Bonnie and Clyde were perhaps a couple made for each other. Drawn together by the economic depression that swept across America, the two were a revolutionary influence in a very controlled world. Clyde was an angry man, a killer who always attempted to justify his murders as a release of stress that was for the greater good. Bonnie was somewhat of an anti-heroine as a woman who was not scared of the law.
As their notoriety grew, the two shot their way out of holes, growing increasingly closer the more and more they did. They always contended that they killings they committed were not personal, but the government didn’t exactly agree and put a price on their heads!
The country’s depression was a shroud over the country and the ‘American Dream’ was something of a distant memory. Milner explains- "Gaunt dazed men roamed the city streets seeking jobs...Breadlines and soup kitchens became jammed. (In rural areas) foreclosures forced more than 38 percent of farmers from their lands (while simultaneously) a catastrophic drought struck the Great Plains...By the time Bonnie and Clyde became well known, many had felt the capitalistic system had been abused by big business and government officials...Now here were Bonnie and Clyde striking back."
The American nation was drawn to Bonnie and Clyde’s Robin Hood style heroics, and Bonnie herself was the unique element that all women felt they could relate to. They were stealing not only money but the limelight from conventional celebrities and their rebellious counterparts such as Pretty Boy Floyd.
"Anybody who robbed banks or fought the law were really living out some secret fantasies on a large part of the public." (Historian Jonathan Davis)
Even more than their insurgence against their status in life was Bonnie and Clyde’s devotion to their own. With police and government detectives constantly on their trails, sometimes literally by inches, they time and time again risked their own lives to protect the other.
They never ever forgot their roots and family however, and often run the risk of capture to return home to see their families and share their hoards. The chase was part of the thrill for Bonnie and Clyde, and they always carried a camera to picture their dramatic getaways. Infact when they died, police found an undeveloped roll of film with photos of them together.
They knew they were going to die, maybe next week, maybe next month. Maybe in the morning. They never pretended they might be the only exception to the standard, "Crime doesn’t pay". But, because they knew their time was limited -- their crime spree lasted less than two years -- they decided to let all hell break loose in the meantime. Bonnie’s last request to her mother was, "Don’t bring me to a funeral parlour. Bring me home."
Bonnie and Clyde-America’s answer to Robin Hood!
This website is an invaluable resource concerning Bonnie and Clyde. It is the FBI's website for famous cases!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment