Trivia

One half of the infamous "Bonnie and Clyde"

Married Roy Thornton in September 1926, days before she turned 16. Their marriage was marked by his frequent absences, infidelities, and brushes with the law, and Bonnie left him in December 1927. He tried to reunite with her in January 1929, but was rebuffed; this was about a year before she met Clyde Barrow. Bonnie never divorced Thornton and was still wearing his wedding ring when she died.

Helped Clyde Barrow escape from Huntsville Prison when she smuggled a gun in to him, and from there, began their infamous crime spree, which resulted in them both being shot dead on May 23, 1934.

Subject of the songs "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde" by Merle Haggard (1968) and "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" by Georgie Fame (1967).

When she was on the run with Clyde Barrow and his gang, she hated cooking and refused to do dishes, so Clyde often had to cook their food himself.

On June 10, 1933, Bonnie's right leg was badly burned in an accident where Clyde Barrow flipped their car into a ravine. Clyde ran to get his brother Buck and sister-in-law Blanche to help because he was worried Bonnie was dying. They treated her injuries with baking soda and nonprescription remedies obtained from pharmacies, never running the risk of taking her to a doctor. Afterwards Bonnie walked with a severe limp, and she had to be carried by Clyde when they had to run.

Was terrified of thunderstorms. Clyde Barrow's sister-in-law, Blanche Caldwell-Barrow, recalled in her book that during one storm, Bonnie covered her face with a pillow to block out the lightning and cried that she wanted to go home to her mother.

Parker's and Clyde Barrow's separate funeral services respectively drew crowds of 20,000 and 15,000 in May 1934. One of the attendees at each funeral was telephone company employee Ellery Douglass Benton, father of writer-director Robert Benton, who would go on to be Oscar-nominated for his screenplay for Bonnie et Clyde (1967) over thirty years later.

Is portrayed by Faye Dunaway in an Oscar-nominated performance in Bonnie et Clyde (1967).

Autopsy revealed that Bonnie had 26 bullet wounds, and Clyde 17. Both were also hit with buckshot. Bonnie's right hand was so mutilated by gunfire the coroner could not obtain fingerprints from it.

The famous photo of Bonnie with a stogie in her mouth - which gave her the public image of a cigar-chomping gun moll - was probably taken as a joke. Bonnie was known to smoke Camel cigarettes, but cigars were Clyde's habit.

Before embarking on a life of crime, Bonnie and Clyde both dreamed of show biz careers. Bonnie acted in school plays and yearned to become a movie star, while Clyde, who played guitar and saxophone, considered becoming a professional musician.

Bonnie and Clyde are interred in Dallas, Texas, roughly nine miles apart in different cemeteries: Bonnie at Crown Hill, Clyde with his brother Buck at Western Heights. The outlaw couple wanted to be buried together but the Parker family would not allow it; Bonnie's mother blamed Clyde for her daughter's fate and reportedly said, "He had her when she was alive, he's not going to have her in death". Despite recent efforts from both families to reunite the two, as of 2025 they remain separated. A vacant plot next to Clyde's grave is still waiting for Bonnie.

Bonnie had a tattoo of two interconnected hearts inside her right thigh. They bore the names "Bonnie" and "Roy" (Thornton, her husband).

Bonnie was an avid reader of movie magazines. Law enforcement often found these magazines in Bonnie and Clyde's abandoned hideouts and getaway cars.

Bonnie's estranged husband Roy Thornton was in a Texas prison for robbery when she and Clyde were gunned down by lawmen. Asked to comment on their deaths, he said, "Better than getting caught". Thornton was shot dead during an attempted jailbreak in 1937.

On May 23, 1968 - the 34th anniversary of the Bonnie and Clyde ambush - Bonnie's bronze grave marker was stolen from Crown Hill Cemetery. An anonymous tip to a local newspaper led to its recovery that evening.

Bonnie was originally buried at Fishtrap (now La Reunion) Cemetery in Dallas. In 1945 she was reinterred at Crown Hill Cemetery, still across town from Clyde's resting place.