0:00:03 > 0:00:09Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14She just had this strong love for Clyde and he for her.
0:00:16 > 0:00:23Their chaotic crime spree lasted two years and claimed 14 lives.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27One man died and bled out at the scene. The other man died later in hospital that night.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32But who were Bonnie and Clyde?
0:00:32 > 0:00:35What drove them to a life of violent crime?
0:00:36 > 0:00:40And how did they evade capture for so long?
0:00:40 > 0:00:43Clyde had been shot through the left cheek bone.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Bonnie had been shot in the belly.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Drawing on eye witness accounts,
0:00:51 > 0:00:53newly released police files
0:00:53 > 0:00:57and the discovery of a remarkable family memoir,
0:00:57 > 0:01:03Timewatch reveals the true motives and secret tactics...
0:01:05 > 0:01:09..behind the legend of America's most iconic outlaws.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34I am prepared under my constitutional duty
0:01:34 > 0:01:39to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45When Roosevelt was elected President in 1932,
0:01:45 > 0:01:50the United States of America was in economic meltdown.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56# Once I built a rail road, I made it... #
0:01:58 > 0:02:03The 1929 Wall Street crash had decimated the financial markets
0:02:03 > 0:02:09and a devastating drought had turned the farmland of the Mid-West into a dust bowl.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13# Brother, can you spare a dime...? #
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The Great Depression brought America's poor to its knees.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24It also triggered a crime wave of unprecedented proportions.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28All over America, there were criminal elements,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31some of them highly organised,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33carrying out all sorts of major crimes.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37The depredations of vicious outlaws roving from state to state
0:02:37 > 0:02:43like packs of wolves amounted to an actual armed invasion of America.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52You can't really understand what motivated them
0:02:52 > 0:02:55if you don't understand the economic hopelessness of the time.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01The most infamous outlaws of all were a pair of young lovers...
0:03:03 > 0:03:05..whose two-year crime spree
0:03:05 > 0:03:08included armed robbery, car theft, abduction, murder
0:03:08 > 0:03:14and a series of dramatic gun battles across at least 11 states.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Some saw them as modern day Robin Hoods,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22others as bloodthirsty hell-raisers.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28But all of America was captivated by the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36A story that began here, amid the poverty and economic ruin of Texas.
0:03:42 > 0:03:49In February 1932, a 21-year-old car thief and burglar called Clyde Barrow
0:03:49 > 0:03:52was released after two years in prison.
0:03:54 > 0:04:01He returned to the family home - a filling station in the deprived district of West Dallas.
0:04:01 > 0:04:09# I walk along the street of sorrow The boulevard of broken dreams... #
0:04:09 > 0:04:12This building behind me was the Barrow family residence
0:04:12 > 0:04:16from 1931 to approximately 1940.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18It was named the Barrow Star Filling Station.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27There is some evidence that Clyde tried to go straight.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31But his return to crime seemed depressingly inevitable.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39In 1932, when we first see the first embryonic Barrow Gang,
0:04:39 > 0:04:41Clyde's already been in prison.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45He can't keep a job in Dallas because the police keep rousting him.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50For these young people...
0:04:51 > 0:04:54..there's a chance for fun and excitement.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56You're not going to get that if you obey the law.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Early in April 1932,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05with a gang recruited from the West Dallas underworld,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Clyde Barrow became a bank robber.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16Later that month, after an aborted car theft, two of his gang were captured and jailed.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23One of them was a 21-year-old woman called Bonnie Parker.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31She was married very young, like 16, I think,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and her husband was in prison.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41Then she met Clyde and it must have just been a strong attraction.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45She just had this strong love for Clyde and he for her.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Bonnie grew up in Cement City, part of the West Dallas slum
0:05:53 > 0:05:55that's just one of the worst slums,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59not only in Texas, but I would say in the entire country during the Depression.
0:06:04 > 0:06:10She always wanted to be a singer, an actress on Broadway.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14She wanted to be a famous poet. She told people that constantly.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19But when you grew up in Cement City, you didn't have many choices in life.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25By the time she went to prison,
0:06:25 > 0:06:30even her mother was troubled by Bonnie's fascination with Clyde's life of crime.
0:06:31 > 0:06:39"Bonnie was learning the jargon of gangdom, in striving desperately to fit into it and become part of it.
0:06:39 > 0:06:46"There seemed to be a strange and terrifying change taking place in the mind of my child."
0:06:46 > 0:06:49I cannot imagine someone choosing that life,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53but I think Clyde just got so far in it, that there was no out.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56You know, there was no out.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And she chose to go with him, you know.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08While Bonnie was in jail, Clyde's criminal career reached a critical turning point.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Petty theft turned to murder when the bungled robbery
0:07:13 > 0:07:18of a grocery store led to the death of its owner, John Boucher.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28Clyde and these two friends of his, these two cohorts,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32Ted Rogers and Johnny Russell, went down there to case the place.
0:07:33 > 0:07:39Clyde knew this guy and so Clyde didn't want to go inside, but he sent the other two in.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45There's varying stories about what happened next,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48but whatever happened, Ted Rogers shot Boucher.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50GUNSHOT
0:07:50 > 0:07:51Clyde was outside in the car.
