Bonnie and Clyde

Hector A.

Period 2

4/21/11

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker was born on October 1, 1910 in Rowena, Texas.  She was the second of three children. In 1924 she entered Cement City High School and even won the Cement City Spelling Championship.  Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909 in Telico, Texas.  He was the third youngest of eight children.  Clyde never went past the fifth grade.

Clyde’s father was a farmer and had to bring his children up in poverty.  The family could not afford the farm anymore, so they moved to the poorest area in West Dallas.  Clyde went to visit an old girlfriend who had broken her arm and that is where he met a women whose name was Bonnie Parker.  Bonnie met Clyde while she was helping her neighbor with her housework.  Bonnie fell instantly in love with him but before they really got to know each other Clyde was arrested for burglary and was put in jail.  While he was in jail, Clyde asked Bonnie to smuggle a gun into his cell, and that is exactly what she did.  Clyde robbed numerous stores in Illinois in 1930 but was caught again and was sentenced to two years.

After his sentence was finished in 1932 he and Bonnie were reunited once again, because Bonnie loved Clyde, she joined him in robbing small businesses.  Clyde and Raymond Hamilton, a vicious murderer, and Frank Clause formed a new gang.  They planned to rob a convenience store but something went wrong and it turned out to be a murder.  By accident, Raymond Hamilton pulled the trigger while he was pointing it at the clerk; Clyde knew he could not turn himself in so he decided to continue with his criminal life.  Bonnie joined up with Clyde in Dallas where they committed more robberies together.

Hamilton left them several months later and was replaced by William Daniel Jones in November 1932.  Ivan M. “Buck” Barrow, Clyde’s brother was released from Texas State Prison on March 23, 1933.  He quickly joined Clyde, bringing his wife, Blanche, so the group now being five people. They escaped capture in various encounters with the law.  During a shootout with the police in Iowa on July 29, 1933, Buck was fatally wounded and Blanche was captured.  Jones, who was mistaken for “Pretty Boy” Floyd, was captured in November 1933 in Houston, Texas by the sheriffs.  Bonnie and Clyde went on together.

Bonnie and Clyde drove across five states Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Mexico.  They usually stayed close to the border to aid their getaway, knowing the fact that police at that time could not cross state borders to follow a criminal.  To avoid being captured, Clyde would change cars frequently by stealing a new one and changed license plates even more frequently.