‘Thrown Together by Hard Times’
Bonnie and Clyde first met in January 1930 at a mutual friend’s West Dallas home and “fell passionately in love,” Schneider says. At the time, 19-year-old Bonnie was married to her high school sweetheart, Roy Thornton, who was serving a prison sentence on a murder charge.
“I think they were two people who were thrown together by hard times,” Schneider says. “It’s the middle of the Depression. He came from a very poor background. She came from an approaching middle-class life. Her father dies, and she becomes a waitress.”
Shortly after their initial meeting, 21-year-old Clyde, who had a long criminal history, was arrested for burglary. When Bonnie visited him in a Waco, Texas, county jail, she smuggled in the gun that later helped Clyde escape. He was soon recaptured and sentenced to 14 years at the notoriously harsh Eastham Prison Farm in Houston County, Texas. Clyde was released on parole in February 1932, when he resumed committing robberies—with Bonnie now joining him.
Which Crimes Did Bonnie and Clyde Commit?
Though commonly depicted in films as major bank robbers, many of Bonnie and Clyde’s bank heists proved fruitless and yielded small amounts of cash. The duo more commonly robbed small-town grocery stores and gas stations and, in a few instances, National Guard armories to build up their massive stockpile of weapons. They were often joined by accomplices, at times including Clyde’s brother, Buck Barrow, and his wife, Blanche.
“They would roll in with a couple of comrades—a slightly changing group—and hold up a bank,” Schneider says. “It’s the middle of the Depression, and it’s in the backcountry of Texas, so the bank has no money anyway.”
Bonnie and Clyde repeatedly evaded capture while on the run despite several shootouts with holding a rifle and dressed in a suit. The photos circulated in the press and helped perpetuate a more glamorous representation of the outlaw couple.
After shootouts in Missouri and Iowa, Buck Barrow died in 1933 from severe gunshot wounds. Blanche was taken into custody and later sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault with intent to kill. (She was released on parole after six years.)
The FBI (then called the Bureau of Investigation) became interested in the pair in December 1932 on suspicion of interstate transportation of stolen vehicles. In May 1933, federal authorities joined local police in searching for the duo. By early 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were wanted on multiple charges of robbery, murder, kidnapping and car theft across several Southern and Midwestern states.
“[Bonnie and Clyde] took advantage of the fact that this was before police radios—before there was much coordination between police departments and especially across state lines,” Schneider says, adding that “lack of coordination is what draws the FBI into it.”
How Did Bonnie and Clyde Get Caught?
On January 16, 1934, Clyde, accompanied by Bonnie, orchestrated a raid on Eastham Prison Farm. During the raid, Raymond Hamilton, a former member of the Barrow gang who had been captured by police, escaped along with four other prisoners, according to the FBI. Two guards were shot, one fatally, with weapons that were hidden on prison grounds.
In 1934, Captain Frank Hamer, a retired Texas Ranger, was hired as a special investigator to track down Bonnie and Clyde in coordination with local and federal agents. On May 23, officers opened fire on the couple as they drove a stolen Ford sedan on a highway in northwestern Louisiana. Both were killed instantly in the ambush.
The episode generated national headlines. The New York Times described Bonnie and Clyde as the “notorious Texas ‘bad man’ and murderer, and his cigar-smoking, quick-shooting woman accomplice.” Such portrayals played into the criminal antihero trope that was emerging amid a widespread resentment toward financial institutions and banks. Other figures like American gangster John Dillinger and his accomplice, “Baby Face” Nelson, also became notorious characters.
The separate Dallas funerals for Bonnie and Clyde drew thousands of people who hoped for a closer view of the infamous outlaws.
An Embellished Narrative
Just a few months after Bonnie and Clyde’s deaths, Clyde’s sister and Bonnie’s mother—with help from a Texas journalist—published Fugitives: The Story of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The book sought to humanize the criminals and included personal letters, diary entries and poems written by Bonnie and Clyde. However, many historians cite the source as biased and largely inaccurate.
“That [book] starts the mythological building up of them as these ‘Romeo and Juliet’ star-crossed lovers,” Schneider says. “It’s an interesting source, and it’s the source for a lot of the stories about them—but it’s kind of a dubious source.”
Then came the 1967 blockbuster film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. The movie turned the couple into cultural icons, Schneider says—though biographer Jeff Guinn told National Public Radio in 2009 that it was “less than 5% historically accurate.”
“Bonnie and Clyde did not emerge sort of as full-blown, glamorous figures, suddenly driving around the country holding up banks,” Guinn told NPR. “They very rarely tried to hold up banks because they were two of the most inept criminals who ever pulled a gun.”
Bonnie and Clyde are still remembered through music and movies centered around their story. It may often be sensationalized, but Schneider believes their love was real: “I don’t think that detracts from the fact that…they were in it together.”