0:07:54 > 0:08:00But because Rogers and Russell were associated with Clyde, it was immediately linked to Clyde.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08When Bonnie was released from prison two months later, Clyde was wanted for murder.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14He faced the electric chair if caught.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17But she vowed never to leave him.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Bonnie and Clyde were already beyond the point of no return.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28The shooting of John Boucher had been a tragic blunder.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34But by the end of the year, Clyde and Bonnie were involved in three more seemingly callous murders.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43And in January 1933, Clyde's reputation as a ruthless killer,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46who would shoot without hesitation, was sealed
0:08:46 > 0:08:51when a deputy sheriff was murdered at this notorious West Dallas safe house.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Clyde wasn't what you'd call a cold-blooded murderer,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02as walking up to someone and shooting for the thrill of it.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11But if he felt threatened and pushed into a corner, he's going to come out firing.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17Acting on a tip-off relating to another local bank robber,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20five police officers had the house surrounded.
0:09:21 > 0:09:27When Clyde Barrow arrived, trying to contact one of his gang,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29his visit proved a deadly coincidence.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40Confronted by an armed officer, Clyde opened fire.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44He was now a cop killer in a high profile case.
0:09:48 > 0:09:54Already wanted for four other murders, Clyde and his lover, Bonnie, took to the road.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00Their life on the run was romanticised and made glamorous.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05But the true story of their fugitive lifestyle remained untold
0:10:05 > 0:10:10until the recent discovery of one of their accomplice's personal effects.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Blanche Barrow was married to Clyde's older brother, Buck.
0:10:21 > 0:10:27She became a reluctant member of the Barrow gang in March 1933.
0:10:27 > 0:10:33Over 60 years later, a close friend made a remarkable discovery.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37It was 12 years after Blanche died.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42I was getting ready to move to a new apartment
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and I started to just toss it out
0:10:45 > 0:10:49because it was in an old raggedy envelope.
0:10:49 > 0:10:56And my son, Lee, said "It says Bonnie and Clyde on the outside of this".
0:10:56 > 0:11:00I said, "Oh, my! I forgot all about it".
0:11:00 > 0:11:06Blanche gave this to me and wanted me to make sense of it.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09And inside was this Christmas card
0:11:09 > 0:11:14and inside that were two tablets
0:11:14 > 0:11:17that had Blanche's writing...
0:11:20 > 0:11:27..and it said "written in 1933/34/35".
0:11:28 > 0:11:31And those were the years that she was in prison.
0:11:33 > 0:11:39Blanche Barrow was captured and jailed after a bloody shoot-out in July 1933.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48While in prison, she wrote a detailed account of her time with the Barrow Gang.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55"We roamed over many states, leaving a trail of horror behind us,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58"terrorising those Clyde came into contact with
0:11:58 > 0:12:00"and needed something from."
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Esther Weiser took her discovery
0:12:10 > 0:12:16to the most highly regarded Bonnie and Clyde historian in America, John Neal Phillips.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20It's important because it's an eye witness account
0:12:20 > 0:12:26that places you in the car with Bonnie and Clyde.
0:12:30 > 0:12:36Yeah, that's him. "Brains blown out and running down shoulders". Wow.
0:12:36 > 0:12:37She's really frank.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Blanche's intimate account would lead John Neal Phillips
0:12:44 > 0:12:49to revaluate the motives behind the Barrow Gang's legendary exploits.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56But there was also a second,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59often overlooked side to the outlaws' story.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05As Bonnie and Clyde's notoriety grew, the question on everybody's lips was,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08"Why couldn't the police catch them?"
0:13:12 > 0:13:18Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ken Holmes believes that the answer lies in the police's own archives.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24Well, I'm looking at a document here from the County of Wharton, Texas.
0:13:24 > 0:13:31This is dated August 30th 1932 and it's, "To all peace officers in the United States."
0:13:31 > 0:13:36So they're taking this very seriously and they're calling them "extremely dangerous".
0:13:37 > 0:13:42Ken has pieced together a paper trail of documents from local police officers,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46all frustrated by their failure to apprehend Bonnie and Clyde.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54"Please make every effort to arrest these parties
0:13:54 > 0:13:59"and stop their running over the country shooting officers wherever they go."
0:14:03 > 0:14:09"They will not hesitate to shoot in making their escape and have said that they would not be taken alive."
0:14:12 > 0:14:16But America as yet had no national police force
0:14:16 > 0:14:19and the archives reveal that Bonnie and Clyde
0:14:19 > 0:14:23were directly profiting from the shortcomings of American law enforcement
0:14:23 > 0:14:25during the Great Depression.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Many of these folks had no law experience in a small town.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Your local deputy would be hired for 15 dollars a week
0:14:35 > 0:14:38and he'd have to drive his own farm pick-up truck,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42which probably was held together with bailing wire, chewing gum and a lot of hope.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44There were two-way radios.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48There is no coordinated effort to catch them yet.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55But police incompetence was just one factor in Clyde and Bonnie's early success.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02The gangsters would play a deadly game of cat and mouse with the law for the rest of their lives.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07And the evidence points not to a mindless crime spree,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11but reveals Clyde Barrow as a calculated criminal
0:15:11 > 0:15:19who made a series of tactical choices deliberately designed to exploit his opponents' weaknesses.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21His most important weapon
0:15:21 > 0:15:24was a piece of state of the art technology...
0:15:25 > 0:15:27..the Ford V8.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37In one of those happy accidents of history, in 1932,
0:15:37 > 0:15:43Mr Ford introduced his new V8 engine to the public.
