BONNIE AND CLYDE: ROMANCE AND CRIME

 

BONNIE AND CLYDE: ROMANCE AND CRIME

 

“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 2^nd 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.

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