DALLAS — Bonnie and Clyde may go down in American history as the most romantic of all outlaws.
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget about their murderous escapades. Most accounts might make them the “bad guys,” but they live on in lore nonetheless.
While they were killed on May 23, 1934, near Sailes, Louisiana, their connection to the Dallas area runs deep.
Who Are Bonnie and Clyde?
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in 1910 in Rowena, Texas, while Clyde Chestnut “Champion” Barrow was born in 1909 in Telico, Texas. They possibly met in January 1930.
Parker was married to a man in prison for murder, while Barrow was single. After meeting, they embarked on a murderous campaign from 1932 until 1934.
They are both buried in Dallas, albeit separately, apparently at the behest of the Parker family.
Barrow was buried in the historic Western Heights Cemetery, likely dating to the 1850s. Barrow’s headstone, shared with his brother, Marvin, simply reads, “Gone but not forgotten.” Clyde Barrow apparently selected the epitaph.
Parker was initially buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery, which sources indicate was also known as La Reunion Cemetery. However, in 1945, her body was reinterred in the Crown Hill Cemetery.
“As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you,” Parker’s grave reads.
A Southlake Memorial
In Southlake, a memorial unveiled in 1996 marks the location where the outlaws purportedly gunned down state Troopers H.D. Murphy and Edward Wheeler on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934.
Murphy and Wheeler were riding motorcycles while on patrol with another trooper, Polk Ivy, when they saw what appeared to be motorists in trouble. After realizing his compatriots weren’t following him, Ivy turned around and found Murphy and Wheeler, who was on his second day on duty, lying dead on Dove Road.
A witness identified Bonnie and Clyde as the culprits.
“It’s just stayed inside me and festered all this time – all the publicity on Bonnie and Clyde, glamorizing them,” Mrs. Edwards told the Associated Press when the marker was unveiled. “I want the world to know what vicious killers and murderers they are.”
A Grapevine Robbery
In Grapevine, the building that is home to Bermuda Gold & Silver, located at 404 S. Main Street, was once the site of Grapevine Home Bank. In 1932, two friends of Bonnie and Clyde purportedly held up the bank at gunpoint, locking bank officials in the vault as they escaped.
Of course, Bonnie and Clyde met an inglorious end. Lawmen gunned the duo down on May 23, 1934, near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
Today, the Bonnie and Clyde “brand,” if that’s the appropriate word for it, has branched out. The DFW Hilton, located near Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, features the Bonnie and Clyde Sports Bar and Grill.