Bonnie and Clyde are perhaps the most
romanticized outlaws of all time at a
time when gangsters were celebrities
based it out
they caught the attention of the media
and the public during the Great
Depression but eventually the tide
turned here's the truth about Bonnie and
Clyde
while Bonnie and Clyde may have ended up
finding fame by killing people and
robbing banks they probably could have
just taken a more legal route to get
there
both were talented in far more
traditional ways according to historical
sources Clyde Barrow was a natural
musician his brother-in-law had taught
him to play the saxophone but he also
played guitar
Clyde enjoyed sharing his music with the
impoverished people of the south and he
would often play his guitar around
campfires in the West Dallas campgrounds
Bonnie Parker was the one who actively
wanted to be famous though sources who
worked on two separate Bonnie and Clyde
movies claimed she wanted to be a
celebrity by any means a Broadway star a
singer Hollywood actress or even a poet
she did have talent
growing up bonnie starred in school
plays and pageants Texas Monthly reports
that when a boy once upstaged her she
punched him then cartwheeled across the
stage after the audience broke out into
her flaws once she became famous for her
life of crime she referred to their fans
as quote her public and signed
autographs Bonnie and Clyde are up there
with Romeo and Juliet when it comes to
famous romantic relationships but Bonnie
had found love long before meeting Clyde
in 1926 she met and married Roy Thornton
and they never divorced Roy was a
naturally good-looking man but Bonnie
definitely had a type while sometimes
referred to as a welder Roy was in fact
a hardened criminal I know a killer when
I see one the two met when Bonnie was
just 15 and a year later she dropped out
of school to marry him she even went as
far as getting their names tattooed in a
heart above her knee but Roy would
disappear for long stretches committing
crimes and seeing other women
Bonnie probably knew about the cheating
and she wrote as much in her diary when
he left for the third time in less than
a year she was pretty over she refused
to take him back and swore off all men
when Bonnie met Clyde almost two years
later it was love at first sight but she
would continue to wear Roy's wedding
ring until the day she died
clines initial brushes with the law were
pretty minor
but his crimes continued to escalate
until he was 21 years old when he was
sent to prison for burglary
Easton prison farm was no joke even at a
time when prisons were known to be
horrific Easton was considered to be one
of the absolute worst prisoners were
regularly beaten by guards and subjected
to torturous punishments one particular
guard would execute prisoners
point-blank and later claimed they had
died trying to escape
Clyde never spoke of his experience at
Easton with those who loved years later
a friend explained how prison had
changed quad saying he had gone quote
from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake and
was born with no dark soul oddly by the
time they died both Bonnie and Clyde
would suffer injuries that made it
difficult for them to walk for Clyde it
began with the back-breaking hard labor
he endured during his time with Easton
hoping for a transfer to a less
terrifying environment he asked another
prisoner to chop off some of his toes
with an axe it wound up being pointless
the parole board had already agreed to
release him and Clyde left Eastham six
days after mutilating himself but it had
a lasting impact on his ability to walk
and he had to drive in a stocking feet
from then on Bonnie had less choice when
it came to her injury in June 1933 the
two were on the run when Clyde badly
crashed their car he was fine but Bonnie
had battery acid leaked onto her right
leg beating away to the phone in some
areas she drags her left leg she [ __ ]
despite the seriousness the outlaw
refused to go to a hospital relying
instead on Clyde and other members of
the gang to take care of her she never
walked properly again it wouldn't be
wrong to call Bonnie and Clyde the first
American reality stars the public
followed their exploits for two years
romanticizing their horrific crimes
because they were a young beautiful
couple and loved the fact that they
weren't married made it even more risque
it was perfect tabloid fodder except it
was also front-page news of legitimate
newspapers the pair shot to fame after
police discovered some rolls of
develop film at one of their rated safe
houses the cops processed the pictures a
local newspaper ran them and they were
sent over the wires the public loved
them and I'm bringing me a message to
them they showed the couple Larkin about
with each other
Bonnie and Clyde shoulders are
pretending to shoot him the most famous
of all was an image of body with a cigar
between her teeth and a pistol in her
hand looking like the perfect gunman
this would be how the public would go on
to imagine her even though she didn't
normally handle guns and she preferred
cigarettes over cigars
thanks to those photos the couple went
from local Texas outlaws to superstars
of the criminal underworld
plenty of people died at the hands of
various members of the Barrow gang
Clyde himself is thought to have killed
10 alone but in spite of all the chances
that Bonnie and Clyde had to kill they
didn't always take them instead the
couple seemed to enjoy kidnapping people
and traveling around with them
regardless of whether they were
civilians or police officers on some
occasions they would give their
kidnapping victims money to get back