0:15:43 > 0:15:44It was love at first sight.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48The fact is
0:15:48 > 0:15:55that if you gave Clyde Barrow a Ford V8 and five minutes head start, he was gone.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03The Barrow Gang travelled exclusively in stolen cars.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07Clyde realised that using the V8 gave them a clear advantage.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13Most of Clyde's opposition was in the form of small town law officers.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18And most of those men drove whatever was available -
0:16:18 > 0:16:23either their own personal car or possibly a county car.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27And most of those would be a few years old.
0:16:31 > 0:16:37Clyde maintained, even to his family, that he would much rather run than fight
0:16:37 > 0:16:43and if he had to run, he considered himself a better driver than anybody he would come up against.
0:16:45 > 0:16:52He was never run down by police pursuit in the 25 months that he was on the run. Never.
0:16:53 > 0:17:00Clyde's choice of car epitomised his acute tactical awareness and attention to detail,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04driven by his fierce determination to stay one step ahead of the law.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08Barrow was the leader.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13He was in many ways a control freak.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16He decided where they went.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18He decided when they went there.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23He decided who was driving the car, which was usually him.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25He decided everything.
0:17:27 > 0:17:33The threat of a death sentence seemed reason enough to explain Clyde's desperate nature.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40But now, for the first time, Blanche Barrow's memoir
0:17:40 > 0:17:44offers an insider account of what life on the run was really like for the outlaws.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49"All of us had a lot of fun together.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52"But to me, there always seemed to be a shadow hanging over us,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55"like a dark cloud."
0:17:59 > 0:18:05On the 1st of April 1933, Bonnie and Clyde rented a hide-out in Joplin,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09a notorious gang town in Missouri.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18They were accompanied by a teenage gang member called WD Jones,
0:18:18 > 0:18:24Clyde's brother Buck, recently released after 17 months inside for burglary,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27and Buck's wife, Blanche.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32They seemed an unlikely band of outlaws,
0:18:32 > 0:18:38but Blanche's memoir also reveals a unique understanding of the forces that drove the Barrow Gang.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45"Clyde told me most everything he had done since his own parole.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47"And I realised that Buck was in danger
0:18:47 > 0:18:51"at any and all times with Clyde."
0:18:51 > 0:18:55There's Buck, who's the older brother.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59Clyde Barrow was way beyond anything Buck had ever done.
0:19:00 > 0:19:06"Buck told me of his plan to try to persuade Clyde to give up the kind of life he was now living."
0:19:08 > 0:19:09There's Bonnie Parker.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15Bonnie Parker is just head over heels in love with Clyde Barrow.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20"She told me everything that had happened to them in the past six months
0:19:20 > 0:19:24"and how she wished she and Clyde were as free as Buck and I were."
0:19:26 > 0:19:28There's WD Jones.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Before he joined up with Bonnie and Clyde, he didn't even own a pair of shoes
0:19:33 > 0:19:37and now he's wearing suits and smoking cigars.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43And at that point in Joplin, WD Jones pretty much idolised Bonnie and Clyde.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48"I suppose he was like most kids his age, 16 or 17 years old.
0:19:48 > 0:19:54"He thought he could get a thrill from most anything even shooting at cops."
0:19:54 > 0:19:59And then we've got Blanche who's just absolutely in love with Buck,
0:19:59 > 0:20:04just every bit as much as Bonnie is in love with Clyde.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11It was Clyde Barrow who had drawn the other four together
0:20:11 > 0:20:15and Blanche's description of his state of mind
0:20:15 > 0:20:20sheds dramatic new light on the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
0:20:20 > 0:20:27"I caught a few words now and then of Clyde's conversation with Buck and I did not like what I heard."
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Blanche reveals that by the time the gang gathered in Joplin,
0:20:32 > 0:20:37Clyde had become obsessed by a dark episode from his past.
0:20:39 > 0:20:46The motivation behind Clyde's deadly violence lies in what happened to him three years earlier
0:20:46 > 0:20:48inside this prison.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55"Buck and I visited Clyde at a Texas prison farm called Eastham.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00"Clyde told me many things that happened in prison."
0:21:07 > 0:21:13In September 1930 aged just 20,
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Clyde Barrow was sent to Eastham Prison Farm near Huntsville, Texas.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26John Neal Phillips has researched Clyde's time here.
0:21:28 > 0:21:34He has interviewed fellow inmates and been granted special access to the now derelict building.
0:21:36 > 0:21:42John believes that what happened here had a profound effect on Clyde's character.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47When Clyde first arrived here at Eastham
0:21:47 > 0:21:52he was convicted for burglary and auto theft which were not violent crimes.
0:21:54 > 0:22:02A fellow convict described though, a transformation that Clyde Barrow underwent when he was here.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07He said "I saw Clyde Barrow change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake
0:22:07 > 0:22:09"right before my eyes".
0:22:14 > 0:22:16In October 1931
0:22:16 > 0:22:18a convict called Ed Crowder
0:22:18 > 0:22:23was brutally murdered in the prison shower block.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27Another prisoner called Aubrey Skelley was blamed.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31But he wasn't the killer.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37Crowder was known to sexually assault convicts and sexually assaulted Clyde.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45So, Clyde conspired with another convict who was a life-termer here,
0:22:45 > 0:22:51to actually perpetrate this murder, but the life-termer would take the rap for the murder.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01The real murderer's identity remained secret for decades.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04But, John Neal Phillips believes that Clyde Barrow was a killer
0:23:04 > 0:23:09months before he became wanted for murder outside of prison.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11That was his first murder.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14It was purely an act of desperation.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17This place would make you that desperate.
