Bonnie and Clyde

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 - May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 - May 23, 1934) were well-known American outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. At times the gang included Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Joe Palmer, Ralph Fults, and Henry Methvin. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. Though known today for his dozen-or-so bank robberies, Barrow in fact preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in North Louisiana by law officers. Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.[1]

Even during their lifetimes, the couple's depiction in the press was at considerable odds with the hardscrabble reality of their life on the road--particularly in the case of Parker. Though she was present at a hundred or more felonies during her two years as Barrow's companion,[2] she was not the machine gun-wielding cartoon killer portrayed in the newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Gang member W. D. Jones was unsure whether he had ever seen her fire at officers.[3][4] Parker's reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a playful snapshot found by police at an abandoned hideout, released to the press, and published nationwide; while she did chain-smoke Camel cigarettes, she was not a cigar smoker.[5]

Author-historian, Jeff Guinn, explains that it was the release of these very photos that put the outlaws on the media map and launched their legend: "John Dillingerhad matinee-idol good looks and Pretty Boy Floyd had the best possible nickname, but the Joplin photos introduced new criminal superstars with the most titillating trademark of all--illicit sex. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were wild and young, and undoubtedly slept together. Without Bonnie, the media outside Texas might have dismissed Clyde as a gun-toting punk, if it ever considered him at all. With her sassy photographs, Bonnie supplied the sex-appeal, the oomph, that allowed the two of them to transcend the small-scale thefts and needless killings that actually comprised their criminal careers."[6]

Bonnie Parker[edit]

Bonnie Parker

*Parker with 1932 Ford V-8 B-400 convertible sedan. Captured Joplin film

Born

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker

October 1, 1910

Rowena, Texas

Died

May 23, 1934 (aged 23)

Bienville Parish, Louisiana32.441217oN 93.092659oW

Cause of death

Gunshot wounds

Resting place

Crown Hill Memorial Park

Dallas, Texas

Nationality

American

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 - May 23, 1934) was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Parker, a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four.[7] Her mother, Emma Krause, moved with the children to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas, where she found work as a seamstress.[8] Her maternal grandfather, Frank Krause, came from Germany.[9] Parker was one of the best students in her high school, winning top prizes in spelling, writing, and public speaking.[10][11] As an adult, her fondness for writing found expression in poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal"[12]and "The Trail's End" (known since as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"[13]).

In her second year of high school, Parker met Roy Thornton. They dropped out of school and were married on September 25, 1926, six days before Parker's 16th birthday.[14] Their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived. After January 1929, their