Bonnie & Clyde: Outlaws of the Old West

Bonnie & Clyde: Outlaws of the Old West

Bonnie and Clyde: two crazy kids on a joyride, or ruthless cop-killers who got what they deserved?

The 1930s were hard times for poverty-stricken working people like Bonnie Parker of Rowena and her beau, Clyde Barrow from Ellis County. The soon-to-be celebrity outlaws apparently met by chance in Dallas in 1930. Clyde already boasted a modest criminal record, and Bonnie would begin accumulating one shortly.

In 1932 the "Barrow Gang" killed the first of the nine lawmen it would dispatch. The couple worked their will until May 23, 1934, when they encountered a posse organized by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. "Clyde Barrow, notorious Texas 'bad man' and murderer, and his cigar-smoking, quick-shooting woman accomplice, Bonnie Parker, were ambushed and shot to death today..," reported The New York Times.

With those few strokes of the typewriter, legend was born.

—Larry Neal