Blanche Barrow

[5] She served six years in prison for assault with intent to kill the sheriff of Platte County, Missouri, but he treated her sympathetically.

Barrow had a poor relationship with her mother, who arranged for her to be married to John Calloway, a much older man, at age 17.

Two days after Christmas 1931, Blanche drove him to the gate of Huntsville penitentiary, where he told surprised prison officials that he had escaped almost two years before and needed to resume his sentence.

Bonnie was visibly drunk, and Buck, who had been talking with Clyde in the car and also appeared to have been drinking, made a promise to his brother that he would join him in his gang.

Buck tried to convince Blanche to accompany him on a vacation trip to Joplin, Missouri with Bonnie and Clyde.

Blanche and Bonnie would go to the movies or shop for knick-knacks at Kress' store, but, to her chagrin, she ended up doing much of the cooking and washing for the others.

[12][13] The gang's loud, drunken card games and an accidental discharge of a Browning Automatic Rifle by Clyde led to neighbors reporting suspicious men to law enforcement and local police began watching the apartment.

She later wrote that when being driven away, she felt "all my hopes and dreams tumbling down around me" Buck had gone from accompanying the gang to being part of its illegal activity when he, W.D.

The police had the local newspaper develop them and photos of Bonnie pointing a gun at Clyde and other provocative poses caused a sensation.

One picture showed Bonnie sticking her leg up on a car fender, clutching a pistol, and clenching one of W.D.

The pictures were sent out over the wires and widely printed, creating a shocking image of a violent gangster and his cigar-chomping moll that made national celebrities of them.

[13] His suspicions were heightened over the night and next day when Blanche said she was renting the apartments for three people, but repeatedly ordered five servings of food when buying takeout meals at his tavern.

Clyde, having taped newspapers across his cabin windows to keep hidden, was unable to see the growing police activity around the tavern as various agencies formed an assault team.

[13] At 1:00 am on July 20, 1933, Sheriff Coffey, leading the posse and bearing a steel, bullet-proof shield, knocked on one of the gang's two cabin doors, announced he was law enforcement and said he needed to speak to them.

Blanche's response of "just a minute" was a prearranged code which alerted Clyde, who went into the garage, where he could see Coffey through a glass panel in the door.

Clyde also fired rounds from the Browning at an armored police sedan parked across the garage doors to block their cars in.

The bullets penetrated and wounded the officer behind the wheel, George Highfill, in both knees, forcing him to back away from the front of the garage doors, thereby freeing an escape route for the gang's car.

With the road covered, a 50-member posse, mainly townspeople armed with shotguns and hunting rifles, approached the camp soon after dawn.

[19] Due to her impaired vision, she thought the camera taking her picture was a gun, and screamed, expecting that she and Buck were about to be summarily shot.

Jones, carrying the disabled Bonnie and accompanied by Clyde, who had an arm wound, crawled into thick brush, where the posse was unwilling to follow.

[21] The capture of Blanche and Buck distracted the posse, allowing the three remaining fugitives to cross the river, where they stole a car and made their escape.

[17][19][20] Blanche, who later testified that she accompanied the gang solely to be with her husband, apparently gave the authorities no useful information.

[19] Blanche found Coffey remarkably sympathetic, but later claimed that while interrogating her, J. Edgar Hoover had threatened to gouge out her remaining good eye.

[8] Meanwhile, Bonnie and Clyde met their end on Louisiana State Highway 154 south of Gibsland, and Jones tried to live a low, normal life picking cotton in Houston, but was recognized and incarcerated.

During her time in prison and after her parole, she remained in close contact with Coffey and his family and Platte County prosecutor David Clevenger.

[23] According to her memoir published in 2004, My Life with Bonnie and Clyde, she was buried in Dallas' Grove Hill Memorial Park as Blanche B.

The two-unit Red Crown Tourist Court. Using his cabin's internal connecting door, Clyde entered the garage from where he fired with a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). 39°18′43″N 94°41′11″W  /  39.31194°N 94.68639°W  / 39.31194; -94.68639  ( 1933 Site of Red Crown Tourist Court Platte City, Missouri )
Blanche Barrow, not long after her capture, July 1933
July 27, 1933 — She was in prison until 1939.