Bonnie and Clyde

This shot-out window makes me think of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, whose lives of crime ended in a hail of bullets 75 years ago, May 23, 1934.

I am no student of automobile history, so have no idea whether this junked truck is even the same vintage as the famous bullet-ridden automobile.

Bonnie Parker is said to have been bored with her life in Dallas when she met Clyde Barrow. She certainly got the excitement she wanted. Their crime spree lasted 21 months. They traveled through at least five states, often crossing state lines because law officers could not travel across jurisdictional boundaries in those days.

The country had fallen into the Great Depression. Unemployment in 1932, when their spree began, was at record highs, nearly 25 percent. At first, the Barrow Gang were often seen as people striking back at an uncaring government, latter-day Robin Hoods. They were hoods all right, attacking small-town restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations, as well as small banks. Barrow Gang murdered 12 victims, nine of them law officers.
,
After Clyde engineered a breakout from Texas Department of Corrections’ Eastham Prison Farm, Texas officers and the FBI began a massive manhunt. They induced one of the gang members to betray Bonnie and Clyde and set up a trap just over the Louisiana line. The couple died in a hail of 167 bullets.

After years as a sideshow attraction, the bullet-ridden Ford ended up in the rotunda of a Las Vegas casino. The car got off easier than Bonnie and Clyde’s bodies. Souvenir hunters tried to lop off Clyde’s finger and left ear, clipped locks of Bonnie’s hair and pieces of her dress.

Why anyone would want such gruesome articles totally mystifies me, but the car in the casino testifies to their appeal. Funny how two bungling crooks’ lives — one burglary netted them only $1.75 — can be as glamorized as Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow’s were.