[WARNING GRAPHIC FILM FOOTAGE & PHOTOS] Rare Historical Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Film

Strangely enough, if law enforcement pulled a stunt today, similar to one that was done to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, all of those officers involved would at the very least, lost their badges and some of them might have ended-up in jail themselves. But, ‘back in the day’, one could say that law enforcement officers were almost just as guilty of gunning-down criminals because they didn’t want to take the chance of the bad guy(s) getting-off the first shot.

This tactic was done to Bonnie and Clyde, simply because Clyde Barrow had such a fearsome reputation as a gunman, beside the fact that he was also a crack shot and if the police did let him get-off the first few rounds in a gun battle, then some law enforcement officer(s) would have undoubtedly died…they feared both Bonnie and Clyde THAT much.

On May 23, 1934, the bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, La.

The May 23 New York Times wrote that a group of Texas rangers and other authorities laid a “carefully laid death trap,” and as Bonnie and Clyde approached, they “riddled them and their car with a deadly hail of bullets.” After the car crashed, “the officers, taking no chances with the gunman who had tricked them so often, poured another volley of bullets into the machine.”

The death of Bonnie and Clyde did not put an end to their popular appeal. Over the near century since their deaths, the couple has been the subject of numerous songs, books, films and a recent Broadway musical.

What do you think, should the police should have attempted to simply arrest Bonnie and Clyde, or do you think their actions conducting an ambush were justified?

The Story of Bonnie and Clyde

You’ve read the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died;
If you’re still in need
Of something to read,
Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang,
I’m sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dying or dead.

There’s lots of untruths to these write-ups;
They’re not so ruthless as that;
Their nature is raw;
They hate all the law
The stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
But I say this with pride,
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.

But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
Till he said to me,
“I’ll never be free,
So I’ll meet a few of them in hell.”

The road was so dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
But they made up their minds
If all roads were blind,
They wouldn’t give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see;
But it’s fight, man to man,
And do all you can,
For they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered;
From weariness some people have died;
But take it all in all,
Our troubles are small
Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas,
And they have no clue or guide;
If they can’t find a fiend,
They just wipe their slate clean
And hand it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There’s two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow mob;
They had no hand
In the kidnap demand,
Nor the Kansas City depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy;
“I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
In these awful hard times
We’d make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped.”

The police haven’t got the report yet,
But Clyde called me up today;
He said, “Don’t start any fights
We aren’t working nights
We’re joining the NRA.”

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
Where the women are kin,
And the men are men,
And they won’t “stool” on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
About the third night
They’re invited to fight
By a sub-gun’s rat-tat-tat.

They don’t think they’re too tough or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
They’ve been shot at before,
But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.

Some day they’ll go down together;
And they’ll bury them side by side;
To few it’ll be grief
To the law a relief
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.

— Bonnie Parker 1934

H/T – nytimes.com