Further Reading for Bonnie and Clyde
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn
The above title is by author Jeff Guinn, who also provided the main source material for Last Pod’s exceptional Jonestown series.
The 1930’s were a brutal time for the United States. 25% unemployment meant that a full quarter of Americans were out of work, scraping to get by, on top of America’s existing rural poor. America’s wealthy elite managed to escape mostly unharmed and continued living lives of magnificent opulence and this seeded a deep contempt in the American public for the rich. A new class of criminal emerged at this time. This was the era of The Public Enemy, high profile, violent criminals glamorized in the pages of pulp magazines. This was the era of John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly. But no one caught the imagination of Depression-era America in those seedy pages quite like the exploits of Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and their gang.
Bonnie and Clyde met at a party in 1930 and the couple had immediate chemistry. Barrow had been drifting toward a serious life of crime at this time, and Bonnie’s determination to live the life she felt that she deserved, a life way above her station, drove the pair howling toward mayhem. Following a brief stay in prison, they hit the road on a multi-state crime spree at a time before the FBI, when escaping justice meant crossing state lines. Their escapades filled the pages of lurid crime magazines with a story of crime and romance that wasn’t terribly accurate but was enough to paint a vaguely Robing Hood style portrait of criminals in love, on the road, and living by their own rules in a time of extreme class struggle. It was pretty steamy stuff. Unfortunately, it wasn’t terribly true and by the time of their deaths in a car riddled with gigantic bullet holes, they had left 13 people dead, mostly innocents.
Episodes: 369 & 370
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