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N0KFQ > TODAY 23.05.16 15:22l 61 Lines 2952 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 94516_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - May 23
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<F1OYP<ON0AR<GB7CIP<ZS0MEE<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 160523/1403Z 94516@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1934
Police kill famous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde
On this day in 1934, notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde
Barrow are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police
while driving a stolen car near Sailes, Louisiana.
Bonnie Parker met the charismatic Clyde Barrow in Texas when she
was 19 years old and her husband (she married when she was 16)
was serving time in jail for murder. Shortly after they met,
Barrow was imprisoned for robbery. Parker visited him every day,
and smuggled a gun into prison to help him escape, but he was
soon caught in Ohio and sent back to jail. When Barrow was
paroled in 1932, he immediately hooked up with Parker, and the
couple began a life of crime together.
After they stole a car and committed several robberies, Parker
was caught by police and sent to jail for two months. Released in
mid-1932, she rejoined Barrow. Over the next two years, the
couple teamed with various accomplices to rob a string of banks
and stores across five states-Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New
Mexico and Louisiana. To law enforcement agents, the Barrow
Gang-including Barrow's childhood friend, Raymond Hamilton, W.D.
Jones, Henry Methvin, Barrow's brother Buck and his wife Blanche,
among others-were cold-blooded criminals who didn't hesitate to
kill anyone who got in their way, especially police or sheriff's
deputies. Among the public, however, Parker and Barrow's
reputation as dangerous outlaws was mixed with a romantic view of
the couple as "Robin Hood"-like folk heroes.
Their fame was increased by the fact that Bonnie was a woman-an
unlikely criminal-and by the fact that the couple posed for
playful photographs together, which were later found by police
and released to the media. Police almost captured the famous duo
twice in the spring of 1933, with surprise raids on their
hideouts in Joplin and Platte City, Missouri. Buck Barrow was
killed in the second raid, and Blanche was arrested, but Bonnie
and Clyde escaped once again. In January 1934, they attacked the
Eastham Prison Farm in Texas to help Hamilton break out of jail,
shooting several guards with machine guns and killing one.
Texan prison officials hired a retired Texas police officer,
Captain Frank Hamer, as a special investigator to track down
Parker and Barrow. After a three-month search, Hamer traced the
couple to Louisiana, where Henry Methvin's family lived. Before
dawn on May 23, Hamer and a group of Louisiana and Texas lawmen
hid in the bushes along a country road outside Sailes. When
Parker and Barrow appeared, the officers opened fire, killing the
couple instantly in a hail of bullets.
All told, the Barrow Gang was believed responsible for the deaths
of 13 people, including nine police officers. Parker and Barrow
are still seen by many as romantic figures, however,
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-Mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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