Famous criminals Clyde
Barrow and Bonnie Parker both came from
families that wound up struggling to make ends meet
during the Great Depression. United by a shared ambition
for fame and fortune, the two became lovers and
embarked on a crime spree. They held up stores and banks
from Texas to Minnesota, gaining themselves
wealth and notoriety, and bringing excitement
and entertainment to the down-and-out
people of America. They lived a fast and wild life
on the wrong side of the law, and eventually, it
caught up with them. Today, we're going to take a
look at the timeline of Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel and let us
know in the comments below what other historical outlaws you
would like to hear about. Now let's go to one lazy
afternoon down Savannah Way. Bonnie Elizabeth Parker
and Clyde Chestnut Barrow-- yeah, his middle name
was Chestnut-- first met in early 1930. The 19-year-old Bonnie
Parker was already married at the time, but
her husband was in prison, and they were estranged. The marriage did little to
discourage her nascent romance with Clyde Barrow. In fact, the attraction
between the two was so strong, it survived a prison
sentence he incurred shortly after they met. While he was doing the time,
he even made a ring for her. Well, you have to admit,
that is kind of sweet. Only 21 years old,
Clyde Barrow had already committed a long
list of misdeeds. Just a few short weeks
after meeting Bonnie, he was sentenced to a term
at Eastham Prison Farm. It wasn't his first
stay behind bars, and it wouldn't be his last. Already willing to
do anything for him, Bonnie helped him
escape by smuggling a gun inside the prison. Clyde did make it out, but
he was quickly hunted down and thrown back in prison. He would remain in the
pen for another two years, finally being paroled in 1932. Not surprisingly,
prison didn't do much in the way of reforming Clyde. If anything, he came out an
even more hardened criminal. Once he was released, he
assembled a loosely affiliated band of outlaws who
helped him rob banks, small stores, and gas stations. With the exception of
Bonnie, the members of what came to be known as the
Barrow Gang changed over time. Although mostly
famous for robberies, the group is also believed to
be responsible for a series of slayings in 1932,
victims included both police and civilians. The group was prolific,
but not always successful. On one occasion, Bonnie
even ended up in jail after an attempted robbery
at a store in Texas. During her two
months behind bars, Bonnie wrote poetry
to pass the time. However, like Clyde, she
wasn't rehabilitated one bit. Upon release, she
returned to Clyde and back to her infamous
criminal lifestyle. Though primarily remembered
for all the banks they robbed, the story of the Barrow
Gang took a bloody detour in April of 1932. One of the group's members
had shot and killed a Texas jeweler
named John Bucher while attempting to rob a store. Bucher's wife was
an eye witness, and when questioned
by the police, she identified Clyde Barrow
as one of the culprits. The violence continued
into the summer of 1932. While visiting Oklahoma,
Clyde an associate named Raymond Hamilton
were approached by a sheriff and his deputy. According to news reports,
Barrow and Hamilton opened fire without warning. The sheriff was killed,
and the deputy was wounded. Over the next two
years, the Barrow Gang would continue to commit
a string of brutal acts against officers of the law. Thankfully, these confrontations
weren't always deadly. In fact, Bonnie
and Clyde were just as likely to take
a policeman alive as they were to take one out. By 1933, the Barrow Gang
was becoming well-known. Between just the months of
April and July of that year, they were involved in several
serious standoffs with the law. In early April, Clyde's brother,
Buck, and sister-in-law, Blanche, joined the
gang, and the group laid low in an apartment
in Joplin, Missouri. However, on April 13, police
located and surrounded the unit. As usual, Bonnie and Clyde
chose to shoot their way out. Two police officers were
killed during their escape. In July of '33, the gang
went to Platte City, Missouri where they tried to
keep a low profile. However, that proved
difficult in the small town. Blanche later
recalled that everyone seemed to act as though
she might open fire on them at any minute. When the police inevitably
knocked on their front door, a woman's voice told them
that she would open it as soon as she was dressed. It's unknown if that voice
belonged to Bonnie or Blanche, but it doesn't matter. A moment later, the gang opened
fire on the squad of officers. The entire Barrow Gang escaped,
although Blanche and Buck were injured. Living as a fugitive
meant having to be prepared to flee
a location quickly, even if valuable objects
were left behind. When Bonnie and Clyde fled
one of their Joplin hideouts, police found rolls
of undeveloped film and Bonnie's handwritten poems. A local paper
published the photos, which only made the
couple more famous and stoked the
