Bonnie & Clyde, The Story Of: Love & Death | Full Documentary | Biography

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NARRATOR: She was a lonely waitress longing for excitement and romance. He was a volatile ex con who vowed he would never go back to prison. They found each other in the slums of Dallas, Texas in the early 1930s and proceeded to go on a crime spree that shocked the nation. Fueled by passion and love, the desire to escape poverty, and utter contempt for authority, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow united. You know, it was love at first sight then, because they never did, you know, want anybody else but each other. Bonnie joined Clyde and stayed with him, because she knew he was going to die and she wanted to die by his side. NARRATOR: Since their death 60 years ago, the lives of Bonnie and Clyde have been romanticized and glamorized in films, in books, in music, and on television. "Love and Death-- The Story of Bonnie and Clyde." For two Incredible years, Bonnie and Clyde led their notorious gang on a bloody crime wave that stretched across five states. Bonnie and Clyde robbed banks, pulled a string of armed robberies, that left a bloody trail of murder victims in their wake. All the while, hundreds of law enforcement personnel from five southwestern states hotly pursued the couple. Yet, the pair was able to elude authorities and avoid capture until they were taken out in a hail of bullets. Cops hate cop killers, and they were not popular. They were highly, highly sought, and everybody wanted a piece of Bonnie and Clyde. MAN (READING AS CLYDE BARROW): "No man but the undertaker will ever get me. If officers cripple me where I see they'll take me alive, I'll take my own life." Clyde Barrow. NARRATOR: A tough man who lived in tough times, Clyde Barrow was born in Telico, Texas on March 21, 1909. He was the sixth child of Henry and Cumie Barrow. He was a wonderful boy. I thought I-- you know, he was-- he was-- loved his mother better than anything in the world, I guess. He was quite a mama's boy, and he was real close to all of us. NARRATOR: There was plenty of love in the Barrow family, but very little money. Henry Barrow was a poor tenant farmer. When Clyde was 12 years old, the family was forced to give up farming. They moved to Dallas, Texas. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: There was a lot of economic prosperity, but there was just as much economic despair in the '20s, especially in the rural areas. That's where Clyde Barrow came from. He was from a rural farming background. I think it was as early as 1919 or 1920 when the Barrows moved to Dallas. Dallas was somewhat of a mecca for rural farmers who were having trouble making ends meet in the farming profession. MARIE BARROW: When I grew up with my brother, it wasn't a very nice place where we grew up. We lived on a campground. We was real poor, and didn't have no money, you know, no home or nothing. And finally, my sister bought a place up on Eagle Ford Road, they call it, and my daddy had built this little house that we moved in, you know, there. And we drug it up there on this place, and he put in a filling station. NARRATOR: By age 16, Clyde had quit school. He was slender and small in stature-- barely five seven-- and possessed an innocent look. Following the example of his older brother Buck, Clyde embarked on a life of crime. It started with small transgressions. MARIE BARROW: He rented this car, and he kept this car too long, and the police come looking for him, and that's what started it first. And then my brother Buck and him bought some turkeys from somebody, and these turkeys was hot. And they caught them trying to sell these turkeys, and then they put them in jail for hot turkeys. NARRATOR: Buck spent a week in prison, but authorities chose not to incarcerate Clyde. However, this first brush with the law did not deter Clyde. He continued his petty thievery. He also started stealing cars. Clyde quickly became well-known to the Dallas police. In October of 1929, police were searching for Clyde in connection with a number of local robberies. He was trying to elude police, and was in hiding when he met the woman who would become his soulmate, Bonnie Parker. Bonnie Parker was born on October 1st in 1910. She had an older brother and a younger sister. Her father Henry died when Bonnie was just four years old. Her mother Emma then moved the family to a suburb of Dallas known as Cement City. