New details about Bonnie and Clyde
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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/29/art.vert.bonnieclyde.jpg caption="Portrait of American bank robbers and lovers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, popularly known as Bonnie and Clyde, circa 1933." width=292 height=320]
Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer
They were killers and lovers. And now, 75 years after Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's murderous crime spree ended in a barrage of police bullets, new details about their years on the run are being made public for the first time.
The files are coming from the FBI. And it is a treasure trove of information on the duo who committed bank robberies across America and left more than a dozen people dead.
The documents, available on the FBI's web site, contain previously classified memos on Bonnie & Clyde. The typewritten pages were prepared by the agency's Dallas Field Office from the 1930s. They offer a fascinating glimpse of the pursuit of the young couple and their cohorts.
Another memo summarizes the last day of Bonnie & Clyde's life, revealing how a posse of police officers and federal agents planned the ambush that killed the pair on a dirt road in Louisiana.
There is more.
The files also contain photographs, newspaper clippings, Clyde Barrow's signatures, and more official records from the investigation.
Long before Hollywood immortalized and, some would say, glamorized their crime wave, Bonnie & Clyde were real people, responsible for ruthless acts of violence.
With the release of these files, maybe the entire story of what they did is finally being told.
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Filed under: 360° Radar • Crime & Punishment • Gabe Falcon |
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While I do understand the sentiment expressed, but crime was pretty rampant then too. Just because officers could kill criminals on sight didn't stop the mob from terrorizing cities like Chicago and New York with all sorts of acts of violence. There will always be crime. Meetingit with equal brutality is not always the answer. It doesn't seem to be a deterrant to the criminals. They know that they are putting thier lives at risk, yet they still commit the crimes.
I think the scope of it changes as we have more and more effective tools to commit crimes. Just like war. Back in the stone age we were only able to commit small scale acts of aggression agaisnt our neighbors due to the limits of technology...plus we were limited by our transportation technology as to how far out we could go to wage war on others. Nowadays we can destroy the entire planet several times over and strike anywhere on the planet just as easily as we could attack a neighboring country. Yet wars continue....
I am personally interested in The Barrow gang as my mother was the young cousin of Bonnie Parker, her dad and my grandad were brothers. I have an old photo of Bonnie and Clyde with my mom as an infant, they were standing on either side of a horse with my mom sitting on the horse. It was in their earlier days when they took a "cool off" trip to Montana. D
I wonder what the results would be if there was a national vote on the old style of Justice. Now days the criminal is classified as a hero and the victims as complainers.
I've watched the Bonnie & Clyde movie so many times I could lip synch it. They got what they deserved.
I wish the laws these days were "if a career criminal is found guilty the third time, they should be immediately executed, no appeals, no more jail time, just immediately executed by firing squad"
The officers didn't ambush them out of any sort of cowardice either. Clyde Barrow was just that good of a shot. The policemen might not have survived a fair fight.
I am fasinated as well. My Grandfather (91 years old) got his nickname from Bonnie and Clyde when they were on the run in Oklahoma. He to this day goes by that nickname "Bud". "Bud" was walking to his older brothers house and B & C were hiding in some bushes and they called to my Grandfather "Psst Bud hey Bud", He goes into more detail when he tells the story.
Murderers who found themselves in the cross-hairs of justice. Treating these criminals the same way today would result in officers being fired, or even jailed.
And people wonder why crime is so rampant!
I personally am fascinated because they seemed like such an average couple yet underneath it all was this horrific violence and greed that dispels that. I find it fitting on how they died. Too bad that will never happen again in this lifetime...too many lawsuits. What happened to justice in this country?