Bonnie Parker

Biography

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in 1910 in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Robert Parker (1884–1914), was a bricklayer who died when Parker was four years old. Her widowed mother, Emma (Krause) Parker (1885–1944), moved her family back to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb in West Dallas where she worked as a seamstress. As an adult, Bonnie wrote poems such as 'The Story of Suicide Sal' and 'The Trail's End', the latter more commonly known as 'The Story of Bonnie and Clyde'. There are several different accounts of Parker's first meeting with Clyde Barrow. One of the more credible versions is that they met on January 5, 1930, at the West Dallas home of Barrow's friend, Clarence Clay. Barrow was 20 years old, and Parker was 19. Parker was out of work and staying with a female friend to assist her during her recovery from a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was in the kitchen making hot chocolate. The duo became the most infamous outlaws in history, who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders between 1932 and 1934. The couple were known for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the 'public enemy era' between 1931 and 1934. On May 23, 1934, they were ambushed and killed on Louisiana Highway 154 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana by a law enforcement posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians.