Short History Of... - Bonnie and Clyde

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

Forged by the Great Depression, Bonnie and Clyde became icons of lawlessness, thrilling and shocking America with their crime sprees and doomed romance. But what drove them to lives of such violence? And with the full might of the police against them, how did it all end?  This is a Short History of Bonnie and Clyde. Written by Danny Marshall, with thanks to Paul Schneider, journalist and author of Bonnie and Clyde – The Lives Behind The Legend. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early evening, on April the 13th, 1933. Bonnie Parker, a slight 22-year-old woman, perches on a mattress on the floor of a small sitting room. She's leaning over a notebook, copying out her poetry. They're mostly verses she's written while travelling over the last few months with her boyfriend. Now, after two weeks renting this apartment, it's time to hit the road again. Her boyfriend's brother is banging around in the garage downstairs, preparing his car.

His wife, Blanche, bustles around the apartment, packing for their departure. Bonnie tries to concentrate on her poetry. Above the other noises, she hears a car pull into the driveway. Her boyfriend, Clyde Barrow, has returned. She knows the neighbor's curtains will be twitching again. Her eyes flick to the door, anxious for her beloved to appear. Instead, there's another sound outside. A shout, then the crack of a gunshot, deafening on the suburban street.

Another follows, but Bonnie is already on her feet and sprinting to the window. One glance down the street tells her all she needs to know. A police car has pulled up opposite. Another is blocking the drive. She throws open the window, grabbing a large machine gun propped against the wall. It's enormous in her slender arms, but she knows her way around it.

She leans out and takes aim. A squeeze of the trigger looses a torrent of lead down into the street. She watches down the sights as a police officer dives behind a tree. Keeping her finger depressed, she shreds the bark with bullets. From the garage below, more shots blast the police cars on pavement.

Blanche races to the stairs. Bonnie grabs a spare magazine to reload. She looks down onto the drive, where Clyde is dragging a dead police officer away from the garage doors, leaving streaks across the concrete. His brother, Buck, pushes the police car onto the street and runs back inside. Bonnie knows reinforcements aren't far away. She slams the fresh magazine home and opens up again. Glass shatters and chips of pavement spray the air as she empties the magazine into the street.

Then she drops the rifle and runs for the stairs, leaving her temporary home with only the clothes she's wearing. Down the stairs and out of the door, she jumps straight into the passenger seat of the waiting Ford, next to Clyde. With a scream of tires, the gang are gone. When the police sweep the apartment, they find a staggering cache of weapons, military rifles and machine guns. Clothes and other personal belongings have also been left behind.

But it's the poetry notebooks, the camera and the rolls of undeveloped film that are the real find. By morning, those poems and photographs will be on the front pages of newspapers across America A small-time gang will be propelled to notoriety As people get their first look at one of the most infamous couples in history Bonnie and Clyde Forged by the Great Depression and the era's brutal prison system, their names evoke a romantic image of outlaws on the run. Car crazy, outpacing the police on the roads and outgunning them in shootouts.

Bonnie and Clyde were a wild couple who lived by their own rules and answered to no one. But how did their gun-fueled crime spree across the American Midwest really end? And why are their short criminal careers remembered in popular culture and music, films and books to this day? I'm Paul McGann, and this is a short history of Bonnie and Clyde. The story starts in the small town of Teleco, Texas. Clyde Chestnut Barrow is the fifth of seven children, born into a poor farming family in March 1909.

In the early 20s, when Clyde is still a boy, the Barrow farm fails. Following a common migration pattern at the time, the family moves to the city of Dallas in abject poverty. Paul Schneider is a journalist and author of Bonnie and Clyde, The Lives Behind the Legend. They live at first under the viaduct, which is this long bridge that goes over the Trinity River, and everybody's living under it. There are whole neighborhoods under there. It's essentially a slum or kind of a homeless camp. People, you know, living under this long, long, long bridge. The family lives in the mud beneath a wagon.

After several months, they upgrade to a tent. Finally, Clyde's father, Henry Barrow, saves enough to buy a nearby gas station, and the large family move into one small room in the back. Clyde is a small, good-looking boy who dreams of becoming a musician. He learns the guitar and the saxophone. However, he soon drops out of school to follow his older brother Buck into petty crime. The rumor about Clyde's first brush with illegal activity was that he was helping his brother, who was obsessed with cockfighting, steal a rooster from a neighboring farm because they had no birds of their own to take to the cockfights.

