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Bonnie Elizabeth Parker: Who was this Notorious Gangster?

BonnieParkerCigar1933.jpg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was a woman of complex and interesting character, born into a difficult situation in 1910 in Rowena, Texas. Her father, a bricklayer, passed away when she was just four years old, leaving her mother to support three children on her own. The family moved to an industrial suburb of West Dallas to live with her grandparents, where Parker grew up and attended high school.

Parker’s life took a dramatic turn when she met and married Roy Thornton at the age of 19. Thornton, who had frequent brushes with the law, was often absent from Parker’s life, and their marriage was short-lived. Despite never formally divorcing, they never saw each other again after January 1929. Parker continued her life in Dallas, working as a waitress, while Thornton was in and out of prison for various offences.

Throughout her life, Parker had a talent for writing, and she wrote several poems, including “The Story of Suicide Sal” and “The Trail’s End,” which later became known as “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.” She also briefly kept a diary in 1929, writing about her loneliness, impatience with life in Dallas, and love of photography.

Parker’s life took a dramatic turn when she met Clyde Barrow, a career criminal, and the two embarked on a spree of robberies and violence that would make them infamous. Parker and Barrow became known as “Bonnie and Clyde,” and their story captured the public imagination, turning them into folk heroes of a sort.

Parker was involved in a number of criminal activities alongside Clyde Barrow, including robberies of banks, stores, and gas stations, as well as car theft and murder.

Parker and Barrow were infamous for their string of violent crimes throughout the early 1930s, which included the killing of law enforcement officers. The couple was constantly on the run from the law, engaging in a series of high-speed car chases and shootouts with police.

While Parker was never formally sentenced to jail time for her crimes, she did spend time on the run, often living in hiding with Barrow in various hideouts across the United States. It was during one of these hideouts that Parker and Barrow were finally ambushed and killed by law enforcement in 1934.

In February of 1935, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker’s life took a sharp turn as she and her accomplice, Clyde Barrow, faced an array of legal consequences. Dallas and federal authorities apprehended and tried twenty individuals, including friends and family members of the infamous couple, for aiding and abetting the two fugitives.

The trial, also known as the “harbouring trial,” resulted in all twenty defendants either pleading guilty or being found guilty. While some received relatively light sentences, such as a one-hour custody for Barrow’s teenage sister, Marie, others faced more severe punishments. Bonnie’s mother and Clyde’s mother both received thirty days of jail time, while Floyd Hamilton, brother of Raymond Hamilton, was sentenced to two years in prison.

Not all of Barrow and Parker’s associates lived long lives. Hamilton and Palmer, who had escaped from Eastham in 1934, were eventually recaptured and convicted of murder. Both were executed via electric chair in Huntsville, Texas on May 10, 1935. Jones, who served six years in prison, was convicted of one murder, indicted for another, and suspected of two others that were committed when he was a juvenile. 

Despite Bonnie and Clyde’s wish to be buried together, the Parker family did not allow it. Bonnie’s mother also failed to bring her daughter’s body home due to the surrounding mobs. However, over 20,000 people attended her funeral, with floral tributes from all over, including some allegedly from famous outlaws like Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger.

Newsboys from Dallas sent the largest floral tribute, and the news of their deaths sold 500,000 newspapers in Dallas alone. Bonnie was initially buried in Fishtrap Cemetery but was later moved to Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas in 1945.

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