Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow, better known as Bonnie and Clyde committed crimes over 21 months including robbing banks and gas stations, theft, murder, and auto theft in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
Their crime began after Clyde was arrested for burglary and Bonnie helped him escape. She smuggled him a gun after which he escaped. Bonnie then joined him in their life of crime.
Bonnie and Clyde met when she was 19 and he was 21.Texas 1930. The infamous couple never married because Bonnie still had a husband in jail. Six days before turning 16, Bonnie married her high school boyfriend, Roy Thornton. The marriage disintegrated within months and Bonnie never saw him again; however, Bonnie continued to wear her wedding ring throughout her crime spree with Clyde Barrow. Bonnie had a tattoo on her right thigh with two interconnected hearts labeled “Bonnie” and “Roy”.
Bonnie rarely committed crimes, she mainly followed the gang which included Marvin “Buck” Barrow: Clyde’s older brother; Blanche Barrow: Buck’s wife;W. D. Jones, a loyal subordinate;Henry Methvin, a member of the gang; Raymond Hamilton,a young gunman who traveled with the gang for a time;Joe Palmer, a member of the gang;Ralph Fults, a member of the gang. Bonnie,along with Blanche, waited to be told what to do.
One of their crimes drew the attention of the FBI. The FBI became involved in their man hut because they stole a car that crossed state lines. According to the FBI, “The FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, became interested in Clyde and Bonnie in December 1932 through a singular bit of evidence. A Ford automobile that had been stolen in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, was found abandoned near Jackson, Michigan, in September of that year”
Over the course of their crimes, they murdered 9 police officers and 4 civilians. They were rumored to have killed those who got in their way. FBI reported, “At the time they were killed, Bonnie and Clyde were believed to have committed 13 murders and several robberies and burglaries. Clyde was suspected of murdering two police officers at Joplin, Missouri. He was also suspected of kidnapping a man and a woman in rural Louisiana. He released them near Waldo, Texas.”
They were killed in 1934, shot by police officers. Clyde got shot in the head when they were ambushed, killing him instantly. Bonnie however was shot in the arms first meaning she had time to scream, and the last thing she saw was Clyde.
The original death hats worn by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow when they were shot down by police in Louisiana in 1934 are on display at the historic auto attraction museum in Roscoe, Illinois. Their hats with bullet holes were returned to the family and then went up for auction. The museum purchased these hats. The museum also features the movie prop car used in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.