So Buck, who is a little bit older than Clyde, and who is the boy who's really into cockfighting, gets his little brother to jump over the fence and grab this rooster from next door. Buck's main racket is auto theft, and soon the boys are stealing cars all over Dallas. Clyde is the first arrested, aged 17, after failing to return a rental car and running from police. Soon after, he's arrested for stealing a truckload of frozen turkeys. Buck takes the rap and spends a week inside, but by now Clyde has got himself a name as a troublemaker. It won't be long until Clyde meets the young woman with whom he'll find his

way into the history books. Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is born in Rowena, Texas, on October the 1st, 1910. Bonnie's family, when she's born, is somewhat better off. Her father is a bricklayer out in West Texas, seemingly on the road to creating a stable family for her and her brother and sister. But he dies when all three children are pretty young. And that sort of sets them on an entirely different path. Her mother then has to move into Dallas, and she too becomes part of this underclass of underemployed, struggling, undereducated white people in Dallas.

Nevertheless, Bonnie is a bright student who excels at the local school. She shows a keen interest in poetry and dreams of one day becoming an actress. Her life turns a corner when she gets involved with a classmate in her second year of high school. Six days before Bonnie's 16th birthday, she and Roy Thornton are married.

But their marriage isn't about settling down. Roy is a burglar and safecracker, and is frequently absent. When he is around, he is physically abusive. The marriage collapses, and in 1929 Roy is sentenced to five years in prison. The two will never see each other again. The era Bonnie and Clyde have grown up in is a tumultuous one. Prohibition, which outlaws the manufacture and sale of alcohol, has been in effect since 1920.

It's fuelled a rise in organised crime, pitting the government and law enforcement against swathes of the population. Everyday Americans are now cynical of authority. Widespread drought has forced families in the rural Midwest off their farms and into cities. Shantytowns and traveller camps, many of them home to thousands, are everywhere. Then, in 1929, the Great Depression slams the brakes on what's left of the roaring twenties with whiplash speed. Banks close, businesses go under, and rural towns die. A quarter of the population are out of work.

Bread lines grow and soup kitchens overflow. Resentment of government, law and banks is widespread. Among the poor and working class in particular, there's a mood of utter helplessness and anger. Clyde tries several jobs, but in this environment it seems there's no way to make an honest living. Clyde's biggest problem was that he was desperately ashamed of being poor. So he has this class issue. But the thing to know about the strata that they fall into is that it was a revolving door with the police and petty crimes, and they come out of a kind of a tough, slum neighborhood. The way the

police worked in Dallas by their own admission was they had a list of people that they rounded up for every crime that got committed. So if a bike got stolen, you know, eventually Clyde's just on this list who gets hauled in for questioning. And they were allowed to haul people in for questioning and put them in jail for 72 hours without even telling them what they're asking about. And there are cases where they would then let you out after 72 hours and say, go home and pick you up on your way home and put you back in for another 72 hours without charging you. In January 1930, the 20-year-old's fate is sealed when he visits a friend. In early 1930, the 20-year-old's fate is sealed when he visits a friend. In the kitchen, he meets 19-year-old Bonnie, making a cup of hot chocolate. Their friends will later say it's love at first sight.

They are immediately inseparable, calling each other pet names, much to their friend's amusement. But the whirlwind romance is short-lived. In the following weeks, Clyde is convicted of auto theft and sent to jail. It's Clyde's first time inside, and it doesn't last long. He convinces Bonnie to smuggle a gun in. It's her first serious crime, and it does the trick. Clyde is free to return to his beloved.

Again, the bliss is short-lived, as a week later he's recaptured. This time, it's the real deal. The judge has had enough, and throws the book at him. Instead of serving his time concurrently, the judge sentences Clyde to fourteen years. He's taken to Huntsville on an infamous prison transport known as Uncle Bud's One Way Bus. Crowds gather in the town to gawp at the new arrivals. This is their weekly entertainment. Chained like oxen, Clyde and his fellow prisoners climb down from the bus, shuffling through the town to jeers and taunts. There are three gates at Huntsville. The first

slams behind the group. No matter their crime, no matter how hardened a criminal he is, every man's heart sinks. Clyde shuffles forward nervously. The second gate slams shut. Finally, their chains are removed. Wallets and other possessions are removed. Clyde is forced to strip and change into prison whites. Finally, he moves into the prison itself, and the third gate slams behind him. Unfortunately for Clyde, he will not spend his fourteen years in this dismal place.

He's destined for somewhere far worse. The medical staff deem Clyde fit and healthy, and able to be sent to the prison farm. deemed Clyde fit and healthy and able to be sent to the prison farm. The era's grim prison system is designed to break men with no thought of rehabilitation. Life on the farm is deliberately hard, the work back-breaking. These old prison farms were cotton plantations that had been transformed into prison farms. There were also notorious, brutal punishments. If you didn't hoe the cotton long enough or hard enough or fast enough, or you didn't run from the barracks out to the cotton field, they might make you stand on a barrel. And you'd stand on the barrel until you

fell off. And then they put you back up on the barrel and you have to stand on the barrel. Or they also had a bar, like a balance beam. You'd have to sit on the barrel or they also had a bar like a balance beam and you'd have to sit on that for hours until your legs go asleep or they hung people from windows and they hung people from the ceilings i mean it was really barbaric these these prisons so clyde's a small good-looking little guy in this brutal prison camp you go into the barracks and the guards turn it over to the meanest fellow inmates. These are lifers who know they're never getting out, so they have no reason to be good.

