addition to jewelry, contained a gun. Boucher tried to take it and was shot by Ted Rogers. After taking the money and jewelry, the criminals ran out of the store and drove away. Their proceeds totaled forty dollars in cash. The stolen jewelry was valued at about fifteen hundred dollars.
This incident completed the breakup of the Lake Dallas gang. The outlaws divided the loot and dispersed. Although Clyde was not present at the murder, the dead man's wife identified him as one of the robbers, and Barrow was now more than just a wanted thief. Law enforcement was hunting him as a murderer.
Clyde was hiding from them while he contemplated a plan to save Fults. Only there was no need to carry it out. Having contacted him through a mutual acquaintance, Fults informed him that he and his cellmate had developed their own escape tactics. This escape, however, ultimately failed.
But Clyde's cellmate received a lenient sentence: ten years in prison for armed robbery, and he was sent not to Eastham, but to the main prison wing of Walls, where he met Clyde's older brother Buck.
Clyde spent May and the first weeks of June 1932 committing several small robberies in and around Dallas. His sister estimated that the total from these raids did not even amount to one hundred dollars. Clyde was clearly treading water, waiting for a Kaufman County jury to decide Bonnie's fate.
On June 17, Bonnie's trial was held, and the girl was acquitted and given her freedom. She told her mother, who took her home, that she was done with Clyde Barrow. However, it was a lie. Very soon, Bonnie began to exchange messages with her lover.
The girl should have realized that the connection with a wanted killer could lead her to even worse consequences than prison. But once again, she listened not to reason, but her heart. She told Clyde that she was ready to join him.
Bonnie was not the only one. Around the same time, Clyde was joined by Raymond Hamilton, whom they had split up after a bank robbery in Kansas. By mid-July, they had rented a small house in Wichita Falls, which became their base of operations.
Bonnie settled there with them, again lying to her mother that she had found a good job elsewhere. Of course, Bonnie's mother could not help but suspect that her daughter had reunited with Clyde Barrow. But a few days later, she received a letter from Bonnie detailing her new job at the cafe and breathed a sigh of relief. Bonnie was not even twenty-two years old yet, and she wanted to remain a good girl to her mother.
At first, the duo of Clyde and Hamilton was not lucky. The robbery they committed at the train station in Urban brought only twelve dollars. But on August 1, 1932, they joined the team of Ross Dyer that managed to rob the packaging company Newhof, located a few miles from the Barrow house, and thus earned four hundred forty dollars.
Four days after this robbery, Bonnie went to visit her mother, and Clyde and his companions had an opportunity to blow off steam and have some fun. Clyde, Hamilton, and Dyer drove the stolen car to Stringtown, Oklahoma, where at an open pavilion near the highway, the locals were just about to put on an entertainment event.
The trio easily managed to blend into the drunken crowd, and they began enjoying drinks and snagging pretty girls. Clyde was once again out of luck. The party was attended by the local sheriff, Maxwell, whose attention Clyde's company had for some reason affected.
The sheriff approached the trio as they sat in the car and tried to arrest them after a gun was seen in the back seat, but most likely it was because Clyde, who was sitting behind the wheel, was drunk. The criminals already had charges hanging over them, and they were not about to give up and pulled out guns.
There was a shootout between them and the sheriff, during which Deputy Sheriff Eugene Moore was killed, and the sheriff himself was seriously wounded. Even though police units soon began to hunt for the killers, Clyde and Hamilton managed to escape, stealing several cars in the process.
Their comrade Dyer was less fortunate. Mingling with the panic crowd, he found a bus and traveled to Texas, where he was caught by the police. The incident made Clyde and his family realize that he had crossed the line, and there was no turning back.
If he had previously been charged with murder that he himself had not committed, now there was no chance of acquittal. And if caught, the electric chair awaited Clyde. Eugene Moore's death was a direct result of Clyde's callousness, and it was also an indication that he was capable of the most extreme acts.
A normal girl would have run away from such a man, but Bonnie, as we have seen, was fantastically loyal. Even when Clyde made such terrible mistakes, it was not his fault in Bonnie's opinion. She convinced family and friends that what made Clyde a professional criminal and murderer was the constant harassment by the law. He used to be a good man, but he had no chance to stay that way.
Since August 6, 1932, the fates of Bonnie and Clyde intertwined definitively. It was Bonnie who told Clyde where they should go to avoid prosecution. This marked the beginning of a new period in Bonnie's own life, when she began her transformation from mistress to a fully fledged partner in crime.
