Police kill famous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde 1934
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"The End of Bonnie & Clyde"
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On this day in 1934, notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police while driving a stolen car near Sailes, Louisiana.
Bonnie Parker met the charismatic Clyde Barrow in Texas when she was
19 years old and her husband (she married when she was 16) was serving
time in jail for murder. Shortly after they met, Barrow was imprisoned
for robbery. Parker visited him every day, and smuggled a gun into
prison to help him escape, but he was soon caught in Ohio and sent back
to jail. When Barrow was paroled in 1932, he immediately hooked up with
Parker, and the couple began a life of crime together.
After they stole a car and committed several robberies, Parker was
caught by police and sent to jail for two months. Released in mid-1932,
she rejoined Barrow. Over the next two years, the couple teamed with
various accomplices to rob a string of banks and stores across five
states–Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico and Louisiana. To law
enforcement agents, the Barrow Gang–including Barrow’s childhood friend,
Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Henry Methvin, Barrow’s brother Buck and
his wife Blanche, among others–were cold-blooded criminals who didn’t
hesitate to kill anyone who got in their way, especially police or
sheriff’s deputies. Among the public, however, Parker and Barrow’s
reputation as dangerous outlaws was mixed with a romantic view of the
couple as “Robin Hood”-like folk heroes.
Their fame was increased by the fact that Bonnie was a woman–an
unlikely criminal–and by the fact that the couple posed for playful
photographs together, which were later found by police and released to
the media. Police almost captured the famous duo twice in the spring of
1933, with surprise raids on their hideouts in Joplin and Platte City,
Missouri. Buck Barrow was killed in the second raid, and Blanche was
arrested, but Bonnie and Clyde escaped once again. In January 1934, they
attacked the Eastham Prison Farm in Texas to help Hamilton break out of
jail, shooting several guards with machine guns and killing one.
Texan prison officials hired a retired Texas police officer, Captain
Frank Hamer, as a special investigator to track down Parker and Barrow.
After a three-month search, Hamer traced the couple to Louisiana, where
Henry Methvin’s family lived. Before dawn on May 23, Hamer and a group
of Louisiana and Texas lawmen hid in the bushes along a country road
outside Sailes. When Parker and Barrow appeared, the officers opened
fire, killing the couple instantly in a hail of bullets.
All told, the Barrow Gang was believed responsible for the deaths of
13 people, including nine police officers. Parker and Barrow are still
seen by many as romantic figures, however, especially after the success
of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty.
(More Events on This Day in History)
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American Revolution
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Automotive
- 1934 Outlaws Bonnie and Clyde shot to death in stolen Ford
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Civil War
- 1864 Fighting begins on the North Anna River, Virginia
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Cold War
- 1949 Federal Republic of Germany is established
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Crime
- 1934 Bonnie and Clyde are killed by police
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Disaster
- 1960 Tsunami hits Hawaii
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General Interest
- 1701 Captain Kidd walks the plank
- 1900 Forgotten Civil War hero honored
- 1911 New York Public Library dedicated
- 1960 Eichmann captured
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Hollywood
- 1933 Joan Collins is born
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Literary
- 1810 Margaret Fuller is born
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Music
- 1979 Tom Petty defies his record label and files for bankruptcy
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Old West
- 1923 Curley is buried at Little Big Horn
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Presidential
- 2004 George W. Bush recovers from bicycle accident
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Sports
- 1941 Joe Louis beats Buddy Baer to retain heavyweight title
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Vietnam War
- 1967 Congressman claims M-16 is defective
- 1971 North Vietnamese infiltrators attack U.S. base
- 1972 United States widens aerial campaign
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World War I
- 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
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World War II
- 1941 Lord Mountbatten, cousin to a king, sunk by German dive-bombers
- 1945 Himmler commits suicide
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