After years of robbing banks and stores and killing innocent officers and civilians, famed criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot and killed by police on May 23, 1934. Take a look back at the infamous couple that captured the attention of the media in the 1930s and still does to this day.
On May 23, 1934, infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed while on the run in Louisiana. Take a look back at the crime-fueled love story of one of America's most famous partners in crime.
After years of robbing banks and stores and killing innocent officers and civilians, famed criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot and killed by police on May 23, 1934. Take a look back at the infamous couple that captured the attention of the media in the 1930s and still does to this day.
Bonnie Parker was born in Rowena, Tex. where she lived with her mother and two siblings. She dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to marry Roy Thornton in 1926, but their marriage was short-lived. Thornton was a criminal just like Clyde Barrow, whom Bonnie would later meet through a friend in 1930.
Clyde Barrow also grew up in Texas where he lived on a farm with his poor family. It wasn’t long before Clyde became involved with the law, first getting arrested in 1926 for failing to return a rental car. Even when working a legitimate job, Clyde still found himself in trouble for stealing, breaking into safes, and eventually murder. He reportedly made his first kill while in jail to another inmate who sexually assaulted him.
When Clyde was released from prison in 1932, he continued his streak with robbing grocery stores and gas stations with Bonnie Parker by his side. Soon the duo eventually had an entire gang of criminals that assisted them in crimes like stealing weapons and robbing banks.
One weekend while Bonnie was visiting her mother in Dallas, Clyde and fellow gang members Raymond Hamilton and Ross Dyer were at a country dance in Oklahoma when they were approached by a sheriff and his deputy. Feeling threatened, Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing the deputy and wounding the sheriff. It was the first time Barrow and his gang killed a lawman, but certainly not the last.
In 1932, a young W.D. Jones (pictured here) persuaded Barrow to let him join their gang. On Christmas Day, Jones killed a young family man while stealing his car in Temple, Tex. Two weeks later, Jones would help Barrow kill Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis after the duo walked into a trap.
By 1933, Bonnie, Clyde and their gang members set up a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri, pictured here. After throwing loud card games and drinking well into the night, neighbors eventually called the police on them one day. Taken by surprise, Bonnie, Clyde, W.D. Jones and Clyde’s brother Buck opened fire on the officers, killing Detective McGinnis and fatally wounding Constable Harryman before escaping with minor injuries.
While the group managed to flee their Joplin hideout, they left behind most of their possessions, including weapons, poems written by Bonnie and a camera with undeveloped film containing photos of the crew, including this shot. The photos were developed and published by the Joplin Globe showing Bonnie, Clyde and Jones holding guns and even pointing them at each other.
While on the run, the group robbed a series of banks including one in Lucrene, Indiana and another in Okabena, Minnesota. During this time, the group would also kidnap their robbery victims, including Dillard Darby in Ruston, Louisiana after stealing his car. They wouldn’t harm their victims but drop them off far from home, sometimes with money to help them get back.
With their photos now in the public eye, the group had to lay low and avoid staying in motels and eating at restaurants. In June 1933, Bonnie, Clyde and Jones were driving in Wellington, Tex. when they were involved in a car accident. Bonnie sustained horrible third-degree burns all over her right leg so severe that she could barely walk for the rest of her short life. The couple is pictured here near the end of their adventure, Bonnie seated by their infamous car with Clyde nearby.
After nearly getting caught after checking into a cabin in Missouri, the group of five escaped with injuries including a massive headshot to Buck Barrow’s skull. After being on the run for five days, the group stopped to camp in Dexter, Iowa, but were quickly surrounded again after local residents noticed their bloody wounds. The group came under fire as Bonnie, Clyde and Jones escaped while Buck was shot and his wife Blanche was arrested, pictured here. Buck died five days later from his injuries.
An FBI wanted poster showing American bank robbers and lovers Clyde Barrow (1909-1934) and Bonnie Parker (1911-1934) on May 21, 1934.
After a series of robberies, near fatal escapes and killing lawmen and civilians, Bonnie and Clyde were eventually ambushed on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, where they were shot and killed. After months of tracking down the duo, a group of Texas rangers finally put an end to their bloody love story. Pictured here is their bullet-ridden Ford V8 that was shot at nearly 130 times, killing them both at the scene.
The bodies of Bonnie and Clyde are pictured here at the morgue in Arcadia, Louisiana later that day. The number of bullet wounds are still argued to this day (ranging from 25-50 in each of them), and the undertaker said it was so difficult to embalm them due to the number of bullet holes.
Four members of the six-man posse who ambushed and killed fugitive criminals Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker near Gibsland, Louisiana on May 23, 1934, pose for a photo together. They are pictured on the day following the ambush: (L-R) Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputies Bob Alcorn (1897 – 1964) and Ted Hinton (1904 – 1977) and former Texas Rangers B.M. ‘Manny’ Gault (1896 – 1947) and Captain Frank Hamer (1884 – 1955).
Emma Parker, Bonnie’s mother, is pictured here covering her face during the funeral of her daughter. Nearly 20,000 attended the funeral as the couple quickly became celebrities and the news of their death spread quickly. Thousands also gathered for the funeral of Clyde in Dallas.
Although Bonnie had requested that her and Clyde be buried together when the time came, her family refused to honor her wish and buried her initially in the Fishtrap Cemetery before being moved in 1945 to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas.
Clyde was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother, Marvin, who died a year earlier. Many of the items in the car were stolen or sold, including Clyde’s saxophone and Bonnie’s clothes. A year later, 20 family members and friends including their mothers were arrested and jailed for aiding and harboring the criminals.
Pictured here are nine of the 23 people brought to trial on charges of harboring the late Clyde Barrow and his companion Bonnie Parker. They include (L-R) Floyd Garland, Hamilton S. J. Whatley, L.C. Barrow, Henry Methvin, William D. Jones, Joe Francis, James Mullen, Joe Chambless and Steve Davis.
