Full or original name at birth: Bonnie Elizabeth Parker

Date and place of birth: October 1, 1910, Rowena, Texas, U.S.A.

Date, time, place and cause of death: May 23, 1934, at 9:15 a.m., State Highway 154, near Gibsland, Louisiana, U.S.A. (Justifiable homicide - Killed in a police ambush)

Marriage
Spouse: Roy Glyn Thornton (m. September 25, 1926 - May 23, 1934) (her death)

Family/Relatives
Siblings: Hubert "Buster" Parker (older brother)
Billie Jean Parker (younger sister)

Parents
Father: Charles Parker (a bricklayer)
Mother: Emma Krause Parker (a seamstress)

Burial site: Crown Hill Memorial Park, 9700 Webb Chapel Road, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

Bonnie Parker was the third child of Charles Parker and Emma Krause Parker. Their first born, Coley, died of crib death. Bonnie had an older brother, Hubert "Buster" Parker, and a younger sister, Billie Jean Parker.

In 1914, her father died unexpectedly, forcing her mother to move the family to Cement City (now part of Dallas). By all accounts, Bonnie did well scholastically. She showed an aptitude for creative writing, and was on the honor roll in high school. Bonnie had aspirations to be a singer, an actress or poet. She would later succeed in getting her poetry before the masses, but only as a consequence of her later crimes.

She was just fifteen at the time of her 1926 marriage to Roy Thornton. It was a tumultuous union, as noted in her diaries. She notes that Roy disappeared without a word for days on end on three occasions. She acknowledges her, "roaming husband," and on the occurrence of his third disappearance, she notes that it will be the last. She vowed not to take him back, and when he finally did return early in 1929, she sent him packing, though she refused to divorce him.

Bonnie worked as a waitress at Marco's Cafe on Main Street, in downtown Dallas, followed by a stint at The American Cafe, adjacent to the old Texas Hotel on Houston Street. She was one of the more popular waitresses, and well-liked by most folks. In January 1930, she met Clyde Barrow. Within weeks he was sent to prison for several past crimes. Head over heels for her new love, it didn't take much convincing to persuade Bonnie to smuggle a pistol into prison so Clyde could participate in a jailbreak. He successfully broke out of jail, but was ultimately recaptured after committing a series of new crimes. After intense lobbying by his mother, Clyde was released from prison on February 2nd, 1932. Before long, he had returned to his old ways. But this time, Bonnie was at his side as his partner in crime.

Bonnie and Clyde made national headlines after committing a series of violent armed bank robberies, and holdups throughout the U.S. Southwest and Midwest in 1932. Their crimes and exploits continued to fascinate the public for the next two years. Their deaths while on the run from police only served to heighten public interest in the case. Subsequent retelling of their story has continued to captivate readers and moviegoers for decades.

It's nearly impossible to get an exact account of the number of bank robberies, gas station and market holdups, and murders, Bonnie and Clyde committed. There were several times that crimes were attributed to them, while documentation clearly placed them hundreds of miles away, usually committing other crimes before multiple eyewitnesses. It is likely the Barrow gang was responsible for thirteen homicides. While she certainly was an active participant in numerous crimes, most historians agree that Bonnie was never directly responsible for any of the murders Clyde and other members of the Barrow gang committed.

During their crime spree, Bonnie wrote The Story of Bonnie and Clyde and Suicide Sal, which remain her best known poems. (The full text of the aforementioned poems, appear at the bottom of this profile.)

Contrary to their image as modern-day Robin Hoods, Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow gang did not just rob large, faceless corporate banks, but far more often, committed armed robberies of fruit stands, filling stations, and any small convenience store along their route of travel. Even their numerous bank robberies tended to be of small-town banks who were struggling in the midst of the Great Depression. Unlike the Robin Hood legend, their motivation was personal greed, not any great altruistic agenda. Widespread press coverage, and their continuing evasion of capture, made them one of the first celebrity criminals of the modern era.

Over time, a glamorous, romanticized image of Bonnie and Clyde has developed, helped in no small measure by their portrayal in various films. The most celebrated of these was the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde starring Warren Beatty, and Faye Dunaway. The 1958 movie The Bonnie Parker Story, starred Dorothy Provine, and as the title suggests, focused on Bonnie's exploits. A 1992 TV-movie, Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story, starred Dana Ashbrook, Tracey Needham, Doug Savant and Billy Morrissette, and offered a less romanticized version of the Bonnie and Clyde story that was a little closer to, "The True Story," than director Arthur Penn's classic 1967 version. Nonetheless, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were both little more than small-time crooks, and bank robbers who displayed little or no social conscience or remorse. After successfully evading capture for more than two years, they were killed in a barrage of bullets in a police ambush.