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: There was a lot of poverty in West Dallas. There were a lot of young people with a lot of energy that they had no place to blow off steam. They saw things that they wanted that they couldn't get, and they just started taking it. And so in that environment, that's where Bonnie came from, really. FRANK PRASSEL: Bonnie's family managed to get her through high school, and she seems to have been-- by all reports-- a rather nice girl, attractive girl. She worked as a waitress. She was married when she was very young, but her husband was convicted and sent to prison before she barely met Clyde. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: She married Roy Thornton when she was 16. She and Roy apparently were very much in love, but he was abusive to her. He beat her. He drank heavily. He would take to disappearing for weeks at a time. After several of his disappearances, when he showed up again, she told him just to shove off. She didn't want to have anything to do with him. But she never divorced him, and she always wore his wedding ring, and she still had it on the day she was killed. NARRATOR: Roy Thornton was arrested and convicted of bank robbery. He was sent to the notorious Eastham Prison Farm. In January, 1930, Bonnie Parker met another dangerous man who would be her true love and her undoing, Clyde Barrow. [music playing] JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: I think he came along at just the right time for her. She was looking for a wild card like Clyde Barrow, and she sure found him. NARRATOR: Clyde was 20 years old, Bonnie just 19. Their first encounter took place when Bonnie came to the aid of a sickened girlfriend. WOMAN (READING AS BILLIE JEAN PARKER): "Bonnie was a wonderful personality. She was a kind person. We had a good friend, and she had an accident. Bonnie wasn't working at the time, so she went out to take care of the lady, and she met Clyde through this lady." Bonnie's sister, Billie Jean Parker, 1968. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: He was already wanted for several murders at the time. He was hidin', and he and Bonnie really fell for each other immediately. And upon meeting, were almost always together for the next two weeks until he was finally arrested. NARRATOR: Clyde was convicted and sentenced to two years for five auto thefts, and received a 12-year suspended sentence for two burglaries. But once in prison, Clyde's thoughts immediately turned to escape. Lovesick, Bonnie was more than willing to help him. JIMMY RAY GILLMAN: Bonnie Parker smuggled in a 32 Colt automatic. He managed to escape, and he left the state. But within a couple weeks, he was recaptured up in Minnesota. He was brought back, tried, and received a 14-year sentence. NARRATOR: Clyde was remanded to Huntsville penitentiary where he met fellow inmate Ralph Fults. The pair formed an immediate alliance. The men were then allocated to work in Eastham Prison Farm. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: At Eastham, it was like going to another planet, really, especially for somebody like Barrow. As much as-- as much as he'd been involved in, he wasn't expecting what he had found down in Eastham. NARRATOR: Prisoners were regularly beaten and abused. Guards allegedly routinely shot and killed convicts to keep the other inmates in line. Soon, Fults found himself on the receiving end of a guard beating. They were exacting revenge on Fults who had previously escaped from Eastham and was later recaptured. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: It was just kind of a tradition. Fults knew it was coming. Two guards closed in and held him down while they pistol-whipped him. At one point, the guard that was beatin' him stopped, and Fults was almost unconscious. He could barely see, and he could see Clyde standing over there with his fists clenched like he was on jump on this guard. These guards were like 6'3", 6'4" , and here's little 5'7" Clyde standing while he's-- and Ralph said he could still see the veins in his neck pulling out. And he was going to jump on that guard, and that guard said, what do you want, boy? You want some of this too? And Clyde never said a thing, just stood there. And all of that called attention away from what they were doing with Fults. And later on, Fults thought that-- that he may have saved his life by standing there like that. And they stopped beating Fults, and they left him. They went on, and Clyde never backed down. And this really impressed Ralph Fults. And right after that, Clyde said, you know what we ought to do? We ought to get out of this place, get a gang, and come back in here, raid this place, and turn