And they ran the barracks. And one of these, according to some of Clyde's fellow inmates and buddies, one of these trustees raped him several times. Clyde ultimately sneaks a pipe wrench in from somewhere. And he has help from some fellow prisoners. But basically, he lures this trustee back to the restrooms at the back, which is where he presumably had been raped before. And he kills him. Kills him with a pipe wrench. And then an accomplice of Clyde's, who's another trustee, comes in and stabs the guy a bunch of times. Since the accomplice is already inside for life,

he confesses to the murder. The young Clyde Barrow's life may have marginally improved, but prison is still unbearable. He knows there's only one way off the farm. To get so ill, you can no longer work. It's not uncommon for prisoners to slice their own Achilles' heels, or worse, to get themselves sent to another prison. In January 1932, after two years at the farm, Clyde is despondent. While outside on work duty, he takes an axe and chops off his big toe. Unknown to him, his mother has already successfully

petitioned for his release. So, six days after needlessly chopping off his toe, Clyde limps out of Eastern Prison. But he's scarred in other ways too. A fellow inmate and gang member later says he watched him change from a schoolboy into a rattlesnake. His sister will later remark, something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn't the same person when he got out. must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn't the same person when he got out. As he walks through the outer gate and takes his first deep breath of fresh air as a free man, he makes two vows to himself. Number one, that he will never again set foot in prison. The second promise gives his life purpose. He will take revenge on the system that tried to break him.

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Clyde concocts a plan to stage a breakout from Eastern Prison, freeing the friend who helped him out. To fund his ambitions, he immediately returns to crime. And this time, Bonnie is a bona fide part of the gang. Though it's the bank robberies that make them famous,

most of the gang's robberies involve small town stores and gas stations for little reward. Again, the couple's time together is brief, but this time it's Bonnie who gets into hot water. Caught robbing a hardware store, she's sent to jail. Bonnie spends her days inside writing poetry that will soon be reprinted in newspapers across the country. Poems that will ensure her legacy. Meanwhile, Clyde hones his skills behind the wheel. He's the getaway driver for a robbery in which a store owner is killed. And from now on, he's a wanted man. Shortly afterwards, he and two friends are drinking moonshine in a parking lot

when they're approached by a sheriff and his deputy. Making good on his vow never to return to jail, he opens fire without warning, killing one of the lawmen and seriously wounding the other. It's not his first murder, but it's the first time he's killed a law enforcement officer. A line has been crossed, and already it feels like events are beginning to spiral. Bonnie is released from prison after just a few months, and meets back up with Clyde and his friend, 16-year-old William Daniel Jones, known as W.D. Dallas is a big city now, but back then you knew almost everybody,

at least in your social class, in your milieu, and theirs was these tough kids. W.D. is in the same circles as the Barrows who run this little gas station kind of in the heart of the tough section of town. And he ends up hooking up with Bonnie and Clyde. And you get the feeling he's just a young kid who looks up to Clyde and Bonnie. But he's a funny guy because he always seems to say later when they're questioning him after he's caught and even later in life that He was asleep. I was asleep when they shot those, you know, there's guns firing everywhere. And he may have been drunk and asleep, but he always happens to sort of seemingly be innocent, even though he's riding around in the back of a car with notorious killers.

At the end of 1932, the trio gun down a sheriff's deputy and leave Texas. For a couple of months, they travel the Midwest in a succession of stolen cars, usually Fords, abandoned when they break down or get too hot, while they hijack the next ride. They're not yet household names, so are unhindered by organized law enforcement. They steal cash from stores and gas stations when they need it, renting rooms in towns. Clyde drives while Bonnie navigates. Jones is the group's photographer, snapping the couple in staged poses, similar to those people might take at a fairground.

In almost every picture, their vast array of weaponry is proudly displayed. Clyde is gun-obsessed. His favorite weapon is the Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, a U.S. Army machine gun with more firepower than a whole paddy wagon full of police officers. Clyde was a gun nut. The first Bonnie and Clyde movie is actually called Gun Crazy. It doesn't identify them as Bonnie and Clyde, but it's really about somebody who's gone nuts for weapons, which Clyde kind of had. Clyde broke into multiple armories. They seem to have been relatively poorly guarded. And they literally loaded the car with guns and ammunition.

The ease with which Clyde and his buddies were able to burgle extraordinary numbers of military grade weapons and rounds of ammunition from armories is kind of one of the mysteries of the story. One hopes they're more locked up now, but they really did give Clyde and his gang a leg up on the law enforcement at that time. The police roll around in old cars and trucks.

