Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum here. This episode is a
Speaker 1: little more violent than usual in terms of death and
Speaker 1: bodily injury, so listener discretion is advised. It was a
Speaker 1: spring morning in Louisiana, near its border with Texas and
Speaker 1: the grimy heart of the Great Depression Mayo to be precise.
Speaker 1: Clyde Champion Barrow, one of the most wanted men in America,
Speaker 1: casually parked his stolen Ford at mock Canfield's Cafe and
Speaker 1: hobbled inside to order a breakfast of either burghers, b
Speaker 1: lt s or fried bologna sandwiches, depending on which witness
Speaker 1: testimony you choose to believe. There were a lot of witnesses,
Speaker 1: and they all seem to have known perfectly well who
Speaker 1: Clyde was. Had been lurking in the area for some
Speaker 1: time by then. They watched him warily as he collected
Speaker 1: the sandwiches limped back out to the car, handing one
Speaker 1: of them over to his driving companion, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker,
Speaker 1: one of the most wanted women in America. You'll note
Speaker 1: that Bonnie didn't share Clyde's last name. This wasn't a
Speaker 1: proto feminist statement of independence. It reflected the minor detail
Speaker 1: that the two notorious fugitives weren't married, or at least
Speaker 1: not to each other, and Bonnie was officially the wife
Speaker 1: of a violently abusive crook who was serving time for robbery.
Speaker 1: Bonnie hadn't taken his name, either, but she had married
Speaker 1: him when she was only sixteen years old and soon
Speaker 1: thought the better of it and separated from him a
Speaker 1: few years later. Still, neither was divorced, so Bonnie and
Speaker 1: Clyde were officially living in sin but that was the
Speaker 1: least of their outlaw behavior. By May of four, the
Speaker 1: couple was wanted on multiple charges of theft and murder
Speaker 1: and had broken the lawn just about every way possible.
Speaker 1: That also become popular criminal pin ups thanks to a
Speaker 1: cash of glamorous photos discovered by the cops at one
Speaker 1: of their previous hideouts, but there was little glamour in
Speaker 1: their lives that spring morning. The reason Bonnie stayed in
Speaker 1: the car while Clyde went inside the diner was because
Speaker 1: Bonnie could barely walk at all. About nine months earlier,
Speaker 1: Clyde had crashed a different stolen car into a river,
Speaker 1: an acid from the battery had splashed all over one
Speaker 1: of Bonnie's legs. They managed to save her leg from
Speaker 1: complete ruin with the help of some baking soda, but
Speaker 1: not before the acid ate it down to the bone
Speaker 1: in some places, and things had deteriorated to the point
Speaker 1: that Bonnie had to hop rather than walk to get around,
Speaker 1: and as often as not, Clyde had to carry her.
Speaker 1: And as we already mentioned, Clyde himself had a pronounced
Speaker 1: limp some years earlier, while serving time in a penitentiary,
Speaker 1: had cut off two of his own toes to avoid
Speaker 1: the prison's brutal forced labor regime. All in all, lugging
Speaker 1: Bonnie in to get some breakfast sandwiches would have been unnecessary,
Speaker 1: at least strenuous, and so she had waited in the car.
Speaker 1: As Clyde pulled out of the parking lot. Bonnie ate
Speaker 1: a few bites of her sandwich and wrapped the remainder
Speaker 1: in the paper napkin it had come with. A Short
Speaker 1: time later, the car was speeding down a back country
Speaker 1: straightaway when they spotted a truck that looked like it
Speaker 1: had broken down. The driver was standing next to the vehicle,
Speaker 1: looking forlorn. They knew the truck and driver well. It
Speaker 1: was Ivy meth Finn, whose son Henry, was part of
Speaker 1: Bonnie and Clyde's small gang lately that spent many an
Speaker 1: evening visiting the meth Finn's house. Clyde slowed the car
Speaker 1: to see if he needed help. Ivy did not need help.
Speaker 1: In fact, his truck wasn't even broken down. About two
Speaker 1: months earlier, Henry, of violence prone hothead recently sprung from jail,
Speaker 1: had mistaken Clyde's instructions to kidnap a police officer who
Speaker 1: was getting too close. Henry had gunned him down instead.
Speaker 1: Enraged by the unnecessary loss of life, Clyde reluctantly shot
Speaker 1: down the second officer, twenty four year old about to
Speaker 1: be married Novice out on his very first day of
Speaker 1: motorcycle patrol. Bonnie and Clyde were already wanted for multiple crimes,
Speaker 1: but it was this outrageous act that turned the tide
Speaker 1: of public sentiment against them and stoked the efforts of
Speaker 1: law enforcement to bring them down by any means necessary.
Speaker 1: Given the nature of the incident and his role in it,
Speaker 1: Henry had a lot of gall to cut a deal
Speaker 1: with the cops. But that's just what he did when
Speaker 1: he agreed to help a posse of lawman ambush his
Speaker 1: two former partners in crime. Henry's father Ivy, was recruited
Speaker 1: to play a part, which he did convincingly enough. On
Speaker 1: that morning in May, no sooner had Bonnie and Clyde
Speaker 1: slowed down to see about Ivy's well being than six
Speaker 1: men with guns appeared from the woods and opened fire
Speaker 1: a blizzard of bullets. They fired a hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: seven shots. The guy in charge of the carnage, a
Speaker 1: Texas ranger by the name of Frank Haymer, was not
Speaker 1: a subtle man. He's reputed to have personally killed sixty
Speaker 1: five people over the course of his career. And even
Speaker 1: if it wasn't his gun that killed Bonnie or Clyde,
Speaker 1: he was at the end of the run for the
Speaker 1: most famous criminal couple in American history. The year four
Speaker 1: was a faithful one for the eras famous gangsters. Over
Speaker 1: the course of those twelve months, John Dillinger, Charles Author,
Speaker 1: Pretty Boy, Floyd George, Baby Face Nelson, and Mob Barker
Speaker 1: and her son Fred were all gunned down by law enforcement.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article how did Bonnie
Speaker 1: and Clyde Really Die? On how stuffworks dot Com written
Speaker 1: by O'sheen Kuran. Brain Stuff is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. Before more podcasts my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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