public's image of them as rebellious but
romantic lovers. Bonnie and Clyde were
not skittish about ending anyone who stood in
their way, whether it was a cop or a civilian. On the other hand, they
weren't bloodthirsty, either. The gang would often
take hostages and later release them safely. Two such hostages were an
undertaker named H.D. Darby and a woman named Sophie Stone. Darby and Stone
were abducted when Bonnie and Clyde commandeered
their car in Louisiana. At first, the outlaws were
rough with the captives, but they quickly
softened their attitude. By the time they dropped
the terrified couple off in Arkansas, Clyde
was feeling so apologetic, he offered them $5
for their troubles and even invited the undertaker
to embalm him when he died. When you're always on
the run from the fuzz, you spend a lot of time in
your car making quick getaways. Dangerous driving, as your
auto insurance provider will tell you, makes a
crash inevitable, and it finally happened
to Bonnie and Clyde in the summer of 1933. Clyde was driving when
the car went off the road. Everyone inside was injured. According to Blanche's
later recollections, Bonnie suffered severe burns and
had cuts on her leg, right arm, and face. His chin was said to
be skinned to the bone, and her chest was caved in,
although, luckily, no ribs were broken. The whole gang thought she
would be dead by morning. Amazingly, Bonnie pulled through
and survived the injuries, but she never fully
recovered from them. Just a few short days
after they survived a raid in Platte City,
Missouri, the gang found themselves facing
down the police once again. Bonnie, Clyde,
Blanche, and Buck had fled to Iowa, where they sought
refuge at a closed amusement park. When the police inevitably
caught up with the foursome, Bonnie and Clyde managed
to escape with their lives. Buck and Blanche, however,
were not so lucky. The police fired on Buck,
hitting him several times. Blanche opted to stay with
her husband and was arrested. Buck didn't make it. He died at the hospital. Over the course of
the crime spree, several of Bonnie and
Clyde's associates were captured by the police. In fact, Raymond
Hamilton, who had helped Clyde dispose of a
Sheriff in Oklahoma in 1932, was himself in
custody at Eastham. Having served time at the same
facility several years earlier, Clyde was familiar
with their procedures. So on January 16,
1934, Bonnie and Clyde were able to free Hamilton
and several other inmates by firing upon the
prison guards in a field. On April 2, 1934,
everything changed. Bonnie and Clyde,
whose exploits had made them popular with
the public at large, killed two Texas police officers
who had approached their car. That crime quickly
turned public opinion against the outlaw couple. No longer were they seen
as rebellious, romantic antiheroes. Instead, the cold
bloodedness of the incident cast the pair in a
much darker light. Bonnie and Clyde
finally met their fate on a stretch of highway
in rural Louisiana. Having received a tip as to the
couple's whereabouts and likely destination, the police were
able to set up an ambush. Six officers from three
different law enforcement agencies were involved. They waited for Bonnie and
Clyde at the side of the road and opened fire on
their car as it passed. Fred Hamer, one of the lawmen
who was on the scene that day, reported that
despite the fact both were clutching their sidearms
when the trap was sprung, neither Clyde nor Bonnie
was able to get off even a single shot. Footage taken that
day shows that the car was hit by 112 bullets,
about a quarter of which are believed to have
hit the infamous couple. The coroner would ultimately
report that Clyde had 17 bullet wounds and Bonnie had 26. A crowd quickly gathered at
the scene as the news spread. Bonnie and Clyde were set
on by souvenir seekers, who ghoulishly cut locks of hair
and bits of clothing from them. The dramatic end
of Bonnie and Clyde was front page news
from coast to coast. Both were returned
to Texas for burial. Spectators lined up
outside the funeral homes by the thousands
merely to get a glimpse of the notorious bandits. Sadly, though they were
virtually inseparable in life, Bonnie and Clyde's
families decided to bury them separately. Approximately 20,000
people showed up to see Bonnie laid to rest. As one of the most infamous
outlaw couples of all time, Bonnie and Clyde
remain legendary in the annals of American
crime and pop culture. They've been the subject of
numerous books, including one by Blanche Barrow
herself, songs, including ones by Mel Torme
and Merle Haggard, and movies, including 1967's Bonnie
and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty,
as well as Netflix's 2019 film The Highwaymen. More tellingly, Bonnie
and Clyde's very name survive in the idiomatic phrase,
modern day Bonnie and Clyde, which is still used to refer
to couples who operate together as criminals. So what do you think? What's your take on
Bonnie and Clyde? Heroes or sociopaths? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
