Bonnie and Clyde

Parker's pose with a cigar and gun gained her an image in the press as a "cigar-smoking gun moll" after police found the undeveloped film in the Joplin house

After Barrow's release from prison in February 1932, he and Fults began a series of robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations;[11] their goal was to collect enough money and firepower to launch a raid against Eastham prison.[21] On April 19, Parker and Fults were captured in a failed hardware store burglary in Kaufman in which they had intended to steal firearms.[25] Parker was released from jail after a few months, when the grand jury failed to indict her; Fults was tried, convicted, and served time. He never rejoined the gang. Parker wrote poetry to pass the time in Kaufman County jail,[26][notes 2] and reunited with Barrow within a few weeks of her release.

On April 30, Barrow was the getaway driver in a robbery in Hillsboro, during which store owner J.N. Bucher was shot and killed.[27] Bucher's wife identified Barrow from police photographs as one of the shooters, although he had stayed inside the car.

On August 5, Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, and Ross Dyer were drinking moonshine at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma, when Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and Deputy Eugene C. Moore approached them in the parking lot. Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing Moore and gravely wounding Maxwell.[28][29] Moore was the first law officer whom Barrow and his gang killed; they eventually murdered nine. On October 11, they allegedly killed Howard Hall at his store during a robbery in Sherman, Texas, though some historians consider this unlikely.[30]

W. D. Jones had been a friend of Barrow's family since childhood. He joined Parker and Barrow on Christmas Eve 1932 at the age of 16, and the three left Dallas that night.[31] The next day, Christmas Day of that year, Jones and Barrow murdered Doyle Johnson, a young family man, while stealing his car in Temple.[32] Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis on January 6, 1933, when he, Parker, and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal.[33] The gang had murdered five people since April.

The gang's Joplin hideout; photos and Bonnie's "Suicide Sal" poem were published in newspapers nationwide
37.051671°N 94.516693°W / 37.051671; -94.516693 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Garage Apartment)

On March 22, 1933, Clyde's brother Buck was granted a full pardon and released from prison, and he and his wife Blanche set up housekeeping with Bonnie, Clyde and Jones in a temporary hideout at 3347 1/2 Oakridge Drive in Joplin, Missouri. According to family sources,[34] Buck and Blanche were there to visit; they attempted to persuade Clyde to surrender to law enforcement. The group ran loud, alcohol-fueled card games late into the night in the quiet neighborhood; Blanche recalled that they "bought a case of beer a day".[35] The men came and went noisily at all hours, and Clyde accidentally fired a BAR in the apartment while cleaning it.[36] No neighbors went to the house, but one reported suspicions to the Joplin Police Department.

The police assembled a five-man force in two cars on April 13 to confront what they suspected were bootleggers living at the Oakridge Drive address. The Barrow brothers and Jones opened fire, killing Detective Harry L. McGinnis outright and fatally wounding Constable J. W. Harryman.[37][38] Parker opened fire with a BAR as the others fled, forcing Highway Patrol Sergeant G.B. Kahler to duck behind a large oak tree. The .30 caliber bullets from the BAR struck the tree and forced wood splinters into the sergeant's face.[39] Parker got into the car with the others, and they pulled in Blanche from the street where she was pursuing her dog Snow Ball.[40] The surviving officers later testified that they had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict;[41] one hit Jones on the side, one struck Clyde but was deflected by his suit-coat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.

W.D. Jones committed two murders in his first two weeks with Barrow at age 16. The cut-down shotgun is one of his "whippit" guns. The pistol on the hood is Officer Persell's.

Bonnie with a shotgun reaches for officer Persell's pistol in Clyde's waistband.

The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left behind most of their possessions at the apartment, including Buck's parole papers (three weeks old), a large arsenal of weapons, a handwritten poem by Bonnie, and a camera with several rolls of undeveloped film.[42] Police developed the film at The Joplin Globe and found many photos of Barrow, Parker, and Jones posing and pointing weapons at one another.[43] The Globe sent the poem and the photos over the newswire, including a photo of Parker clenching a cigar in her teeth and a pistol in her hand.[notes 3] The Barrow Gang subsequently became front-page news throughout America.