She and Raymond traveled to New Mexico, where Bonnie's aunt lived. It was an excellent choice. The local authorities had no reason to be looking for Clyde and Hamilton, and the state had poor communications with Texas.
Appearing on the doorstep of her Aunt Millie Stamps's house on August 13, Bonnie introduced her companions, identifying Clyde as her husband, James White, and Raymond as their friend, Jack Smith. The trio set up at the home of Millie Stamps, who could not refuse their hospitality.
However, the expensive automobile in which her niece arrived, and the large sums of money Millie had seen from her husband and their friend could not help but arouse suspicion. So she secretly contacted County Sheriff's Deputy Joe Jones and asked him to come over to her house.
Jones showed up and asked Bonnie to get the men who had accompanied her, while he went to inspect their automobile. Clyde and Raymond exited through the back door, one of them carrying a shotgun. The criminals fired a warning shot. The deputy surrendered without resistance.
Clyde could not just let his hostage go. After all, it was a policeman. But he did not want to kill him. So Clyde, Bonnie, and Raymond forced Jones into an automobile at gunpoint. Clyde got behind the wheel and drove east toward Texas.
His destination was the town of San Antonio, where they dropped off a hostage with a naive request that they not raise the alarm for an hour. Of course, the deputy did not honor it, but it took him some time to get to the nearest person with a phone and call the San Antonio police.
The police immediately set up roadblocks on the main highway between San Antonio and Dallas, but they missed. The trio took a different route and turned southeast. Using country roads instead of main highways, they returned to Dallas and settled into an abandoned farmhouse.
From there, they made a trek thirty-five miles west to Fort Worth, where they broke into a state guard armory and stole several high-powered automatic rifles. Around September 1, Clyde and Raymond's paths diverged. Hamilton was going to move to Michigan for a while.
Clyde and Bonnie continued to live off petty looting of country stores and service stations. The couple did not sit still and traveled constantly. The unsigned postcards that came from them kept members of the Barrow family informed of their wanderings through the Midwest.
These postcards told of trips along the Great Lakes and described the skyscrapers of Chicago. So it could be said that Bonnie and Clyde had something of a romantic journey. Traveling by car, they stopped at motels. Sometimes they went into farmhouses and asked to be let in for the night, paying their hosts with money or food. When there were no motels or farmhouses nearby, they slept in the car.
Bonnie and Clyde had their quarrels, but generally they behaved like a typical couple in love. Clyde tried to make his girlfriend happy, and even stole a typewriter for her so she could type new poems on the road.
In October 1932, Bonnie and Clyde returned to Texas. While driving past the Barrow gas station, Clyde threw away a Coca-Cola bottle with a note inside. The message was intended for members of his family and included a time and place to meet.
In addition, Clyde took Bonnie to visit her mother. Within minutes, Bonnie told her mother that she was fine. Then she slipped out of the house before Emma Parker could start lecturing her about the mistake she was making by accompanying Clyde Barrow.
Before leaving West Dallas, Clyde had enlisted two outlaws, Frank Hardy and Hollis Hale, to travel north with them to Missouri. This was not difficult because, thanks to the efforts of journalists, Clyde's name appeared in all the newspapers, although often his participation in the thefts or murders committed was speculation.
On November 30, Clyde's new gang committed a robbery at a bank in Oronogo, Missouri. Bonnie had gone there the day before on a reconnaissance mission, but apparently, because she had never been in a bank before, she did not know how to behave and aroused suspicion.
This explains the fact that on the day of the robbery, things did not go as planned. At 11:30 a.m., Clyde, Hale, and Hardy arrived at the bank. Clyde and Hardy entered the building with a machine gun, while Hale remained waiting outside in a getaway car.
As expected, the bank was almost empty of customers, but the teller had a gun handy, hiding behind the counter, which was armored and which Bonnie, due to inexperience, had not paid attention to. The teller began firing. Fortunately for the robbers, his gun jammed after a few shots.
Clyde returned fire, but his bullets could not penetrate the counter, and the cashier was unhurt. Meanwhile, Hardy grabbed the money lying on the counter, whereupon he and Clyde ran out of the building and drove away. There was no harassment.
The proceeds totaled far less than expected. Hale and Hardy, who had expected six-figure earnings, were obviously disappointed. They lied to Clyde that the earnings from the robbery amounted to eighty dollars, divided that amount among the three, and then divided the remaining money among themselves.