0:23:19 > 0:23:25Clyde's remaining three months inside proved unbearable in a prison
0:23:25 > 0:23:29which was the scene of some of the worst brutality in American penal history.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34There were enough guards that were extremely sadistic all over the prison system.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37But it seemed to be really concentrated here at Eastham.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42Some prisoners chose suicide.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47They would deliberately just run out in front of the guards and let them be killed.
0:23:50 > 0:23:56Another way to avoid this however, was to inflict an injury on yourself.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00And if it was serious enough you would have to be taken to Huntsville
0:24:00 > 0:24:06to the hospital in the main prison there and get away from whatever guard was out to get you.
0:24:08 > 0:24:15Blanche's memoir reveals that in January 1932, Clyde was moved to the prison hospital.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20"Clyde was walking on crutches
0:24:20 > 0:24:24"because he had cut off two of his toes with an axe."
0:24:25 > 0:24:31Clyde's experience at Eastham was psychologically devastating.
0:24:31 > 0:24:39When he emerged from prison on parole after two years inside, he was a damaged and dangerous man.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43There's a lot of evidence to indicate that Clyde was quite a control freak.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47You can imagine what that must have been like to somebody like that
0:24:47 > 0:24:51to be put in a place like this where you lose complete control.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54It didn't effect all prisoners that way,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56but Barrow decided to seek revenge.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58He just grew to hate this place.
0:24:58 > 0:25:07And once he's released from Eastham he swears to several people, including his mother,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10that he will never be taken alive.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13"I'll never go back to that hell hole," he said.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15"They're going to have to kill me".
0:25:22 > 0:25:24For the rest of his short life,
0:25:24 > 0:25:30Clyde was consumed by a bitter hatred for the regime at Eastham.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34It was the fear of being captured and returned there
0:25:34 > 0:25:37that fuelled his determination never to be taken alive...
0:25:39 > 0:25:43..and drove the Barrow Gang's increasingly extreme tactics.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Shortly after their arrival at Joplin,
0:25:49 > 0:25:54the Barrow Gang stole a supply of weapons from a nearby military facility.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59"Clyde began showing Bonnie all the guns
0:25:59 > 0:26:03"and told her what he could do with one of the army rifles.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06"It could shoot 20 times without stopping."
0:26:06 > 0:26:12This was just one of a series of audacious raids on National Guard armouries.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16The prize target was a military grade machine gun
0:26:16 > 0:26:22that would dominate the next chapter in Bonnie and Clyde's continuing battle against the police.
0:26:24 > 0:26:31Vintage gun collector, Don Raspante has made a study of the firearms of the time.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37The hand guns of the period were mainly .38 special
0:26:37 > 0:26:39made by Colt or Smith and Wesson.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41And this particular size and configuration
0:26:41 > 0:26:45would be very typical of a uniformed police officer.
0:26:45 > 0:26:46They came in different sizes.
0:26:46 > 0:26:52Your detectives and plain clothes men liked the smaller barrels.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54Shot guns were very popular with police departments
0:26:54 > 0:26:57because you didn't have to be that great a marksman
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and it had a lot of knock down, a lot of force.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06All right, now this. This was Clyde Barrow's favourite.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07It had a lot of fire power.
0:27:07 > 0:27:13This is the 1918 Browning automatic rifle more commonly known as the BAR.
0:27:13 > 0:27:14It can fire semi automatic,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17which was one round every time you pulled the trigger
0:27:17 > 0:27:21or full automatic - you pull the trigger back and it just goes until you stop.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28The BAR was a devastating weapon in Clyde's tactical armoury.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32He knew it would give him a huge advantage against the local police.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37In those days, law enforcement officers
0:27:37 > 0:27:40almost always had to buy their own weapons
0:27:40 > 0:27:45which was no small thing in the Great Depression.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49If they could afford anything it was a pistol.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51GUN SHOTS
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Well, here comes Barrow with a military weapon.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06There's just no contest there.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Clyde's formidable fire power...
0:28:28 > 0:28:33..would become the hallmark of a series of increasingly bloody gun fights...
0:28:34 > 0:28:40..that began when a group of local law men responded to reports of suspicious activities
0:28:40 > 0:28:43at the Barrow Gang's hideout in Joplin.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55They stayed here almost two weeks.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58But on the afternoon of the 13th
0:28:58 > 0:29:03they were interrupted by five policemen who came
0:29:03 > 0:29:08with a search warrant thinking that they were going to find a bootlegging operation going on here.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10DOOR SLAMS
0:29:13 > 0:29:15Two men are hit.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19One man died and bled out at the scene.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22The other man died later in hospital that night.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27The gang blasted their way out leaving two police officers dead.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Their escape was the clearest demonstration yet
0:29:31 > 0:29:36that local law men were ill-equipped to take on such dangerous outlaws.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39The reason they're able to stay at large
0:29:39 > 0:29:45is they're only being pursued by under armed, under manned,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48"under car-ed" local authorities.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54If they couldn't out run law officers trying to capture them,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57the Barrow Gang could just blast the heck out of them.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02In Joplin, essentially that is what happened.
0:30:02 > 0:30:08But, in their haste to escape, the gang left behind most of their belongings
0:30:08 > 0:30:11and when the police examined the scene of the crime,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15the legend of Bonnie and Clyde was born.
0:30:15 > 0:30:22They left behind their suitcases of possessions and of course several rolls of undeveloped film.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25And there suddenly are these pictures.
0:30:27 > 0:30:33These gangsters posing like they would for a photo booth shot
0:30:33 > 0:30:36only they're pointing real guns instead of fake guns.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43And Bonnie Parker, here she is leaning
0:30:43 > 0:30:46in a very unladylike posture on the bumper of a car
0:30:46 > 0:30:50and she's got a cigar dangling from her mouth.
0:30:50 > 0:30:56And that photo broke the Barrow Gang into huge national celebrities.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00America was enthralled.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03But Blanche's memoir reveals that the price of fame
0:31:03 > 0:31:09was an outlaw existence, far from the glamorous lifestyle of legend.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15"We lived in the car day and night with very little sleep.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17"Just driving like mad going no place.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21"We had to keep ahead of the cops.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25"If we stayed in one place very long they would catch up with us."
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Blanche's account is a unique, first-hand description
0:31:32 > 0:31:37of the grim reality of life on the run with Bonnie and Clyde.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40One of the greatest aspects of Blanche's memoir
0:31:40 > 0:31:45is her description of their lifestyle
0:31:45 > 0:31:46between these gun fights.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51"We drove so much and so fast most of the day and night,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53"sleeping only a few hours at a time."
0:31:55 > 0:32:01Living conditions were, well, "How many can we fit in car?"
0:32:01 > 0:32:05"We drove through South Carolina,
0:32:05 > 0:32:12"North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma and west through Mississippi.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18Using local plates to avoid attracting suspicion, Clyde steered the gang relentlessly
0:32:18 > 0:32:21from state to state leaving local law men,
0:32:21 > 0:32:26whose jurisdiction ended at the county or state line, powerless.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30He ranged as far as the East Coast.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35We think that he was in Florida and even North Carolina at times.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38As far North East as Indiana and Michigan.
0:32:38 > 0:32:44As far North as Minnesota, all through the Mid-West and Iowa and Kansas.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49He thought nothing of travelling 500 miles a day.
0:32:49 > 0:32:56If he was pursued he could travel as much as a 1,000 miles in a 24 hour period.
0:32:57 > 0:33:06Fast cars, big guns and relentless travel were the secrets of the Barrow Gang's epic crime spree.
0:33:09 > 0:33:15But their tactics were increasingly attracting attention beyond the local police level.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21Ken Holmes has obtained the FBI file on Bonnie and Clyde.
0:33:21 > 0:33:28It has only recently been released and it sheds new light on the campaign to catch the Barrow Gang.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Now we're finding with the release of this file
0:33:34 > 0:33:39from the FBI which is, I don't know 600 to 900 pages of information,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43that the Bureau of Investigation was on the Barrow case,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46but was very limited in what they were allowed to do.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52The file reveals that Federal chief, J Edgar Hoover
0:33:52 > 0:33:57was personally outraged by Clyde Barrow's audacious raids on military armouries.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03But while Federal jurisdiction didn't include robbery,
0:34:03 > 0:34:09or even murder, it did cover the movement of stolen cars across state lines.
0:34:13 > 0:34:21In May 1933, a Federal warrant was issued against Clyde and Bonnie for car theft -
0:34:21 > 0:34:23The only grounds on which Hoover could involve the Barrow Gang
0:34:23 > 0:34:28in his personal mission to change the face of American law enforcement.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35In the last year alone it was necessary for local law enforcement officers
0:34:35 > 0:34:42in the cities and communities of America to kill nearly 400 members of the underworld,
0:34:42 > 0:34:46who fully armed sought to cause the death of the officers who came to arrest them.
0:34:48 > 0:34:56In Washington DC, J Edgar Hoover is heading the Justice Department's Division of Investigation.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58This will become the FBI, but it isn't yet.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02And it's his ambition, which he ultimately succeeds in,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04of establishing the FBI
0:35:04 > 0:35:10as the group that can come in to any situation, cross any boundaries and lines, but that wasn't the case yet.
0:35:10 > 0:35:17He chose to make that case based on the criminals of the day.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20Bonnie and Clyde were perfect and he really wanted to get involved.
0:35:22 > 0:35:28Federal involvement in the Barrow Gang case has always been thought to be minimal.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31But despite the limitations of their jurisdiction,
0:35:31 > 0:35:38Hoover's agents would play a significant part in the eventual downfall of Bonnie and Clyde.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44By the summer of 1933, the Barrow Gang's formidable fire power
0:35:44 > 0:35:50had seen them escape from a series of intense gun fights across several states.
0:35:52 > 0:35:58But Bonnie and Clyde's notoriety was making life on the run increasingly grim.
0:35:58 > 0:36:03And at an abandoned tourist camp at Dexfield Park, Iowa,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07after their second brutal shoot out in less than a week,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10their luck changed.
0:36:13 > 0:36:19Someone spots this group of campers and becomes suspicious of them.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25And word is spread and a small posse is formed.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33"I heard Clyde suddenly say, 'Look out'.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37"Then he and WD rushed for the car and started shooting."