The photo of Parker posing with a cigar and a gun became popular. Jeff Guinn, in his book, Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, noted:

John Dillinger had matinee-idol good looks and Pretty Boy Floyd had the best possible nickname, but the Joplin photos introduced new criminal superstars with the most titillating trademark of all—illicit sex. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were wild and young, and undoubtedly slept together.[44]

The group ranged from Texas as far north as Minnesota for the next three months. In May, they tried to rob the bank in Lucerne, Indiana,[45] and robbed the bank in Okabena, Minnesota.[46] They kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone at Ruston, Louisiana, in the course of stealing Darby's car; this was one of several events between 1932 and 1934 in which they kidnapped police officers or robbery victims.[notes 4] They usually released their hostages far from home, sometimes with money to help them return.[2][47]

Stories of such encounters made headlines, as did the more violent episodes. The Barrow Gang did not hesitate to shoot anyone who got in their way, whether it was a police officer or an innocent civilian. Other members of the gang who committed murder included Hamilton, Jones, Buck, and Henry Methvin. Eventually, the cold-bloodedness of their murders opened the public's eyes to the reality of their crimes, and led to their ends.[48]

The photos entertained the public for a time, but the gang was desperate and discontented, as described by Blanche in her account written while imprisoned in the late 1930s.[49][notes 5] With their new notoriety, their daily lives became more difficult as they tried to evade discovery. Restaurants and motels became less secure; they resorted to campfire cooking and bathing in cold streams.[50] The unrelieved, round-the-clock proximity of five people in one car gave rise to vicious bickering.[51][notes 6] Jones was the driver when he and Barrow stole a car belonging to Darby in late April, and he used that car to leave the others. He stayed away until June 8.[52]

Barrow failed to see warning signs at a bridge under construction on June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, and the car flipped into a ravine.[2][53] Sources disagree on whether there was a gasoline fire[54] or if Parker was doused with acid from the car's battery under the floorboards,[55][notes 7] but she sustained third-degree burns to her right leg, so severe that the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up".[56] Jones observed: "She'd been burned so bad none of us thought she was gonna live. The hide on her right leg was gone, from her hip down to her ankle. I could see the bone at places."[57]

Parker could hardly walk; she either hopped on her good leg or was carried by Barrow. They got help from a nearby farm family, then kidnapped Collinsworth County Sheriff George Corry and City Marshal Paul Hardy, leaving the two of them handcuffed and barbed wired to a tree outside Erick, Oklahoma. The three rendezvoused with Buck and Blanche, and hid in a tourist court near Fort Smith, Arkansas, nursing Parker's burns. Buck and Jones bungled a robbery and murdered Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.[58] The criminals had to flee, despite Parker's grave condition.[59]

Two-unit Red Crown Tourist Court, where the gang's conspicuous behavior drew police; Buck was killed in the ensuing gunfight. 39.31194°N 94.68639°W / 39.31194; -94.68639 (1933 Site of Red Crown Tourist Court Platte City, Missouri)

In July 1933, the gang checked in to the Red Crown Tourist Court[60] south of Platte City, Missouri. It consisted of two brick cabins joined by garages, and the gang rented both.[60] To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant among Missouri Highway Patrolmen, and the gang seemed to go out of their way to draw attention.[61] Blanche registered the party as three guests, but owner Neal Houser could see five people getting out of the car. He noted that the driver backed into the garage "gangster style" for a quick getaway.[62] Blanche paid for their cabins with coins rather than bills, and did the same later when buying five dinners and five beers.[63][notes 8] The next day, Houser noticed that his guests had taped newspapers over the windows of their cabin; Blanche again paid for five meals with coins. Her outfit of jodhpur riding breeches[64] also attracted attention; they were not typical attire for women in the area, and eyewitnesses still remembered them forty years later.[62] Houser told Captain William Baxter of the Highway Patrol, a patron of his restaurant, about the group.[60]

Barrow and Jones went into town[notes 9] to purchase bandages, crackers, cheese, and atropine sulfate to treat Parker's leg.[65] The druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under surveillance. Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas law enforcement to watch for strangers seeking such supplies. The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City, including an armored car.[60] Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers toward the cabins at 11pm, armed with Thompson submachine guns.[66]