They have a few guns, but are severely under-armed. On the other hand, Clyde always steals the newest, fastest cars. He favors the Ford V8. He even writes a letter to Henry Ford, proclaiming the V8 to be a dandy car, which he steals exclusively if available, for its sustained speed and freedom from trouble. They lived on the road and he never went slower than full speed.

And he practiced maneuvers of the sort that you see in cops and robber type shows that are not something anybody can do without practice, such as flying in reverse, slamming on the brakes, going into second and spinning around and taking off at full speed. on the brakes, going into second and spinning around and taking off at full speed. So these local cops who try to stop them at the beginning are puttering around in grandpa's Model T with a handgun, a service gun, and they don't really have a chance. And the other thing that's important to understand is there were no radios. The police did not have two-way radios. And the police, for the most part, couldn't cross state lines. This high point in their short lives stretches to the end of March, when Clyde rents an apartment above a garage in the city of Joplin, Missouri.

The town is strategically positioned on a crossroads between four states, perfect for hopping across state lines to avoid the law. The apartment itself offers 360-degree views over the street and surrounding area. Clyde's brother, Buck, has just been released from prison. And together with his wife, Blanche, he reluctantly agrees to meet up with Bonnie, Clyde, and Jones. Buck actually does an extraordinary thing. He's been on the lam.

He was an escapee. He had run away from a prison farm. Blanche and his mother have convinced him to turn himself in and that he will get clean. His crimes at that point are not of the sort that would get him to the electric chair. And he goes into prison and serves his term or is ultimately pardoned. And he believes

that he can get Clyde to do something similar. It's supposed to be kind of a vacation, and they get into a little upstairs apartment on a pretty suburban-seeming street. The place is still there. Their attempt to talk Clyde round fails. And on April 13th, the gang are preparing to leave the apartment. Buck and Blanche decide to return to Texas for a new start. Bonnie and Clyde, with Jones in tow, will find somewhere new to lie low while they continue to plot their prison raid. But the 13th will be an unlucky turning point for the gang.

They won't slip away from Missouri unnoticed. The neighbors have become suspicious of the young strangers with the out-of-state license plates. They report their concerns to the police. The gang make their escape thanks to overwhelming firepower and their characteristic shoot-first style, leaving two dead officers in their wake. But it isn't a clean getaway. In their haste, Buck's marriage license and parole papers have been left behind. Blanche's hopes of going straight and living a quiet life are in tatters. More importantly, the police also have Bonnie's notebooks and camera. When the photographs are developed, police are shocked. By morning,

the sensational pictures of the Barrow gang, as they're now known, are splashed over front pages across the country. The five pose in the now famous photographs. The unmarried Bonnie and Clyde embrace and kiss. Jones sits on the road in front of their Ford V8, guns racked up behind him. In every picture, the young gang are well-dressed and armed to the teeth. But the image that will captivate America is that of Bonnie,

all four feet eleven of her, in a black dress with a beret pushed back on her head. One foot rests on the bumper of the Ford. Her left hand hangs casually over the headlight. Her right holds a revolver. The stub of a cigar is clamped between her lips. A new criminal pin-up of Depression-era America has arrived. Bonnie is a highly intelligent woman in a violent man's world, taking control of her situation and her life in a way that many can only dream of. The police and news outlets intend to shock the public, but the pictures have exactly the opposite effect. Bank robberies, guns, fast cars,

and illicit sex. It's not difficult to see why a depression-weary public take Bonnie and Clyde to their hearts. hearts. The myth of Bonnie and Clyde is alluring, but myth is all it is. In the photos, they're smiling, but only a month previously they'd murdered a 27-year-old new father in cold blood for his car. The gang have killed other innocent people for less, sometimes no more than a few dollars. They've blasted their way through police and civilians alike on their path to notoriety. All spring they continue to rob stores as they speed from Texas to Minnesota.

But their newfound fame becomes a millstone. Some love them, others hate them, but either way it's impossible for the couple to keep a low profile. Motels become too hot. The gang are forced to camp rough each night, sleeping under the stars, eating by dusty roadsides, and bathing in cold streams takes its toll. Eventually in May, Buck and Blanche take off, promising to rendezvous with the other three in a couple of weeks' time. It's the 10th of June, 1933, just outside Wellington, North Texas. As the sun dips below the wide horizon, six members of the Cartwright and Pritchard family are sitting on the wooden porch of their farmhouse.