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Clyde is wounded in the arm, grazed in the head.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47Buck was hit at least once.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51Bonnie was then shot at least once in the abdomen.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55And they dragged themselves up this hill.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04Shortly after daybreak on the 24th July, 19 year-old Marvelle Feller
0:37:04 > 0:37:09was helping with the morning milking on his family farm.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12This here was about a five or six acre corn field.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Right here was where it was at. Right here.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19Marvelle and his nine year old sister, Louise
0:37:19 > 0:37:23were about to come face-to-face with Bonnie and Clyde.
0:37:23 > 0:37:31They are the only people alive to have come so dangerously close to the most feared outlaws in America.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Clyde had been shot through the left cheek bones in his head.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47He'd been grazed right there and the blood was running down his cheek.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54And Bonnie had been shot in the belly. I guess belly is what you say.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58And blood was running all down her.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03We discovered the fellas coming up
0:38:03 > 0:38:09and they were carrying Bonnie -
0:38:09 > 0:38:11my brother and my dad.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17She'd been shot and really bloody
0:38:17 > 0:38:21and Clyde was behind them with a gun on them.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28They had my brother pull the car out and get it straightened up in the lane
0:38:28 > 0:38:32and Marvelle said that the gun was laying right between them.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35And he really wanted to reach down and grab it,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38but he knew better than to do that.
0:38:42 > 0:38:48Remarkably, despite their injuries, Bonnie, Clyde and WD Jones escaped.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54But Clyde's brother Buck was too badly wounded to run.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56It was the end of the road for him
0:38:56 > 0:38:58and for his wife Blanche.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03"They saw Buck faint and pull me down.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06"I called to Clyde but they didn't stop."
0:39:08 > 0:39:14Finally she stands up and the posse then apprehended Blanche and Buck.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20It's at that point that that really famous photo of Blanche is taken.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Buck Barrow died from his wounds five days later.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33Blanche was sentenced to 10 years in jail
0:39:33 > 0:39:38where she was visited by a high profile interrogator.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43J Edgar Hoover himself went to the jail where Blanche was after she gave up.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47The net was closing in on Bonnie and Clyde.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51Federal, as well as local lawmen, were now on their trail.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55Soon after, in Texas, WD Jones was arrested...
0:39:57 > 0:40:00..and the Dallas Police made a vital breakthrough.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09Since Clyde's murder of a Deputy Sheriff earlier in the year...
0:40:10 > 0:40:15..the Dallas County Police had made Bonnie and Clyde their top priority.
0:40:17 > 0:40:24The Sheriff, "Smoot" Schmidt had assigned two men to the case.
0:40:24 > 0:40:30Ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce two of my deputies - Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton.
0:40:32 > 0:40:38Ted Hinton, I think had a huge crush on Bonnie. He used to be one of her customers when she was a waitress.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41Bob Alcorn was the first man ever to arrest Clyde Barrow.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45He arrested Clyde when Clyde was 15 or 16 for chicken theft.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49And their value to Schmidt, or at least the way Schmidt perceived it,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53was they might have insights that would allow him to, in some way,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56get informers, find informers and capture Bonnie and Clyde.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03In November 1933, Hinton and Alcorn received a tip off
0:41:03 > 0:41:07about a secret Barrow family meeting.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11This was the breakthrough they had hoped for -
0:41:11 > 0:41:15the opportunity for a police ambush.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Ted and Bob wanted to bring in Highway Patrol,
0:41:17 > 0:41:22they wanted to bring in the Texas Rangers, the Marshall's Office.
0:41:23 > 0:41:29And "Smoot" rousted up. He said "No, Dallas Sheriff's Department is going to handle this ourselves".
0:41:32 > 0:41:36And that proved to be one of the biggest mistakes he ever made in his life.
0:41:36 > 0:41:43Sheriff Schmidt directed an unsuccessful attempt to take Bonnie and Clyde alive.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Although the outlaws' bullet-ridden car was later recovered,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55they had once again shot their way out of trouble.
0:41:56 > 0:42:04But Ted Hinton was determined that the next time he faced Bonnie and Clyde, he would not be outgunned.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08He immediately contacted a US Congressman named Hatton Sumners,
0:42:08 > 0:42:13and he got Congressman Sumners to agree
0:42:13 > 0:42:19for him to draw a BAR out of the National Guard Armoury,
0:42:19 > 0:42:21along with a box of ammunition.
0:42:23 > 0:42:30Hinton had procured a BAR, the military machine gun beloved of Clyde Barrow.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35Finally, the police were beginning to match the tactics of their outlaw opponents.
0:42:37 > 0:42:43In January 1934, Clyde decided to realise an ambitious plan.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49For some time he had been plotting a raid on Eastham Prison,
0:42:49 > 0:42:51the scene of his first murder.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01Blanche Barrow's memoir reveals that the brutal abuse he had suffered as an inmate here
0:43:01 > 0:43:05was the real driving force behind Clyde's violent criminal career.
0:43:07 > 0:43:15Four years after he first arrived at Eastham, a daring prison break was to be his final act of revenge.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Clyde had always planned to raid Eastham.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25He was once a prisoner here at Eastham.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28He was brutalised here at Eastham.
