Clyde Barrow Biography

Clyde Barrow was the male half of the crime duo Bonnie and Clyde, the Depression-era outlaws whose robbery spree (and folk-hero status) ended in a fatal storm of bullets on May 23, 1934.

Clyde Barrow began his criminal career in 1926, when he was arrested for stealing a car — a rental he hadn’t returned on time. He met Bonnie Parker in 1930 in Dallas, and they embarked on a crime spree from Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri and Illinois, robbing small businesses and killing at least 13 people, mostly law officers.

Clyde led the so-called Barrow Gang, which included his brother and sister-in-law, Buck and Blanche, and a gunman named William Daniel Jones. It’s generally assumed, though not 100% clear, that Clyde did most of the killing, while Bonnie wrote poems and sent letters to newspapers as a loyal partner.

Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed in their car near their Louisiana hideout and shot to death by members of a Texas Rangers unit led by retired Ranger Frank Hamer. Their bullet-riddled car, a Ford V8, later was toured around the country as a tourist attraction.

Despite their bloody end — or because of it — Bonnie and Clyde have come down through history as a famous criminal pair. Most notably, they were portrayed on the big screen in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, with Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker. Clyde Barrow as also played by Emile Hirsch in a 2013 TV mini-series.