Hale and Hardy then lied again, saying they would go into town for a while to get ammunition. They never returned, and Clyde and Bonnie were left alone with about twenty-five dollars in their pockets.
On December 24, Clyde and Bonnie arrived in West Dallas to celebrate Christmas with family and deliver gifts to relatives. Here, they were found by Clyde's brother's friend, William Jones, a fan of the famous robber Barrow, who wished to join their gang.
He was only sixteen years old, but he showed great loyalty to his idol, and Clyde needed a reliable assistant, so he did not reject Jones's offer. A new member of the gang required initiation, and Clyde would not put it off until after the holiday.
On Christmas morning, he picked a grocery store in Temple, and along with Bonnie and Jones, arrived to rob it. After securing their weapons, Clyde and his associate went in to rob, while Bonnie stayed behind to wait for them in the car. But barely entering the store, Jones began to give up the case.
Back in the car, Clyde called the recruit a coward, and Bonnie added fuel to the fire with her mocking laughter. But poor Jones was not going to be let go for nothing. An angry Clyde began driving around town looking for another target, ignoring the complaints of Jones, who really wanted to go home.
Clyde spotted a Ford Model A roadster parked outside a house on the side of a residential street. The keys were in the ignition, which was not unusual in those days. Clyde sent Jones to steal the car, but as expected, the nervous teenager was not up to the task.
Clyde was too angry to be cautious, and instead of returning Jones and driving away, he got behind the wheel of the Model A himself, apparently intending to further shame the teenager. The owner of the car was Doyle Johnson, who was celebrating Christmas with his wife, young daughter, and other family members.
As Johnson was napping, his father-in-law, Henry Krauser, looked out the window and saw two boys fiddling in Doyle's car. Krauser, his son Clarence, and Johnson's wife Tilly went out into the yard, and Clyde jumped out of the car and drew his gun, warning them to stay put.
He then returned to the car and started it, just as the owner himself came out of the house. Doyle Johnson ran to the automobile, reached through the open window, and grabbed Clyde by the neck. At that point, a shot rang out, and a bullet pierced Johnson's spinal cord, whereupon the owner of the car died suddenly.
Clyde and Jones drove away in the stolen car, and Bonnie followed them in another car. A few blocks away from the murder scene, the boys left the stolen car and moved in with Bonnie. Whether or not Clyde was remorseful for what he had done, we are left to wonder.
Soon after Johnson's murder, a new target loomed before him. His partner, Raymond Hamilton, back in Michigan, was in prison. Among his charges was the murder of John Boucher, in which he had no part, and Hamilton was facing life or even the death penalty. Clyde had always favored justice, as he understood it, and intended to free Raymond.
In the early days of January 1933, Clyde visited his sister Lillian McBride. He asked her to give Raymond a radio set in which hacksaw blades were hidden. Clyde hoped that by using them, Raymond would break out of his cell and escape.
On the afternoon of January 6, Lillian McBride was visited by a county sheriff's deputy who planned to ambush Hamilton's former partner, Odell Chambless, in the area. A five-man law enforcement squad showed up here late in the evening.
Just then, Clyde, William Jones, and Bonnie drove up to Lillian's house. Clyde wanted to find out if she had been able to get the radio set to Raymond. Clyde got out of the car and approached the porch armed with a shotgun.
Raymond's other sister, Maggie Ferris, showed herself in the doorway and shouted, "Don't shoot. Think of my children." This was obviously a warning, and Clyde reacted to it quickly and unexpectedly. He raised his shotgun and fired through the window of the house, causing the police officers to rush to the floor.
Clyde then tried to fire again, but his shotgun jammed, and the perpetrator backed away from the porch trying to pull the spent shell casing out of the bolt. Meanwhile, police officers hiding behind the house heard the shot and ran toward the sound.
In the meantime, Clyde had time to handle the shotgun, and when Fort Worth Sheriff's Deputy Malcolm Davis was nearby, Clyde shot him in the chest. People from neighboring houses ran out into the street. Shouting and commotion ensued, which allowed Clyde to slip away and run between the houses toward Eagle Ford Road.
William Jones, who was in the car, decided to help his mentor and started shooting, but he was stopped by Bonnie, who reasoned that they risked harming Clyde himself or random passersby. The girl started the car and drove around the block so that Clyde could jump into the vehicle. Clyde replaced her in the driver's seat and rushed west.
