Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders between 1932 and 1934.

[1][2] The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the title roles, was a critical and commercial success which revived interest in the criminals and glamorized them with a romantic aura.

[4] Her widowed mother, Emma (Krause) Parker (1885–1944), moved her family back to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb in West Dallas where she worked as a seamstress.

Their romance was interrupted when Barrow was arrested by Dallas County Sheriff's Deputy Bert Whisnand [citation needed] and convicted of auto theft.

[20] According to John Neal Phillips, Barrow's goal in life was not to gain fame or fortune from robbing banks but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses that he had sustained while serving time.

[35] Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis on January 6, 1933, when he, Parker, and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal.

The group ran loud, alcohol-fueled card games late into the night in the quiet neighborhood; Blanche recalled that they "bought a case of beer a day".

[43] The surviving officers later testified that they had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict;[44] one hit Jones on the side, one struck Clyde but was deflected by his suit-coat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.

The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left behind most of their possessions at the apartment, including Buck's parole papers (three weeks old), a large arsenal of weapons, a handwritten poem by Bonnie, and a camera with several rolls of undeveloped film.

In his book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, writer Jeff Guinn noted: John Dillinger had matinee-idol good looks and Pretty Boy Floyd had the best possible nickname, but the Joplin photos introduced new criminal superstars with the most titillating trademark of all—illicit sex.

[55] Barrow failed to see warning signs at a bridge under construction on June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, and the car flipped into a ravine.

They got help from a nearby farm family, then kidnapped Collinsworth County Sheriff George Corry and City Marshal Paul Hardy, leaving the two of them handcuffed and barbed-wired to a tree outside Erick, Oklahoma.

[2][72] Buck was sometimes semiconscious, and he even talked and ate, but his massive head wound and loss of blood were so severe that Barrow and Jones dug a grave for him.

[72] For the next six weeks, the remaining perpetrators ranged far afield from their usual area of operations, west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi; yet they continued to commit armed robberies.

[74][notes 11] They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones robbed an armory on August 20 at Plattville, Illinois, acquiring three BARs, handguns, and a large quantity of ammunition.

Through the autumn, Barrow committed several robberies with small-time local accomplices, while his family and Parker's attended to her considerable medical needs.

As Crowson struggled for life, prison chief Lee Simmons reportedly promised him that all persons involved in the breakout would be hunted down and killed.

All four Dallas daily papers seized on the story told by the eyewitness, a farmer who claimed to have seen Parker laugh at the way that Murphy's head "bounced like a rubber ball" on the ground as she shot him.

[92] Texas Governor Ma Ferguson added another reward of $500 for each of the two killers, which meant that, for the first time, "there was a specific price on Bonnie's head, since she was so widely believed to have shot H.D.

[93] Public hostility increased five days later, when Barrow and Methvin murdered 60-year-old Constable William "Cal" Campbell, a widower and father, near Commerce, Oklahoma.

[94] They kidnapped Commerce police chief Percy Boyd, crossed the state line into Kansas, then let him go, giving him a clean shirt, a few dollars, and a request from Parker to tell the world that she did not smoke cigars.

"[92] The Dallas Journal ran a cartoon on its editorial page, showing an empty electric chair with a sign on it saying "Reserved", adding the words "Clyde and Bonnie".

[108] The deafened officers inspected the vehicle and discovered an arsenal, including stolen automatic rifles, sawed-off semi-automatic shotguns, assorted handguns, and several thousand rounds of ammunition, along with fifteen sets of license plates from various states.

Gault and Alcorn were left to guard the bodies, but they lost control of the jostling, curious throng; one woman cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and pieces from her dress, which were subsequently sold as souvenirs.

[99] Arriving at the scene, the coroner reported: Nearly everyone had begun collecting souvenirs such as shell casings, slivers of glass from the shattered car windows, and bloody pieces of clothing from the garments of Bonnie and Clyde.

The growing coordination of local authorities by the FBI, plus two-way radios in police cars, combined to make it more difficult to carry out series of robberies and murders than it had been just months before.

[76] The posse discussed calling "halt", but the four Texans Hamer, Gault, Hinton, and Alcorn "vetoed the idea",[124] telling them that the killers' history had always been to shoot their way out,[125] as had occurred in Platte City, Dexfield Park, and Sowers.

As of 2024[update], the car and the shirt Barrow was wearing when killed are displayed behind a glass panel at Buffalo Bill's Resort & Casino in Primm, Nevada alongside Interstate 15.

They presented the Yellow Rose of Texas commendation to his last surviving sibling, 95-year-old Ella Wheeler-McLeod of San Antonio, giving her a plaque and framed portrait of her brother.

Some songs dive deeply into the story of Bonnie and Clyde, narrating their infamous romance and criminal exploits, while others merely reference their names as symbols of rebellion or loyalty, without the lyrics directly relating to their lives.