everybody loose and shoot every damn one of these guards. NARRATOR: This was more than just big talk from Clyde. It would only take three years before Clyde was able to put his plan for revenge into action. Meanwhile, Clyde's relationship with Bonnie intensified as the pair regularly corresponded through letters. WOMAN (READING AS BONNIE PARKER): "Sugar, I never really knew I really cared for you until you got in jail. But honey, if you get out OK, please don't ever do anything to get locked up again. I can't think of anything to say, only that I love you more than anything on Earth." Excerpt of a letter from Bonnie to Clyde, February 14, 1930. MAN (READING AS CLYDE BARROW): "Dear baby, I just read your letter, and I was sure glad to get it, for I'm awfully lonesome and blue. Honey, if I could just spend just one week with you, I'd be ready to die, for I love you." Excerpt of a letter from Clyde to Bonnie, April 19, 1930. MARIE BARROW: The only thing he would ever say to my mother it was a burning hell. It was horrible on my mother. She like went crazy, because that's one thing. Her kids come first with her, and it almost drove her crazy. MAN (READING AS CLYDE BARROW): "Mother went down to Waco to talk to the judge, and he said he'd help her get my sentence cut back two years. If everything works out like I hope it will, I won't have to stay away from my baby much longer. Merry, Merry Christmas. I send all my love to you." Excerpt of a letter from Clyde to Bonnie December 21, 1930. NARRATOR: Fourteen months later, Clyde was still at the gruesome prison farm. He was growing impatient, waiting for his mother to convince authorities to give her son an early release. So Clyde decided to take matters into his own hands. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: One day he convinced a fellow convict to lob off a couple toes so that he could get out of work detail. The funny thing about it is, his mother and sister were at the governor working on his pardon, and two weeks later, he was pardoned and walked out of Eastham Prison on crutches. NARRATOR: In February, 1932, Clyde came home to Dallas. Prison life had had a devastating effect on him. MARIE BARROW: I think it changed him a lot, made him hard. He used to talk a lot, and he was a lot of fun. He liked to dance and he played all kinds of instruments, nearly, they'd done a lot to Clyde down there. It was just a really-- a living hell for him. NARRATOR: Clyde faced an almost insurmountable struggle when he returned home. WOMAN (READING AS BILLIE JEAN PARKER): "He served his time. He came out. Clyde started to work. At that time, it was during the Depression, and each time that something happened, the police went to Clyde's job. Well, after so many times on the job questioning him, he would lose that job time after time, and jobs were scarce. Clyde just finally gave up." Billie Jean Parker, 1968. NARRATOR: While not everyone chose a life of crime, the Great Depression drove many people to acts of desperation. MAN ON RADIO: "Prosperity is just around the corner," say the hopeful headlines. But around the corner is winding lengthening bread lines, and a whole new class of citizens appears in American society, the new poor. PAUL HUTTON: The country had been wracked by its worst economic decline. A quarter of the population was unemployed. People were on the road. Hobos were jumping trains. Dislocation was going on everywhere. ROGER MCGRATH: You had great disparities between wealth and poverty. A lot of farmers were losing their farms. There was a lot of resentment against banks and big business, the railroads, and other heavy industry at this time. NARRATOR: The Great Depression. The time seemed to fill the air with a heavy apathy, borne of frustration, helplessness, and suppressed anger. In many ways, Bonnie and Clyde were a product of those desperate, dreary times, and the public responded. JONATHAN DAVIS: I think many people had the idea that Bonnie and Clyde were doing something that they would have liked to have done at times. And anybody who robbed banks or fought the law was really living out some secret fantasies on the part of a large part of the population of the country. NARRATOR: The depression gave rise to a new class of criminal. While organized crime syndicates led by men like Al Capone prospered in the prohibition era '20s, during the Depression, a new breed of criminal was born. ROGER MCGRATH: In a way, Clyde Barrow and other outlaws from the Midwest and the Southwest represented a certain kind of Robin Hood ethic, attacking some of these institutions. WOMAN (READING