Over the sound of chirping insects, the roar of a V8 engine rolls across the plains. A Ford Coupé comes into view, kicking up a cloud of dust as it races towards the bridge over the nearby Red River. The car misses a detour and takes a turn for the new bridge, which is under construction. At the last minute, the driver swerves, sending the car careering into a dry section of riverbed, where it spins and comes to rest. Smoke curls from beneath its bonnet. Three people rush from the house to help. When they get to the car, two men are dragging themselves out A third figure, a woman, is slumped in the passenger seat Alonzo Cartwright pulls her from the car

And carries her back to the house with the other men in tow The family do not recognize Bonnie, Clyde and W.D. Jones Who are on their way to meet up with Buck and Blanche. They find a bed for Bonnie, and discover just how badly hurt she is. Thanks to acid from an exploding battery beneath her seat, she's suffering horrific burns to her right leg. In places the damage is down to the bone, causing the muscle to contract. She urgently needs medical attention, but the farm has no electricity and no phone. Though the three are reluctant, Alonso finally convinces them to

let him go to town to fetch the doctor. While he's gone, his wife Gladys tends to her patient, and Clyde and Jones retrieve the guns from the crashed car. her patient, and Clyde and Jones retrieve the guns from the crashed car. Nerves frayed, Alonzo has been gone too long, and Clyde suspects he may have crossed them. Jones panics when Gladys Pritchard tries to lock the door. He fires the shotgun, blasting pellets through her hand, narrowly missing the baby she's holding. As the blast dies away, a car can be heard approaching. Alonzo has alerted the law.

Bundling the family into the back, Jones and Clyde lie in wait. The two unsuspecting lawmen are taken prisoner without a shot. They're handcuffed and shoved into their own car, with Clyde jumping behind the wheel. Bonnie screams in pain as she's crammed in the back. Three hours later, they reach their rendezvous with Buck and Blanche. It's the middle of the night, and the terrified captives can only wonder what the gang have in store for them. The terrified captives can only wonder what the gang have in store for them. But this time Clyde is relatively merciful. Using barbed wire cut from a fence, both of his prisoners are secured to a cottonwood

tree. After disabling the sheriff's car, they pile into Buck's car and disappear into the night. This brush with the law may not have seen as much bloodshed as usual, but the effect on Bonnie is devastating. With Buck and Blanche with them once more, the gang continue to rob to buy medical supplies. They're forced to hop between states to avoid the law. During a botched robbery in Arkansas, they kill the town marshal.

In early July, the gang burgle the National Guard armory in Enid, Oklahoma, to restock their firepower. By the end of the month, the gang are exhausted. They've been moving constantly, living out of their car. Bonnie's leg isn't healing. They need a base to hole up. To fund it, they go on a robbery spree in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They turn over three gas stations in under 20 minutes before speeding for Kansas City, 250 miles away.

That night they check into the Red Crown Motel in Missouri. There are only two adjoining cabins, 50 miles away. That night, they check into the Red Crown Motel in Missouri. There are only two adjoining cabins, small rooms with garages in between, where they can stash the car. It's built of sturdy brick, good cover if one of their characteristic shootouts occurs. What the gang don't know is the restaurant across the street

is a favorite haunt of highway patrol officers. By the time they get to the Red Crown Motel, I think tensions are pretty high. They've been living in the woods and they've been living, you know, in ravines. And they check in there and Blanche keeps going across the street to get food and drinks and bring it back. And naturally, this starts to arouse some suspicion that there's people who never come out and one woman who keeps bringing food in. And so the police ultimately get wind of it

and bring a lot of firepower. Late that night, an armored car rolls up outside the garage doors. At the same time, the sheriff and a group of officers approach, carrying bulletproof riot shields. But the Barrow gang have seen them coming. They unleash a hailstorm of lead on the officers. Miraculously none are shot, but they are physically pushed back by the bullets hammering the shields. The military-grade armor-piercing rounds from the gang's Browning machine guns blast clean through the armored car.

Somehow the horn is shot and blares relentlessly. The police assume this is a ceasefire signal and they fall back. The police assume this is a ceasefire signal and they fall back. The driver of the armoured car reverses, freeing the garage doors, and Clyde pulls the car out. In the confusion, the police fire tear gas, which lands in the restaurant parking lot, obscuring everybody's view. As Blanche and Buck sprint from their cabin, a bullet finds its mark, blowing off the front of Buck's skull. Miraculously he somehow survives and is dragged into the car. There is only one exit, so Clyde accelerates through the gunfire.

One of the windows shatters, spraying Blanche's eyes. Despite their injuries, once again the Barrow Gang slip away into the night. But the heat is getting too much, and their escape doesn't buy them much time. 5 am on July 24th, 1933. Four days after the shootout, the Barrow Gang are camping out at an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa. Weary and injured, they're eating around a fire. Despite the hour, Blanche is wearing sunglasses.

Fragments of glass are still lodged in her eyes. Bonnie's leg is getting worse. The wound has reopened. She can hardly walk. Bonnie's leg is getting worse, the wound has reopened, she can hardly walk. Behind her sits the trusty car that got them out of the shootout at the Red Crown Motel. On the grass next to it, a second car is parked, stolen earlier that day. A little way off is something far more ominous. Earlier Clyde and Jones dug a grave for Buck, although for now he's still alive and eating

heartily. But he's missing part of his skull, and Clyde has been pouring peroxide straight onto his exposed brain to keep it clean. The end, Clyde thinks, can't be far away. Suddenly, a shout startles the birds from the trees. The gang are surrounded and loudly instructed to come out with their hands up. Unknown to the gang, the sheriff has raised a posse to investigate the reports of a group sleeping rough in the area. They're not taking chances. There are over 50 heavily armed men encircling them.