home the podcast stuff you missed in
history class recalls a time when a
kidnapped officer asked Bonnie if there
was anything she wanted him to tell the
press after his release she said to tell
them that sheep didn't really smoke
cigars the fact that Bonnie and Clyde
didn't kill everyone they came across
might have been one of the reasons the
public loved them so much
but a single mistake turned the time
when two policemen approached their car
one morning Clyde's cry of let's take
them was misunderstood by a gang member
and he started shooting after the
officers deaths public opinion turned
against the couple the duo when their
gang became famous for robbing banks
they stole nice cars and the pictures
that circulated showed them wearing
fancy clothes Jim Wright a former
Speaker of the US House of
Representatives recalled it was a very
romantic existence we felt they must
enjoy and even if you did not approve of
them you still would have to envy them a
little to be so good-looking and rich
and happy in reality their infamous
robberies were unimpressed
the gang lived hand-to-mouth that
continued to hold places up because they
never got much money out of it in fact
they never took more than $1,500 and
once they got as little as $80.00 I
don't know desperate for cash sometimes
they would break into vending machines
for food money they robbed fewer than 15
banks during their 21 month crime spree
and since it was the Great Depression
things didn't always go as planned at
one point a member of the gang attempted
to rob the ponder say Bank of Texas only
to be told it failed a week earlier and
there was no money to steal Clyde
apparently thought this was hilarious
when he was told the Bonnie and Clyde's
choice and targets was extremely
disappointed knowing that there was less
of a chance of being caught if they
robbed small-town restaurants grocery
stores of gas stations those were the
places they normally hit so they weren't
hurting the man so much as the little
girl Bonnie might be the most famous
woman in Clyde's life but there was
another equally important one Kimi
Barrow Clyde's mother was fundamental in
enabling his life of crime after the
couple's death the US government put a
number of their family members on trial
for aiding the outlaws in his closing
arguments the prosecutor roared that
kyoumi was the real mastermind behind
the conspiracy kyoumi was certainly more
than just a mother who loved her
criminal son when Clyde first went to
prison
authorities tried to pin a killing on
him but Kimi swore he was with her in a
different city when the crime occurred
in order to make her son looked like
just boy she said the 21 year old had
only just turned 18 she tried to get him
out of jail by claiming to be a widow
who needed the support of her son
although her husband was very much alive
her lies worked the parole board's
eventual decision to release Clyde early
was made based on kyoumi story
I love you mom once Bonnie and Clyde
began their crime spree cue me gave them
clothing and board
she gave weepy interviews denying she
knew Bonnie and asserting Clyde's
innocence and when it came time for her
own sentencing Kiyomi managed to cry her
way into just one month behind bars
Bonnie and Clyde's names might go
together but they weren't equally
violent not by a long shot
eyewitness reports say Bonnie never
wielded a gun always waited in the car
when they were holding up thanks and
almost certainly never killed anyone
herself before turning to a life of
crime Bonnie was bright and popular
according to one historical source she
was kind hearted and would look out for
other less fortunate classmates breaking
her pencils in half for those who
couldn't afford their own lady to the
contrary sir little bitty thing and we
can't wait but 90 pounds smartest girl
in school she was in all the plays on
the spelling bee so what was she doing
was someone like Clyde
according to Psychology Today bonnie was
probably attracted to violent men
because she suffered from hybristophilia
typically women hybristophilia acts gain
pleasure when their partner commits a
crime particularly a violent one Roy
Thornton fit the bill but if worst
crimes equal a bigger turn-on than Clyde
must have really done it for her part of
the attraction may be that they feel
special while their mate becomes
increasingly more violent toward others
it will supposedly never be directed to
death and Bonnie is such a perfect
example of someone with hit Bristow
philia that it's often called the Bonnie
and Clyde syndrome dying didn't tone
down the craziness for Bonnie and Clyde
within 24 hours the population of the
nearest town swelled from 2,000 to
12,000 people as the car with the bodies
inside was hauled to the morgue trophy
hunters reached in to grab things either
from the car or the couple's bodies one
huckster offered Clyde's parents $50,000
to turn his mummified body into a
traveling attraction they refused but
when the stolen death car was returned
its owner put it on tour you can still
take selfies with it today the outlaws
bodies were returned to Dallas where
they went on public display at two
mortuaries around 10,000 people came to
see
while 20,000 showed up for Bonnie the
couple it asked to be buried next to
each other but Bonnie's mother wouldn't
hear of it they relate to rest in Dallas
cemeteries a couple miles apart Bonnie
and Clyde may finally have the chance to
be reunited however in 2019 it was
reported that the couple's descendants
were considering making their wish of
being buried next to each other a
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