BONNIE AND CLYDE: ROMANCE AND
CRIME
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“GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” by Ada Chisaram Nwosu
What better
way to die
Than with
the sound of screeching tyres
The booms of
blazing guns
Glocks so
loud you feel alive
The smell of
gun powder
The feel of
being young forever
Your heart racing
Your
favourite song playing
Your trigger
finger sliding
Your
tightened fist pumping
Your face
not frightened
Beholding
death fearless
A smile on
your lips
You know
deep in your heart
You are gone
but not forgotten
Theirs is a story of crime and
love. Around the world, Bonnie and Clyde are romanticized and praised for their
crime-love story. They are regarded as the template for crime partners and
people are fascinated by them. Their lives have influenced both the literature,
music and movie world. However, is their story romantic or not? Should we
praise their love? This is the story of Bonnie, Clyde, their gang and their
crime spree.
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born
on October 1, 1910 and Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909; they
both died on May 23, 1934. They are the popular ‘on the run’ couple who
mesmerized the romantic fantasies of Americans in their day and even remain as
romantic fantasies today. Several song lyrics, books, movies and performances
pay homage to this couple and even liken the love they have or the romantic
relationship they yearn for to the type this couple had. Bonnie, Clyde and
their gang were robbers who gained fame for their bank robberies but usually
robbed small stores. Throughout the period of their crime spree, they were said
to have killed nine Police Officers and about 4 civilians. The cold bloodedness
of these murders brought fear to the hearts of many Americans who were
conflicted between glamorizing them and calling for their immediate arrest.
Bonnie and Clyde held the USA
spell-bound with their love story. This was during the time of the great
depression. Their crime tour lasted for 2 years but it was blazing and hot for
the USA at the time. the newspapers of the day sold out when the couple was
featured and they were often featured. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met in
1930. Bonnie was 19 and married to an imprisoned murderer. Clyde was 20. Two
weeks after the met, Clyde was sentenced for 2 years. Bonnie smuggled a gun to
him which he used to escape from jail but he was recaptured. Clyde was set free
in 1932 and that is when their crime spree started. Clyde took Bonnie with him
for the first robberies that he led and after a few robberies, Clyde was on the
run and Bonnie decided to join him. For two years, Bonnie, Clyde and his gang
were running from one state to the other. Police at that time couldn’t cross
state borders in pursuit of criminals so this was the way they escaped. Clyde
was a very good driver too and he changed cars frequently by stealing them.
This helped them to evade arrest. His favourite car was Ford V8, Clyde was said
to have written a letter to Henry Ford which read “Even if my business
hasn’t been strictly legal, it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car
you got in the V8.” Bonnie liked to take photos and did so in different
poses. She also wrote poetry. After a shoot out with the law enforcement agents
which left two officers dead, the photos and poems of Bonnie and Clyde were
discovered in their abandoned hide out. When these photos and poems were
released to the public, Bonnie and Clyde became a glamorized and celebrated
young couple in love who were on the run from the law. People hated the
government and Police at this time so they saw Bonnie and Clyde like the
glorified outlaws. The couple robbed banks, grocery stores and gas stations but
never stole a very large amount. By the 2nd year of their crime
spree, the media had made them so famous and this made it harder for them to
operate under the radar and they became scared of being caught. They stopped
hiding in motels and took to hiding in the bush using camp fires. Numerous law enforcement agents tried to
catch them but failed. The Police captured one of their accomplices and learned
from him about the close ties between the two families. The police used this to
set an ambush. Their accomplice’s father stayed by the road side and pretended
to need help to fix his vehicle, Bonnie and Clyde stopped to help him and
Police officers waited for them in the bush. When the car, a Ford V8 stopped,
the Police opened fire. The police shot the couple about 130 times and they
died on the spot. The car in which they died in became a trophy which was shown
around the USA. Bonnie and Clyde asked to be buried together but their families
decided to bury them apart. On Bonnie’s head stone is written: “As
the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world
is made brighter by the lives of folks like you." On Clyde’s headstone is
“Gone but not forgotten”, an epitaph selected by Clyde himself. Bonnie and
Clyde expected a violent death and prepared for one.
It is important to note that at the time of
Bonnie’s death, she was wearing her wedding ring to her husband (not Clyde) and
had a tattoo on the inside of her right thigh with two interconnected hearts
labeled “Bonnie” and “Roy.”
Bonnie and
Clyde in Movies
-
The Bonnie and Parker Story was released in
1958 directed by William Witney
-
Bonnie and Clyde was released in 1967
directed by Arthur Penn
-
The Highwaymen, a Netflix movie was
released in 2019 directed by John Lee Hancock
Literature
influenced by Bonnie and Clyde
Some literary works on Bonnie and Clyde
include:
-
My Life with Bonnie and Clyde by Blanche
Cadwell Barrow
-
Side by Side: A Novel of Bonnie and Clyde
by Jenni L. Walsh
-
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of
Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn
-
Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the
Legend by Paul Schneider
-
Side by Side by Jenni L. Walsh
-
On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde: Then and
Now by Winston G. Ramsey
The story of Bonnie and Clyde has inspired
many aspects of arts including Literature. The outlaws who in love are indeed legendary
till date.
What do you know about Bonnie and Clyde?
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