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2023 Author: Avery Leman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:34
On October 1, 1910, perhaps the most famous criminal in history, Bonnie Parker, was born. Her criminal affairs in partnership with Clyde Barrow - a ready-made script for an American western. Adjusted for the fact that life is more exciting than any scenario!
How it all began
Both of our heroes, whose names have become household names, are from Texas. Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in the city of Rowena, and after the death of her father, she moved with her mother and sisters to Dallas. If I had not turned onto a curved path, I could have become a poetess. Even in prison, she wrote a small collection of poems.
Few people know that Bonnie was officially married - and not at all to Clyde! On September 25, 1926, at almost 16 years old, she married Roy Thornton and got a job as a waitress in a cafe. In early 1929, they separated, but did not divorce, and soon Thornton was imprisoned for robbery. Nevertheless, Bonnie continued to wear a wedding ring, and on her thigh she had a tattoo: two hearts with the names "Bonnie" and "Roy".
Clyde Chestnut Barrow was a little older, he was born on May 24, 1909 in the city of Teliko in a poor large family of a farmer. As a preschooler, he suffered from malaria.
From the age of 15, he, together with his older brother Marvin, began to trade in petty theft. But the first drive to the police turned out to be not at all for this: he rented a car and did not have time to return it in time. However, the charges were soon dropped.
A little later, he wanted to go to serve in the navy, but was discharged for health reasons - because of an illness he had suffered in childhood.
Acquaintance
The exact date of his acquaintance with Bonnie is unknown. Most likely, this happened in early 1930, when he came to the cafe where she worked. They quickly found a common language, and Clyde, who by that time was an experienced robber, turned the head of the miniature waitress (his height is only 162 cm, and Bonnie was 150 cm shorter). And not literally - he was gay, but stories of criminal acts that they could commit together to become rich and free.
Obviously, the criminal path promised a much more interesting life than offering visitors coffee and scrambled eggs!
They were united by a passion for weapons. Even during her short marriage, Bonnie loved to hold Roy's pistol in her hands, and when he was in a good mood, he taught his wife to shoot. Bonnie later developed this skill together with Clyde: they even went into the field just to shoot.
Three months later, Clyde was arrested for robbery and spent almost two years in prison. And when he left, Bonnie invited him to work together.
Continuous crime
Now Bonnie and Clyde are often portrayed as a kind of robins hooded during the Great Depression: they, they say, robbed only the rich. Nothing of the kind: they robbed everyone. The first raid was carried out on a warehouse with weapons in Texas, and then indiscriminately attacked and on shops at a gas station, and on roadside motels, and on banks. The revenue was small at times, but they seemed to enjoy the process itself. The number of their crimes, according to various estimates, ranges from 70 to over a hundred.
It will also not be possible to present them in the halo of holy robbers: both did not hesitate to kill those who get in the way. In order not to go to prison, Bonnie and Clyde even fired back from the police: after the murder of one of them, they had nothing to lose for trying to check documents. True, when they began to look for them all over the country, Bonnie took several photographs that they were fighters for justice, and sent them to various newspapers. But it did not help. In total, the couple killed about two dozen ordinary people and at least nine police officers.
In total, the couple killed about two dozen ordinary people and at least nine police officers.
By the time he met Bonnie, Clyde had a whole gang of robbers, but they often worked together. Sometimes they were joined by one of the older Barrow brothers, mutual acquaintances and one of Bonnie's many lovers, Reynold Hamilton. According to rumors, he also liked Clyde …
Both hijackers periodically went to prison for robbery (if the police found out about the massacres, they would have been immediately executed). But usually they managed to quickly free themselves: either because of a lack of evidence, or because they helped each other out. It is impossible to imagine nowadays that they could transfer weapons to prison on a date, but in the 30s everything was possible, and Bonnie took advantage of it. Once Clyde was released at all after the request of his mother!
Lame criminals
Interestingly, at the end of their short life, both began to limp.
When Clyde was sent to prison, he wanted to get sent to lighter jobs - and cut off one and a half toes on his left foot. True, he was soon released, but it was not possible to sew the severed back.
In 1933, Bonnie and Clyde had an accident - he lost control, and the car flew into a ditch. The acid from the battery badly burned Bonnie's leg, and for the last year of her life she had difficulty walking.
End of story
Their criminal journey ended two years after it began. And ruined a couple … sentimentality. Despite the fact that both left their parental home quite early, they periodically visited their families (who, of course, suspected something, but did not know for sure). This gave the police the opportunity to track their routes.
After a raid on Eastham prison in January 1934, when several prisoners escaped from there (including Ray Hamilton), the police threw all their efforts into catching the criminals. Bonnie and Clyde were constantly in hiding at the last moment. But chance intervened: their accomplice Henry Methvin was caught red-handed, and in exchange for freedom he gave the police the key to the house where the couple were hiding …
On May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were killed in the car by police waiting for them in an ambush. 167 bullets were fired at the criminals in a matter of seconds! 110 hit the target. It is interesting that then the police suffered from temporary deafness for several hours: bullets whistled so loudly.
The stolen Ford V8 car still stands in the Whiskey Pete's casino in Nevada.
Bonnie and Clyde wanted to be buried together, but Bonnie's family opposed, and they ended up in different cemeteries in Dallas.