WENT TO BED LATE AFTER WATCHING A 2019 MOVIE ABOUT BONNIE AND CLYDE. The Highwaymen.
I'd watch it again. This time era of 1934 with the clothing styles, hairdos, cars, furniture, etc. and the story line were captured well. Not glorifying the criminals as I think they were hardened, cold-blooded killers that needed stopped, came to an end in 1934.
Several movies and documentaries have been made about this couple that were dangerous and on the move. I think I've seen them all including The Highwaymen.
I remember my dad talking about them as he was about 7 years old during this drama. I can only imagine what his very poor family that struggled to make ends meet thought of Bonnie and Clyde's ways. The fine clothing and beautiful cars that were not within their own reach, but these criminals stole cash and cars while murdering others. Many thought they were like Robin Hood taking from the rich banks that were taking from the poor farmers, but they also robbed small time Mom and Pop grocery stores and gas stations.
Bonnie had followers that placed her status to that of a movie star. Petite and pretty, well dressed and admired. She stood all of about 4' 11" weighing less than a hundred pounds. She married early at 15 to her High School Sweetheart, Roy Thornton who went to prison so living with someone other than her husband during this wild time of crime sprees had to have been a scandal to God fearing people across the country not to mention the robberies while toting guns. Bonnie smoked cigarettes and possibly cigars, slung a machine gun about or at least in the photographs and ran from the law. She wore her wedding band until her death. Tatooed on her right thigh were the names Bonnie and Roy.
No self respected woman would have had a tattoo on her inner thigh in those days. She'd take up with Clyde Barrow later while her husband was in prison. Bonnie and Clyde made a name for themselves in a dishonest way until their deaths.
Bonnie and Clyde frequently prowled Kansas, which according to former gang member Ralph Fults, was the best bank-robbing state in the Union because of its numerous straight roads, each intersecting every mile or so with another road, creating a network of escape routes virtually impossible to seal off.
The automobile that they were killed in was stolen a head of time from Ruth Warren's residence in Topeka, Kansas. 2107 Gabler, Topeka, Kansas.
Can you imagine having bought a new automobile leaving it sitting in the drive to just have it stolen by Bonnie and Clyde?
Ruth's car was eventually returned to her in which she would sell for show. This was a modest neighborhood that Clyde and Bonnie were driving around when they spied Ruth's new car in the driveway. She only owned the Ford V-8 for a few months before it was stolen.
At one point in time, Bonnie was going by the name Jewell who ran a cafe in Hugoton, Kansas called Jewell's Cafe and Clyde went by the name Blackie who was a farm laborer. They were known to be bootleggers going by the last name of Underwood. Blackie reportedly worked on a farm while Jewell ran the cafe in town. When I lived in Hugoton, I didn't know about this colorful past until years later.
Hugoton was known for the natural gas deposit found southwest of town in 1927. This became the Hugoton Natural Gas Field, which would become one of the top five sources of natural gas in the United States. Lots of workers came to Hugoton to work in the gas field. HUGOTON NATURAL GAS FIELD brought many in for work including bootleggers.
I've walked past the place where JEWELL'S CAFE would have been not knowing her history. Hubby had worked in the Oil and Gas Field in days gone by while I was a young HOMEMAKER, wife and momma living in Hugoton in our first mortgaged house that was a bungalow that I have dreamt about many times.
Bonnie and Clyde are no more, but the stories still float about,
~d
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