Bonnie And Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker burst upon the American Southwest in the Great Depression year of 1932. At the time of Clyde’s first involvement with a murder, people paid little attention to the event. He was just another violent hoodlum in a nation with a growing list of brutal criminals, which included Al Capone, John Dillenger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barker Gang. Not until Bonnie and Clyde joined forces did the public become intrigued. The phrase “Bonnie and Clyde'; took on an electrifying and exotic meaning that has abated little in the past sixty years.

Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909, into a family of four children. Ironically when the midwife told a local physician of his birth, the physician incorrectly recorded it as “baby girl Barrow'; in the Vital Statistics volume of the Ellis County Courthouse at Waxahachie.

Three additional children followed Clyde’s birth, and the families financial difficulties worsened as the price for cotton bounced up and down. After some years the Barrow’s found it impossible to provide for their children and sent them to live with relatives in east Texas. At one relatives home Clyde developed two interests that remained with him to the end of hid life: a passion for music, and an obsession with guns. Even as Clyde drove along the lane in Louisiana to his death, he carried a saxophone and reams of sheet music, as well as an arsenal of firearms. Clyde loved and named his guns, and regarded them as tokens of his power.

At the age of sixteen, Clyde dropped out of school to work at Proctor and Gamble. Clyde’s crime streak started with helping his brother steal a small flock of turkeys and transporting them to Dallas to sell for Christmas money. Dallas officers saw the back seat full of live fowl, and pulled them over arresting them both. His brother claimed full responsibility , and they lat Clyde go since he was so small and innocent looking. Clyde soon mat up with a man named Frank Clause. Clyde soon quit his job at Proctor and gamble and began burglarizing small businesses in Dallas, Lufkin, and Hillsboro, Texas. Although Clyde was introduced into the gang by his brother, he soon became accepted and became the leader. Their crime spree started with stealing a couple of cars and burglarizing a few houses.