Born: 1 October 1910, United States
Died: 23 May 1934
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Bonnie Thornton
The following is republished from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death by officers in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana on May 23, 1934, after one of the most extensive manhunts the nation had seen up to that time.
Barrow was suspected of numerous killings and was wanted for murder, robbery, and state charges of kidnapping.
The FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, became interested in Clyde and Bonnie in December 1932 through a singular bit of evidence. A Ford automobile that had been stolen in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, was found abandoned near Jackson, Michigan, in September of that year.
At Pawhuska, law enforcement learned that another Ford car had been abandoned there after having been stolen in Illinois. In this car was a prescription bottle, which led special agents to a drug store in Nacogdoches, Texas. Investigators learned the medicine had been prescribed to Clyde Barrow’s aunt.
Further investigation revealed that the woman who obtained the prescription had been visited recently by Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and Clyde’s brother L. C. It also was learned that these three were driving a Ford car—identified as the one stolen in Illinois. It was further shown that L. C. Barrow had secured the empty prescription bottle from a son of the woman who had originally obtained it.
On May 20, 1933, the United States Commissioner at Dallas, Texas, issued a warrant against Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, charging them with the interstate transportation—from Dallas to Oklahoma—of the automobile stolen in Illinois. The FBI then started its hunt for this elusive pair.