By Audrey Anderson
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Since the movie “Bonnie and Clyde” was released in 1967 with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the lead roles, the public has been fascinated by the story of the two young outlaws and their exploits. The movie painted a glamorized and simplified version of their story; however, their real lives were much different.
At the Needham Free Public Library on Tuesday, February 18, Christopher Daley engagingly opened this spring’s True Crime series with his well-researched history of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow’s lives and criminal careers. While telling their stories, Daley showed historical photos, as well as his own photos from his personal trips to landmark sites featured in the couple’s story.
Barrow’s early life was difficult. Born into a large family of sharecroppers, his family’s fortunes changed when the price of cotton plunged. The family travelled in a horse-pulled wagon to make their home in a Dallas shantytown, living under their upended wagon until they were able to get a tent. Clyde and his brother Buck started stealing chickens and turkeys and soon slid into robbery and auto theft.
Parker’s father died when she was four years old. A good student, she lived with her mother in Dallas and dreamed of becoming an actress. At 16, Parker married Roy Thornton, a young criminal, who left her alone for increasingly longer periods of time while committing crimes. She left Thornton, returned to her mother, and worked as a waitress. Parker (19) and Barrow (20) met at a house party in Dallas.
After spending a few weeks in each other’s company, Clyde was convicted of auto theft and sentenced to McLennan County Jail. He escaped from jail, was caught once again, and sentenced to work on a brutal prison farm at the Huntsville State Prison. There he was beaten by guards and repeatedly raped by one. Barrow killed the guard who assaulted him, but another inmate took the blame. Then, due to Barrow’s mother’s urging, he was paroled. A fellow inmate said that he watched Barrow "change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake."
Barrow tried to work at several jobs, but the police repeatedly showed up, suspecting him of involvement in crimes. Trying to escape his past, Barrow then went to Framingham, MA, and got a job in Worcester. Since he missed Parker, he soon returned to Dallas.
At this point, Barrow made a hard turn to a life of crime, assembling an arsenal of automatic rifles and other powerful weapons to outgun the police, and going on to commit murders and robberies, while moving about the country with several accomplices.
Eventually, as the familiar story goes, Barrow and Parker were ambushed by law enforcement and killed in their car by 160 rounds of gunfire. Barrow was 24 years old and Parker was 23 years old. As the public was fascinated by the publicity of their exploits, 30,000 people attended Parker’s services and 20,000 attended Barrow’s services.
Christopher Daley will return with his True Crime Series, supported by the Library Foundation of Needham. On March 18, he will present “Mass Murder—Massachusetts’ Most Infamous Murder Cases,” followed by “Evil Comes to Pembroke New Hampshire” on April 22, and “New England’s First Serial Killer (The Northwoods Murderer) on May 20.
