Bonnie and Clyde’s days were slowly getting numbered. Their last few robberies occurred in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. They had to be extremely careful, realizing that they can get recognized, as had happened in Missouri and Iowa that left multiple casualties. The couple would sleep in their car during the night and drive during the day to avoid scrutiny. With bad luck, the couple were setup in Grand Prairie, Texas in November 1933 by the Dallas Texas Rangers and deputies. They escaped the officers’ bullets and reached an attorney on the freeway. They held him up at gunpoint and fled with his car, towards Louisiana. The couple were already accustomed to their situations, always too close for comfort.1
Bonnie and Clyde met in Texas in January, 1930. Before that time, Clyde was born into a family of a poor farmer. Clyde had a passion for music and at one point was considering to pursue a career in music. Influenced negatively by his older brother Buck, and a shady family friend, Clyde went from learning how to play instruments to stealing cars. Bonnie was very similar to Clyde when growing up, as she also had a love for music and acting. She always had a dream of performing on the silver screen. When Bonnie was nineteen, she was married to Roy Thornton, who was just another criminal. Clyde who was twenty-one and unmarried, was already sent to prison a little while after the couple met. He was able to escape with the help of Bonnie, who had snuck him a gun, but he was later recaptured and sent back to prison. Clyde was paroled in February 1932, and rejoined Bonnie to resume their life of crime with each other.2
With the capture of the couple’s friend “Jones” (who rode with the couple for eight months) on November 16, 1933, law enforcement learned of the close ties Bonnie and Clyde had with their families. This resulted in another ambush attempt, which led to putting their mothers in danger. Clyde was furious and decided to retaliate by being focused on the East Ham Prison Farm.3 In January 1934, Clyde broke out an old friend, Raymond Hamilton, who had previously been a part of the Barrow gang. A guard was killed and multiple prisoners escaped. Among those prisoners was Henry Methvin, who had begun riding with Bonnie and Clyde. The crime spree began once again, to include the brutal murder of two motorcycle cops, who were parked and waiting for an Easter meeting with family members. Henry Methvin got spooked and shot at the first cop, then Clyde shot the second cop. By mid-afternoon they played dead by their motorcycle on what was then a country road off Texas 114. But the end was near.
Referring to the importance of values Bonnie and Clyde had with their families, the Rangers once again set up another ambush. This ambush would involve Methvin’s family this time. When police learned that Methvin had split up from the couple on the evening of May 19, 1934, they realized this was a huge opportunity. Police assumed they would search for Henry at his father’s farm, so they planned an ambush along the road that the outlaws were expected to take. The six rangers confiscated Iverson Methvin’s truck (Henry Methvin’s father) and removed one of its tires, then placed it alongside highway 164, which is between Sailes and Gibsland, LA. They figured if Clyde saw the truck, they would slow down and want to investigate. Sure enough, they were right. At 9:15 am on May 23, 1934, they saw Clyde’s stolen Ford v8 slow down while approaching the truck. The officers opened fire at the car, killing Bonnie and Clyde instantly. About 130 bullets were fired at the car, blowing a hole in the back of Clyde’s head and shooting off Bonnie’s right hand.4
Bonnie’s wish was to be buried next to Clyde, but their families had different wishes. Although they created a romantic image of two young lovers running from the big, bad cops, Clyde’s driving skills, Bonnie’s poetry, and her beauty, it was destroyed by the truth. Though they often captured police who caught up to them and let them off unharmed hours and hundreds of miles later, they killed thirteen people, some bystanders slain during bungled robberies.5 They really never got away with much money when they robbed banks. Bonnie and Clyde were desperate criminals, sleeping in their most recently stolen car and constantly fearing death in a hail of bullets from a police ambush. Still, they were the stuff of legends.