In the gunfight which ensued, the .45 caliber Thompsons proved no match for Barrow's .30 caliber BAR, stolen on July 7 from the National Guard armory at Enid, Oklahoma.[67] The gang escaped when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armored car[notes 10] and the police officers mistook it for a cease-fire signal. They did not pursue the retreating Barrow vehicle.[60]

Blanche is captured at Dexfield Park, Iowa, still in her jodhpurs.
41.564388°N 94.228942°W / 41.564388; -94.228942 (Site of Barrow Gang shootout at Dexfield Park, Iowa)

Jones' confession triggered murder warrants against the gang

The gang had evaded the law once again, but Buck had been wounded by a bullet that blasted a large hole in the bone of his forehead and exposed his injured brain, and Blanche was nearly blinded in both eyes by glass fragments.[60][68]

The Barrow Gang camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa, on July 24.[2][69] Buck was sometimes semiconscious, and he even talked and ate, but his massive head wound and loss of blood were so severe that Barrow and Jones dug a grave for him.[70] Local residents noticed their bloody bandages, and officers determined that the campers were the Barrow Gang. Local police officers and approximately 100 spectators surrounded the group, and the Barrows soon came under fire.[69] Barrow, Parker, and Jones escaped on foot.[2][69] Buck was shot in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers. Buck died of his head wound and pneumonia after surgery five days later at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa.[69]

For the next six weeks, the remaining perpetrators ranged far afield from their usual area of operations, west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi; yet they continued to commit armed robberies.[71][notes 11] They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones robbed an armory at Plattville, Illinois on August 20, acquiring three BARs, handguns, and a large quantity of ammunition.[72]

By early September, the gang risked a run to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months. Jones parted company with them, continuing to Houston where his mother had moved.[2][69][notes 12] He was arrested there without incident on November 16, and returned to Dallas. Through the autumn, Barrow committed several robberies with small-time local accomplices, while his family and Parker's attended to her considerable medical needs. On November 22, they narrowly evaded arrest while trying to meet with family members near Sowers, Texas. Dallas Sheriff Smoot Schmid, Deputy Bob Alcorn, and Deputy Ted Hinton lay in wait nearby. As Barrow drove up, he sensed a trap and drove past his family's car, at which point Schmid and his deputies stood up and opened fire with machine guns and a BAR. The family members in the crossfire were not hit, but a BAR bullet passed through the car, striking the legs of both Barrow and Parker.[73] They escaped later that night.

On November 28, a Dallas grand jury delivered a murder indictment against Parker and Barrow for the killing – in January of that year, nearly ten months earlier – of Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis;[74] it was Parker's first warrant for murder.

On January 16, 1934, Barrow orchestrated the escape of Hamilton, Methvin, and several others in the "Eastham Breakout".[21] The brazen raid generated negative publicity for Texas, and Barrow seemed to have achieved what historian Phillips suggests was his overriding goal: revenge on the Texas Department of Corrections.[notes 13]

Barrow Gang member Joe Palmer shot Major Joe Crowson during his escape, and Crowson died a few days later in the hospital.[75] This attack attracted the full power of the Texas and federal government to the manhunt for Barrow and Parker. As Crowson struggled for life, prison chief Lee Simmons reportedly promised him that all persons involved in the breakout would be hunted down and killed.[21] All of them eventually were, except for Methvin, who preserved his life by turning on the gang and setting up the ambush of Barrow and Parker.[21]

The Texas Department of Corrections contacted former Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer and persuaded him to hunt down the Barrow Gang. He was retired, but his commission had not expired.[76] He accepted the assignment as a Texas Highway Patrol officer, secondarily assigned to the prison system as a special investigator, and given the specific task of taking down the Barrow Gang.

