Bonnie+Parker


 * Introduction**

“I don’t have no mama. No family eithier (Bonnie).’’ “Hey, I’m your family (Clyde).’’ It all began in West Dallas at a party where a beautiful, smart, inoccent, young lady Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow (Rosa). Little did Bonnie know that Clyde was a felon on the run for burglaries and several car thefts (Rosa). During The Great Depression in the 1930’s Bonnie and Clyde were considered the most notorious criminals in history (Cartwright).
 * Personal Background**

Bonnie Parker was born October 1st, 1917 in Rowena, Texas. At the age of six Bonnie attended Cement City School (Guinn 12). She was an obedient little girl and possessed seemingly a desire to do good (Cartwright). As Bonnie was older she then went to high school winning top prizes in spelling, writing, and public speaking (Guinn). She had always dreamed about being a singer, an actress or a poet (Cartwright). Bonnie’s sophomore year she got married to Roy Thorton a classmate of hers, six days before she turned sixteen (Guinn 19). She then dropped out (Cartwright). Roy and Bonnie were together for only one year then they had broken up because Roy was always away (Cartwright). Bonnie wasn’t able to have kids (Guinn 30). Bonnie died May 23, 1934 due to gunshots by police officers (Burrough). Clyde Barrow was born May 23, 1909, in Ellis County, Texas (Guinn). The fifth of seven children born to a poor family, Clyde and his brother supported themselves as thieves (Burrough). When Clyde was 12, his parents gave up tenant farming and moved to West Dallas (Cartwright). By age 16 Clyde had quit school (Guinn). Clyde was a mama’s boy and was always by her side (Burrough). During rough times Clyde was sent to live with other relatives (Guinn). He was first arrested in late 1926by running from police because not retuning a rental car on time (Cartwright). He had gone to jail and was sexually assaulted by another inmate, Clyde then beat him to death and that was his first killing (Guinn 54). “Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn’t the same person when he got out (Barrow Marie).’’ “He changed from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake (Fults).”
 * Personality Traits[[image:bonnie_clyde.jpg width="289" height="295" align="left" caption="Together forever" link="@http://observer.com/2012/10/morning-links-17/"]]**

A good-hearted woman was how Bonnie was before she got involved with Cl yde. Bonnie loved and enjoyed posing for pictures (Guinn). She was known for her great fashion and style as well as being materialistic. Parker was able to handle practical matters proficiently using both manual skills and deductive reasoning (Cartwright). Bonnie had trouble dealing with her emotions and those of others (Guinn).

Clyde Barrow became a bad boy at a young age. Clyde had intellectual qualities. He would think about his feelings a long time before he expressed them to anyone (Guinn). Barrow loved to show off a little (Milner). Clyde cared very much about dressing nicely and impressing women (Cartwright).

Bonnie was beautiful and undeniably bright, Clyde was a handsome boy but he was assuage. Bonnie always did what she wanted without worrying about the consequences. Clyde had always wanted to be in charge and not care about what anybody else had to say (Guinn). Bonnie and Clyde both enjoyed music (Cartwright). Clyde was an outgoing person and that was one reason why Clyde was attracted to Bonnie (Cartwright).


 * Obstacles**

1932 was when it all began with a series of small bank robberies (Milner). Bonnie and Clyde have been through many hard obstacles and one main obstacle was always running from police (Cartwright). One time Bonnie and Clyde were driving around and they had a police ambush and they went off the road, the car was in flames and Bonnie got serious burns and still had to escape from the police while being hurt (Guinn). They’ve had many ambushes but never where Bonnie got badly injured. Some way they would always be able to escape from the police (Milner).

Bonnie would always take risks for Clyde (Cartwright). One risk she had done for him and accomplished was smuggling a gun into a prison for Clyde to escape (Cartwright). They never were able to stay in one spot for a while. They were always on the run (Guinn). Clyde chopped two of his toes off when he was in jail to get out and go to a hospital and to escape from there (Cartwright).

They’ve always usually stayed by the borders of places so when the police would chase them they were close by to escape (Guinn). Clyde would always change cars by stealing a new one so it can help them avoid being caught and also change the license plates (Cartwright). Police officers would still find out if Clyde had stolen the car (Milner). Clyde wasn’t dumb at all he would study for hours maps and knew every back road (Guinn). Bonnie had a close relationship with her mother so she always wanted to visit her and that put them in big danger(Cartwright). One day while visiting their families they nearly got killed by an ambushe from the police (Milner). It was hard for them to even see their families because police knew everything (Guinn).


 * Historical Significance**

Bonnie and Clyde are a well-known duo to many people. They are known to have a dozen or more bank robberies (Cartwright).Bonnie and Clyde are so popular because they were criminals that never got caught for a very long time (Guinn). They stole from banks and killed people but the police never caught them because of their cleverness of escaping (Milner). They were not only the most wanted criminals but they did it all during The Great Depression (Cartwright).

There love story and how bonnie was interested in Clyde brought everyone’s attention. Clyde and Bonnie had a carefree criminal life (Guinn). Credit also goes to the 1967 movie that was made about Bonnie and Clyde’s and that made them also famous (Milner). What was just so surprising was how the whole Barrow gang would be able to escape (Guinn). What Bonnie and Clyde did wasn’t good, but it was always exciting, nobody can say they were boring.

During The Great Depression banks were taking peoples homes left and right, Bonnie and Clyde were robbing banks (Cartwright). Bonnie and Clyde were on newspapers they were pretty much known to people (Guinn). Many people have robbed banks but Bonnie and Clyde were the most famous outlaws (Cartwright). Their exploits were known nationwide (Milner). The gang was believed to have killed at least 9 police officers, among several other murders (Guinn).

A crowd of 10,000 overran the funeral home where Clyde’s body was laid out (Guinn). You wouldn’t think that people would go for criminals but they did they went for Bonnie and Clyde. They are extremely famous for how quickly they would disappear and for how ruthless they were (Milner). They were also deeply in love; these facts made them two of the most famous U.S criminals of all time (Guinn). At the scene of their death people would go and try to get one of their things. Their items were worth a good amount of money (Milner). May 23, 1932 Bonnie and Clyde were killed by police officers opening fire while they tried to drive away. Their car is now in display in Whiskey Pete’s casino in Nevada (Milner). They captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as the “Public Enemy Era” between 1931 and 1934 (Guinn). They are truly two interesting people that were robbers and outlaws in the 1930s (Milner).




 * References**

Burrough, Bryan. "Outlaws in Love." //New York Times Book Review//. 10 May. 2009: 9. //eLibrary//. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. **SE#1**

Cartwright, Gary. "The whole shootin match." //Texas Monthly//. 01 Feb. 2001: 74. //eLibrary//. Web. 07 Jan. 2015. **SE#2**

__**[|Guinn, Jeff]**__//Go Down Together.// New York: //From 24 Words LLC//, 2009. Print. **SE#4**

[|Guinn, Jeff] //Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde.// New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009. Print. **SE#5**

Guinn, Jeff. "Notorious." //Smithsonian//. 01 Apr. 2009: 12. //eLibrary.// Web. 07 Jan. 2015. **SE#3**

[|Milner, E.R]//The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde.// Library of Congress Cataloging, 1996. Print. **SE#6**