Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who cut a swathe across Texas and other southern states robbing banks and killing lawmen for several months in 1933 and ’34. The murderous couple were ambushed and killed in May 1934. ibid.
Dillinger himself justified his legend somewhat more. In an amazingly short career, eleven months from September 1933 to July 1934, he achieved national fame and became the FBI’s Public Enemy number one. ibid.
Clyde Barrow was born on 24th March 1909 the sixth of eight neglected children. Great Crimes & Trials: Bonnie & Clyde
Bonnie had been born at Rowena Texas a year after Clyde; her father died when she was four. ibid.
Between robberies they larked about, posing for snapshots. These added to their notoriety, giving the press the chance to portray them as ruthless lovers. ibid.
During his time in jail Clyde had learned to be bisexual, and he and Bonnie shared their fellow gang member Ray Hamilton who enjoyed sex any way he could get it. ibid.
For all their fame the sums they stole were tiny. ibid.
Their bodies had been riddled with about fifty bullets each. ibid.
There it is – forty thousand dollars just sitting there waiting for us. All we have to do is ride in and get it. Gun the Man Down 1956 starring James Arness & Emile Meyer & Robert Wilke & Harry Carey junior & Don Megowan & Michael Emmet & Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez & Angie Dickinson et al, director Andrew V McLaglen, opening scene
The name’s Spikes. Harry Spikes. I’m a bank robber, boys. The Spikes Gang 1974 starring Ron Howard & Lee Marvin & Gary Grimes & Charlie Martin Smith & Arthur Hunnicutt & Noah Beery & Marc Smith & Don Fellows & Susan Coyne et al, director Richard Fleischer
‘It’s like walking into a time capsule in 1935. The fact that it has this extra history is a really interesting cachet,’ said Mark Arnold, an agent with Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty, who are handling the sale.
He was referring to how Kate ‘Ma’ Barker, who was branded Public Enemy No. 1 by the federal government for a rash of murders, kidnapping and robberies committed in the early 1930s, was killed in the house along with one of her sons in a barrage of bullets from federal agents.
Photos released at the time, believed by some to have been staged, show Barker lying dead in a second-floor bedroom clutching a machine gun.
But the Barker story is the stuff of gangster legend and crime buffs may put a premium on a prime piece of criminal memorabilia.
The house is 2,016 square feet (187 sq meters) with four bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms. The sale includes 9.5 acres shaded by stands of old oak trees and 1.5 acres of sandy beach on Lake Weir.
Books and movies including the 1970 film Bloody Mama starring Shelly Winters focus on what some see as the mythical Ma Barker. But the real Barker may have had little to do with Hollywood images and the criminal exploits of her four sons.
The four men were members of the ruthless Barker-Karpis gang that rampaged across the South and Midwest in the 1920s and early 1930s. But there has been little evidence to support claims that Barker herself was some sort of stone-cold criminal mastermind. Daily Mail online article 22nd August 2012
Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history. Timewatch: The Real Bonnie & Clyde
The most infamous outlaws of all were a pair of young lovers whose two-year crime spree included armed robbery, car theft, abduction, murder and a series of dramatic gun battles across at least eleven states. Some saw them as modern-day Robin Hoods. ibid.
There is some evidence that Clyde tried to go straight. ibid.
The bungled robbery of a grocery store led to the death of its owner. ibid.
He faced the electric chair if caught, but she vowed never to leave him. Bonnie and Clyde were already beyond the point of no return. ibid.
A deputy sheriff was murdered at this notorious Dallas safe house. ibid.
Already wanted for four other murders Clyde and his lover Bonnie took to the road. Their life on the run was romanticised and made glamorous. ibid.
Clyde had become obsessed by a dark episode from his past. ibid.
Fast cars, big guns and relentless travel were the secrets of the Barrow Gang’s epic crime spree. ibid.
J Edgar Hoover was personally outraged by Clyde Barrow’s audacious raids of military armaments. ibid.
Hoover’s agents would play a significant part in the downfall of Bonnie & Clyde. ibid.
While Frank Hamer has long been regarded as the archetypal lone ranger, the FBI file reveals that he was actually working in close harmony with J Edgar Hoover’s agents. ibid.
Bonnie & Clyde’s families’ telephones had been tapped. ibid.
There is no evidence that Bonnie pulled the trigger here or at any of the other murders attributed to the Barrow gang. ibid.
On a lonely road in Louisiana Bonnie & Clyde’s deadly game of cat and mouse reached its inevitable conclusion. ibid.
The Barrow Gang’s chaotic crime spree had claimed seventeen lives including those of Buck Barrow and Bonnie & Clyde themselves. ibid.
Gibsland, Louisiana, May 23 1934: I was born Clyde Chustnut Barrow. Bonnie & Clyde I 2014 starring Sarah Hyland & Elizabeth Reaser & Lane Garrison & Dale Dickey & Austin Herbert & Jack Thompson & Holly Hunter & William Hurt et al, director Bruce Beresford
I’d like to see your daughter as I have intentions to take her out. ibid. Clyde Champion Barrow
I’m just a footnote in the story of you. Bonnie & Clyde II 2014, him to her
‘Clyde Barrow – the most ruthless killer the south-west has ever known – stealing automobiles, robbing banks, killing without mercy.’ Natural Born Outlaws: Bonnie & Clyde s1e3, news commentary, AHC 2015
In 1927, seven years before the Eastham Prison raid, a 16-year-old Clyde Barrow is staring his criminal career. ibid. caption
January 1930: Clyde meets 19-year-old Bonnie Parker at a friend’s house in West Dallas. ibid.
‘The most wanted man in America. Public Enemy number one.’ Natural Born Outlaws s1e4: John Dillinger, commentator, 2015
Mooresville, Indiana 6th September 1924: ‘Dillinger’s first major crime was knocking over a grocer … It shows frankly what an inept crook John Dillinger was’. ibid.
‘Why take banks when you can take the bankers.’ Natural Born Outlaws s1e7: Barker-Karpis Gang, Karpis, Discovery 2016
West Plains, Missouri, December 1931: ‘Robbing banks, burglary, whatever would make money.’ ibid. commentator
January 17th 1934: Just hours after the abduction of Edward Bremer junior, St Paul police find his abandoned car. ibid.
He [Karpis] was ultimately paroled in 1968. ibid.
She was a bored and lonely waitress longing for excitement and romance. He was a volatile ex-convict who vowed he would never go back to prison. Together they became an American legend. They met in the dusty suburban slums of West Dallas, Texas, in the early 1930s and embarked on a violent crime spree that shocked the nation. United by a passionate love, a desire to escape poverty and an utter contempt for authority, Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow were made for each other. Love & Death: The Story of Bonnie & Clyde, History 1995
For two incredible years Bonnie & Clyde led the notorious Barrow Gang on a bloodstained trail of crime that stretched across five states. Bonnie & Clyde robbed banks, pulled a string of armed robberies, and left a mounting legacy of murder victims in their wake. ibid.
Until the day they were finally ambushed and cut down in a hail of bullets. ibid.
Following the example of his older brother Buck, Clyde drifted into a life of petty crime. His early exploits were fairly tame. ibid.
A romantic figure of the West and a man bold enough to defy the rapacious villainy of a newly industrialised America. Jesse James, PBS 2006
In the Spring of 1864 Jesse James rode to war. ibid.
Over the next year and a half Jesse James alongside Frank and a half dozen bushwhackers ... robbed one bank, two stage-coaches and two railroads. ibid.