AS BILLIE JEAN PARKER): At the same time that Bonnie and Clyde were active, we had John Dillinger, who was much more famous outlaw in his time, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ma Barker and her boys, Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson. A whole raft of these people were roaming around the country. NARRATOR: The Depression sparked the public's fascination with bad guys in real life and in movies. Actors like Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney gave crime a lot of class. Gangster films became so popular that government officials became alarmed. This is one of the reasons the Hays office-- Hollywood's self-censorship board-- was born. Yet, for all of their infamy, Bonnie and Clyde were not very efficient thieves. PAUL HUTTON: Bonnie and Clyde never seemed to plan. They were predatory robbers that simply moved about the countryside. And when they ran out of money, they robbed whatever was convenient. This meant that they usually took very little money, and they were risking their lives sometimes for $10, $20, $50. $2,000 was a huge haul for them. NARRATOR: But it wasn't so much the money. Clyde fancied himself a modern-day Jesse James. ROGER MCGRATH: I'm sure Clyde Barrow did think of himself as a modern-day Jesse James. Instead of a fast getaway into the rural hinterland on a horse, used to car. In many ways, his crimes were similar. He tried to avoid killing any innocent victims. He shot mostly a lawman, and very often, even with lawmen, he would capture, take for a ride, and then release unharmed, adding a certain kind of romantic panache to his crimes. NARRATOR: The public's fascination with both fictional gangsters and the genuine article was spurred by the emptiness of the Depression years. But Bonnie and Clyde were truly unique. The couple's passionate love affair put them in a class by themselves. PAUL HUTTON: The saga of Bonnie and Clyde is an irresistible one. It's the stuff of legend-- attractive young people, totally nihilistic, totally without fear, totally anti-social, breaking all the rules, all the conventions, defying all the forces of authority-- and on numerous occasions, they showed that they were willing to risk their lives for each other. WOMAN (READING AS BONNIE PARKER): "I know you can't ever live in Dallas, honey, because you can't live down the awful name you got here. But sugar, you could go somewhere else and get a job and work. I want you to be a man, honey, and not a thug. I know you are good, and I know you can make good." Excerpt of a letter from Bonnie to Clyde. NARRATOR: But Clyde did not heed Bonnie's advice. Now an ex con, the police continued to routinely bring Clyde in for questioning. It took just two weeks to end Clyde's half-hearted attempt to go straight. JANATHAN DAVIS: It was hard enough for anybody to be making an honest living back then, much less somebody who had been in jail. And once a person had been in jail, it was real tough to go out and get honest work. MARIE BARROW: When they started picking him up, and he just thought, well, I'm not going back to that prison. I'll just start a life of crime, I guess. NARRATOR: In March of 1932-- traveling in a stolen car-- Bonnie and Clyde went on the road together for the first time. Ralph Fults joined them for the trip. Fults discussed the couple's attitude in this interview he gave in 1984, two years before his death. RALPH FULTS: And it was a game, then. But he got serious, you know, after I got with them. It's hard to turn 'round when you go snowballing, you know. ROGER MCGRATH: Bonnie participated in her first robbery with Clyde-- and his partner at that time, Ralph Fults-- in April of 1932. The robbery evidently was badly botched, and in an escape attempt, Bonnie was captured by the police and taken into custody. NARRATOR: Bonnie and Ralph were captured. Bonnie cooled her heels in a jail cell in Kaufman, Texas for two months. Ralph Fults was sent back to the penitentiary. Clyde escaped. RALPH FULTS: I knew that Clyde wouldn't give up. He done-- he done showed me that. He went back and he left me, and I knew he wanted to be with me. NARRATOR: While Bonnie was in jail, Clyde kept busy. He teamed up with another prison pal, Raymond Hamilton. The pair decided to rob John Bucher, a shopkeeper in Hillsboro, Texas. But the heist did not go as planned. This documentary-- filmed in 1934-- shows a reenactment of the crime. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: And about midnight on April 30, 1932, they knocked on the door of a small store owned by J. M. Bucher. [gunfire] Clyde Barrow murdered J.M. Bucher, a defenseless man, shot him in the back, and then continued to pour hot lead into his body as it lay on the floor. JIMMY RAY GILLMAN: At that point in time, Clyde couldn't turn back. Because even though Mrs. Bucher identified them as the two bandits, they were still-- it was circumstantial evidence, so they could have turned back. But Clyde felt like that it was-- he was caught. At that time period, they gave you the electric chair. He knew he was facing the death sentence, and he just kept on at it. NARRATOR: In June, 1932, Bonnie was acquitted for lack of evidence and released from jail. She quickly rejoined her lover. But Clyde now had a price on his head. The governor of Texas had offered a $250 reward for his capture. Clyde Barrow was front-page news. And the headlines turned from bad to worse. Clyde and Ray Hamilton were hiding out in Stringtown, Oklahoma, after robbing a packing company payroll. On the night of August 5, 1932-- at a country dance-- the fugitives senselessly killed Deputy Eugene Moore, and seriously wounded Sheriff C.G. Maxwell. PAUL HUTTON: Clyde Hamilton and two others had come to the dance, probably looking for somebody to rob. They were liquored up. Two officers walked over to them. One of them said, we don't allow that here. Prohibition was still going on. And suddenly, he was killed, and his associate mortally wounded, and the outlaws roared off. They didn't make it very far down the road. They'd exchanged gunfire before they overturned the car in a culvert. They unloaded a lot of their guns, run across a railroad track, and managed to steal another car. And in the total of all, they abandoned three cars, and finally escaped on foot. And that really was the end of it. As far as that was concerned, Clyde was a hunted man. NARRATOR: Bonnie and Clyde survived 22 more months after the Stringtown murders, but life on the run was far from glamorous. FRANK PRASSEL: They certainly were not living well. They were camping out, they were living in third-rate tourist camps, and I'm sure they were paying bribes in some cases, or outrageous sums of money to people to hide them in other cases. They needed money, and they did perform more robberies to get it. NARRATOR: For the families of Bonnie and Clyde, these were tough times. But the two outlaws tried to keep in touch with their concerned relatives. MARIE BARROW: Mama used to write it down on the side of the wall the time when he come by and all. December, January, February, March, at least 10 or 12 times, each one of them months, he'd come by home. NARRATOR: The outlaws had a unique way of setting up meetings with their families. Clyde would put a note in a cola bottle and toss the bottle from the car as he passed by his father's filling station. Henry Barrow would retrieves the bottle, and the rendezvous was set. MARIE BARROW: We went every time that he come to town. My mother'd cook him some beans, or, you know, or something. We'd take him something to eat, clean clothes to him. WOMAN (READING AS BILLIE JEAN PARKER): "We usually met them in a field, and we had a signal. Just turn the lights on and off so many times and they'd know it was us, and we'd know it was them." Billie Jean Parker, 1968. MARIE BARROW: My mother wasn't mad at him. She just, you know, she tried to get him to not do things, you know? But he just said he done got in too deep, and he couldn't get out of it. NARRATOR: Raymond Hamilton was also close to his relatives, but during a family visit in Michigan, Ray was apprehended and was sentenced to 264 years at Eastham Prison Farm. Clyde vowed to get Ray out. By this time, the Barrow gang had already established a reputation of dubious distinction in the Southwest. But the path to nationwide infamy began in late March of 1933 when Buck Barrow was released from prison. Buck and his wife Blanche had made arrangements to rendezvous with Bonnie and Clyde. MARIE BARROW: He was really intending to go on the straight and narrow. He was going to try to talk Clyde into coming back, and then he got off and got in trouble hisself, and then he-- wasn't nothing he could do. NARRATOR: For two weeks, the two couples lived quietly in an apartment in Joplin, Missouri. W.D. Jones-- a childhood neighbor and accomplice of Clyde's-- was also with the group. But by April 13, money was running low. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: Barrow and W.D. Jones had just come back from a trip out casing new places to burglarize. And Buck had met him at the door, there at the garage door, and Buck was just closing the garage door when the police drove up, and Buck said, it's the law. NARRATOR: Suspicious neighbors had told the local police that bootleggers might be hiding in the apartment. When Detective Wes Harriman and Constable Harry McGuinness went to the front door, they had no idea who they were really confronting. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: Clyde and W.D. Jones grabbed their shotguns and just met 'em right there at the door, and killed the first two that came up to the door, just as quick as that. ROGER MCGRATH: And with that, Bonnie grabbed an automatic rifle and started firing out the kitchen window. Well, from there, the gunfire became widespread. Buck Barrow started firing, other police were firing. A Deputy Jones was hit by a round in the head. Blood spurted. Bonnie came running down the stairs. Blanche-- Buck's wife-- ran crazily into the street with her little dog yapping at her heels. Clyde managed to get everybody but Blanche into a car in the garage, and flung the doors open. Firing shotguns and automatic rifles, they roared out of the garage and down the street, leaving one dead one dying policemen behind them, and the others firing after them. NARRATOR: This was just one of the many times that Bonnie and Clyde managed to escape justice. But a roll of film the group left behind produced indelible images of the gang. Newspapers printed the sensational photos, and reported the group's triumph over the law. The public's sordid interests were piqued. They clamored for more of the astonishing gang story. Any intention Buck had to go straight was finished. The gang's fate was sealed by this heinous crime. The beginning of the end took place in Wellington, Texas, on June 8, 1933, when Bonnie was seriously injured. JONATHAN DAVIS: She and Clyde and Deputy Jones were driving out near Wellington, Texas to meet Buck and Blanche in Oklahoma. And they were crossing the Red River, and they were unaware that a bridge was out, and they went off the road into the dry riverbed. And the car tumbled a few times and caught on fire, and Bonnie was burned in the fire there. WOMAN (READING AS BILLIE JEAN PARKER): "Bonnie's leg, all the muscle, she was burned to the bone on her calf of her leg. She never walked any more straight. She walked with a limp, a bad limp. She never got over that. That was one of the time I went to her. Clyde came after me. They were in Arkansas." Billie Jean Parker, 1968. NARRATOR: Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D. Fled to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where they met up with Blanche and Buck. Despite Bonnie's injuries, the gang kept on the move. JIMMY RAY GILLMAN: Clyde Barrow's driving was what kept him alive for the two years that Bonnie and Clyde made their names in infamy. He thought nothing of driving a thousand miles in one stretch. With the new two-way radios and stuff, Clyde Barrow knew that he could escape criminal prosecution by crossing state lines. FRANK PRASSEL: The idea that you could conduct a robbery, jump in the car and speed away and actually escape was-- was real. It could-- it could be done, because if you got out of sight, you might very well escape. NARRATOR: Finally, in July 1933, the gang settled down in the Red Crown Tourist Camp in Platte City, Missouri. But the law had been tipped off the gang was there, and soon, the Barrows were completely surrounded. PAUL HUTTON: They had overpowering force. But still-- being polite gentleman-- they went up to the cabin door and knocked, asked who was there. Blanche sort of sweetly said, I'm not dressed. Just wait a moment, while, of course, Buck and Clyde and Jones armed themselves to the teeth, and then commenced blazing away, taking the policemen totally by surprise. They also hit the horn of the armored car that was there, and it set off to roaring through the night. And all the officers thought that it was a signal, so they rushed forward which exposed themselves, caused utter confusion. They all got in the car, which was soon engulfed in a fuselage of fire from the officers. The windows were shattered. Blanche got shards of glass in her eyes and began to scream. Buck took a bullet through the brain, which went in one temple and out the other, and fell mortally wounded into the car. Clyde-- machine gun in one hand, driving like a demon-- went right through the police lines, and they still made it away. NARRATOR: On July 20, the crippled gang arrived at an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa. But after four days, police discovered the hideout, and moved in on them. Bonnie, Clyde, and W.D. once