0:43:29 > 0:43:35This was a raid that was planned four years before it actually occurred.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43To quote him directly,
0:43:43 > 0:43:50"I would like to raid this place, free as many prisoners as I can,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53"and kill every damn guard in the place."
0:43:58 > 0:44:00Five prisoners escaped.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05Clyde had settled his score with Eastham.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10But this act of vengeance marked the beginning of the end for Bonnie and Clyde.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19A prison guard was fatally wounded by one of the convicts during the escape.
0:44:20 > 0:44:26For the Prison Manager, Lee Simmons, it was clear who was to blame.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32He now vowed revenge and called on the services of a formidable investigator...
0:44:34 > 0:44:38..a former Texas Ranger called Frank Hamer.
0:44:38 > 0:44:44He asked Hamer to put Bonnie and Clyde on the spot and shoot everyone in sight.
0:44:44 > 0:44:50And that was the beginning of the tracking of Bonnie and Clyde with the express intent of killing them.
0:44:52 > 0:44:58Harrison Hamer has made a detailed study of his great uncle's involvement in the Barrow case,
0:44:58 > 0:45:05revealing a methodical and ruthless tracker unconcerned by the limits of jurisdiction or geography.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12OK, this was Frank's expense account
0:45:12 > 0:45:14during the period of February 15th 1934
0:45:14 > 0:45:18to February 28th 1934.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23This is money expended while travelling on official business in the capacity of investigator.
0:45:25 > 0:45:31This was a period about 13 days and he travelled 1,397 miles.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35So he was travelling about 100 miles a day.
0:45:37 > 0:45:43Adopting the outlaw lifestyle of his opponents, Frank Hamer took to the road.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48He got a car exactly like the Ford that Clyde was driving,
0:45:48 > 0:45:52and he lived out of that car for the whole time he was tracking them down.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58He knew what kind of whisky they drank, what brand of cigarettes they had,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02what kind of food they ate, where they ate at.
0:46:04 > 0:46:05He was like a pitbull.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08He was not going to give up. He was going to bring them to justice.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14At last, Clyde Barrow had met his match.
0:46:15 > 0:46:21Lee Simmons put Frank Hamer on the job. The job was going to get done.
0:46:23 > 0:46:29But while Frank Hamer has long been regarded as the archetypal lone ranger,
0:46:29 > 0:46:33the FBI file reveals that he was actually working
0:46:33 > 0:46:38in close harmony with J Edgar Hoover's Federal agents.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41This letter here was March 17th 1934,
0:46:41 > 0:46:44telling the agents to work with Frank Hamer.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46And you start finding that
0:46:46 > 0:46:49Frank Hamer is working with their special agents
0:46:49 > 0:46:54in different locations and they're out investigating.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56And they did a quite detailed report.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00I mean, this is just a lot of information that is put in here.
0:47:01 > 0:47:06Behind the scenes, Hoover's men continued to make their resources and intelligence
0:47:06 > 0:47:08available to Frank Hamer.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11And in Dallas, the records now reveal
0:47:11 > 0:47:15that Bonnie and Clyde's families' telephones had been tapped.
0:47:17 > 0:47:23The police pursuit now focused on sophisticated surveillance and intelligence gathering.
0:47:25 > 0:47:31The tables were beginning to turn in the battle between Bonnie and Clyde and the law.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36Public opinion also turned against them after a shocking double murder
0:47:36 > 0:47:43here in Grapevine, Texas on Easter Sunday 1934.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51'After a series of murders and bank jobs, Bonnie and Clyde
0:47:51 > 0:47:52'were boldly keeping a rendezvous
0:47:52 > 0:47:55'with some of their henchmen near Grapevine, Texas.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58'While they waited they drank whisky, made love to each other
0:47:58 > 0:48:01'and practiced their marksmanship by shooting at birds.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08'Presently, two State Highway patrol officers sighted the pair.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10'They decide to investigate.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13'They approach Bonnie and Clyde, totally unaware of their identity.'
0:48:22 > 0:48:29The murder of officers Edward Bryan Wheeler and Holloway Daniel Murphy seemed particularly callous.
0:48:31 > 0:48:37And for the first time it was reported that Bonnie, as well as Clyde, had fired the fatal shots.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44'This atrocious murder sealed the doom of Bonnie and Clyde...
0:48:45 > 0:48:47GUN SHOT
0:48:47 > 0:48:49'..for every peace officer in the entire South West
0:48:49 > 0:48:51'became so enraged over this killing
0:48:51 > 0:48:54'they pledged themselves to sleepless days and nights
0:48:54 > 0:48:57'in their search for this murdering pair.'
0:48:57 > 0:49:02But despite the media reports, there is no evidence that Bonnie pulled the trigger here
0:49:02 > 0:49:06or at any of the other murders attributed to the Barrow Gang.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10In fact, it was a third outlaw - Henry Methvin,
0:49:10 > 0:49:16one of the escapees from Eastham - who opened fire first at Grapevine.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19Everyone within the Barrow Gang
0:49:19 > 0:49:22and the stories they told their families later,
0:49:22 > 0:49:24there's not much agreement on many things
0:49:24 > 0:49:25but there's some agreement on this,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28that Clyde said to Henry Methvin, "Let's take them,"
0:49:28 > 0:49:31meaning, "Let's take them hostage."
0:49:31 > 0:49:33Henry hasn't been in this situation before.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37He's mean, he's young and he's had too much to drink
0:49:37 > 0:49:38and he starts shooting.
