James R. Knight - 20 Feb

This work is dedicated to Partners in Crime, an informal depression-era-outlaws Internet discussion and research group whose members include some of the best-informed people on the subject to be found anywhere. Many of them provided the inspiration, encouragement, and resources which made this book possible. There were also a few other experts who were willing to help a rookie learn the ropes. Thanks, guys. You know who you are.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Knight, James R.

Bonnie and Clyde : a twenty-first-century update / James R. Knight with Jonathan Davis. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Barrow, Clyde, 1909-1934. 2. Parker, Bonnie, 1910-1034. 3. CriminalsUnited StatesBiography. I. Davis, Jonathan. II. Title HV6245.K55 2003

T here have always been outlaws.

For as long as there have been laws, instituted by some authorityGod or manthere have been those who, for their own reasons, have chosen to break them. Whether it was David and his small gang of followers running from King Saul and living off the local population in southern Judea three thousand years ago, or Robin of Locksley and his merry men making life miserable for Prince John and the sheriff of Nottingham in twelfth-century England, or an ex-Confederate guerrilla named Jesse Woodson James putting his acquired skills in small-unit tactics to use against banks and railroad express cars, the lives of the men and women who have chosen to live outside the boundaries of societys rules have always held a kind of fascination for the rest of us. Add to that a pair of tragic, doomed, star-crossed lovers and the tale becomes irresistible.

The story of Clyde Chestnut Barrow and Bonnie Elizabeth Parker has all the elements of the classic outlaw talewith a distinctive 1930s Grapes of Wrath kind of twist. It has a little Jesse James, only with Ford V-8s and automatic weapons; a little Robin Hood, only with poor sharecroppers, small-town banks, and Texas Rangers; and a little of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, only with moonshine whiskey and told with a southwestern country twang. This is the stuff legends are made of. In Bonnie and Clydes case, just as in all the others, the true story behind the legend is not only elusive but in many ways differs from the public perception.

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were frontpage news for a few months in the early 1930s, and then they were killed by law enforcement officers under what some thought were suspicious circumstances. After that, they faded from the scene and the public memory for a while. By the time America had come through World War II, few people rememberedor caredwho Bonnie and Clyde were. From that low point, however, they began a slow comeback. Books and articles began to appear now and thennot serious research, but personal stories of people who had been involved with them. It took Hollywood to bring them back to the front page.

In September 1967, the movie Bonnie and Clyde opened. As history, it was only occasionally accurate, but at the box office, and as public relations for the outlaw couple, it was a success. Coming as it did in the middle of the turbulent sixties, a whole new generation of people who may not even have known their names now saw the couple as antiestablishment heroes. Some of that same feeling existed when Bonnie and Clyde were alive, but only among people who were not in their line of fire. More books and articles came along, and finally, in the last two decades of the century, serious historical research began to be done by a few authors.

As the twenty-first century begins, there are still a few left who remember Bonnie and Clyde, whose lives were touched by them for good or ill, and it has been my privilege to talk to some of them. Many of these people were a little puzzled at the attention paid to the bandit couple and surprised that anyone would still be interested in hearing about their experiences. By and large, they didnt see themselves as witnesses to history and didnt quite understand the excitement of todays researchers and collectors who pursue their stories and artifacts. One man took one of Clydes homemade whippit guns (a semiautomatic shotgun cut down with a hacksaw) out of a car abandoned by the gang. Rather than see it as a historically significant weapon belonging to a famous outlaw, he sent it back to the factory to be completely redone. The sawed-off barrel and stock made it useless to him as a quail hunter!

Others were reluctant to talk about their experiences. For some families, there were painful things they would just as soon leave in the past. Others still feel a real fear concerning their association with the outlaw couple. Since most who told me their stories do so in spite of their misgivings of one kind or another, Ive tried to honor their desire for anonymity in return for their trust in me.

Thanks to the work of people such as author John Neal Phillips, Barrow family friend, and my collaborator, Jonathan Davis, and many other private researchers, today its possible to put together a clearer picture of the two young people who became the most famous outlaw couple of the twentieth century.

This book is certainly not the last word on the famous pair, just the next one. At this writing, a recently discovered manuscript, written by Blanche Barrow while she was in prison, is being edited and prepared for publication. When it becomes public, things in this book and others will surely have to be changed as we get Blanches own version of her time with Bonnie and Clyde and we are able to fill in a few more pieces of the puzzle.

James R. Knight
Franklin, Tennessee

T his project began with a meeting, instigated by Sandy Jones, between myself and Jonathan Davis, in a hotel lobby in Fort Worth, Texas. Marie Barrow Scomas stories of her early years, and the Barrow familys experiences during the time that Clyde Barrow was a wanted man, recorded by Mr. Davis, became the foundation for the early chapters of this book. As the story came to the point that the lives of the people involved entered the public record, however, the help of many other people became necessary.

After Bonnie and Clyde became public figures, the best and most detailed accounts of their exploits often came from the pages of small-town newspapers. These stories were written down within hours of the actual events and usually included interviews with participants who had no idea they were dealing with the Barrow Gang. Finding these stories was the trick, and without the librarians and volunteers in places like Storm Lake, Perry, Spencer, and Fort Dodge, Iowa; Marshall, Temple, Sherman, Eastland, Mabank, Kaufman, Denton, and Waco, Texas; Enid and Commerce, Oklahoma; Ruston, Louisiana; Joplin, Springfield, and Carthage Missouri; Fort Smith and Fayetteville, Arkansas; and several others, it would have been impossible. These folks were generous and helpful to an unknown researcher who, many times, was just a voice on the phone. Thank you all.