Bonnie and Clyde Biography

Born in 1909, Clyde Barrow grew up as one of eight children in the poor town of Telico, Texas, where his parents struggled as tenant farmers. At the age of twelve, he moved thirty miles southeast to Dallas with one of his older sisters. He promptly secured a job as a messenger for Western Union and just as quickly lost the job. At sixteen, Clyde quit school and worked for Proctor and Gamble. At this time Clyde also began his criminal career by committing petty thefts. In 1929 Clyde joined with his brother, Breck, and began robbing filling stations. The pair were caught, but Breck accepted responsibility for the crime. Clyde walked away with a suspended sentence for car theft.

In 1930 in Dallas, Clyde met Bonnie Parker, who had been born in Rowena, Texas, in 1910, the daughter of a brick mason. Bonnie had married at sixteen but had since left her husband and was looking for adventure. The pair moved in together and shortly after Clyde received two years in jail for robbing a Waco grocery. Bonnie managed to smuggle a pistol to Clyde which he used to escape from jail. Clyde escaped while Bonnie did three months in jail.

The pair were reunited in the summer of 1932 and began their infamous spree of terror and killing. In what would become a pattern for Bonnie and Clyde, they took a New Mexico sheriff hostage, bound him, terrorized him, and eventually set him free. This was done to prevent the sheriff from further investigating their stolen car. Bonnie and Clyde robbed both a bank and a national guard armory. At a grocery store robbery, a resistant store proprietor became their first murder victim. This crime was followed by the murder of a man who tried to prevent the couple from stealing his car and the murder of a Dallas deputy sheriff.

When Breck was released from jail, he and his wife Blanche joined Bonnie and Clyde. The quartet proceeded to kill two detectives who were attempting to follow and arrest them. In their wake, the police found poems Bonnie had written glorifying their lives on the road. The poems were published in papers nationwide and the public's fascination with the couple escalated.

However, the criminals' luck began to run out in Iowa, where an organized group of vigilantes converged on the gang. Breck was killed and Blanche captured. Bonnie and Clyde then returned to the Eastham Prison in Texas to aid in the escape of Clyde's former jailmates. A guard was killed during the break out, and Texas issued "Wanted Dead - $2,500" signs for both Bonnie and Clyde. After much criticism the authorities added "or alive." The couple's days as fugitives ended in May 1934 when the police set a trap near the Louisiana border. As Bonnie and Clyde approached, the police fired 167 rounds of ammunition into the automobile, killing them instantly.