Clyde's attempt to help Hamilton proved futile. On January 8, Raymond was caught trying to use a hacksaw to saw through the bars of his cell. He was immediately transferred to a more secure Dallas County Jail, where he was held until his trial. For the second time in two weeks, Clyde committed murder.
Clyde, Bonnie, and William Jones were on the run again. From January through March 1933, they traveled aimlessly along winding routes through Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri. They obtained money for food, gasoline, and other necessities by robbing stores and service stations far from the big cities.
It was a carefree time for Bonnie and Clyde to fully enjoy life. There was no organized pursuit after them. The trunk was packed with good clothes, guns, and ammunition. Bonnie wrote on her typewriter, Clyde played guitar and sang, and William Jones acted as their personal photographer.
The fugitives were discreet and addressed each other by their nicknames in public. They were constantly sending postcards to their families. Clyde signed as Bud, Bonnie as Sis, and William as Jack. At least once a month, they made short visits to Dallas to see their relatives.
To organize a family reunion, Bonnie and Clyde would simply drive by the Barrow station on Eagle Ford Road and throw out Coca-Cola bottles with messages about where and when they could get together out of town. Upon receiving such a letter, Clyde's mother would call her daughter Nell and Bonnie's mother Emma and use a special cipher to alert them of the meeting.
During their visits, Clyde and Bonnie would give their families money, which in those days was often necessary for trivial survival, for the Depression and the Dust Bowl were still strangling the Texas economy. Even the proud Emma Parker accepted handouts from her daughter Bonnie, realizing that the money had been obtained by dishonest means.
In late March 1933, Bonnie and Clyde were joined by two more people: Clyde's older brother Buck and his wife Blanche. Buck had recently been released from prison and now planned to start a new law-abiding life and at the same time convince his younger brother to give up robbery and surrender to the authorities.
But something went wrong. First, he and Blanche settled with Clyde and his company in an apartment in Joplin, where they spent their time having fun and socializing. Buck's entreaties had no effect on Clyde, and he was not eager to voluntarily return to prison, where he believed only the electric chair awaited him.
Eventually, five suspicious people living in the apartment attracted the attention of the authorities, and on April 13, a specially organized police squad arrived at the house in two cars. The officers believed the individuals hiding in the apartment might be selling contraband booze and were carrying only small-caliber handguns.
They pulled up just as Clyde and William were closing the garage door. District Constable Harriman tried to get inside, but Clyde shot him with a shotgun, and he fell bleeding. A furious firefight ensued.
William was seriously wounded in the abdomen, but he was not able to move and even tried to help his mentor whenever possible. Taking advantage of the more powerful weapons and the unpreparedness of the lawmen for the firefight, Clyde's team managed to escape.
The fight left two police officers dead and the fugitives in a terrible situation. All their belongings were left in the apartment, their relative anonymity in Missouri was at an end, and William was seriously injured. The only first aid the teenager was able to receive was a bandage and aspirin tablets. Clyde and Buck also suffered minor injuries.
Police, on the other hand, sent out an APB detailing the shooters. Buck and Blanche were among those wanted. They had no choice but to resign themselves to joining Bonnie and Clyde. Having obtained the necessary things, the fugitives went on a trip to different states.
In May 1933, they again visited family in Dallas and temporarily left the still unrecovered William there before heading north. They spent a few days in Indiana and then traveled back to Texas via Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Their source of income continued to be robberies of small stores, drug stores, and gas stations.
On the night of May 18, Bonnie and Blanche dropped Clyde and Buck off behind the bank building in Okabena. The Barrow brothers got inside and hid, and in the morning caught the two arriving employees by surprise. They grabbed all the money they could find and successfully absconded with proceeds of about sixteen hundred dollars.
On June 8, Clyde and Bonnie picked up their young associate William from Dallas, while Buck and Blanche went to visit the girl's father in Oklahoma. They were to meet late in the evening of June 10 and continue their adventures, but something unexpected happened that day.
On the night of June 9, 1933, Bonnie, Clyde, and William were racing down Texas Highway 203 between the communities of Quail and Wellington. Six miles east of Wellington, a construction crew had dismantled a bridge over a large ravine, but proper warning signs had not been erected.
Clyde was racing at seventy miles per hour, and when the road suddenly ended, his Ford broke through a wooden barricade and flew into the air. As it fell, the car hit a solid rock and flipped several times. Bonnie was thrown from the car and pinned underneath.
