On May 23, 1934, notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police while driving a stolen car near Sailes, Louisiana.
Bonnie Parker met the charismatic Clyde Barrow in Texas when she was 19 years old and her husband (she married when she was 16) was serving time in jail for murder. Shortly after they met, Barrow was imprisoned for robbery. Parker visited him every day, and smuggled a gun into prison to help him escape, but he was soon caught in Ohio and sent back to jail. When Barrow was paroled in 1932, he immediately hooked up with Parker, and the couple began a life of crime together.
After they stole a car and committed several robberies, Parker was caught by police and sent to jail for two months. Released in mid-1932, she rejoined Barrow. Over the next two years, the couple teamed with various accomplices to rob a string of banks and stores across five states—Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico and Louisiana. To law enforcement agents, the Barrow Gang—including Barrow’s childhood friend, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Henry Methvin, Barrow’s brother Buck and his wife Blanche, among others—were cold-blooded criminals who didn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in their way, especially police or sheriff’s deputies. Among the public, however, Parker and Barrow’s reputation as dangerous outlaws was mixed with a romantic view of the couple as “Robin Hood”-like folk heroes.
Their fame was increased by the fact that Bonnie was a woman—an unlikely criminal—and by the fact that the couple posed for playful photographs together, which were later found by police and released to the media. Police almost captured the famous duo twice in the spring of 1933, with surprise raids on their hideouts in Joplin and Platte City, Missouri. Buck Barrow was killed in the second raid, and Blanche was arrested, but Bonnie and Clyde escaped once again. In January 1934, they attacked the Eastham Prison Farm in Texas to help Hamilton break out of jail, shooting several guards with machine guns and killing one.
Texan prison officials hired a retired Texas Ranger, Captain Frank Hamer, as a special investigator to track down Parker and Barrow. After a three-month search, Hamer traced the couple to Louisiana, where Henry Methvin’s family lived. Before dawn on May 23, Hamer and a group of Louisiana and Texas lawmen hid in the bushes along a country road outside Sailes. When Parker and Barrow appeared, the officers opened fire, killing the couple in a hail of bullets.
All told, the Barrow Gang was believed responsible for the deaths of 13 people, including nine police officers. Parker and Barrow are still seen by many as romantic figures, however, especially after the success of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.
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Meanwhile the greatest criminal alive in 1934 occupied the Whitehouse .
….as is normally the case.
When US Marshals shot Winston Boogie Smith atop a parking garage here in Minneapolis last year, it was after he’d fired on them from his car. It sparked months-long protests, blocking streets and even resulting in the death of a protester (run over by a guy who was sick of their bullshit). We’ve gone from celebrating the well-deserved deaths of infamous murderers (John Dillinger) to lionizing thugs. In most countries when the cops kill bad guys, people are happy.
Bonnie and Clyde deserved death also. But, they too are usually portrayed as heroes. Part of (((Hollywood’s))) age old quest to rewrite morality.
The FDIC was founded in 1933. So, when Clyde and his ugly skanky whore robbed a bank, and you had your life savings in that bank you were shit out of luck and fucked. Some “heroes”, eh?
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
“They should have ducked.” – Smokey from Heaven.
I live in Tarrant County, Texas. (Think: The Fort Worth side of Dallas/Ft. Worth)
There’s a spot near us that’s locally infamous as the place where B & C had a shoot-out with Texas police officers and killed a couple of cops. There’s no tourist destination or signs or anything, as far as I know. But some of the locals know the spot – What was once a single lane country dirt road is now a major highway, flanked by development and houses on all sides. There are some signs and a monument in the Southlake City Hall.
I think I’ve heard of that. Exactly where is the spot?
I rode my 125cc Honda all over Southlake and Grapevine lake “back in the day”. Even went to some “festivals” in some old farmer’s pasture in Southlake early 70’s.
Use to dove hunt in sunflower fields near Marshall Creek. It was “private” property yet “everyone” did it, no fences and evidently the land owner did not care as no one ever said not to hunt there. All that territory was old roaming grounds. Now some kind of megatropolis.
Tex…read through this article. It gives the locations for some of the B&C sites in TX. Check out #6 for the Southlake address to see the monument.
https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/9-dallas-area-locations-to-get-the-true-story-of-bonnie-and-clyde-11674997
Btw…I saw REK the other night in Fort Worth. I thought about you when he sang Gringo Honeymoon. This is his last tour. I know you like him a lot.
Well thank you and for the link.
Texas music has been a favorite with me a long time. Did not know REK was in Fort Worth. I saw him once at Bass Hall, an all acoustic performance and his voice was much better than the only other time I saw him live at Bee Cave. If you’ve not been to the Bass Hall, it’s acoustics are suited well for orchestras and such. First words from REK at that Bass hall performance were along the lines of astonishment of the acoustics at the Bass.
He’s a favorite because of his lyrics and many of my own recollections living in Texas all my life. I was aware he will end his performances in Sept. and found the links below. “I’m Comin’ Home” . Looks like a very busy schedule as he ends his live performances closing out the whole thing at Floore’s Country Store in Helotes Sept. 1st, 3rd, and 4th. Floore’s is one venue I’ve read about for years yet never made it there. Floore’s Country Store , one of many nostalgic venues for Texas music artists and fans. It’s only fitting REK performs his last there. I’m thinking REK would agree with the words spoken by Captain Augustus “Gus” McCrae as he lay dying to Captain Woodrow F. Call in Lonesome Dove, “It’s been quite a party ain’t it?”
https://www.robertearlkeen.com/tour
https://www.robertearlkeen.com/news/time-flies
Locally, they are known for killing a local family man (no LEO) who collected tolls on a bridge over the Red River on Hwy 67. Seems they didn’t particularly care who they killed.
Would that be near Fulton , AR?