Texana Thursday: Remembering Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde were legendary criminals in the early 1930s (public domain photo)

In 1967, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway portrayed the criminals Bonnie and Clyde in a movie of the same name. The movie did well at the box office and was put on the list of the top 100 American Film Institute movies.

The characters were more compelling than their movie counterparts, though.

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, which is south of Abilene and southwest of Fort Worth. She dropped out of high school to marry a classmate, Roy Glenn Thornton, but they separated and she decided to join Clyde. She continued to wear her wedding ring from Thornton, however. Thornton died in 1937.

Clyde Chesnut Barrow was born near Telico, Texas, which is south of Dallas. His family moved to Dallas in 1922. He was first arrested in 1926, while still a teenager, for stealing an automobile.

They were instantly smitten when they met in 1930. Clyde went to prison shortly after they met. When he got out, Bonnie joined Clyde on future criminal exploits, many believe, because of her feelings for him. They robbed banks, gas stations, and grocery stores in Texas and other states.

They also committed murder. In one particular case, on Easter Sunday 1934, Bonnie killed a constable near Grapevine, Texas. A witness said that a car “stalled” on the road, and when officers stopped to investigate the situation, the people in the car began firing their guns. Bonnie, according to the witness, walked over to one of the wounded officers, pulled out a sawed-off shotgun, and shot the officer in the head twice at point-blank range.

By that time the governor and other officials had hired Frank Hamer, a retired Texas Ranger and a legend in Texas law enforcement circles, to track down Bonnie and Clyde.

Hamer organized a posse and began studying their movements and patterns. Hamer and his men got word that Bonnie and Clyde would be in Louisiana. They set a trap for the couple.

Hamer and his men ambushed Bonnie and Clyde in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, riddling their bodies with bullets, 84 years ago, on March 23, 1934. Today, a marker stands near the spot where the execution took place.

Clyde was 25. Bonnie was 23.

Bonnie and Clyde expected to die a violent death. They hoped that they would be buried together when that happened.

They didn’t get their wish. Bonnie’s family rejected the idea and buried her at Crown Hill Memorial Park in Dallas. Clyde was buried at Western Heights Cemetery, also in Dallas. But their legend lives on.