Back in the 1930’s, America was going through a particularly challenging period.
The Great Depression was raging, historic droughts were killing off farmland, and, to top it all off, the state of economic desperation had given rise to whole generation of opportunistic outlaws.
Even eighty years later, their names are still remembered with a shudder; John Dillinger, The Barker Gang, and Pretty Boy Floyd all live in infamy.
And of all of them, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are perhaps the most notorious.
The criminal duo, often called simply Bonnie and Clyde, were cold-blooded crooks. They held up gas stations, robbed banks, and killed whenever anyone got in their way.
But over the years, their legend has grown glamorous and romantic, perhaps because these two ruthless outlaws shared one soft spot: each other.
They were “partners in crime” in every sense of the phrase, and there are still a handful of surviving photos that show their undying passion for one another.
Scroll through the gallery below for a glimpse at their disreputable romance.
[H/T: Vintage Everyday]
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met entirely by chance in 1930, when they both visited the home of a mutual friend recovering from a broken arm.
It was love at first sight; they were instantly smitten, despite Clyde's long criminal record and Bonnie's marriage to another man, from whom she was separated but never divorced.
Just three months after their first meeting, however, Clyde went to prison, serving a two-year term for a series of robberies.
Clyde emerged from prison in 1932 a changed man, hardened and made more brutal by prison.
When he got out, Bonnie Parker was waiting for him, ready to move heaven and earth for the man she loved.
Though Bonnie didn't have a criminal history of her own before she met Clyde, she was his willing accomplice, and quickly became a core member of the ever-rotating "Barrow Gang."
This fluctuating criminal enterprise started small, focusing their energies in north-central Texas, where they held up gas stations, stole guns, and, occasionally, got caught.
Bonnie served her first stint in jail in the spring of 1932 during an attempt to steal guns from a hardware store.
She was jailed for just a few months, using her time behind bars to write poetry that would later become better known as "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde."
When she got out of prison, the crooked lovebirds were reunited, their mutual passion not quenched by a few months apart.
The picked up right where they left off, growing ever more brazen in their criminal activities.
Before long, the couple, along with their motley crew, had expanded their range considerable, and were drifting east into Missouri and Louisiana, and north, as far as Minnesota.
The gang swelled to include Clyde Barrow's brother Buck, and Buck's wife Blanche.
Like a double date gone wrong, the two couples ranged through the south and midwest, conducting hold-ups and growing progressively more violent, killing whenever necessary to escape and continue on their spree.
But they had their first truly close call in Joplin, MO, where the gang escaped, but left behind many of their belongs, including two rolls of film.
When police developed the photos, they found images of Bonnie and Clyde that would quickly become famous.
The photos showed their affection for one another, their youthful immaturity, and their cavalier attitude towards the artillery they were toting.
Bonnie quickly gained a reputation in the news as a "cigar-chompin' gun moll" for this picture of her jokingly threatening Clyde with his own shotgun, and another where she clutches a cigar in her teeth and flashes a pistol.
Despite the photos, it's unlikely that Bonnie used the guns; she mostly served as a lookout and getaway driver.
The romantic, glamorous image of the gun-pointing bad girl quickly took off, and the duo quickly climbed up the "Wanted" list as they became a subject of intense fascination and speculation in the press.
They were young, good-looking, violent, and clearly romantically involved; no one could resist such a juicy story.
Despite the public unwavering fascination, or perhaps because of it, the Barker Gang's reign of terror was quickly going off the rails.
By 1933, they were constantly on the run from the police, dodging from one hideout to the next.
They lost Buck Barrow to a head wound and his wife Blanche to arrest, but managed to remain on the lam for another year.
Finally, in May of 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were killed in a shoot-out with the police in Louisiana, ending their violence and their torrid love affair in one fell swoop.
Today, they remain some of the most notorious criminals in history, but are also remembered as an symbol of enduring passion, no matter how dysfunctional.
If you're fascinated by the lurid story of this essential piece of American history, be sure to SHARE with friends and family.