Trapped, the gang react immediately. With his rifle never far from his hand, Clyde opens fire. He's answered with shots from all sides of the campsite. So he leaps for the nearest car and slams it into gear. But he takes a bullet to the arm and swerves, hitting a tree. Jumping out, he runs for the second car before seeing it reduced to scrap in an onslaught of bullets. Buck has been shot in the back.

Blanche refuses to leave his side. With a glance behind, Clyde, Jones and Bonnie limp through the trees to the river. Believing the gang are all dead, the posse take a few vital minutes to regroup before searching the bushes. Clyde can hear the shouts behind him as the sheriff finds Blanche hiding with her husband. Despite having been shot several times, Buck is miraculously still alive. The capture of Buck and Blanche has given the others the distraction they need to make their escape in a nearby farmer's car. Once

again they've evaded the law, though like last time the cost is high. Bonnie is in constant pain and Clyde has been shot in the arm. His brother Buck is held under armed guard at a nearby hospital, where he succumbs to his horrific injuries a few days later. Blanche, permanently blind in one eye, will soon be behind bars. I think that once Buck is captured, that's another round of photographs. There's a famous photograph of Blanche.

Buck's on the ground and Blanche is caught. So that puts them in the news again. But I think also for Bonnie and Clyde and their parents and their siblings, I think it was also a kind of a forewarning that the end is inevitable. They were going to go down together. But the fact that Buck is dead and Blanche is in jail, I think people were surprised how much longer Bonnie and Clyde carried on.

I think they're being seen more and more not as rebels against a system, but as wounded, dangerous animals who are killers. Jones can see the writing on the wall. Once Bonnie and Clyde are well enough healed, he splits from the couple and heads for his mother's in Houston. Despite trying to keep a low profile, in November he's arrested.

He goes quietly. He will spin a story that he and Clyde have rehearsed many times. That he never killed anyone, or even held a gun. He was an unwilling partner, often tied up. Jones is sentenced to 15 years and paroled after six, then spends the rest of his life in Houston. He lives long enough to see the 1967 film, Bonnie and Clyde, but his response to it is ambivalent. It made it look sort of glamorous, he remarks,

but like I told them teenage boys sitting near me at the drive-in showing, take it from an old man who was there, it was hell. As 1933 draws to a close, Bonnie and Clyde are still wounded animals on the run. Conscious that their time must be running out, they turn again to Clyde's ambition of a raid on Eastern Prison. On January the 16th, 1934, his dream comes true. At the appointed time, Bonnie and Clyde are sitting in the fog in their car, and these prisoners make their escape. They kill a guard who's one of the more brutal guards.

They shoot him, kill him, and run for the car. And Clyde just starts putting up his usual gunfire, heavy gunfire. And Bonnie, who's a little bit away, a steep fog, and and fog can be very thick in that part of part of Texas in the morning starts beeping on the horn so there's all this noise going on crazy gunfire people running four prisoners managed to get to Clyde's car and there's a couple there who weren't part of the deal they just sort of saw what was going on and headed for it too and Clyde's friend the target of the jail. They just sort of saw what was going on and headed for it too. And Clyde Spren, the target of the jailbreak, says you can't, in particular this kid Methvin,

you can't come along. You're not breaking out with us. And Clyde says, no, anybody who gets here and gets in my car is coming with me. I'm not sending anybody back. I think it felt to Clyde like some kind of achievement in a period in his life when there wasn't much achievement other than

running the raid is a tipping point the governor of texas brings in ranger frank hamer he is an infamous manhunter with dubious morals and a reputation for bringing down his quarry by any means necessary the 49 year old veteran is seconded to highway patrol to legitimize his pursuit. He gets brought in relatively late in the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde. It's after East Ham prison break, and he's brought in by the governor and by the head of the Texas prison system. And he is a legendary manhunter who has had many, many gunfights. So he's partly brought in because Clyde and his gang have shot up so many police and law enforcement and gotten out of so many scrapes.

Bringing in this angel of death character is hopefully going to prevent that kind of disaster from happening. What he brings to the investigation comes from his connection to the governor, which is he's the only law person chasing Bonnie and Clyde who really has it firmly in hand from the governor of the state of Texas to offer clemency or a pardon to anybody who will rat out Bonnie and Clyde. From February 1934, Hamer lives out of his car, the duo's constant shadow, often only a day behind them. Bonnie and Clyde are using the other prisoner they sprang from Easton, Henry Methvin, as their new gopher. Just as Jones helped with errands, Methvin now helps Clyde steal the cars and money they need to stay one step ahead of the Ranger. Methvin now helps Clyde steal the cars and money they need to stay one step ahead of the Ranger.