again managed to escape. The critically injured Buck and Blanche surrendered to authorities. Near death, Buck was hospitalized. MARIE BARROW: My mother went up there. He lived-- I think part of his brains was even shot. I don't know how he talked. It was just so long, you know, that he did. But he was-- my mother was there when he died. NARRATOR: Buck Barrow died on July 30, 1933. Blanche was sent to jail and spent 10 years in prison. And W.D. Jones left Bonnie and Clyde. Shortly thereafter, police apprehended W.D. After his capture, in order to receive a lighter sentence, Jones renounced his fellow outlaws and claimed he was an unwilling participant when he gave this statement. W,D. JONES: I have been indicted along with Clyde and Bonnie for the murder of Malcolm Davis, Fort Worth deputy sheriff. I was forced along under threats of death with Clyde Barrow through many of his gun battles, and saw him kill five men. Clyde Barrow never seemed to care for killing anyone. All he thought of was himself. That's the reason I tried to escape. He'd as soon kill me as anyone. NARRATOR: Bonnie and Clyde continued to make headlines. On January 16, 1934, Clyde kept his promise to Raymond Hamilton and fulfilled his dream. He masterminded a daring break out at Eastham Prison Farm. Clyde enlisted the help of Hamilton's brother, Floyd. Floyd and an accomplice hid the guns. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: The guns were planted on this woodpile, the very woodpile Ralph Fults was pistol-whipped on years earlier. One of the convicts named Joe Palmer retrieved the guns. The convicts went out to the fields to work. Joe Palmer had two guns. He slipped one to Raymond Hamilton, and knowing that Clyde Barrow was parked near, this field, and indeed, Clyde Barrow was parked there.l Bonnie waited behind the wheel. Clyde went down in this little gully near where these workers were going to work with Browning automatic rifles, and they were waitin'. They just waitin'. NARRATOR: Around 7 AM, gunfire erupted. One guard was killed. The three remaining guards ran for cover. JOHN NEAL PHILLIPS: Bonnie's blowing the horn, because it's so foggy, so they'd know where the car is, and they all run up to the car. And Barrow gets behind the wheel, and here comes the four escaping prisoners, and they dive in. NARRATOR: Hamilton and four other prisoners escaped. One of the escapees was Henry Methvin, but helping Methvin would prove to be a critical mistake for Bonnie and Clyde. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: After a series of murders and bank jobs, Bonnie and Clyde were boldly keeping a rendezvous with some of their henchmen near Grapevine, Texas. NARRATOR: This 1934 film footage is a recreation of the notorious duo's last two murders. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: Presently, two state highway patrol officers sighted the pair. They decided to investigate. FRANK PRASSEL: A couple of Texas highway patrolmen from the newly-created Texas highway patrol came along on their motorcycles, and the end result was two dead highway patrolmen. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: This atrocious murder sealed the doom of Bonnie and Clyde, for every peace officer in the entire Southwest became so enraged over this killing, they pledged themselves to sleepless days and nights in their search for this murdering pair. NARRATOR: Hundreds of law enforcement personnel desperately wanted to catch these criminals and put an end to their reign of terror. The most famous was former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. MICHAEL COX: It took Hamer 102 days to finally track down Bonnie and Clyde. And what he did, he fell back on his early-- early ranger training and he set out as sort of a lone wolf-- just himself-- to learn as much as he could about them and their habits. He virtually did track them down single-handedly. MARIE BARROW: We knew he was going to get killed sooner or later. We just didn't know when, but it really didn't surprise any of us when he did get killed. WOMAN (READING AS CUMIE BARROW): "I prayed only last night that I might see him alive again, just once more." Cumie Barrow, May 23, 1934. NARRATOR: But Clyde's mother would not get her wish. On the morning of May 23, 1934, an unsuspecting Bonnie and Clyde were driving down a country road near Arcadia, Louisiana, close to Henry Methvin's father's home. Texas Rangers and sheriffs awaited them. It was a carefully-planned ambush. Henry Methvin's father had betrayed the pair in exchange for amnesty for his son. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: For three days and nights, these officers lay in wait on this road. NARRATOR: Frank Hamer suspected the weakening criminals would seek the protection of home ground. Returning to Dallas was out of the question, but Bonnie and Clyde had previously sought refuge at the Methvin farm. The officers commandeered old man Methvin's truck and jacked it up. Clyde slowed down to help his friend's father. POLICE OFFICER: That look like the car, fellas. That's him, for sure, I'll guarantee it. Get ready now. That's him, fellas. If he lifts his arm, let him have it. Look out. [gunshots] NARRATOR: This incredible film footage was shot by one of the officers on the scene. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: The inevitable end, retribution. Here is Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who died as they lived, by the gun. Bonnie is seen leaning against Clyde. Clyde was a master gunman. Seldom did anyone ever live when Clyde got the first shot. MAN (READING AS FRANK HAMER): "As accustomed as I am to slaughter of humans, I was sickened at the sight of Bonnie's body nearly torn to pieces with bullets." Frank Hamer, May 23, 1934. NARRATOR: Dallas deputies Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton-- who participated in the ambush-- later publicly spoke about the event. BOB ALCORN: Each and every officer present at the time of the capture deserves the same credit, as we all did our best. I regret that we couldn't have-- couldn't have taken them alive, but that was impossible. I further regret that there was a woman that had to be killed, which couldn't have been helped. TED HINTON: There's not much to say now, it is all over. The ends of law and justice has been served. NARRATOR: Scores of people rushed to the small Louisiana town, hoping to catch a glimpse of the dead outlaws. It was a scene of absolute pandemonium. MARIE BARROW: They tried to do everything to him, cut his ears off and tried to do that, everything else, just to get pieces of him. People's cruel. They don't-- they worse than he was. NARRATOR: There were separate funerals and grave sites for the lovers who in life, had been inseparable. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: Thousands attend the homecoming of Clyde Barrow. NARRATOR: In this Dallas funeral home, a never-ending line of men, women, and children from every walk of life came to catch a glimpse of the body of the criminal who had wrought so much death and destruction. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: Clyde's body is born to the grave. Again, tragedy and shame descend upon his aged father and mother. Like his brother Buck, he died at the hands of the law. NARRATOR: At another funeral home in Dallas, three miles across the city from where Clyde's body lay, lay the body of his lover. For Bonnie, the crowd was even larger. There had never been a woman outlaw as notorious as Bonnie, and she was the only woman ever to be shot down by officers of the law and dead at capture. NARRATOR IN 1934 DOCUMENTARY: Bonnie's burial was attended only by close friends and relatives, which numbered about 150 people. Clyde Barrow's mother and father also pay their respects to the girl who was Clyde's only friend, and who died by his side. NARRATOR: With the exception of how they were buried, Bonnie accurately predicted what would become of her and Clyde in a poem she penned before their deaths. WOMAN (READING AS BONNIE PARKER): "They don't think they're too smart or desperate. They know that the law always wins. They've been shot at before, but they do not ignore that death is the wages of sin. Someday, they'll go down together. They'll bury them side by side. To few, it'll be grief, to the law, a relief. But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde." [music playing]
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Channel: Biography
Views: 864,902
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Keywords: bio, biography, life story, documentary, history, historical figure, celebrity, famous, Bonnie & Clyde, Bonnie & Clyde The Story Of: Love & Death, Bonnie & Clyde The Story Of: Love & Death full documentary, Bonnie & Clyde The Story Of: Love & Death full biography, watch Bonnie & Clyde The Story Of: Love & Death, Bonnie & Clyde The Story Of: Love & Death streaming, Bonnie & Clyde documentary, Bonnie & Clyde biography, Marie Barrow, bank robbers, killers, lovers
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Length: 44min 14sec (2654 seconds)
Published: Tue May 23 2023
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