Former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, the Barrow Gang's relentless shadow after the notorious Eastham prison breakout

Hamer was tall, burly, and taciturn, unimpressed by authority and driven by an "inflexible adherence to right, or what he thinks is right."[77] For twenty years, he had been feared and admired throughout Texas as "the walking embodiment of the 'One Riot, One Ranger' ethos".[78] He "had acquired a formidable reputation as a result of several spectacular captures and the shooting of a number of Texas criminals".[79] He was officially credited with 53 kills, and suffered seventeen wounds.[80] Prison boss Simmons always said publicly that Hamer had been his first choice, although there is evidence that he first approached two other Rangers, both of whom declined because they were reluctant to shoot a woman.[81] Starting on February 10, Hamer became the constant shadow of Barrow and Parker, living out of his car, just a town or two behind them. Three of Hamer's four brothers were also Texas Rangers; brother Harrison was the best shot of the four, but Frank was considered the most tenacious.[82]

On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934 at the intersection of Route 114 and Dove Road, near Grapevine, Texas (now Southlake), highway patrolmen H.D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler stopped their motorcycles thinking a motorist needed assistance. Barrow and Methvin or Parker opened fire with a shotgun and handgun, killing both officers.[83][84] An eyewitness account said that Parker fired the fatal shots and this story received widespread coverage.[85] Methvin later claimed that he fired the first shot after mistakenly assuming that Barrow wanted the officers killed. Barrow joined in, firing at Patrolman Murphy.[47]

Public opinion turned against the couple after the Grapevine murders and resultant negative publicity

During the spring season, the Grapevine killings were recounted in exaggerated detail, affecting public perception; all four Dallas daily papers seized on the story told by the eyewitness, a farmer who claimed to have seen Parker laugh at the way that Murphy's head "bounced like a rubber ball" on the ground as she shot him.[86] The stories claimed that police found a cigar butt "with tiny teeth marks", supposedly those of Parker.[87] Several days later, Murphy's fiancée wore her intended wedding dress to his funeral, attracting photos and newspaper coverage.[88] The eyewitness's ever-changing story was soon discredited, but the massive negative publicity increased the public clamor for the extermination of the Barrow Gang. The outcry galvanized the authorities into action, and Highway Patrol boss L.G. Phares offered a reward of $1,000 for "the dead bodies of the Grapevine slayers"—not their capture, just the bodies.[89] Texas Governor Ma Ferguson added another reward of $500 for each of the two killers, which meant that, for the first time, "there was a specific price on Bonnie's head, since she was so widely believed to have shot H.D. Murphy".[90]

Public hostility increased five days later, when Barrow and Methvin murdered 60-year-old Constable William "Cal" Campbell, a widower and father, near Commerce, Oklahoma.[91] They kidnapped Commerce police chief Percy Boyd, crossed the state line into Kansas, and let him go, giving him a clean shirt, a few dollars, and a request from Parker to tell the world that she did not smoke cigars. Boyd identified both Barrow and Parker to authorities, but he never learned Methvin's name. The resultant arrest warrant for the Campbell murder specified "Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and John Doe".[92] Historian Knight writes: "For the first time, Bonnie was seen as a killer, actually pulling the trigger—just like Clyde. Whatever chance she had for clemency had just been reduced."[89] The Dallas Journal ran a cartoon on its editorial page, showing an empty electric chair with a sign on it saying "Reserved", adding the words "Clyde and Bonnie".[93]

Bonnie Parker's grave, inscribed: "As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you."
32.867416°N 96.863915°W / 32.867416; -96.863915 (Burial site of Bonnie Elizabeth Parker)

Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it. Her mother wanted to grant her final wish to be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that impossible.[111] More than 20,000 attended Parker's funeral, and her family had difficulty reaching her gravesite.[111] Parker's services were held on May 26.[108] Dr. Allen Campbell recalled that flowers came from everywhere, including some with cards allegedly from Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger.[108] The largest floral tribute was sent by a group of Dallas city newsboys; the sudden end of Bonnie and Clyde sold 500,000 newspapers in Dallas alone.[112] Parker was buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery, although her body was moved in 1945 to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas.[108]

Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funeral homes, hoping for a chance to view the bodies. Barrow's private funeral was held at sunset on May 25.[108] He was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother Marvin. The Barrow brothers share a single granite marker with their names on it and an epitaph selected by Clyde: "Gone but not forgotten."[113]

The American National Insurance Company of Galveston, Texas, paid the life insurance policies in full on Barrow and Parker. Since then, the policy of payouts has changed to exclude payouts in cases of deaths caused by any criminal act by the insured.[114]