On Easter Sunday outside Grapevine, Texas, the gang's car attracts the attention of two highway patrol officers. Both are killed in cold blood. An eyewitness will state they saw Bonnie firing the fatal shots. Exaggerated rumors claim Bonnie laughed as the officer's head bounced like a rubber ball as she shot him. The stories are later discredited, but not before they're printed in the papers. Some claim the police purposely planted the stories to put a dent in the couple's popularity.

Whether true or not, the wanted posters now offer rewards for Bonnie and Clyde, dead. Never far behind, Frank Hamer maps the outlaw's routes. He realises they're consistent, always skirting borders, ready to hop over where police can't pursue. Recently, the gang have been visiting Methvin's family home in northern Louisiana. Hamer discovers that the Methvins have come into some money and bought a new farm. It's never proven that the farm was actually bought by Clyde, but it's certainly suspected. that the farm was actually bought by Clyde,

but it's certainly suspected. The location is a perfect hideout, nestled in the backwoods not far from the Texas and Arkansas borders. Hamer closes in. He gathers a posse of four colleagues from Texas, including a deputy who can identify Bonnie. He also recruits two local lawmen to ensure he has jurisdiction in Louisiana. He knows a raid on the farm is risky.

On home turf, with their firepower, the gang will have the upper hand. He needs to take the couple by surprise. There's no doubt Bonnie and Clyde will go down together. Hamer starts to think Henry Methvin could be a weak link. A bloody end is inevitable. And Henry Methvin's father, Ivy Methvin, is worried that his son will be caught up and killed. After agreeing to help Hamer in return for his son's pardon, a plan is hatched.

Hamer has this pardon in his pocket that he can offer to somebody. And they secretly meet in the woods with Methven's family. Henry gets out to get some sandwiches at a cafe. But instead of picking up the sandwiches while Bonnie and Clyde are driving around the block, Henry leaves the sandwiches on the counter and just sneaks out and disappears into the crowd.

Bonnie and Clyde are not necessarily suspicious that Henry got separated because they're all on the run from the law. They probably think some cop looked at him sideways and he had to disappear. But the agreement always is, if we get separated, we'll come back and find you at your house, make your way back to your house. It's 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May the 23rd 1934. Highway 154 is an isolated ribbon of dirt road cutting through thick woods. Hidden in the dense bushes close to the roadside are Frank Hamer and his five chosen men. Hamer was told the previous day that Henry Methvin split from Bonnie and Clyde. He knows, at some point, the two outlaws would travel along this road to rendezvous at the Methvin farm a couple of miles further on.

The men have studied the couple's previous encounters with the law and have come prepared. Each carries a high-powered rifle or Browning automatic machine gun, like Clyde himself uses. Hamer has selected the location carefully. Positioned on a rise in the road, he has a good view in both directions. But Hamer knows Clyde will be driving at full throttle, so he's planned a way to slow him down. To secure the pardon for his son, Ivy Methvin has been coerced into playing an active role.

On the opposite side of the road sits his jacked-up truck, one wheel removed. Hamer is banking on Clyde recognizing it. At 9.15, Hamer hears the sound he's been waiting for, the distinctive howl of a Ford V8 being driven at high speed. His men tense, rifles click as bolts are cocked. Ivy is desperate to get away, fearing the worst, but it's too late to back out now. Suddenly the tan Ford tears around a corner in a cloud of dust, but as soon as Clyde sees Ivy's truck, he brakes, slowing to a crawl. He gets just a glimpse of Ivy, before a single gunshot rings out. Bonnie screams as her partner in crime slumps.

The other five men in the trees pull their triggers. A torrent of bullets blasts the car, punching holes clean through the body. After several seconds, Bonnie's screaming stops, but the onslaught does not. Thunderous gunfire is heard miles away. The stricken Ford begins to roll away towards the side of the road. The fusillade of gunfire follows it.

Hamer and his men have no intention of letting anyone inside survive. Finally the woods fall silent and the car rolls to a stop. Frank Hamer walks from the bushes, gun in hand. There's no movement, no sound from the car. He reaches through the shattered window and turns the engine off. Bonnie's hand drops to the seat. She's still clutching the sandwich she'd been eating when the car rounded the corner. She was just 23 years old.

