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Bonnie and Clyde
They were young, they were in love, and they killed people. Bonnie and Clyde were the coldest and most notorious criminals of their time, starting when they were young. Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Champion Barrow started their criminal career by robbing banks and quickly became notorious murderers, wanted for the killings of nine law enforcement officers. Barrow and Parker were suspected of, and charged with, numerous killings and were wanted for murder, robbery, and state charges of kidnapping. “She came into the world on October 1, 1910 in Rowena, Texas, a rural town of about six hundred people, mostly farmers” (Hendley 6). Bonnie Elizabeth Parker’s parents, Henry and Emma, were happily married with three children, with Bonnie being the middle child. Her brother Hubert, or Buster, was the oldest and Billie, her sister, was the youngest. Her father, Henry Parker, was very devoted to his wife, children, and job as a bricklayer. After
Bonnie was born, she and her family moved to a community in West Dallas/ Cement City when her father,
Henry Parker, unexpectedly died. “Also, her family was a very Baptist family and committed themselves to the church. She did very well in school, especially when writing poetry in class. At age sixteen or seventeen she dropped out of school and met an abusive alcoholic/cement plant worker, Roy Thorton, whom she almost married. She met Thorton through a very sick friend at age fifteen. He was away a lot so she worked at a cafe in nineteen­twenty­seven. Until the Depression era she was soon out of a job at the end of nineteen­twenty­nine. She was about four foot and eleven inches tall and weighed about one­hundred pounds, and she was very beautiful on all accounts.” (Bonnie and Clyde, the movie). “Clyde Champion Barrow was born March 24, 1909. Like Bonnie he moved from a rural farming area (Telico, Texas) to West Dallas with his parents and siblings. His father, also named Henry and his mother Cumie were very poor people, making the Parkers look rather wealthy. Clyde was the sixth of eight

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children, which is the main reason they moved to West Dallas.” (Bonnie and Clyde, the movie) According to
Hendley, Clyde was a very strange child, torturing small animals and breaking the wings of birds. As soon as he reached the age of sixteen, he dropped out of high school and took a variety of low paying jobs. He did not like working hard for his money, so he moved out of the Barrow house and in with his sister, Nell. He was bored a lot and dated a high school girl named Anne whom he often fantasized about marrying. After his break­up with Anne and another girl, Galdys, he was disinterested in girls and started plotting small robberies around town, in October 1929. During the Depression era, Clyde and his accomplices used the economic breakdown as an advantage. He was about five foot six inches tall and weighed about one hundred and forty pounds. There are several accounts of how Clyde Barrow met Bonnie Parker. My favorite story of how they met is in January 1930 at a mutual friend’s house. Bonnie was out of a job and living with her friend, who broke her arm and could not take care of herself. Barrow dropped by one night when they were having friends over and met Bonnie. According to Milner, when they met, both were smitten immediately. Most historians believe Parker joined Barrow because she was in love. “She remained a loyal companion to him as they carried out their crime spree and awaited the violent deaths they viewed as inevitable.” (Hendley 7) During their two­year crime spree together, Bonnie and Clyde had many acquaintances and helpers. Clyde’s older brother Marvin (Buck) and his wife Blanche were the first to help commit crimes.
Buck Barrow was born March 14, 1903. He and Clyde began little crimes together by stealing goods.
Sometime in July 1933, he became the first of