The Gang

Many people think criminal gangs are a relatively new phenomenon. Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and their partners in crime were a gang in every sense of the term. They pooled their energy, resources, and guns for the purpose of personal gain. That's all a gang really is. Even though their reign of terror across America lasted only about two years, Bonnie and Clyde's companions in crime were numerous:

• Clyde Barrow - Barrow was born on March 24, 1909, to Henry and Cumie Barrow on a farm near Teleco, Texas, southeast of Dallas. Barrow was the fifth of seven children. His father Henry was a hard-working tenant farmer. His mother divided her time between the children and household duties and assisting her husband in the fields. In 1922, Henry and Cumie loaded up the family and moved to Dallas, joining their eldest son Jack and two daughters already living there. The Barrows first home in Dallas was a shack in the slums on the west side of the city. Clyde was first formally charged with a crime at age sixteen.

• Bonnie Parker - Parker was born on October 1, 1910 in Rowena, Texas. Her first known involvement in crime involved freeing Clyde Barrow from a jail cell. Bonnie smuggled a gun into the Waco, TX jail and Clyde used it to make his escape on March 11, 1930.

• Buck Barrow - Marvin Ivan Barrow

• Blanche Barrow

• L. C. Barrow - With the exception of brother Buck, most of Clyde Barrow's family did not engage in overt criminal activity. Their offenses mainly consisted of harboring Bonnie and Clyde and their friends and misleading the authorities whenever possible. Clyde's younger brother L.C. met his brother many times during the period he was wanted. Early in his criminal career, Clyde accompanied L. C. to East Texas and Louisiana to smuggle bootleg whiskey back to Dallas for L. C. to sell.

• Raymond Hamilton - Perhaps the most prolific bank robber of all time, Raymond Hamilton met Clyde Barrow while serving time at the state prison in Huntsville. Hamilton's childhood mirrored that of Clyde and others of the gang. They were dirt poor. Hamilton was born in a tent on the banks of the Deep Fork River near Schulter, Oklahoma on May 21, 1913. It would be two years before he moved into a house. Hamilton committed his first major offense in 1931 when he was arrested for stealing a car. Less than two month after Barrow was released from prison in 1932, he teamed up with Ralph Fults and Hamilton to rob the Simms Oil Refinery.

• Floyd Hamilton - Spent much of his criminal career partnered with "Terrible Ted" Walters.

• "Frank" - one of Clyde Barrow's sisters credited a young burglar named Frank as the greatest influence in leading her brother into a life of crime. In 1926, Frank met Clyde Barrow in the Dallas city jail. At that time, the gang really did not exist as such. Clyde had yet to serve hard time and meet the likes of Raymond Hamilton and Ralph Fults. Clyde and Frank needed money to entertain their girl friends. Both stole cars and burglarized businesses to support a fairly comfortable lifestyle.

• "Sidney" - Sidney was another young burglar who worked with Clyde Barrow in the 1920's. On October 29, 1929, Sidney accompanied Clyde and Buck Barrow to burglarize a Denton, Texas service station. They loaded the station's safe in their stolen car but were spotted leaving the vicinity by a police car. Clyde wrecked the car and all three were thrown clear. Buck was severely wounded while Clyde escaped. Sidney and Buck Barrow were convicted of burglary and sentenced to the Texas State Penitentiary.

• Ralph Fults - Fults began his career of crime at age fourteen when he began burglarizing stores in McKinney, Texas, stealing candy and cigarettes. When the sheriff announced his suspicions regarding Fults, the young burglar fled. He was caught committing more burglaries in Aspermont, Texas. Fults escaped from the local jail, but was captured and sent to the State Juvenile Training School in Gatesville. Gatesville was a cruel "reform" facility and it didn't take much for Fults to be labeled a troublemaker. On April 16, 1927, he escaped from Gatesvilles but was recaptured in Oklahoma. After another escape, Fults was kicked out of the reform school as its most incorrigible inmate ever. Within weeks, Fults--now 18--found himself in jail for stealing cases of cigarettes from box cars in the Dallas railyards and reselling them. He was sentenced to the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. He was placed in Camp 1 of the Eastham Prison Farm, one of the most violent facilities in the Texas prison system. On April 8, 1930, Fults escaped from Eastham but was captured as he was committing a safe burglary in St. Louis. During the journey back to Huntsville in a prison van, Fults met 21-year old Clyde Barrow. Both were placed on the Eastham farm. Fults would later report that incensed by the bruality of Eastham, Barrow initiated a plan for them to recruit a gang, return to the prison farm, and release as many prisoners as possible. Fults was pardoned and released on August 26, 1931. He returned home to await Clyde Barrow's release in February 1932. After his parole, Fults joined Bonnie and Clyde for a time. After Bonnie and Clyde were killed, Fults and Raymond Hamiliton teamed up and continued to rob banks. In 1935--a year after the ambush--Fults was arrested in Mississippi and sentenced to two 50-year prison terms. Hamilton was executed and Fults barely avoided the electric chair himself. He was released from prison for the last time in 1944. He eventually returned to Texas and was converted to Christianity, working as a security guard at a Dallas orphanage from 1964 to 1984. Fults died in 1994.

• W. D. Jones

• Joe Palmer

• Henry Methvin