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- [00:00]
Lindsey Graham
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at Noizr.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@ebookist.com it's early evening on April 13, 1933. In a garage apartment in Joplin, Missouri. 22 year old Bonnie Parker lays on a mattress on the floor listening to music and waiting for her boyfriend to get back. Clyde Barrow and his outfit, which will come to be known as the Barrow Gang, spend their days traveling around, robbing, looting, and sometimes killing. But lately, Bonnie and Clyde have been holed up in this rented apartment with several other gang members. Tonight, Bonnie is bored because Clyde is out running errands with one of his cohorts. So Bonnie decides to pass the time with one of her favorite activities, writing poetry. As she scribbles away, Bonnie's eyes light up when she hears a car pull into the driveway. Clyde is back, so she heads for the door, anxious for her lover to walk in the room. But instead she hears a shout coming from the streets and then the crack of gunshots. Inside, other gang members take cover. Bonnie leaps to her feet and sprints to the window. She sees Clyde and another member of the gang making a beeline for the garage. As police cars swoop in and block the driveway. Bonnie grabs a machine gun propped up against the wall, throws open the window. She leans out and takes aim. A squeeze of the trigger sends a torrent of lead into the street. Bonnie grabs a spare magazine to reload. She looks out into the driveway and sees Clyde dragging a dead cop across the pavement. Bonnie knows there are still officers outside and likely reinforcements on the way, so she slams the fresh magazine into place and empties the gun again. Then she drops the weapon and runs for the door. Outside, she jumps straight into the passenger seat of a waiting Ford V8 sedan. Clyde's behind the wheel and the rest of the gang hops in the back. And with the scream of tires, the couple is in the wind. When the police sweep the apartment, they find a staggering cache of weapons, military rifles and machine guns. But it's the poetry notebooks, the camera, and the rolls of undeveloped film that are the real find. By morning, those photographs will be on the front page of newspapers across America, and the country will get its first glimpse at one of the most infamous couples of all time. Two wild lovers who lived by their own rules and answered to no one. But in reality. The bloody crime spree they enacted was violent and deadly, and it came to an equally lethal end when the couple went down in a hail of gunfire on May 23, 1934. History Daily is sponsored by Express Pros. Managing your workforce can be exhausting, and if you're tired of a costly and lengthy hiring process, simplify and speed up your recruitment. With one connection, the experts at Express Employment Professionals reduce time to hire, cut down on interviews, and lower your recruitment costs. Visit ExpressPros.com today. Express is more efficient than hiring on your own. Check out ExpressPros.com to see see how Express Employment professionals can take care of your hiring with the Spark Cash plus card from Capital One, you earn unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase and you get big purchasing power so your business can spend more and earn more. Steven, Brandon and Bruno, the business owners of Sandcloud, reinvested their 2% cash back to help build their retail presence. Now that's serious business. What could the SparkCash plus card from Capital One do for your business? Capital One? What's in your wallet? Find out more@capital1.com SparkCashPlus terms apply from Noiser and Airship I'm Lindsey Graham and this is History Daily. History is made every day on this podcast. Every day we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is May 23, 1934 the death of Bonnie and Clyde. It's January 5, 1930 in the neighborhood of West Dallas, Texas. In the kitchen of a simple house at 105 Herbert Street, 19 year old Bonnie Parker makes a cup of hot chocolate. Bonnie is currently staying here at her friend's home. She's been out of work for some time and needed a place to stay. Her friend is recovering from a bad injury, so Bonnie decided to move in and help her heal. But right now, Bonnie's not thinking about being a caregiver. She's thinking about how she can't stop staring at her friend's handsome guest who stands across from her in the kitchen. 20 year old Clyde Barrow is a good looking man and he seems to be thinking that Bonnie is a good looking woman. The two strangers can't stop gawking at each other. They're both experiencing a similar suspicion that this encounter feels like love at first sight. And from this moment forward, Bonnie and Clyde are inseparable. They spend every waking moment together. They swoon in dark corners and call each other pet names. But their whirlwind romance doesn't last. Not long after they meet, Clyde is Arrested and put behind bars for auto theft, Bonnie can't stand being apart from her new beau even for a moment. So she smuggles him a gun inside the jail. Clyde uses it to break out and for a brief time, the lovebirds are reunited. But one week later, Clyde is arrested again. This time the judge sentences Clyde to 14 years at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. From there, he's sent off to Eastham to do manual labor on a prison farm. By January of 1932, Clyde, two years after meeting