The miraculously surviving Clyde and William tried to lift the car and free the girl, but their strength was insufficient. Gasoline dripped from the tilted tank, and a spark suddenly came from nowhere, igniting the fuel. The gasoline ran down Bonnie's legs, and the girl began to burn.
At the most desperate moment, two farmers, Tom Pritchard and John Cartwright, came to the rescue. The men helped lift the car, and Clyde managed to get Bonnie out. The flames were still engulfing her legs, and they began to extinguish them with sand and dirt.
Bonnie's burns were horrific. According to Jones's recollection, the skin on her right leg from the thigh to ankle was missing and bone was visible in some places. The girl was carried to the nearby Pritchard home, where Sally Pritchard and her daughter Gladys applied baking soda to the burns.
Clyde responded to persistent offers to call a doctor by refusing. His own nose was also broken, and William Jones suffered several burns. Meanwhile, John Cartwright slipped out of the house and called the local sheriff.
Hearing the noise of cars pulling up, Clyde and William went out into the yard and hid behind a hedge. When Sheriff Corry and Wellington Marshall Tom Hardy entered the house with their guns at the ready, the criminals attacked them from behind and handcuffed the police officers with their own handcuffs.
By then, Clyde had had time to discuss next steps with Bonnie, and they concluded that, despite the girl's condition, they should continue running. Clyde and Marshall Hardy sat in the back seat of his car, and Clyde held Bonnie in his lap. The others positioned themselves in front.
The fugitives and their captives rushed toward Wellington, stopping beside Buck and Blanche's car, which met them near Erick, Oklahoma. Clyde released the police officers, and he and William tied their handcuffs to the fence with wire.
Clyde and Buck considered killing the captives to avoid unnecessary trouble, but Clyde dismissed the idea because the cops were treating Bonnie well. Blanche, on the other hand, did what she could to ease Bonnie's suffering.
The cops eventually got their hands free and were able to notify the authorities that the Barrow gang was heading east of Erick. Although the news spread quickly, Clyde was again able to slip away and drive to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where they rented two rooms in a tourist complex.
Bonnie needed careful care, which, due to circumstances, could only be provided by someone who could be trusted. So, on June 11, Clyde left for Dallas, from where he picked up Bonnie's sister Billie and returned to Fort Smith.
The proximity of six people living in two small sites got on everyone's nerves. Funds for food, medicine, ammunition, and rent were exhausted. The Dennis family, owners of a tourist court in Fort Smith, were told by the group that they had been in an automobile accident that left Bonnie with terrible burns.
Dennis's daughter arranged for a Fort Smith doctor to treat Bonnie, and the doctor apparently kept the emerging suspicions to himself. Even with outside help, however, funds were sorely lacking, and Clyde suggested that William and Buck supplement their budget.
William and Buck headed to the town of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they robbed Brown's grocery store, thus earning about twenty dollars. The robbers were followed by police officers, and a shootout ensued, during which one of the lawmen was fatally wounded.
This incident seriously disturbed all of Clyde's crew, and it was decided to leave their temporary hideout as soon as possible. Clyde took the women north into the mountains, after which he returned for his companions.
On the evening of June 24, 1933, the fugitives arrived in Enid, Oklahoma, where they stole a doctor's dark sedan, in which they found the necessary medical supplies. Clyde decided that Bonnie had recovered enough to do without her sister's constant care, and drove Billy Parker to Texas on June 27.
Clyde's gang traveled through Oklahoma and Kansas, pulling off several successful robberies before making a stop in Missouri at the Red Crown Tourist Camp. The new guests aroused the suspicion of the local clerk, and his employer contacted Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain William Baxter.
When Baxter learned that one of the female suspects was heavily bandaged, he immediately assumed he was dealing with the notorious Barrow gang. Together with Platte County Sheriff Holt Coffee, they began to develop a plan to capture the criminals.
Late in the evening of July 19, 1933, there was a knock on the room where Clyde's crew was hiding. Warning that it was the police, Blanche shouted, "You'll have to wait until I get dressed." Thus waking the others and signaling them.
Clyde took Bonnie in his arms, and along with William, escaped through the emergency exit. As Clyde placed Bonnie in the car, William noticed that the driveway was blocked by an armored police car. Clyde grabbed the rifle and began firing at the car and the police officers standing nearby.
Buck, who had arrived, joined his brother. Many police officers were wounded, and soon had to move the car away, unable to withstand such intense gunfire. During the firefight, Buck took two bullets to the head and lost consciousness. Blanche somehow managed to drag him to the car.
Clyde started the engine and was able to get the whole gang away. In addition to Buck, Blanche was also seriously injured. When police bullets shattered the windshield of their car, one of the shots hit her left eye.
The next evening, near dusk, Clyde stopped the car in a wooded area between Dexter and Redfield, Iowa, where he and William treated the wounded. Leaving the injured here, they drove to the village of Perry and returned with a newly stolen car.
On July 24, 1933, Clyde began making plans to leave for Texas. The police were making plans, too, and forming a reliable posse that could catch the Barrow gang once and for all. The posse consisted of forty national guardsmen, all Iowa police officers, and about a hundred volunteer farmers.
This posse showed up near the gang's temporary hideout at dawn the next morning. Bonnie was the first to spot them on the horizon and warned the others. Clyde and William drew their rifles and opened fire, while the wounded made their way to the car.
Then Clyde and William jumped into the car and drove a few yards away. A bullet from one of the pursuers hit Clyde in the arm. He failed to control the car, and the car crashed into a tree stump.
There was no way to free the bumper, and Clyde told everyone to move to the newly stolen car. The posse closed in around them harder and harder. The gunfire made the spare car just as unrideable, and Clyde's gang was left to seek cover in the bushes and behind trees.
Buck took several bullets in the chest and back, and Clyde was shot in the leg, leaving William to watch over Bonnie and Buck in the bushes. Clyde went in search of transportation.
When the gunshots subsided, Bonnie and William climbed out of hiding and headed for the river, where Clyde had gone. Suddenly, they heard gunshots again and thought Clyde Barrow had been killed. Out of desperation, they fell on the grass and began to cry, holding onto each other.
But soon, William and Bonnie looked up and saw none other than Clyde Barrow coming toward them through the woods. The trio crossed to the other side, and Clyde left William and Bonnie hiding in a cornfield.
Upon reaching the nearest house, Barrow threatened the owner with a rifle, and he obediently handed over his car keys. Clyde washed William's wounds so that he could drive, after which he himself lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, the posse discovered Buck and Blanche mortally wounded. They were taken to a hospital in Perry, Iowa. On July 29, 1933, Buck Barrow died. In September of that year, Blanche Caldwell Barrow was imprisoned in the Missouri State Penitentiary for ten years.
William took his companions to Polk City, where they stole a better car, after which they continued west toward Denver. They found a wooded area where they could rest and remained there for several days.
Clyde and Bonnie's wounds gradually healed, and Clyde was able to take over the driving again. At this time, William Jones must have decided that he had no future with his friends Bonnie and Clyde, so he bought a bus ticket to Houston and left.
For the next few months, the couple traveled the country roads, camped in the woods, and stayed with a few friends and relatives Bonnie and Clyde could trust. On November 1, 1933, Clyde's mother was celebrating her birthday, and the Barrow and Parker families organized a picnic in the countryside, where Bonnie and Clyde also came.
The families then decided to get together again the following evening, which the police attempted to take advantage of. The plan was for the squad to surround the criminals and their families during the picnic, but the agitated lawmen rushed in and opened fire on Clyde's car before it arrived at the designated spot.
Clyde abruptly turned around, and after driving some distance, he and Bonnie moved into the car of one Thomas James and Paul Wright. Of course, the men were against giving up their Ford Model B sedan for nothing, but the shotgun in Clyde's hands quickly changed their minds.
Now, let us remember Raymond Hamilton, Clyde's former partner, who went to prison. In January 1934, this guy decided he had had enough of sitting behind bars and was thinking about his escape. He was helped by his cellmate James Mullen, who got out of prison, Raymond's brother Floyd, and of course, his old friends Bonnie and Clyde.
Through the prison trustee, Floyd and Mullen gave Raymond and his cellmate Joe Palmer automatic pistols. Another prisoner, Henry Methvin of West Louisiana, agreed to join the escapees. Remember this fellow, he will play an important part in the fate of our heroes.
On the morning of January 15, the fugitives gathered in the logging area of the prison farm, where armed Clyde and Mullen approached. Together, they opened fire on the arriving guards and managed to get to the car, where Bonnie was waiting for them.