when the car rounded the corner. She was just 23 years old. Slouched next to her, Clyde is dead at 24. It's estimated later that the six men fired over 150 rounds into the car and its occupants, though it was the very first which killed Clyde. The pair didn't get a chance to fire a single shot in return. The couple are left in the bullet riddled car as Hamer collects evidence. Fifteen sets of license plates are found in the trunk. Guns are pulled from the wreckage and

stacked. An armory of pistols, rifles, shotguns, and of course, Clyde's Browning automatic machine guns. Two men are left on guard while the others head into town to fetch a tow truck. A crowd quickly gathers, and when Hamer returns, it's carnage. People are attacking the trees with knives, prying bullets from the bark. They claw at the car, at the bodies even, for grisly souvenirs. Bullets, scraps of metal, clothing, even Bonnie's hair. One man is caught trying to cut off Clyde's trigger finger. By the time the car, still carrying its gruesome cargo, reaches nearby Arcadia, nearly 16,000

people fill the streets. They surge to take pictures and rip grim mementos from the vehicle. Bonnie and Clyde are taken for autopsy. Reports will show 17 entrance wounds on Clyde and a further 23 on Bonnie. The next day their families arrive to take the bodies back to Texas. Clyde Barrow's body is presented in a mansion in downtown Dallas, with nearly 15,000 people in attendance. At sunset on Friday the 25th of May, a private service is held.

He's buried with his beloved brother, Buck. Bonnie's sister attends the funeral, but the rest of her family do not. At 2pm the next day, Bonnie's service is held. Though she'd made it clear she wanted to be laid to rest alongside Clyde, her mother won't allow it. He had her in life, Mrs. Parker says, but he wouldn't have her in death. Bonnie Parker is buried in Dallas' fish trap cemetery. Her family have trouble getting past the crowd,

which is over 20,000 strong. Tributes pour in. The largest wreath is from a group of Dallas newsboys, in gratitude to Bonnie and Clyde for helping them sell so many papers. In 1945, her grave is moved to Crown Hill Memorial Park, due to persistent vandalism, where she still rests today, nine miles from Clyde. In the years following the deaths,

the blood-spattered and bullet-torn Ford V8, grimly known as the Death Car, is transported around fairs until public interest wanes. Despite notoriety while on the run, their brief crime spree is almost forgotten by 1967, when a biopic is released. Breaking cinematic taboos of the time with its depictions of sex and violence, the movie tells a glamorous, fictionalised account of their crime spree.

Screening at the height of the Vietnam War, its anti-authority themes stir public imagination. The film is a hit, and wins two Oscars and a BAFTA. One cannot underestimate the importance of the movie Bonnie and Clyde in the late 60s. I think that while the myth-making started almost immediately by Bonnie's mother and Clyde's sister, who wrote a book not long after. And that movie was such a hit and touched so many hot spots of American culture that I think there's a very clear line of when their level of celebrity kicks into this mythical gear. And it's 40 years after they're dead.

Bonnie and Clyde, who were, in the end, relatively unsuccessful bank robbers and kind of regional celebrities, have grown into this huge, mythical, kind of gruesome touchstone of American culture. And I think their enduring appeal obviously stems from their real love for each other, from their sort of Romeo and Juliet go-down together. They are often fondly remembered as legendary outlaws in an era of government oppression and extreme poverty. Bonnie's poetry, written while on the run, maintains this ride-or-die romantic image.

It's true they lived by their own rules and forged their own destinies in an era when escaping your lot in life was extremely difficult. But when backed into a corner, Bonnie and Clyde were cold-blooded killers who never hesitated to pull the trigger. In the wake of their lawlessness, they left countless widows, orphans and heartbroken families. left countless widows, orphans, and heartbroken families. Today, the bullet-riddled Ford V8 death car sits in a casino in Nevada, along with the tattered shirt Clyde was wearing when he was killed. Some of the guns recovered by Hamer are displayed at the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in Gippsland, Louisiana.

The museum occupies the very building where the couple bought their last sandwiches on that fateful morning. Another museum in Joplin holds several of Bonnie's necklaces and a door punctuated with bullet holes from their critical shootout at the apartment there. The obsession with Bonnie and Clyde and weird artifacts

and traveling to almost as a shrine. If you go to the place where they were killed on an anniversary, it can be weirdly like an Easter sunrise service, you know, at some church. It's a strange thing, their mythical role in the culture. Were Bonnie and Clyde ultimately victims of the Great Depression? Clyde in particular was doubtless a victim of a brutal prison system. They were molded in a spiral of poverty and violence that thanks to their devotion to each other and their refusal to give up could only ever end one way.

And they both knew exactly how their short lives would end. Just weeks before the couple were gunned down, Bonnie handed her mother a poem, seemingly written as her own epitaph. They don't think they're too tough or desperate. They know that the law always wins They've been shot at before But they do not ignore that death is the wages of sin Someday they'll go down together And they'll bury them side by side To few it'll be grief

To the law a relief but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde Next time on Short History Of we'll bring you a short history of Apollo 13 Before the crew even called anything down the people on the ground history of? We'll bring you a short history of Apollo 13. Before the crew even called anything down,

the people on the ground saw everything go haywire. What just happened? Do we have bad telemetry? What's happening? And then you hear the call down, we've got a problem here. And then no one was listening to what the crew had said because they were trying to work what was going on. And then Jim Lovell got on the commander and they said

say again and he said, Houston, we've had a problem. That's next time on Short History Of.