- Bonnie Parker's Grave in Dallas, TX - QuesterMark
People still remember the somewhat inept criminal duo of Depression-era bandits called Bonnie and Clyde; latter-day criminals especially seem to find something about their 1930’s predecessors’ exploits to both revere and imitate. The 1980’s serial-killing team Alvin and Judy Neeley called each other “Boney and Claude,” a twisted joke about a twisted pair of “crazy kids” that would be merely stupid if its implications were not so sinister. In 2010, another desperate duo named John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch were deemed the “self-styled Bonnie and Clyde” by the press, allegedly because they referred to each other by the Depression-era lovebirds’ monikers.
Maybe the 1967 Arthur Penn movie stirred society’s imagination enough to make the names “Bonnie and Clyde” attain a infamous sense of immortality. More likely, there’s something about Bonnie that compels her memory even as it repels our conscience. Most so-called molls waited back at the hideout, ready to cook, clean, cater to the gang, and basically live the life of an accessory-after-the-fact, almost normal housewife who just happened to be married to or involved with a robber/killer/kidnapper. At most, they occasionally drove a getaway car or hid a gun for safekeeping.
Bonnie was different. Bonnie was “down to die.”
The Childhood of Bonnie Parker
In Rowena, Texas, in 1910, Bonnie Parker was born into a decent Baptist family, whose social life revolved around church activities. Her craftsman father, Charles, passed away when she was only four; her mother, Emma, promptly took her three children to Dallas to temporarily live with their grandparents while she sought work.
There is no history of abuse or neglect in Bonnie’s upbringing. She seemed a happy child for the most part, though her school years were marred by more than occasional fistfights with catty girls and bullies. Once she even beat up a boy she liked because she decided he’d done something wrong; legend has it that she pulled a razor blade on him and told him she’d cut his throat if the supposed offense were ever repeated.
An excellent singer, she decided to become an opera star. She taught herself tumbling, and resolved to join the circus. She loved to write and helped her school beat the “rich kids” from the right side of the tracks in a literary contest. After starring in some school plays, Bonnie figured she’d go to Hollywood. When she beat up another kid on-stage for pulling off part of her costume, the audience went into hysterics. Maybe acting wasn’t for her, after all.
According to her younger sister, Nell, the reckless and feckless Bonnie was only afraid of one thing: From the time she was very little, she both feared and loathed guns.
Bonnie Parker Grows Up
According to contemporary reports, Bonnie grew up much prettier then her grainy, sepia-toned photographs would ever reveal. Blonde, blue-eyed, and always carefully dressed and coifed, Bonnie ended up a surprisingly well-tipped waitress in a series of dingy cafes. In 1926, she met and married Roy Thornton; a small-time alcoholic hood who spent little time with her. Lonely and bored, she spent much of her time at the movies, visiting with her adored mama, and writing inane comments in her diary. The Depression hit the Dallas area hard; many restaurants went out of business and work was always scarce.
After Thornton went to jail for burglary in 1929, Bonnie decided it would be disloyal to file for a divorce; even though their relationship had long been over. In January of 1930, she managed to find steady employment as a housekeeper and babysitter. She only received room and board for her labors, but she kept her hopes up for something better to come along, something more exciting, maybe even fun.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Meet
Something never really came along, but someone did. Another small-time criminal, a former bike thief who’d already been in trouble for “borrowing” a rental car past the point where he was still able to pay for it. His name was Clyde Barrow.
According to all accounts, the young couple fell deeply in love. Clyde, however, was involved in a gang that stole jewelry and purses from swimmers at the Trinity Bay beach. Suspected of a murder committed by another, Clyde fled town, only to get arrested and released several times for safecracking and car theft. Clyde always tried to emulate the professional “yeggmen” he admired, the old-time bank robbers who were already coaching young up-and-comers like Baby Face Nelson. He never quite made it into their league, and Bonnie never quite cared.
Clyde Barrow at Eastham Prison Farm
The cops finally made charges stick to Clyde on a gas station robbery, and he was sent to Dallas County jail, and then up to Denton. Bonnie used her rusty writing skills to write him long, repetitive letters promising to wait for him. Clyde escaped using a gun Bonnie stole and smuggled into the jail, and went on a wild rampage of burglaries; arrested again, he was sentenced to fourteen years at Eastham Prison Farm, a place its inmates referred to as “the burning hell.”
Beatings by guards, murders, and homosexual rapes were commonplace at Eastham. Clyde killed a fellow convict named Ed Crowder in response to his alleged repeated sexual attacks. Clyde ended up chopping off a few toes with an axe to get transferred to Huntsville, where his brother Buck was also incarcerated. (This was actually not an unusual ruse; many other Eastham inmates hacked off parts of their bodies in order to escape the burning hell.)
Clyde’s Parole and Bonnie’s Decision: Birth of "Bonnie & Clyde"
Bonnie hadn’t been caught for her part in Clyde’s jailbreak. With Clyde gone so long, she’d started seeing some other guy, but he was kind of dull. No criminal record, just a boring go-to-work type named Tom. Nobody could really replace Clyde. He was always nattily dressed, just like she was; he showed up in a silk shirt and sharp suit after making parole in February, 1932.
Bonnie dropped Tom as fast as a flapper could discard an empty flask. Clyde and his friends Ralph Fults and Ray Hamilton pulled some jobs using sawed-off Browning automatic shotguns, which (along with Browning automatic rifles pilfered from armories) would always remain Clyde‘s weapon of choice. The three even robbed their first bank in Lawrence, Kansas; netting eleven thousand dollars apiece. Bonnie told her anxious mama that she was heading to Houston to sell cosmetics, and took off with Clyde and Fults. The real fun was yet to come.
Readers seeking information on Bonnie Parker's later years may enjoy "Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde: Crime Spree and Death."
Sources
Burrough, Bryan, Public Enemies, New York: Penguin, 2004.
Schneider, Paul, Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend, New York: Henry Holt, 2009.
Amy Sillup - I have a B.S. in Chemistry from Delaware Valley College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. I have worked as a ...