Bonnie Clyde is despondent and desperate for a reprieve from the backbreaking work. One day while out on work duty, a hopeless Clyde takes an axe and chops off his big toe in an attempt to secure a place in a softer prison. But the self mutilation turns out to be unnecessary. Unknown to Clyde, his mother has already successfully petitioned for his release. Six days later, Clyde limps out of Eastham. But Clyde is scarred in other ways too. A family member will later remark something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn't the same person when he got out. As Clyde walks through the outer gate and takes his first breath of fresh air as a free man, he makes a vow to he'll never again set foot in a prison and he'll exact revenge on the system that tried to break him. His girlfriend Bonnie is all too eager to join him on his quest for vengeance. And eventually Clyde forms a gang with Bonnie, his brother Buck and wife Blanche and a slew of other unsavory characters. They rob small town stores, gas stations and banks. They stage jailbreaks and gun down cops and civilians. And as they try to stay one step ahead of the authorities, they have several close calls with the law, including the bloody shootout in that garage apartment in Joplin, Missouri in April of 1933. The gang makes out of Joplin alive thanks to their shoot first style. But they leave two dead officers in their wake. And they also leave behind evidence, including Bonnie's notebooks and a roll of film. By morning, the pictures of the Barrow Gang are splashed over front pages all across the country. There are several photos, but the image that will captivate America is that of Bonnie, all 4 foot 11 of her in a black dress with a beret pushed back on her head. She has one foot resting on the bumper of Clyde's Ford. Her left hand hangs casually over the headlight and her right hand holds a revolver. The stub of a cigar is clamped between her lips. Throughout the spring of 1933, the Barrow Gang continues to roam the countryside stealing and looting. And by the time Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree is over, they will have killed at least nine officers of the law and four civilians. Soon their notoriety will capture the attention of powerful politicians and public officials who decide the violence needs to stop. One of these officials will enlist the services of a retired Texas Ranger named Frank Hamer. Frank will be deputized and made a special investigator, charged with a single task to find Bonnie and Clyde and bring them to justice. AT T Mobile we'll give you four free 5G phones and four lines for only $25 per line per month with eligible trade ins. And no, it's not a contest, it's every day for a limited time. Everyone's a winner on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of 4 lines for $25 per line per month with autopay discount using debit or bank account $5 more per line without autopay up to $830 off each phone via 24 monthly bill credits plus taxes, fees and $10 device connection charge for well qualified customers. 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- [08:59]
Narrator
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- [09:56]
Lindsey Graham
10Th, 1934, on a stretch of road in the heart of Texas. Frank Hamer, a tall man in a wide brimmed hat, sits in the driver's seat behind the wheel of his black four door sedan. He's driving from Austin to Dallas on a mission to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde. In Dallas, Frank's first stop is at the local sheriff's office. There, Frank sits down with the sheriff and starts asking questions. He wants to know everything about the duo. What they like to eat and drink. The color, size and texture of their clothes. Soon, Frank has the Information he needs. But he needs something else too. In their meeting, the sheriff pledges his support to the hunt and loans Frank one of his deputies, Bob Alcorn, a good cop who knows the Barrow gang well. When Frank and Bob leave Dallas, Frank knows exactly where they're headed. As he will later explain, Barrow was hot in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa because the long trail of murder he and Bonnie and the gang had spread over those states. Louisiana was the one spot where he wasn't hot. But there's another reason Frank suspects Bonnie and Clyde are in the Pelican State. One of the members of the Barrow gang is from a town there called Arcadia. He's a bank robber and outlaw named Henry Methven. By 1934, most of the Barrow gang is either dead or scattered. But Henry Methven still rides with Bonnie and Clyde. Frank suspects Bonnie and Clyde use Henry's parents place near Acadia as a safe house. And eventually Frank will put the word out to local, state and national law enforcement to keep an eye on the Methven family. Not long after his meeting in Dallas, Frank and Bob hit the road eastbound. Frank will spend the next few months traveling back and forth between Austin, Dallas and Louisiana, chasing down any lead that might bring him closer to Bonnie and Clyde. But the pair remain elusive Until April of 1934, when Frank gets a break. He learns that Bonnie and Clyde recently surfaced at Henry Methven's parents place. Soon, local law enforcement makes contact with Henry's father, Ivy Methven. Under pressure, Ivy says he's willing to make a deal. He'll help the lawmen catch Bonnie and Clyde if they agree not to prosecute his son. So on April 28, Frank and Bob drive to