The Story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow is definitely one of the most interesting of not only love stories but, also, crime stories. Through their crime sprees they tended to keep a very loving relationship. However, most people would believe that, having been criminals together, they would have a very toxic relationship. So, why was their relationship so successful? Is it because of how they grew up, their deep desire for each other, or simply because they didn’t want to be alone in the world?

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born on October 1st, 1910 in Rowena, Texas to Henry and Emma Parker. At age four, Bonnie’s mother moved the family to a suburb of Dallas known as Cement City. As accounted, Bonnie was a beautiful girl who stood 4’11 and weighed only a mere 90 pounds. She loved to write poetry. She grew up wanting to become a famous actress. Bored with her average teenage life, she dropped out of school and got married to Roy Thornton at age 16. Roy got caught two years later for robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. Although they were separated, they never actually divorced. Bonnie worked as a waitress while her husband was locked away but ended up without a job as the Great Depression kicked in in 1929.

Clyde Chestnut Barrow, born on March 24th of 1909 in Telico, Texas was the sixth of eight children born to Henry and Cummie Barrow. Clyde’s parents were tenant farmers and did not make much money. Sometimes not even enough to feed their eight children. Clyde was often sent to family members’ houses during the rougher times. When Clyde was only 12, his father moved the family to West Dallas and opened a gas station. Clyde fit in with the tough town of West Dallas. Clyde and his brother Marvin, known as Buck, often got in trouble with the law by stealing cars and turkeys. Clyde stood 5’7 and weighed about 130 pounds. Though Clyde never married, he had two serious girlfriends before meeting Bonnie. (Bonnie and Clyde)

Bonnie and Clyde met in January 1930 at a mutual friend’s and instantly fell in love. Only a few weeks after meeting, Clyde was sentenced to two years in prison for past crimes. Bonnie was devastated and in March smuggled a gun to him in jail enabling his escape. A week later he was recaptured and was then to serve a 14-year sentence in the notoriously brutal Eastham Prison Farm where he arrived on April 21st, 1930. He was desperate to get out and prison life for him was unbearable. He asked his fellow inmate to chop off two of his toes in order to be released for being physically incapacitated. He was happy when they granted him early parole and was released on February 2nd, 1932 on crutches. He said that he would rather die than to ever have to go back to that horrible place.

As soon as Clyde’s foot healed, he began stealing and robbing again. Bonnie went with him on one of the first robberies after his release. Although she stayed in the car, she was captured and put in the Kaufman, Texas jail. She was later released due to lack of evidence. While she was in jail, Clyde and a member from the Barrow Gang, Ray Hamilton, robbed a general store. The robbery was supposed to be easy but something ended up going wrong and the owner of the store was shot and killed. Bonnie realized that she had a decision to make -- stay with Clyde and live on the run or start fresh. She knew of Clyde’s vow to never go back to prison and that staying with him meant death to both of them fairly soon. And yet, she stayed loyal to Clyde even with this knowledge. Now, did she really, truly love him? If staying with him knowing the fate of death was inevitable doesn’t say she did then who knows what would.

The next two years their crimes took up a total of five states: Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Bonnie clinged onto Clyde’s side throughout all of the crimes they committed. Once Clyde’s brother Buck was released from Huntsville prison in March of 1933, he reunited with his wife Blanche and they joined the Barrow Gang. The Barrow Gang decided to rent an apartment in Joplin, Missouri and after two weeks of enjoying themselves, Clyde noticed two police cars pull up on April 13th, 1933. Blanche lost her wits and was absolutely terrified and ran out the door screaming. Bonnie, Clyde, Buck, and W.D. Jones (part of the gang at the time) killed one policeman and mortally wounded another, got away speeding their car and picking up Blanche around the corner who had still been running. Though they had not been captured that day, they found a trove of “treasure” with very important information on them including the soon to be famous role of camera film filled with pictures of them by a car fooling around and pointing guns at each other. They also found a poem written by Bonnie entitled “The Story of Suicide Sal”. One poem that Bonnie wrote, “The Trail’s End”, known as The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, explains all of the inner struggles she had throughout the years that she had experienced with Clyde and the rest of the gang.

You've read the story of Jesse James
of how he lived and died.
If you're still in need;
of something to read,
here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang
I'm sure you all have read.
how they rob and steal;
and those who squeal,
are usually found dying or dead.

There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;
they're not as ruthless as that.
their nature is raw;
they hate all the law,
the stool pigeons, spotters and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers
they say they are heartless and mean.
But I say this with pride
that I once knew Clyde,
when he was honest and upright and clean.

But the law fooled around;
kept taking him down,
and locking him up in a cell.
Till he said to me;
"I'll never be free,
so I'll meet a few of them in hell"

The road was so dimly lighted
there were no highway signs to guide.
But they made up their minds;
if all roads were blind,
they wouldn't give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer
sometimes you can hardly see.
But it's fight man to man
and do all you can,
for they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered
from weariness some people have died.
But take it all in all;
our troubles are small,
till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas
and they have no clue or guide.
If they can't find a fiend,
they just wipe their slate clean
and hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There's two crimes committed in America
not accredited to the Barrow mob.
They had no hand;
in the kidnap demand,
nor the Kansas City Depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy;
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped.
In these awful hard times;
we'd make a few dimes,
if five or six cops would get bumped"


The police haven't got the report yet
but Clyde called me up today.
He said,"Don't start any fights;
we aren't working nights,
we're joining the NRA."

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
is known as the Great Divide.
Where the women are kin;
and the men are men,
and they won't "stool" on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens
and rent them a nice little flat.
About the third night;
they're invited to fight,
by a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.

They don't think they're too smart or desperate
they know that the law always wins.
They've been shot at before;
but they do not ignore,
that death is the wages of sin.

Some day they'll go down together
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.

(Poem by Bonnie Parker Called "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde")Reading this, you can see how much she loved him and how much he loved her. There have been reports of Clyde “glowing” when he was with Bonnie. Another year of crime sprees followed. However, after learning of their whereabouts, lawmen planned a shootout. So on May 23rd, 1934 at approximately 9:15 a.m., Clyde, driving a tan Ford V-8, spotted Iverson Methvin’s, the guy who tipped the police, truck while driving down a road, slowed down and the six policemen open fired. Bonnie and Clyde were quickly killed from over 130 bullets that were fired. The back of Clyde’s head had exploded and part of Bonnie’s right hand had been shot off. Their bodies had been sent back to Dallas and were displayed for the public. Despite Bonnie’s request of the two being buried together, the two were buried in two different cemeteries according to their families’ wishes.

The Story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow is definitely one of the most interesting of not only love stories but, also, crime stories. Through their crime sprees they tended to keep a very loving relationship. This is evident with the evidence and accounts of the pair. They in fact had a successful relationship and were absolutely mad about each other. No matter what, they always stuck with each other and that is one for the history books. Love is stronger than anything else and they clearly portrayed that.


Bib/cited works:
Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Bonnie and Clyde." About.com 20th Century History. About.com, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
"Bonnie and Clyde." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 June 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2014
"Bonnie and Clyde." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 June 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.