In 1910 on the first day of October, in Rowena, Texas Bonnie Parker was born. Bonnie was the second child in a family of three. Bonnie Parker’s bricklayer father, Charles Robert Parker, died when Bonnie was one year old. Bonnie’s widowed mother, Emma (Krause) Parker, moved her family back to the suburb of Cement City, where she worked as a seamstress.

After Parker’s sophomore year, she met Roy Thornton. Despite her 16th birthday being less than two months away, the couple dropped out of school on September 25, 1926, just six days before her wedding. Unfortunately, their marriage was marred by his irregular schedule and frequent running from the law and was short-lived.

Their first meeting happened in January 1930 in Texas. Clyde was 21 and unmarried at the time. Bonnie was 19 and actually married to an imprisoned murderer. He was then arrested for burglary and sent to jail. Bonnie had smuggled him a gun, and he escaped using it, was captured, and was returned to prison. Following his parole in February 1932, Clyde rejoined Bonnie and began a life of crime.

In 1931 through 1934, a phase sometimes called the “public enemy era” during which the American press devoted substantial coverage to their exploits captured the attention and interest of American readers. As a result, there are at least nine police officers and four civilians believed to have been murdered by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.