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By the time the sun was fully up on May 23, 1934, two bodies riddled in bullets laid along the highway near Sailes, Louisiana. It was the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde who in two years, wrote their names among the most notorious criminals in the history of the United States. Although sometimes their story is lost in that of true love while some parts have been diluted, here are things you don’t know about the real Bonnie and Clyde.
Facts About The Real Bonnie and Clyde
1. How they met
The idea that many may get is that the criminal duo had always been together. Contrary to that, the first time they met was in 1930. At the time, the former was 19 while Clyde was 21. At the young age of 15, Bonnie got married to her high school classmate, Roy Thornton. Unfortunately, this was not a union to last a very long time as only a few months later, the marriage came to an end and later in 1929, Roy would land in prison for robbery.
Even though she would later have a relationship with Clyde to the disapproval of her mother, she did not divorce her husband. In fact, she died still wearing their wedding band.
2. Clyde was interested in joining the U.S. Navy
When he was a teenager, all that Clyde Barrow wanted was to join the U.S. Navy. His love for this led him to have a tattoo on his left arm with the abbreviation, USN. Unfortunately, after making attempts to enlist, he was rejected on medical grounds due to lingering effects as a result of an illness he had when he was still a child. While it is not clear what the health condition was, the speculation was that it was either yellow fever or malaria.
3. The real Bonnie and Clyde gang
It is the names of these two that always pops up when talks begin about their crime. However, at a point, their group was made of five including the brother of Clyde, Ivan M. “Buck” Barrow and his wife Blanche. There was also William Daniel Jones who replaced Raymond Hamilton in 1932. While Ivan died in 1933 following a gun battle with the police, his wife was arrested and Jones was also arrested.
4. Clyde mutilated himself
In 1932, Clyde was arrested and handed a sentence of 14 years for robbery and automobile theft. While he was in jail, he was made to endure long hours of terrible work under harsh conditions and because of this, he mutilated himself by chopping off his big toe. He would soon realize that this was needless as only a few days later, he was set free on parole.
5. The nature of their crimes
The story of the real Bonnie and Clyde differs slightly from what many have come to believe. Their lives as criminals were mostly told around bank robberies and murders. However, they were also involved in some petty crimes including robbing gas stations and from these, there were times that they made less than $20 from such robberies. Another aspect of their crime was that they did not waste any time in killing those that stood in their way. By the time they faced a similar fate, they had already killed 13 people including two police officers.
6. Souvenir hunters came for their bodies
In 1934 after it was confirmed that it was the real Bonnie and Clyde; the criminals that terrorized Texas and managed to be elusive that were killed, souvenir hunters made attempts to have some parts of them. As revealed by Jeff Guinn in his book Go Down Together, lawmen had to intervene to prevent some of these hunters from cutting off some parts of their bodies.
As reported, a man tried to cut the ear of Clyde with a pocket knife while another tried to sever his finger. Interestingly, a man was said to have made away with clip locks from the hair of Bonnie as well as swathes of her dress which was soaked in her blood.
7. They wanted to be buried together
In a poem written by Bonnie, she stated that they would be buried side by side. Although this was believed to be what the lovers wanted, the wish did not come to pass as they were buried in different places in Texas. This was because her mother never supported her relationship with Clyde.
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