They had them in their sights so they could've just surrounded them and arrested them. It would've been interesting to see the aftermath since Bonnie and Clyde would've likely both gotten the death penalty.
shareThe rationale that's most often given is that B&C had a history of shooting themselves out of all previous attempts to apprehend them, often resulting in the deaths of law enforcement. So they didn't want to take any chances. Of course there are those who believe that they should have tried to take them alive anyway, & that the ambush was a "cowardly" (their words) way out. I go back & forth between both opinions. I do wonder why they couldn't at least get shooters with good enough aim that they could have killed them in a "cleaner" manner than having 6 men unloading 100+ rounds into the car. Although if they'd done that, we'd probably not still be talking about it almost 80 years later.
shareIs it true B&C were on the way to that Louisiana farm? If you read the historical account it says they were leaving the farm. Did the farm owner really call the cops on B&C? If so then why didn't the cops just surround them at the farm?
shareI don't know if that was originally the plan,it has been said that one of the men admitted to jumping the gun and the rest followed suit.
shareIt was like a lynch mob & Hamer wanted them gone... & few laws to go by.
I was in my kitchen cleaning a dish. I heard it, I came out.
... Dane Cook
I agree. I understand them not wanting to take chances but still they should have tried to take them alive.
shareThey knew they were at the farm so they could've surrounded them there! Imagine all the press after their arrest and the drama leading up to the executions of Bonnie and Clyde? Back then they would've been executed for sure but it should 've been done after arrest!
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That was in the movie but was Bonnie so bloodthirsty in real life? Did Clyde really WANT to die?
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They didn't want to take a chance, because Clyde has escaped so many times in the past. They slaughtered them in cold blood.
shareDid the owner of the farm REALLY tell the cops where they were? If so the cops could've arrested B&C at the farm without incident!
shareQuite a few of the Depression era outlaws were shot to death by lawmen. Bonnie & Clyde, Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker and most of her sons, etc.
shareBonnie and Clyde were first (May 23, 1934). Their downfall was a turning point in American law enforcement. Federal law changed so that murder and bank robbery became federal crimes. The division of investigation agents then went out and blew away all the other major criminals of the day in the course of 8 months:
- John Dillinger (July 22, 1934)
- Pretty Boy Floyd (October 22, 1934)
- Baby Face Nelson (November 27, 1934)
- Ma Barker and her brood (January 16, 1935)
This was the birth of the FBI as we know it today and the end of the Public Enemy era.
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As another historian once said, "It's not by treachery that these men ambushed him this way. It was not because Clyde was so bad. It was because Clyde Barrow was that good; and had they had given him any chance, someone might not have gone home to his wife."
As for this movie where Clyde sets them up to be killed, that' just Hollywood crap.
So then what's the true story?
shareThey were set up by Henry Methvin's father in exchange for leniency for his son. He knew Bonnie and Clyde would be driving down that stretch of road to meet up with his son -- they had been separated -- and he pretended to have a flat tire. He rightly assumed that Clyde would stop to help, but Clyde had only slowed down and hadn't come to a complete stop when a posse member fired at the back of Clyde's head. Meanwhile, Clyde's foot slid off the brake and the car began moving. Thinking they were getting away, the posse began shooting en masse.
"Each of us six officers had a shotgun and an automatic rifle and pistols. We opened fire with the automatic rifles. They were emptied before the car got even with us. Then we used shotguns ... There was smoke coming from the car, and it looked like it was on fire. After shooting the shotguns, we emptied the pistols at the car, which had passed us and ran into a ditch about 50 yards on down the road. It almost turned over. We kept shooting at the car even after it stopped. We weren't taking any chances." ~ posse member Ted Hinton
I have read how since the buckshot in shotgun shells spread out when they hit their target they can leave huge gaping wounds. With all those shotgun blasts you would think the bodies would've been unrecognizable but they were both pretty much intact. How so??
shareThat was it I'm sure. As one poster said they were notoriously good at shooting their way out of situations like that, so loss of life was unfortunately inevitable. The law men knew this and thought, with some justice that it was better two dangerous criminals lose their lives than one or more of their own.
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I don't understand why people act like the police were in the wrong. Like the first poster said, they constantly were shooting at the police to get out of being caught. If this remake is true on any level about the ambush scene, chances are they would have shot at them if they tried to get close...assuming they had guns on them at that point. He either decided to stop driving because they didn't have weapons or were outnumbered anyways.
And besides even if they were to be caught, they probably would have escaped. And if they were going to get the death penalty then there was nothing wrong with shooting them.