Friday Marks 80th Anniversary of the Death of Bonnie and Clyde

Most everyone is familiar with the legend of the notorious crime duo, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. And, though their half a decade long crime spree covered multiple states, they died not far from here, on a lonely highway in Bienville Parish.

As Alexandyr Kent wrote in the Shreveport Times five years ago:

The celebrity fugitives were ambushed and shot dead May 23, 1934, by six lawmen on Highway 154 eight miles south of Gibsland in Bienville Parish. In the dusty wake of their stolen 1934 Ford V-8 — pockmarked by a storm of bullets — Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker left a two-year bloody crime spree of enduring contention. He was 24. She was 23.

In addition, not many folks know that the two spent a great deal of time in Shreveport, often hiding out in one of the stately brick homes on Oneonta Street. In fact, Bonnie and Clyde were in town as recently as a few days before they met their untimely end.

The couple's wish to be buried side by side was nixed by Parker's family and thy were buried in separate cemeteries in Dallas. Though Barrow's funeral was a quiet affair with only family members paying their respects, it was reported than more that Parker's burial attracted a crowd of more than 20,000.