Bonnie and Clyde
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Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 
1934) were well known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who, with their gang, traveled the 
Central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits were known nationwide. 
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. Though their gang was notorious 
for their bank robberies, Barrow preferred to rob small stores or gas stations. The gang was 
believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several other murders. 
They were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers.

Though the public at the time believed Parker to be a full partner in the gang, and thus its 
crimes, her role in the Barrow Gang crimes has long been a source of controversy. Gang members 
W. D. Jones and Ralph Fults testified that they never saw Bonnie fire a gun, and described her 
role as logistical. Writing with Phillip Steele in The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, Marie 
Barrow, Clyde's youngest sister, made the same claim: "Bonnie never fired a shot. She just 
followed my brother no matter where he went." In his 1968 interview with Playboy magazine, 
W. D. Jones said of Bonnie: "As far as I know, Bonnie never packed a gun. Maybe she'd help 
carry what we had in the car into a tourist-court room. But during the five big gun battles 
I was with them, she never fired a gun. But I'll say she was a hell of a loader." However, 
while under arrest and deposed in Dallas on November 18, 1933, W. D. Jones allegedly told 
investigators that Bonnie had fired a pistol at officers "two or three times".

Writer Joseph Geringer, in his article Bonnie and Clyde: Romeo and Juliet in a Getaway Car, 
explained part of their appeal to the public then, and their enduring legend now, by saying 
"Americans thrilled to their 'Robin Hood' adventures. The presence of a female, Bonnie, 
escalated the sincerity of their intentions to make them something unique and individual 
— even at times heroic