Volume 7 Number 046 Bonnie and Clyde – Part II

Lead: On May 23, 1934, the law finally caught Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. The long ride and the acclaim came to an end.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: At the time of their deaths, the pair, known popularly as “Bonnie and Clyde,” were a legend in the depression era. Americans were appalled, yet fascinated by the crime spree, the narrow escapes, and the embarrassment the two were causing the law enforcement establishment. For over two years. Bonnie even sent terrible poems and tacky pictures to the press. Many were actually published in national newspapers, thus creating a pair of celebrity outlaws.

After a two year run, however, their little show began to unravel, In January 1934 they raided the Eastham State Prison in Waldo, Texas. Five prisoners were freed. One guard was killed. The Texas prison director commissioned Frank Hamer, a former Texas Ranger, to hunt down the Barrow gang. Hamer carefully studied the couple’s operation and began trailing them, finally closing in when they went to ground in Louisiana. Hamer struck a deal with Henry Methvin, one of the Barrow gang members freed in the January prison raid. In exchange for a pardon, Methvin agreed to help the law ambush the couple.

All was set on the morning of May 23.rd They couple was southbound on the Sailes Road near Arcadia, Louisiana. Hamer faked a disabled truck on the road. The posse crowded behind a dune and waited with rifles and shotguns. At 9:15 Bonnie and Clyde’s vehicle was spotted. As Barrow slowed the car to avoid the truck the couple was identified and without warning Hamer’s men opened fire spraying the car with more than 160 rounds. Bonnie and Clyde died instantly and were buried in separate cemeteries in Dallas, Texas.

A terrible piece of Bonnie’s doggerel foreshadowed their end: Someday they’ll go down together And 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

Research assistance by Kevin Strunk and Ann Johnson, at the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Resources

Friedman, Lester D. Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Milner, E. R. The Life and Times of Bonnie and Clyde. Carbondale: South Illinois University Press, 1996.

Wake, Sandra. The Bonnie and Clyde Book. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.