Along with the criminals, two others escaped, who managed to quickly navigate by the names Bibby and French. After driving a few miles, Clyde explained to the fugitives that traveling in such a large company could not help but arouse suspicion, and split the group up. French and Bibby were left to their own devices, while Methvin, Hamilton, and Palmer continued their journey with Bonnie and Clyde.
Bonnie and Clyde's new friends traveled to Ranger, Texas, and robbed a National Guard Armory. On the 27, they got together again to rob the Lancaster Bank. The robbery took only a few minutes and did not require the criminals to fire a single shot.
While Methvin was on duty in his car, Clyde and Raymond broke into the bank with guns and easily collected all the money they found in the vault. Their proceeds totaled over four thousand one hundred dollars.
After this successful case, the gang underwent a split. The reason was Hamilton's attempt to take the looted money without Clyde's knowledge, and a conflict between Bonnie and Hamilton's girlfriend, Mary O'Dare. Leaving Raymond and his girlfriend in Indiana, Clyde stole another car and left for Dallas with Bonnie and Methvin.
In April 1934, a black sedan with Bonnie, Clyde, and Henry Methvin was traveling east on Texas Highway 114 before turning north on Dove Lane. Soon, they pulled off the road and parked. Bonnie and Clyde wished to take a nap, while Methvin was left as a guard.
Two patrolmen stopped nearby, apparently noticing that the black sedan was speeding heavily. Clyde immediately realized that the approaching patrolmen were not going to hurt them, and said to Bonnie and Methvin, "Let's get them." He meant a simple kidnapping, but Methvin, being a rookie, misunderstood the command and opened fire on the patrolmen. Both boys were found dead.
These murders were the last straw for the cops who were looking for Bonnie and Clyde. Four lawmen, Hamer, Lee Simmons, Alcorn, and Hinton, met secretly to discuss a plan to capture Bonnie and Clyde dead or alive.
Lee Simmons announced that he had the governor's permission to issue a pardon to whoever would help them in this endeavor. Upon hearing this, investigator Hamer immediately thought of Henry Methvin. He quickly contacted Methvin's father, and an agreement was made between them.
Henry Methvin would help the police catch his new friends, and in return would receive a pardon, which in his case meant an escape from the death penalty. In the spring of 1934, Bonnie and Clyde met with their families again. Almost all the relatives came to visit them as if anticipating the imminent trouble.
In parting, Bonnie promised that they would return in two weeks, but her words were not to be. The families never saw Bonnie and Clyde alive again. In the last few days, Bonnie and Clyde used most of their former hiding places until Henry Methvin wished to visit his father. He suggested that Clyde go to Louisiana to hide out at Ivan Methvin's house for a few days.
On May 23, the trio left their hideout and headed for Gibsland, where they entered a store. A few miles out of town, six men from the posse who had been sitting in ambush were already waiting for them, positioned on the road where the couple was sure to pass.
Ivan Methvin, in the meantime, had rolled his old truck to the ambush site and unscrewed a tire to make it appear that he was repairing the machine. At Gibsland, Henry Methvin managed to separate himself from his friends.
Clyde at this time noticed a police car in the street, and a sixth sense told him to run, which caused him to not look for Methvin and wait. Around 9:00 a.m., he and Bonnie drove past the set ambush.
Noticing Henry Methvin's father, Clyde stopped to see if the old man needed help. Taking advantage of the perpetrators' attention being focused on Ivan Methvin, the officers got out of hiding. Methvin instantly ducked under his truck.
Before Hamer could suggest that the criminals surrender peacefully, one of the officers who harbored a particularly burning hatred for them was unable to control his emotions and shot Clyde in the head. Unable to make sense of what was happening, the others also opened fire on Barrow's car.
Clyde received multiple wounds to different parts of his body and must have died instantly. Bonnie also suffered multiple bullet wounds and let out a loud piercing scream before dying. The bodies of both were pierced by bullets and shrapnel over forty times.
Clyde Barrow was twenty-five years old at the time of his death. Bonnie Parker was twenty-three years old. Bonnie and Clyde's families arranged for their remains to be returned to Texas.
Clyde's body was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, and Bonnie's body was buried first in Fish Trap Cemetery, and later reburied in Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas. Bonnie's headstone, which rests next to her mother and nephews, has a long inscription that reads, "Just as flowers are made sweeter by sunlight and dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of people like you."
On Clyde's headstone, the inscription is much shorter. A four-word motto he asked his parents to write while he was still alive: "Gone, but not forgotten." Unbeknownst to him, he had predicted his and Bonnie's posthumous fame.