Bonnie and Clyde: Depression-Era Crime as Economic Revolt

Introduction: The Legend and Its Roots

What accounts for the persistence of the legend of Bonnie and Clyde? For two not particularly distinguished criminals from a bygone era in American history, the staying power of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in the collective consciousness is nothing short of remarkable. In part, the media has played a substantial role: the epochal 1967 Arthur Penn film was succeeded in 2013 by a television miniseries about the duo and their gang. Yet an examination of the historical source material suggests that the reason for Bonnie and Clyde's persistence can be explained in one single word: economics.

What Bonnie and Clyde signify for later generations of interested readers is a response — however criminal — on the part of ordinary people to the Great Depression that defined America during the presidency of Herbert Hoover. Although certain other aspects of their short career — particularly their reliance on automobiles to commit their crimes, in a decade when the automobile was a more or less new national phenomenon — may play a role in maintaining their fame long after their deaths, it is as a symbol of economic revolt that their story finds its ultimate resonance. In an era when the overall economy must have seemed perpetrated by criminals operating on a far grander scale than these Texas youths, their narrative carries a power that transcends mere notoriety.

Economic Backgrounds of Bonnie and Clyde

It is worth noting that the economic circumstances of both Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were not extraordinarily deprived. They both came from what would best be understood as lower-middle-class backgrounds. Although America was widely understood to have experienced an economic boom in the immediate aftermath of World War One, that prosperity would prove short-lived. One aspect of the brief boom — the sudden ubiquity of the automobile — was responsible for what little financial footing the Barrow family was able to maintain. As Phillip Steele writes in his biographical study of the Barrow family, written in consultation with Clyde Barrow's youngest sister:

"Henry Barrow, with financial help from his daughter Nell, managed to acquire a small frame home for his family near the campground. Soon afterward, Clyde helped his father convert the front part of the home into a gas station and garage, while they kept the back apartment for their living area. Recognizing Clyde's natural ability for repairing and servicing automobiles, Henry encouraged his son to help him develop a successful business. This offered Clyde his first opportunity to 'own' his own business, and at the same time help his parents, brothers, and sisters establish roots and better survive the seemingly endless depression." (Steele 33–34)

The fact that automobiles would become crucial to the methodology of Clyde Barrow's criminal activity is therefore not accidental: he was essentially part of the founding generation of American car mechanics. The difficulty was that he was repairing and servicing vehicles in Texas, a state that would be particularly devastated by the economic crisis of the 1930s for a variety of compounding reasons.

Works Cited

Barrow, Blanche Caldwell. My Life with Bonnie and Clyde. Ed. John Neal Phillips. Oklahoma City: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. Print.

Guinn, Jeff. Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010. Print.

Phillips, John Neal. Running with Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults. Oklahoma City: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Print.

Schneider, Paul. Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend. New York: Henry Holt, 2009. Print.

Steele, Phillip. The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde. New York: Pelican Publishing, 2000. Print.