The six men of the posse were each to receive a one-sixth share of the reward money, and Dallas Sheriff Schmid had promised Hinton that this would total some $26,000,[115] but most of the organizations that had pledged reward funds reneged on their pledges. In the end, each lawman earned $200.23 for his efforts and collected memorabilia.[116]

Clyde and Buck Barrow's grave, inscribed: "Gone but not forgotten"
32.765537°N 96.845863°W / 32.765537; -96.845863 (Burial site of Clyde Champion Barrow)

By the summer of 1934, new federal statutes made bank robbery and kidnapping federal offenses. The growing coordination of local authorities by the FBI, plus two-way radios in police cars, combined to make it more difficult to carry out series of robberies and murders than it had been just months before. Two months after Gibsland, Dillinger was killed on the street in Chicago; three months after that, Floyd was killed in Ohio; and one month after that, Baby Face Nelson was killed in Illinois.[117]

Parker's niece and last surviving relative is campaigning to have her aunt buried next to Barrow.[118][119]

The posse never received the promised bounty on the perpetrators, so they were told to take whatever they wanted from the confiscated items in their car. Hamer appropriated the arsenal[132] of stolen guns and ammunition, plus a box of fishing tackle, under the terms of his compensation package with the Texas DOC.[notes 15] In July, Clyde's mother Cumie wrote to Hamer asking for the return of the guns: "You don't ever want to forget my boy was never tried in no court for murder, and no one is guilty until proven guilty by some court so I hope you will answer this letter and also return the guns I am asking for."[133] There is no record of any response.[133]

Alcorn claimed Barrow's saxophone from the car, but he later returned it to the Barrow family.[134] Posse members also took other personal items, such as Parker's clothing. The Parker family asked for them back but were refused,[101][135] and the items were later sold as souvenirs.[136] The Barrow family claimed that Sheriff Jordan kept an alleged suitcase of cash, and writer Jeff Guinn claims that Jordan bought a "barn and land in Arcadia" soon after the event, thereby hinting that the accusation had merit, despite the complete absence of any evidence to the existence of such a suitcase.[134]

Jordan attempted to keep the death car, but Ruth Warren of Topeka, Kansas, the vehicle's legal owner, sued him.[137] Jordan relented and allowed her to claim it in August 1934, still covered with blood and human tissue.[138] The engine still ran, despite the damage the vehicle took during the ambush. Warren picked up the car in Arcadia and drove it to Shreveport, still in its gruesome state. From there, she had it trucked to Topeka.[139]

The bullet-riddled Ford became a popular traveling attraction. The car was displayed at fairs, amusement parks, and flea markets for three decades, and once became a fixture at a Nevada race track. There was a charge of one dollar to sit in it.[140]

In 1988, a casino near Las Vegas purchased it for about $250,000. As of 2022, the car and the shirt Barrow was wearing when killed are displayed at Primm Valley Resort & Casino in Primm, Nevada alongside Interstate 15.[141]

Barrow's enthusiasm for cars was evident in a letter he wrote from Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 10, 1934, to Henry Ford: "While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got every other car skinned and even if my business hasn't been strictly legal it don't hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8."[142]

Henry Methvin escaped prosecution for the two Grapevine, Texas, murders because of his father's cooperation with the posse. But he was prosecuted for other crimes in Oklahoma, where he was convicted and served eight years.

Blanche never carried a gun; she was convicted of attempted murder and served six years.

In February 1935, Dallas and federal authorities arrested and tried twenty family members and friends for aiding and abetting Barrow and Parker. This became known as the "harboring trial" and all twenty either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. The two mothers were jailed for thirty days; other sentences ranged from two years' imprisonment (for Floyd Hamilton, brother of Raymond) to one hour in custody (for Barrow's teenage sister Marie).[143] Other defendants included Blanche, Jones, Methvin, and Parker's sister Billie.

