THIS DAY IN HISTORY
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| Photo by Gary Firstenberg |
1. They once robbed a bank in Minnesota.
Like the James gang decades, their primary stomping ground was the heartland, but both gangs came North to Minnesota conduct a bank robbery. The James-Younger gang assaulted to First National Bank in Northfield in 1876. More than a half century later the Bonnie and Clyde made their way north to rob a Minnesota bank.
Bank robberies had become a major problem back in the thirties. In 1933 there were 33 bank robberies in Minnesota. On May 1933, Bonnie and Clyde robbed the First State Bank of Okabena on the Iowa border. As it turns out, three other people were arrested and convicted of that crime in two hasty trials. The Barrow gang escaped without being pursued or recognized.
Clyde Barrow was only 25 years old when he was shot to death in an ambush along with Bonnie Parker on this day in 1934. Bobbie was not yet 24. The ambush took place in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Bien mean good in Spanish. It didn't turn out so good for Bonnie and Clyde.
3. Though famous for robbing banks, they preferred to rob small stores and funeral homes.
Evidently they knew where the money was.
4. Bonnie Parker dropped out of school before her 16th birthday to get married.
She was born in Texas. Her dad died when she was four and her mom tried to support her family as a seamstress in Dallas. Bonnie quit school to marry Roy Thornton. Their marriage involved frequent brushes with the law and was short-lived. Though Bonnie and Roy never divorced, they never saw one another again after 1929. Bonnie was wearing their wedding ring when she died.
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| Bonnie Parker with pistol and a cigar. |
Clyde was the fifth of seven kids from a poor farming family outside Dallas. He and his brother Buck had run-ins with the law. His second arrest with Buck was for stealing turkeys. Clyde was skilled at cracking safes, stealing cars and robbing stores. He was evidently audacious.
6. Clyde's first murder took place in prison.
He was first sent to prison at age 21, but escaped. When returned to prison, he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a fellow inmate. In return he cracked his tormentor's skull with a pipe, killing him. Another inmate who was serving a life sentence claimed to be responsible. To avoid hard labor after the incident, he chopped off two of his toes. His mother petitioned for his release and when set free six days later he walked with a limp the rest of his short life.
It is believed that Bonnie and Clyde murdered nine police officers and four civilians during the next two years.
7. Bonnie Parker was a poet.
I found this intriguing. She evidently enjoyed poetic verse, composing quite a bit of poetry in her short life. The Trail's End has been called The Story of Bonnie & Clyde. Another noteworthy poem is her story Suicide Sal. Here's the beginning of The Trail's End, with a link to the rest at the end.
The Trail's End
by Bonnie Parker
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" |
| Replica of Bonnie & Clyde's shot up Ford V-8 on display at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum. |
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