Odd True Crime Facts

Facts about Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker stood 4'11 and weighed 90 pounds. Clyde Barrow's height is often debated but is usually said to be between 5'4 and was 5'6

 Bonnie and Clyde met one another at a mutual friends house in West Dallas.  It was said that they were instantly smitten with each other. 

Terms of endearment: Bonnie referred to Clyde as "Daddy".  Clyde always called Bonnie "honey" or "little girl" and sometimes, "kid".

Tattoos: Clyde had a heart & dagger with the initials "EBW"-outer arm (the initials of his ex-girlfriend Eleanor B. Williams), a rose & leaves-left shoulder, a shield & anchor with the initials "USN"-left arm, (although he was never in the Navy), a girl's face, bearing the name "Grace"-right arm. the name "Anne"-left arm. Bonnie had a tattoo above her right knee on her thigh, of double hearts and arrow which contained the names "Bonnie & Roy" (Roy Thornton was Bonnie's husband before she met Clyde, but whom she never divorced)

While on the run, Clyde once stole a tricycle out of someone's yard to give to Bonnie's nephew as a gift.  Bonnie stated to Clyde that the boy who it belonged to will probably be pretty sad.  Clyde commented that he would probably cry, ended up turning around and taking the the tricycle back to the house where they stole it.

At one point, Bonnie, Clyde, Clyde's brother Buck and Buck's wife Blanche were all hiding out in a house and the police showed up.  They ended up on the run again, but had to leave all of their belongings behind.  Blanche had photos of the group in her purse, which the police seized.  Most of the pictures show all of them showing off a gun they had stolen from an officer and one of them showed Bonnie with a cigar in her mouth (shown above).  This picture was then shown in many newspapers and it was then always stated that Bonnie smoked big cigars.  She never smoked cigars though, it was merely a prop for a photo. She did chain smoke Camel cigarettes. 

Before meeting Clyde, Bonnie used to work at a restaurant called Marco's Cafe in Dallas, Texas (photo above shows her behind the counter at Marco's).  Bonnie began feeding the homeless people and paid for it out of her own paycheck.  Eventually, it got to where the homeless people were taking advantage of Bonnie and they would all show up to get fed.  Most weeks, she wasn't given a paycheck at all because it all went to pay off meals for the homeless.  She couldn't stand the thought of anyone going without food. 

Bonnie & Clyde rarely robbed banks & Bonnie was usually not with Clyde for the robberies.  In the four years they were on the run, they were linked to robbing a total of 15 banks, but most of the time, they just stuck with robbing grocery stores and gas stations for the most part, as they were just looking for money to survive on, not get rich.  Clyde usually did these robberies with his friend Raymond Hamilton and Bonnie was usually waiting at a hideout for them and on rare occasions, driving a getaway car. 

When Bonnie was married and living with her husband Roy, she would make Roy take her to see her mom every day and would often cry for her mom.  It got to the point where Mrs. Parker just asked Bonnie and Roy to move in with her and they did so.  When Bonnie got with Clyde, she was still as close as ever to her mom and often when they were on the road, sometimes thousands of miles away, she would cry for her mom and no matter how bad the heat was at their parents homes, Clyde would always immediately start driving to go see their families, which would ultimately lead to their demise. 

Clyde's first jail escape was with the help of Bonnie and that was also the first crime Bonnie ever committed. In 1930, Clyde was arrested for a burglary and sent to jail.  Bonnie went to visit him and smuggled in a gun which he used to escape with.  He was eventually recaptured and sent to prison.  He paroled in 1932 and rejoined Bonnie.

While serving a 14 year prison sentence (which he eventually got reduced to two years), Clyde chopped off his left big toe and a portion of a second toe with an axe in hopes of getting a transfer out of the Eastham Prison Farm, a prison known for their brutal conditions working in the farm and being notoriously tough.  The severing of his toes proved unnecessary, as Clyde was released from prison six days later. 

In 1933, Clyde got into a bad car accident and Bonnie was pinned in the car while it caught on fire.  Some farmers came out and helped Clyde get the car off of Bonnie, but by that time she had severe burns and wasn't able to go to a hospital because they would be arrested.  They bandaged her up as best as they could, but for the rest of her life, she hopped on one leg because the other was useless and Clyde would carry her wherever they went more often than not. 

Bonnie and Clyde would often kidnap cops who were chasing after them instead of killing them.  They would take the cops with them for hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles at gunpoint and eventually drop them off. 

Bonnie’s family, especially her mother, begged her to stop dating Clyde and to stay at home because he was always getting in trouble.  Eventually they stopped trying to get them apart because they realized no matter what Clyde did and no matter what kind of danger was brought to Bonnie because of him, she would never leave him.  She knew she would end up dead sooner rather than later, but it was all worth it to her, as long as Clyde was at her side. 

On May 23, 1934, Texas Rangers and police ambushed Bonnie and Clyde, pumping more than 130 rounds of bullets into the stolen car they were in.  Gawkers arrived at the crime scene and attempted to take all that they could for souvenirs.  One man even tried to cut off Clyde's ear with a knife while another attempted to cut his finger off before police stopped them.  One person did manage to take a lock of Bonnie's hair and pieces of her blood soaked dress she was wearing.