Blanche was permanently blinded in her left eye during the 1933 shootout at Dexfield Park. She was taken into custody on the charge of "assault with intent to kill". She was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison, but was paroled in 1939 for good behavior. She returned to Dallas, leaving her life of crime in the past, and lived with her invalid father as his caregiver. In 1940, she married Eddie Frasure, worked as a taxi cab dispatcher and a beautician, and completed the terms of her parole one year later. She lived in peace with her husband until he died of cancer in 1969. Warren Beatty approached her to purchase the rights to her name for use in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, and she agreed to the original script. However, she objected to her characterization by Estelle Parsons in the final film, describing the actress's Academy Award-winning portrayal of her as "a screaming horse's ass". Despite this, she maintained a firm friendship with Beatty. She died from cancer at age 77 on December 24, 1988, and was buried in Dallas's Grove Hill Memorial Park under the name "Blanche B. Frasure".[144]

Barrow cohorts Hamilton and Palmer, who escaped Eastham in January 1934, were recaptured. Both were convicted of murder and executed in the electric chair at Huntsville, Texas on May 10, 1935.[145]

Jones served six years in prison, convicted of one murder, indicted for another, and suspected of an additional two committed as a juvenile.

Jones had left Barrow and Parker, six weeks after the three of them evaded officers at Dexfield Park in July 1933.[146] He reached Houston and got a job picking cotton, where he was soon discovered and captured. He was returned to Dallas, where he dictated a "confession" in which he claimed to have been kept a prisoner by Barrow and Parker. Some of the more lurid lies that he told concerned the gang's sex lives, and this testimony gave rise to many stories about Barrow's ambiguous sexuality.[147] Jones was convicted of the murder of Doyle Johnson and served a lenient sentence of fifteen years.

He gave an interview to Playboy magazine during the excitement surrounding the 1967 movie, saying that in reality it had not been glamorous.[148]

He was killed on August 4, 1974, in a misunderstanding by the jealous boyfriend of a woman whom he was trying to help.[149]

Methvin was convicted in Oklahoma of the 1934 murder of Constable Campbell at Commerce. He was paroled in 1942 and killed by a train in 1948. He fell asleep drunk on the train tracks, although some have speculated that he was pushed by someone seeking revenge.[150] His father Ivy was killed in 1946 by a hit-and-run driver.[151] Parker's husband Roy Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary in March 1933. He was killed by guards on October 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham prison.[8]

1958: Parker was portrayed in the media as a dominant tough girl who ran a gang of several subservient men, such as in The Bonnie Parker Story

Hamer returned to a quiet life as a freelance security consultant for oil companies. According to Guinn, "his reputation suffered somewhat after Gibsland"[152] because many people felt that he had not given Barrow and Parker a fair chance to surrender. He made headlines again in 1948 when he and Governor Coke Stevenson unsuccessfully challenged the vote total achieved by Lyndon Johnson during the election for the U.S. Senate. He died in 1955 at the age of 71, after several years of poor health.[153] Bob Alcorn died on May 23, 1964, 30 years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.[151]

Prentiss Oakley admitted to friends that he had fired prematurely.[127] He succeeded Henderson Jordan as sheriff of Bienville Parish in 1940.[127]

Officials of the Texas Rangers, Texas Highway Patrol, and Texas Department of Public Safety honored the memory of patrolman Edward Bryan Wheeler on April 1, 2011, who was murdered along with officer H. D. Murphy by the Barrow gang on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934. They presented the Yellow Rose of Texas commendation to his last surviving sibling, 95-year-old Ella Wheeler-McLeod of San Antonio, giving her a plaque and framed portrait of her brother.[154]

Hollywood has treated the story of Bonnie and Clyde several times, most notably:

• William Witney directed the film The Bonnie Parker Story (1958) starring Dorothy Provine.[155]
• Arthur Penn directed Bonnie and Clyde (1967) which starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.[155] This movie has the pair outsmarting the police and followed a romanticized story of the criminals.[156]
• John Lee Hancock directed the Netflix film The Highwaymen (2019), showing the Texas Rangers on a successful hunt for the pair. The film starred Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer and Woody Harrelson as Maney Gault with Edward Bossert as Clyde Barrow and Emily Brobst as Bonnie Parker.[157][158]

• Many pop songs have been produced about Bonnie and Clyde, including Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot's 1967 "Bonnie and Clyde", which conveys a highly romanticized account of the pair, Georgie Fame's 1967 single "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde", Mel Torme's 1968 song "A Day in the Life of Bonnie and Clyde", Merle Haggard's 1968 "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde", and Die Toten Hosen's "Bonnie & Clyde". The bluegrass duo Flatt & Scruggs released an entire album in 1968 about the duo and their crime spree, The Story of Bonnie & Clyde. In 2019, Volbeat sang about the couple in the song "The Awakening of Bonnie Parker", from the album Rewind, Replay, Rebound.

