Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde

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In Arthur Penn's movie Bonnie is shown shooting at the cops. Guinn partially discredits the media image of Bonnie Parker as a killer. What Jeff Guinn did was take us all the way to the beginning. And when I say beginning, I mean before Bonnie and Clyde were even twinkle's in their parents eyes. He get's to the roots of both families. This was maybe the hardest part to get through but, in the end, I found it helped to understand why the pair turned out the way they did. Both came from dirt poor families who had been ruined from The Great Depression. Bonnie's mother fared slightly better than Clyde's parents but both had gone through a lot. urn:lcp:godowntogethertr0000guin:lcpdf:3a6fcfa2-88df-418c-990b-1181ac47d599 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier godowntogethertr0000guin Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2803x7dh6w Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781416557067 The most surprising thing about this book is that when Guinn is finished giving us “the true, untold story,” we are still left with one hell of an epic and unforgettable ride. They were not smart criminals. They were repeatedly jailed, chased, shot at, etc... They were often injured in these gunfights with police and when I say injured, I mean badly hurt. They were great at stealing cars though, and Clyde liked the Ford V-8's so much he wrote Henry Ford a fan letter about them.

The Bible was replete with reminders that Jesus loved poor people a lot more than he did rich ones. Wearing patched clothes and sometimes not having enough to eat were, in effect, evidence of personal godliness. The implication was obvious, if not declared outright: poor people were good, rich people were bad." - p 14

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The overall time frame of Clyde and Bonnie’s time in the sun, so to speak, was really very short. From their rise to national fame after the Joplin incident to their ultimate death by ambush was a mere 14 months. Campbell, Mary (October 30, 1982). "Bill Joel Uses Seven Fingers at the Piano". Daytona Beach Morning Journal. p.12D . Retrieved 2016-04-12. Decades later, asked about long-standing rumors suggesting that her infamous former beau was either gay or impotent, she assured the interviewer that Clyde "didn't have any problems at all," and left no doubt that she spoke as an authority on the subject." - p 36

Hamer became a senior captain of the Rangers in 1922 and played a large role combating the Ku Klux Klan in Texas. He became known for his ability to control riots and his patient, skilled investigative work. He resigned in 1932 when Miriam “Ma” Ferguson—who detested the Rangers—recaptured the Governor’s Office. He turned to mostly private investigation work before being hired to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde following the Eastham breakout. That, unfortunately, was before Clyde had been repeatedly raped in prison. That's the sort of reality that most people, perhaps fortunately, don't have to think about. Just like they don't have to think about the lives of people like Clyde Barrow's parents & their family:Bonnie Parker is portrayed as particularly violent in The Highwaymen, from her use of an automatic rifle in that opening sequence to a murder in cold blood on the side of a highway. Jeff Guinn, who wrote the biography Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, refutes this depiction of her, saying that there are only two or so records of her firing a gun, and no evidence that she killed anyone. a b c d e f g h i Bielen, K. (2011). The Words and Music of Billy Joel. ABC-CLIO. pp.59–60. ISBN 9780313380167.

Even as notorious criminals, the two remain ordinary in regular life. But for pictures, they take care to wear their absolute best and brandish guns as if they were advertising something. They pose in evocative positions. Guinn discusses one iconic picture of Bonnie placing her foot on the bumper of their car with a cigar in her mouth and a revolver at her side. The photo scandalized and inspired millions of people. It hinted at the sexual freedom possible in the 30s, as well as freedom from a job or the legal system. Regardless of how one feels about police or criminals, the death of someone soon to start their married life is a tragic affair. Many people might feel this way about police but how many wd feel that way about criminals? At any rate, Guinn seems to try to examine Clyde's murders realistically. It's all too easy to oversimplify & to let sensationlist gossip get the upper hand.Along with peanut butter & jelly and Batman & Robin, Bonnie & Clyde have to rank among the most recognizable pairings in American cultural history. It has been almost ninety years since they died in a hailstorm of bullets, and fifty-four years since Arthur Penn’s classic film turned them into icons of something they never represented. Though many people would be hard-pressed to provide details about Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, I’d venture that most at least recognize their names, recall that they were outlaws, and know that they went out of this world with a bang. Interviewer: "& no-one ever said to you that Bonnie had participated in the shooting or that she ever killed anyone?" Yet W/ D. Jones in his 1968 interview with Playboy was also definite: "During the five big gun battles I was with them [which included Joplin], she never fired a gun." Bonnie's mother, Emma, and sister, Billie Jean, were adamant that Bonnie didn't fire even one bullet from the time she met Clyde until her death." - p 398 The film accurately depicts Hamer’s chase in his painstaking attention to detail and the long stretches of monotony. In an effort to emulate the Barrow Gang and learn their habits, Hamer drove hundreds of miles a day in Barrow’s preferred car model, the Ford V-8 Sedan, ate hot dogs and slept out of his car. In later interviews he remembered coming across their abandoned campgrounds, finding “stubs of Bonnie’s Camels—Clyde smoked Bull Durham—lettuce leaves for the white rabbit, pieces of sandwiches, a button off Clyde’s coat.”

Bonnie continued to write her poems as the Barrow gang moved towards its inevitable end. Written shortly before her death, the autobiographical poem called “The End of the Line” showed no illusions about her and Clyde’s situation:Of the seven men who'd died directly by his hand to date—he'd been erroneously blamed for two other murders—only two killings had been premeditated. The first was in 1931, when Clyde used a lead pipe to crush the skull of a fellow inmate who'd repeatedly raped him on a Texas prison farm. The second came six weeks before H. D. Murphy died outside Grapevine, when Clyde helped Joe Palmer murder a guard who'd abused Palmer in prison." - p 3 While the popular conception of Bonnie and Clyde depicts them as grandiose bank robbers, the truth was more mundane. “They were small-time crooks,” Guinn said. The Barrow Gang mostly robbed gas stations and convenience stores; they would even break into gumball machines to collect the change. Forget everything you think you know about Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Previous books and films, including the brilliant 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, have emphasized the supposed glamour of America's most notorious criminal couple, thus contributing to ongoing mythology. The real story is completely different -- and far more fascinating. I have always been fascinated by the legend of Bonnie and Clyde. During the process of reading this book, I did get to watch that 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway…and that was absolutely ridiculous! Probably a more accurate and much better version would be the 2013 Bonnie and Clyde movie starring Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger. But in Go Down Together, author Jeff Guinn attempts to cut through all the “Hollywood Glamour” of the infamous crime couple, and deliver the true story of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.