- Encyclopedia Brittanica, 2019, s.v. “Bonnie and Clyde,” by John Phillip Jenkins. ↵
- Jeff Guinn, “The Irresistible Bonnie Parker,” Smithsonian (website), April 2009. ↵
- Pauline Kael, “ Bonnie and Clyde,” The New Yorker, October 1967. ↵
- John Treherne, The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde ( New York: Stein and Day, 1985) 143-151. ↵
- Karen Blumenthal, Bonnie and Clyde: The making of a legend (New York: Vikings Children Books, 2018), 51-56. ↵
70 comments
Bailey Godwin
I know the story of Bonny and Clyde and the horrible crimes they committed, but I never knew how they were tracked down and brutally killed. The image of their bodies is very gruesome and the explanation of how serious their injuries were blows my mind. I could not believe 130 bullets were fired at their car. I also always figured they had a lot of money from their bank robberies but turns out they didn’t get much money which kind of confused me.
Alexa Montelongo
I have heard about Bonnie and Clyde in different movies, songs, and tv shows. It’s quite sad that people romanticize them as they did commit heinous crimes and murdering people because of their constant want for money. This article was very informative of their crimes, and the way they went down. I will never seem to understand how and why people began to romanticize their love to begin with.
Alicia Martinez
The names Bonnie and Clyde define a certain culture in American history during the Great Depression. It was surprising to learn that the notorious criminals actually did not acquire much money from their robberies. Although I enjoyed reading the article, I found the end of the writing more interesting than the beginning. Learning about different information that is not easily known is what typically sticks out rather than providing too much of a back story.
Julianna Olivarez
I have always heard of Bonnie and Clyde like I knew they were criminals because of their bank robberies but I never knew that there was more to their life than that. To me their kind of like Romeo and Juliet but criminally insane and crazy but in the end they both died with each other. Also they were not that good of criminals because in the end they only ended up with some of the cash not all of it and they were always running from the police.
Savannah Alcazar
Had you thought of starting with introducing how they met rather than the scene of them on the run? I think the introduction is interesting, but I think the refresher of who they are would have helped earlier. It’s weird that they had never gotten away with much money from their robberies. Not the exact picture I see in my head when I think of Bonnie and Clyde. Overall, this article was super interesting. I enjoyed the photos; especially the one of the car with bullet holes.
Kendall Guajardo
Before reading this I did not know much of their backstory. Seemingly normal people before their infamous life of crime, I wonder if they had any mental issues coinciding with their kill or be killed mentality. Considering they were not very smart with their burglaries and often did not come out of the other side with much money, what could have been the underlying theme to their crimes? I liked the story and I think adding to the motivations of their crimes would have been a fascinating addition. How did they both come together quite seamlessly when Clyde went to prison? The article presented a great backdrop for more discovery on the topic!
Eliane Castorena
I had always heard the names Bonnie and Clyde, but I never knew what crimes they actually committed. It is very interesting to learn that they had similar interests before they started to commit crimes together. Although they did killed many people, including police officers, they are very romanticized by the public and are remembered by being the iconic couple that would escape from the bad police until everything came to an end for the duo.
Ana Cravioto Herrero
Bonnie and Clyde are such iconic names, especially when said together. I had a very wrong impression of them because I knew that they were both criminals, but I did not know that they were not “good” at crime. I thought that they would have stolen millions because of the type of legacy they left, but turns out they lived in fear and were not very successful at their heists. The way I see it, crime is bad and although their story is interesting, they were still baad people.
Aracely Beltran
I always heard the reference about these two individuals in songs and other places in social media. I would always think that they were some sort of Romeo and Juliet. After reading this I have learned that I was very wrong. Their lives were definitely something out of a movie or it seemed like it. A crazy love story that inevitably had to come to and end due to their crimes
Arsema Abera
The iconic duo Bonnie and Clyde. I have always seen it fascinating how two lovers go out and steal money not at least in the ’30s which I find interesting. While reading about them I wasn’t aware that they share the same passion before heading into the life of crime and also I thought when they robbed a bank they took hefty loads of money but it turns out they didn’t well I guess everything comes to an end and so did Bonnie and Clyde.