Volume 18 , Issue 32

NW Okie's Journey

The Great Depression of the 1930's brought the bank robbers, who were seen as victims of injustice driven to commit crimes. They were the folk heroes wreaking vengeance on a callous economic system, also known to some as the "Robin Hoods" of the Great Depression.

The Barrow gang, Bonnie and Clyde, were bolstered by wild shootouts with police, spectacular car chases, and the romance of two lovers outside the law. They courted publicity and cultivated the image of misfit heroes. Their aspirations were low. They preferred raiding small, isolated banks and preyed on modest stores and marginal businesses.

We know Bonnie Parker sent poems and photographs to newspapers, heralding the Barrow Gang's exploits, defending her honor. Some of her poems depicted the pair as populist desperadoes, misunderstood and star-crossed lovers driven to a life of crime.

We know Bonnie and Clyde remained at large until a Texas posse ambushed them on 23 May 1934, in Louisiana. They died together in a proverbial hail of bullets, but were buried separately by their families.

Story of Suicide Sal
We, each of us, have a good alibi
For being down here in the joint;
But few of them are really justified,
If you get right down to the point.
You have heard of a woman’s glory
Being spent on a downright cur.
Still you can’t always judge the story
As true being told by her.
As long as I stayed on the island
And heard confidence tales from the gals,
There was only one interesting and truthful,
It was the story of Suicide Sal.
Now Sal was a girl of rare beauty,
Though her features were somewhat tough,
She never once faltered from duty,
To play on the up and up.
Sal told me this tale on the evening
Before she was turned out free,
And I’ll do my best to relate it,
Just as she told it to me.
I was born on a ranch in Wyoming,
Not treated like Helen of Troy,
Was taught that rods were rulers,
And ranked with greasy cowboys. . . .

Good Night! Good Luck! We are stronger together! "Love conquers Hate!"
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