0:49:40 > 0:49:46But Methvin is mysteriously absent from the official version of events at Grapevine.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52Behind the scenes, a complex drama was beginning to play out.
0:49:52 > 0:49:59You can look at the newspaper headlines and you hardly ever find a mention of Methvin's name.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03And that, I think, can only have one thing behind it,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07and that was the fact that there's this deal working.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15The official records reveal that Henry Methvin's family was plotting to betray Bonnie and Clyde
0:50:15 > 0:50:19in a deal brokered by Frank Hamer.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26"Henry Methvin's sentence in the State of Texas would be wiped out
0:50:26 > 0:50:30"provided that Methvin would place Barrow and Bonnie Parker on the spot."
0:50:38 > 0:50:43With the help of Henry Methvin's father, the plan was to lure Bonnie and Clyde
0:50:43 > 0:50:49into an ambush near the Methvin family home near Gibsland, Louisiana.
0:50:51 > 0:50:56The outlaws had been regularly sighted in the area since the raid on Eastham Prison.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59And on Monday 21st May 1934,
0:50:59 > 0:51:05Frank Hamer assembled six officers on this remote country road.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11The composition of the posse was a six-man.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18Frank Hamer and "Manny" Gault, who were both retired Texas Rangers...
0:51:18 > 0:51:20Two Dallas County Deputy Sheriffs,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn...
0:51:22 > 0:51:28And then you had Henderson Jordan, who was the Sheriff here of Bienville Parish,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32and his chief deputy, Prentiss Oakley.
0:51:32 > 0:51:37The two of them took in the legal jurisdiction for the shooting.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44And they waited down here for two days and two nights.
0:51:49 > 0:51:55Just before daybreak on Wednesday 23rd May, the posse stopped a pick up truck.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58It was Henry Methvin's father.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05Bob Alcorn turned his truck around, put it in the Southbound lane here.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08He jacked the wheel up, took it off
0:52:08 > 0:52:14and by Methvin's truck being there, Clyde is going to naturally slow down
0:52:14 > 0:52:17because he recognises the truck.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22The trap was set.
0:52:30 > 0:52:37Later that morning, Bonnie and Clyde set off in their stolen Ford V8, hoping to meet Henry Methvin.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Clyde Barrow was typically well armed.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49If you could have seen in this car that morning,
0:52:49 > 0:52:55you would have seen a sawn off shot gun, three Browning automatic rifles,
0:52:55 > 0:53:02a loaded pistol and a bag containing another 10 or 11 hand guns.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08The car was essentially a rolling armoury.
0:53:14 > 0:53:21But this time Bonnie and Clyde faced equal fire power, including Ted Hinton's BAR.
0:53:23 > 0:53:30It has been said that they were facing the most amount of fire power
0:53:30 > 0:53:37that they could have possibly faced, short of an army platoon.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42This time, there would be no hope of taking Bonnie and Clyde alive.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46The posse would shoot on sight.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54And just after 9.15 on Wednesday 23rd May 1934,
0:53:54 > 0:53:57on a lonely road in Louisiana,
0:53:57 > 0:54:02Bonnie and Clyde's deadly game of cat and mouse reached its inevitable conclusion.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19"I was glad they died together.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24"That way, neither one had to deal with the grief of losing the other."
0:54:27 > 0:54:33The car wound up with 167 holes in it, counting entrance and exit holes.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38Bonnie wound up with 53 in her and Clyde wound up with 51 in him.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56There's not much to say now. It is all over.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59The ends of law and justice have been served.
0:55:09 > 0:55:15The Barrow Gang's chaotic crime spree had claimed 17 lives,
0:55:15 > 0:55:20including those of Buck Barrow and Bonnie and Clyde themselves.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29For her involvement with the Barrow Gang,
0:55:29 > 0:55:31Blanche Barrow spent nearly six years in prison,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34where she wrote her unique memoir.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38It's an account that finally explains Bonnie and Clyde's journey
0:55:38 > 0:55:41from petty crime to vicious murder,
0:55:41 > 0:55:47driven by Clyde's experience in a notoriously brutal Texas prison.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53The very next year, 1935, Texas was named the worst prison in the United States,
0:55:53 > 0:55:58and they cited in particular brutality at various prison installations,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01and they really focused at Eastham.
0:56:02 > 0:56:08Bonnie and Clyde's downfall also signalled the beginning of a new chapter in American law enforcement.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15Bonnie and Clyde were a turning point in American legal history.
0:56:17 > 0:56:24Federal law changed so that murder and bank robbery became Federal crimes.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28The division of investigation agents
0:56:28 > 0:56:31then went out and pretty much, over the next six months,
0:56:31 > 0:56:35blew away all the other major criminals at the time.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41This was the birth of the FBI as we know it today.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44The crime wave of the Great Depression would soon run its course,
0:56:44 > 0:56:51but the legend of Bonnie and Clyde would continue to captivate the world for generations to come.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03# Bonnie was a waitress in a small cafe
0:57:03 > 0:57:08# Clyde Barrow was the rounder that took her away
0:57:08 > 0:57:13# They both robbed and killed until both of them died
0:57:15 > 0:57:19# So goes the legend of Bonnie and Clyde
0:57:19 > 0:57:21# Bonnie and Clyde
0:57:21 > 0:57:24# Bonnie and Clyde. #