Souvenir hunters have ravaged several memorial stones at the rural ambush site.
32°26′28″N 93°5′33″W

• The Looney Tunes cartoon Bunny and Claude (We Rob Carrot Patches) (1968) is a parody of Bonnie and Clyde, portraying them as rabbits stealing carrots.
• In the television film Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story (1992), Tracey Needham played Bonnie and Dana Ashbrook played Clyde.[159]
• Bruce Beresford directed the television miniseries Bonnie & Clyde, which aired on Lifetime, History Channel, and A&E on December 8 and 9, 2013. Emile Hirsch played Clyde and Holliday Grainger played Bonnie.[160]
• In March 2009, Bonnie and Clyde were the subject of a program in the BBC series Timewatch, based in part on gang members' private papers and previously unavailable police documents.[161]
• In the December 5, 2016 episode of Timeless (season 1, episode 9, "Last Ride of Bonnie & Clyde"), Sam Strike portrays Clyde Barrow and Jacqueline Byers portrays Bonnie Parker.[162]
• In a fifth-season episode of Legends of Tomorrow titled "The Great British Fake Off", Ben Sullivan portrays Clyde Barrow and Abby Ross as Bonnie Parker.
• The story of Bonnie and Clyde is parodied in "Love, Springfieldian Style," an episode from the 19th season of The Simpsons, with Marge and Homer in the titular roles.

• In November 2009, the musical Bonnie & Clyde premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. It ran for five weeks at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida in 2010. In the autumn of 2011, it opened on Broadway[163] and ran for 69 performances.[164] Broadway performers Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan starred respectively as Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
• A Korean adaptation of the Bonnie & Clyde musical ran at Chungmu Arts Hall in Seoul from September to October 2013.[165]
• Bonnie & Clyde premiered in London's Off West-End for a brief 5-day workshop production at The Other Palace Theatre in 2017.[166] The show was later revived for two concert performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in January 2022. During the second performance, on 18 January 2022, it was announced that the show would begin previews on 9 April 2022 at the Arts Theatre, for a limited season.[167]

Books that are regarded as non-fictional are listed in the bibliography section.

• Side By Side: A Novel of Bonnie and Clyde by Jenni L. Walsh is the fictionalized account of Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree, told through the perspective of Bonnie Parker. Published in 2018 by Forge Books (Macmillan Publishers).[168]

• Bonnie and Clyde's life and crimes were covered in a three-part series on the popular true crime podcast, The Last Podcast on the Left. (Episode 369 "Part 1 – Once you go short", Episode 370 "Part 2 – Give me the Money Now", Episode 371 "Filthy, Smelly, and Surly".) The podcast was hosted by Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel, and Henry Zebrowski.

• The podcast Infamous America, hosted by Chris Wimmer, released a six part episode of Bonnie and Clyde in 2001.

• The idiomatic phrase "modern-day Bonnie and Clyde" generally refers to a man and a woman who operate together as present-day criminals.
• The colloquial expression "Bonnie and Clyde" is often used to describe a couple that is extremely loyal and willing to do anything for each other, even in the face of danger. In this instance, it is synonymous with the slang phrases "ride-or-die"[169][170] and "ride-or-die chick"; for example, the song "03 Bonnie and Clyde" by Jay Z and Beyoncé Knowles.
• "Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome"[171][172] is the pop culture phrase for hybristophilia—the phenomenon of becoming attracted to, sexually aroused by, or achieving orgasm based on knowledge of, or watching, an outrage or crime take place. For instance, high-profile criminals (e.g. serial killers) such as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Richard Ramirez reportedly received volumes of sexual fan mail and love letters.[173][174]