Acadia. There they meet with Henry's father, Ivy and other members of the family in a remote wooded area. Frank hands Ivy a letter authorizing him to make any deal that will help bring Bonnie and Clyde to justice. Ivy says he just wants his son Henry's criminal record wiped clean. Frank gives Ivy his word, but on the condition that the Methven family give Frank their full cooperation. Ivy swears he will cooperate, and he promises that if his son ever resurfaces, Henry will cooperate too. Frank gives Ivy and the Methvins their marching orders. Keep quiet and lay low until Bonnie and Clyde pop up again. But Frank won't have to wait long. About two weeks later, he gets a call from a sheriff in Louisiana telling him that Bonnie and Clyde are back in the area and that Henry is with them. Hearing this, Frank immediately drives to Acadia and checks into a motel. There he waits. On the evening of May 22, Frank gets another call. This time the sheriff informs him that Henry is spending the night at the house where his parents are staying and that Bonnie and Clyde are scheduled to meet Henry at the Methven house tomorrow morning. Frank feels it's time for him to move, but he wants to take the duo alive, especially young Bonnie. He has no desire to kill a woman, but he also knows the bloodthirsty couple has a reputation for shooting their way out of capture. So instead of storming in guns blazing, Frank decides to lay a trap. The plan is simple. Prior to the 9am Rendezvous, Ivy will park his truck on the side of the road that leads to the house where the Methvens are staying. Ivy will pretend he's changing a tire while Frank, his posse, and members of local law enforcement conceal themselves nearby. When Clyde pulls over to help, Frank will step forward, call out to him and give the pair a chance to surrender. But on the morning of May 23, Frank's plan will go horribly wrong. Shots will ring out, and when the smoke clears, the murderous crime spree of Bonnie and Clyde will be over.
- [14:07]
Frank Hamer
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- [14:56]
Lindsey Graham
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- [15:14]
Frank Hamer
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- [15:24]
Lindsey Graham
See full terms@mintmobile.com it's just before 9am on Wednesday, May 23, 1934 in Gibson, Louisiana, a town 12 miles west of Arcadia. Bonnie Parker sits in the passenger seat of Clyde's Ford V8 as it tears down a barren dusty road. They're on their way to meet with a fellow gang member, Henry Methven, at his parents home. But Bonnie is starving so Clyde pulls the Ford into the parking lot of a local diner. As he goes inside for food, Bonnie stares out the window and does her best to keep her mind off the pain. Last summer, Bonnie, Bonnie and Clyde were in a terrible car accident and her leg still hasn't healed properly. When Clyde returns, he hands Bonnie a sandwich and pulls the car out of the parking lot and get back on their way. Soon Clyde turns on a quiet rural road that leads to the Methven house. But as they near their destination, Bonnie sees something in the distance. A broken down truck parked on the shoulder. Standing next to it is Henry's father, Ivy Methven. Clyde slows the Ford to a crawl to lend his friend's father a helping hand. He is just able to put the car in park when suddenly a gunshot rings out. It passes through the open driver side window of Clyde's car and strikes him in the head, killing him instantly. Bonnie lets out a blood curdling scream. A sound that will stay with Frank Hamer for the rest of his life. Frank will later learn that one of the local law officers got trigger happy and fired on Clyde prematurely. The officer will claim that Clyde spotted him and went for his gun. But in the heat of the moment, Frank barely has time to process what's happening. Frank will claim he never intended to kill Bonnie, but after the first shot rings out, his instinct takes over. Frank joins his fellow lawmen in unleashing a torrent of gunfire into the still moving car. Once the Ford rolls to a complete stop, Frank walks up and fires a final round of shots into Bonnie's lifeless body, still clutching the sandwich Clyde bought her. Bonnie and Clyde lived by their own rules. But when backed into a corner, they were cold blooded killers who never hesitated to pull the trigger. In the wake of their lawlessness, they left countless widows, orphans and heartbroken families. It seems inevitable that the infamous couple would meet such a violent end. Bonnie seemed to think so. Just weeks before the couple was gunned down, she handed her mother a Someday they'll go down together and they'll bury them side by side. To few it will be grief, to the law a relief. But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde. Bonney's foreboding words came true when the pair was gunned down on the Louisiana backroads on May 23, 1934. Next on History Daily May 26, 1896 in the aftermath of a financial crisis, the Wall Street Street Journal begins printing the Dow Jones Industrial Average. From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily. Hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham Audio editing by Molly Bach Sound design by Misha Stanton Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written and researched by Danny Marshall. Executive producers are Steven Walters for Airship, Pascal Hughes for Noizr.
- [18:57]
Frank Hamer
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