BONNIE AND CLYDE

[crazyphil]

I watched the movie Bonnie and Clyde again today. The one with
Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.

I wondered if there is any factual basis for the part about them capturing Frank Hamer?

 

[Kurusu]

I watched the movie Bonnie and Clyde again today. The one with
Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.

I wondered if there is any factual basis for the part about them capturing Frank Hamer?

Not in a million years.

 

[Watchdog]

I watched the movie Bonnie and Clyde again today. The one with
Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.

I wondered if there is any factual basis for the part about them capturing Frank Hamer?

No. The capture sequence was just a movie plot device. It was used to give the movie Hamer the motivation for relentlessly tracking the outlaws...to give him "motive" for setting up the ambush that killed Bonnie and Clyde.

A lot of the film was based on real events, though...just not the capture of Hamer.

 

[sigp220.45]

I watched the movie Bonnie and Clyde again today. The one with
Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.

I wondered if there is any factual basis for the part about them capturing Frank Hamer?

I believe Hamer's surviving relatives sued over the portrayal.

Frank Hamer - True West Magazine

 

[Absalom]

I watched the movie Bonnie and Clyde again today. The one with
Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.

I wondered if there is any factual basis for the part about them capturing Frank Hamer?

No. You should read this book:

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/125006998X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_twi_har_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1511050239&sr=8-1&keywords=frank+hamer+texas+ranger[/ame]

 

[rockquarry]

If you want to read the facts, get a copy of the latest Frank Hamer book, TEXAS RANGER by John Boessenecker. For years, I've read every account I could find. This is the best on Bonnie and Clyde, Hamer, etc.

 

[crazyphil]

Thanks for all those swift responses. In my foggy memory I seem to
recall something about the family suing for defamation or something like
that. And thanks for the book suggestions also. I know the movies make up
stuff to further their agenda, but I never thought a seasoned lawman
like Hamer would be caught in that kind of a situation.

 

[federali]

I third the suggestion: read the Frank Hamer Book. Great read.

 

[UncleEd]

Well, artistic license was taken for the portrayal of
Frank Hamer.

But Faye Dunaway and the real Bonnie Parker were
nearly mirror images of each other. And had Clyde
Barrow and Warren Beatty lived at the same time,
people would have sworn they were identical twins.

I kid you not.

 

[6518John]

Phil—Many still despise them in the area where I grew up. They murdered a beloved town Marshal whose descendants still live in the area. He still has a nice memorial in the town.

It’s always surprising to me how frequently murdering scum like this can be glorified in our society. I guess Oscar Wilde was right about many taking their hero’s from the criminal classes.

Bonnie and Clyde - Encyclopedia of Arkansas

James R. Knight

Also a wanted poster from the gang’s crimes in the area:

 

[nachogrande]

TWINS???

They may look alike, but Bonnie Parker was 4' 11" Faye Dunaway was 5' 7".

 

[rockquarry]

Other than race, can see no similarity in the four.

 

[Chuck24]

Well, artistic license was taken for the portrayal of
Frank Hamer.

But Faye Dunaway and the real Bonnie Parker were
nearly mirror images of each other. And had Clyde
Barrow and Warren Beatty lived at the same time,
people would have sworn they were identical twins.

I kid you not.

Except for the part where Beatty was about a foot too tall.

 

[Onomea]

That wanted poster in 6518John’s post is interesting.

The men are really small by today’s standards. 5’7”, 125 lbs and 5’5”, 110 lbs. I recall reading, many years ago, that the average GI in WWII was 145lbs and by Vietnam 160.... I think it said WWI the average doughboy was maybe 120 or so...? Or so my fading memory says.

Also, I have never come across the fingerprint ID classification used in the poster before.

Finally, it is clear that Sheriff Maxey really wants ‘em. Bad. (To paraphrase, “Arrest ‘em anywhere in the US and I will come to you and pay $250 each. No need for a conviction. Just hold ‘em for me.” He says that twice.)

 

[usmc2427765]

frank hamer's estate sued and received a judgement against the production company.

 

[shouldazagged]

The movie was so awful that I walked out of the theater about twenty minutes into it. It bore not the slightest resemblance to the real Bonnie and Clyde. Barrow was a weaselly, vicious little psychopath and Parker was an airhead besotted with him. Parker bore little resemblance to Dunaway, but Barrow looked absolutely nothing like Beatty.

The reason I walked out of the theater was that the flick glamorized and prettied-up a couple of cheap, pathetic losers responsible for the deaths of several lawmen, among others.

A pretty good and very readable account of their spree, based on huge numbers of recently released FBI field notes and interviews, is in Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies.

 

[Texas Star]

I believe Hamer's surviving relatives sued over the portrayal.

Frank Hamer - True West Magazine

And after, "Zulu!" portrayed Pvt. Henry Hook, VC as a miscreant, his family sued and won a bunch of money.

I realize that movie makers like to add elements for drama, but they shouldn't besmirch the memory of real people by making them seem bad or otherwise less than they were.

 

[keith44spl]

Phil,

Na, the Barrow gang wasn't nothing but killers on the run.
Not a thing like the movie, either one.

In Hamer's book, 'I'm Frank Hamer' he compared Clyde Barrow and
his bunch, aliken to wild horses out on the open range.
Making large circles that always came back around.
Hamer studied the pair (Clyde & Bonnie), Hamer claimed to know what
kind of whisky they like and the brand of cigarettes they smoked.

Anyway, it is said that Hamer, while lying on his death bed with his son and brother by his side.

When his son, Frank Jr. asked, 'Dad, did it ever bother you that you used your gun(s) so much?'

Hamer said, "Boys, I've killed fifty-two men and one woman, I killed them all right [legally] and
I go to sleep every night knowing I did right.'

A short time later, one of the most revered Texas Ranger Captains came unto his reward.


.

 

[crazyphil]

Well, artistic license was taken for the portrayal of
Frank Hamer.

But Faye Dunaway and the real Bonnie Parker were
nearly mirror images of each other. And had Clyde
Barrow and Warren Beatty lived at the same time,
people would have sworn they were identical twins.

I kid you not.

Sorry to disagree with you, but I have seen photos of Bonnie
Parker, and she ain't no Faye Dunaway.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Bonnie looked like Dun Fayaway.
She looked like 40 miles of bad road.
She was as ugly as a detour in Arkansas.
(Old corps saying. Pre-Rockefeller AR had terrible roads)