Bonnie and Clyde were buried separately.  Although they had asked to be buried side by side, Bonnie's mother had her daughter buried in a different cemetery.  Clyde was buried next to Marvin, his brother, with the epitaph he chose for himself, "Gone but not forgotten".   Bonnie’s epitaph reads, “As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you”. 

Pictured above is Maryland inmate Tavon White.  White is also the leader of the prison gang BGF, or Black Guerilla Family.   White managed to impregnate not one, but four prison guards, one of which had White's name tattooed on her neck, another got his name tattooed on her wrist. White Allegedly gave one of the females a diamond ring and provided several luxury automobiles to the other three.  This information was all released in a fairly new indictment that involves 13 different prison guards who were allegedly sneaking cellphones and other contraband to the Black Guerilla Family and essentially giving the gang free reign over the prison.  

The givers

When well known inmates donate to charitable causes (some before entering prison, others while in custody).

Serial killer Clifford Olson somehow managed to receive security benefits for old age while serving life in prison. His friend/author and news columnist Peter Worthington of QMI Agency reported that he sent checks from Clifford Olson to Prime Minister Stephen Joseph Harper for his next election campaign. He also claims that all of Olsen’s money was donated to charity.

Since Jodi Arias was sent to jail, she’s been donating her hair to Locks of Love. Arias said in May 2013. “In fact, that was my third donation to that organization since I was arrested. If I’m allowed to live in prison, I will continue to donate to that organization for the rest of my life.”

Charles Manson donated $500 for Northridge Toys For Tots with his own money, donations and artwork sold. He was the only one to donate to this chapter of Toys For Tots, but apparently his money filled the donation barrel.

In 1975, serial killer Dorothea Puente became a social figure in Sacramento’s Hispanic community. She sponsored many charity events and donated to Hispanic organizations. She also donated to political events, both democrat and republican. She would purchase entire banquet tables and was seen frequently chatting with congressmen, state and county officials.

Others donated their time to charitable causes:

Here is a canteen slip where Dahmer requested cigarettes as well as two cyanide tablets.  Prison employees did not find Dahmer's request very humorous and he was written up for it.

Barry Byron “The Baron” Mills is a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB) prison gang. In March 2006, Mills, along with three other leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood, were indicted for numerous crimes,

 including murder, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and racketeering. Barry Mills was convicted of murder and sent back to the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility Prison (ADX) in Florence, Colorado where he is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The Aryan Brotherhood is more than just a prison gang, though.  They are businessmen.  Even though the majority of the gang is incarcerated, there are others outside of prison who help the AB run businesses.  They began with selling marijuana and cocaine.  They were getting shipments from other countries and the product was being sold both inside and outside of prison.  Because drugs are a little harder to obtain in prison, the AB were able to charge whatever they wanted for the drugs when selling to inmates.  They started bringing in millions of dollars.  Eventually, they moved on to selling illegal weapons and meth.  The weapons were stolen goods and the meth they made themselves, so they began making even more money.  So much money in fact, they had nowhere to put it.

They started packaging it up and crating it, keeping it in the warehouses where they would make meth.  They would put thousands and thousands of dollars in different banks every day.  Eventually, they decided it would be smart to launder the money by purchasing businesses to make it appear as though all of their money was legit. 

They started purchasing bars and strip clubs.  Eventually, they moved up to car dealerships.  They had so much money, they started counting it not by the millions, but by weight (tons).  They were doing rather well, but had to be extremely cautious with their business dealings.  One day while Mills was sitting in his cell inside of the ADX, he had thought of yet another business venture.  He contacted his lawyer and requested a visit from him.  Lawyers are the only visitors allowed for this particular inmate, so imagine how difficult it must be to run such an empire  while locked away in a cell 23 hours a day with very little contact with the outside world.

Harrison Graham was a 28-year old mentally retarded drug abuser who lived in a slum district of Philadelphia and rented a third floor apartment.He was well known in his neighborhood as the man who talked in the cookie monster voice to all the neighborhood kids. He also had his own cookie monster hand puppet.

He was evicted for smells coming from his apartment, but before he left he nailed up the bedroom door claiming there was some property in there he was coming back for. When he never came back, authorities broke down the door and found 7 bodies, all in various stages of decomposition. Only 2 bodies could be identified, and one was his former girlfriend.

He turned himself in to police, and admitted strangling all the women while having sex with them during and after their deaths. He was sentenced to life for 7 counts of murder and 7 counts of abusing a corpse.

Graham once admitted in a letter that he would "wear the cookie monster hand puppet when he did it"

Homicide Sergeant John Finn brought evidence into the courtroom that had been seized from the abandoned building where Graham had hidden during the police manhunt. Among the items was his Cookie Monster puppet, which he immediately asked to have back. "I sleep with that," he said. But the puppet remained in evidence, which Graham is still unhappy about. 

Image of letter written by Graham with a cookie monster drawing on envelope: