"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z that features American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. It was composed by Shawn Carter, Kanye West, Prince, Tupac Shakur, D. Harper, R. Rous and Tyrone Wrice for Jay-Z's seventh studio album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (2002). The song was released as the album's lead single on October 10, 2002. An East Coast hip hop and R&B song, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" sampled its beat from American rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend", and was inspired by the crime film Bonnie and Clyde. The instrumentation is based on programmed drums, bass instruments, and a flamenco guitar.

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was generally received with favorable reviews by music critics, who complimented the combination of Jay-Z's and Knowles' musical styles, their collaboration and the song's production. The single reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Jay-Z's second top 10 single and Knowles' first as a solo artist. It attained a high point of number two in the United Kingdom and peaked in the top 20 in other European territories. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

The accompanying music video was directed by Chris Robinson, and features Jay-Z and Knowles playing a modern-day version of the 1920s bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. It was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" spawned a feud with American recording artist Toni Braxton, who had also sampled "Me and My Girlfriend" in her 2002 song "Me & My Boyfriend". She accused West and Jay-Z of stealing the idea of using the song as a sample. The two men denied the accusation, and Jay-Z added that he would have arranged a duet with Braxton if he had known that they were both going to sample the same Tupac song.

Production and release[link]

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" marked the first collaboration between rapper Jay-Z and R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles.^[1][2] While listening to Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, producer Kanye West suggested that American rapper Tupac Shakur's song "Me and My Girlfriend" would make a good sample to use on Jay-Z's duet with Knowles.^[3] West told MTV News that Jay-Z had asked him on the telephone for a duet for him and Knowles: "We got this joint, it has to be the best beat you ever made."^[3] He continued:

So I went home and called my dog E Base, who plays a lot of instruments up at Baseline [studio] for me and [producer] Just Blaze. [E] came through. I programmed the drums in 10 minutes, and then he played all the different parts. This version is all live bass, live guitars, [live] chords on it. I brought it to Hov that night, he heard it, he thought of the video treatment before he thought of the rap. He just knew it was gonna be the one.^[3]

Tensions arose during the conception of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" over the sampling of "Me and My Girlfriend.^[4] Senior Vice President of A&R Tina Davis commented on the issue, "We only had one day to clear the [Tupac Shakur] sample [from 'Me and my Girlfriend'] that was used on ''03 Bonnie and Clyde' last year with Jay-Z and Beyoncé [Knowles]. We were back and forth with Afeni Shakur all day until we got the clearance. And then it's a hit."^[4]

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was released on October 10, 2002, as the lead single from Jay-Z's album The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse.^[5] Knowles later included the song as a bonus track on international editions of her 2003 debut solo album Dangerously in Love,^[6] and on her 2009 live album I Am... Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas.^[6] In 2003, Now That's What I Call Music! included "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as the opening track of the 12th volume of the US release and the fifteenth track of the 54th volume of the UK release.^[6] The song's release was the first indication of Jay-Z's and Knowles' romantic status, spawning rumors about a burgeoning relationship.^[7] Their relationship was not made public until Jay-Z featured on Knowles' song's "Crazy In Love" (2003) and "Déjà Vu" (2006).^[1] It was later announced that they had been dating since recording "'03 Bonnie & Clyde".^[8] The latter's release also marked the debut of the solo career of Knowles, leaving Destiny's Child on hiatus.^[2]

Composition[link]

	"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" noicon A 20-second sample of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", which features Jay-Z rapping over the instrumental that samples Tupac's "Me And My Girlfriend". It consists of programmed drums, bass instruments, and chords supplied by a flamenco guitar.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" features drums and live instrumentation such as bass instruments and guitar chords.^[3] It also consists of a beat sampled from "Me and My Girlfriend".^[5] The song was inspired by the 1967 American crime film Bonnie and Clyde^[9] as Jay-Z and Knowles proclaim themselves as the current version of the criminal duo.^[10] Ethan Brown of New York magazine noted that its patina of flamenco guitar was reminiscent of that in Jay-Z's 2001 collaboration with R. Kelly on "Fiesta."^[11] Knowles mimics the hook of "Me and My Girlfriend" on the chorus as she sings, "Down to ride to the very end, me and my boyfriend".^[5]

Some lyrics sung by Knowles were sampled from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" by American recording artist Prince.^[12] On the second verse, Jay-Z references the relationship between Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, and the American television comedy-drama series Sex and the City as he raps: "She riiides wit' me / The new Bobby and Whitney / Only time we don't speak is during 'Sex and the City' / Put us together, how they gon' stop both of us? / When I'm off track, Mommy is keeping us focused".^[5] The verse then continues: "Let's lock this down like it's supposed to be/ The '03 Bonnie and Clyde, Hov and B".^[5]

Critical reception[link]

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was received favorably by critics, who commended the use of different samples, and commented on the relationship between Jay-Z and Knowles. Chris Ryan of Spin magazine described "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as a highlight on The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse, stating that it consists of "a house party in a crib as big as the Georgia Dome."^[13] Marc L. Hill of PopMatters viewed it as the "obligatory radio song" of the album.^[12] Awarding the song a rating of eight out of ten possible points, Dele Fadele of NME complimented it as "a cool duet" between Jay-Z Knowles.^[14] John Robinson of the same publication wrote that as the couple describe their life, it's not all "Lexus and sipping Cris".^[15] He added, "A similarly relaxed production makes for a behind-the-diamante-net-curtains classic".^[15]

Ethan Brown of New York magazine named "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as a follow-up to the previous "Bonnie & Clyde Part II" by Jay-Z featuring rapper Foxy Brown.^[11] Erik Parker, music editor of Vibe magazine, was divided on the song's sample, writing that it was "tasteless but well-executed", and complimented West's production as "impeccable".^[16] Margena A. Christian of Jet magazine praised Jay-Z's and Knowles' collaboration, favoring the former's "dropping lyrics" and the latter's "cooing silky vocals".^[17] Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote that though it was unclear at the time whether the couple were together or not, but they created good music together.^[18] Taylor praised the song's ability to showcase what each artist does best: Jay-Z "spitting" verses of praise, and Knowles' sweets coos and hooks.^[18] Taylor noted that the sampled acoustic guitar "added spice to the track, setting it up for future success".^[18]

Rap-Up credited "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" for giving Knowles a "little street-credit".^[19] The staff members of Vibe magazine placed the song at number two on a list of the best Bonnie and Clyde inspired songs.^[9] On a list of the 10 Best Jay-Z Songs, Dean Silfenv of AOL placed "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" at number six.^[20] Popjustice listed "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" at number 66 on its list of the best singles of 2003.^[21] It was nominated for the Best Collaboration at the 2003 BET Awards,^[22] but lost to Snoop Dogg's song "Beautiful".^[23]

Chart performance[link]

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" reached the top ten on music charts in six European countries.^[24] It peaked at number six on the Norway Singles Chart and on the Danish Singles Chart, number eight on the Italian Singles Chart,^[24] and topped the Swiss Singles Charts.^[25] In Canada, the song peaked at number four and became Jay-Z's highest charting single^[26] until it was surpassed by his 2009 Alicia Keys-assisted song "Empire State of Mind", which peaked at number three.^[27] In the United Kingdom, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" peaked at number two,^[24] becoming his highest charting single since 1998's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)".^[28] It peaked at number four on the New Zealand Singles Chart, becoming his highest charting single in that territory.^[24] The song also became Jay-Z's highest charting single in Australia, where it peaked at number two.^[24] "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipment of 70,000 copies.^[29]

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" broke into the top five of the US Billboard Hot 100 at number four; it became the highest-charting single that references the famous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde.^[30] The record was previously held by Georgie Fame's 1986 single "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde."^[30] Following the performance of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" on Saturday Night Live (SNL) on November 2, 2002, its radio audience increased by 12%, allowing the song to advance into the top ten of the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, at number seven.^[31] This gave Jay-Z his 12th top 10 single, tying him with rapper P. Diddy, who had the same number of top 10 singles on that chart.^[31] "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was his first top 10 since his 2001 single "Girls, Girls, Girls".^[31] It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipment of 500,000 copies.^[32]

Music video[link]

Chris Robinson directed the song's accompanying music video and filmed in Mexico, during November 2002.^[33] June Ambrose was hired as the personal stylist,^[33] and Lance Reddick appears in the video as the main police officer on their tail.^[33] Jay-Z and Knowles play a modern-day version of the 1920s bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.^[34] The video is loosely based on the American 1993 romance crime film True Romance, which stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as two lovers on the run from cocaine dealers.^[34] The choreography used in the clip suggests a relationship beyond screen, as Jay-Z wraps his arm around Knowles while singing his part of the chorus.^[35] The video also marked a departure for the "clean-cut Knowles" and created a symbiotic relationship between her and Jay-Z, allowing them to exchange audiences.^[35]

The music video begins as police officers and Reddick discuss the criminal duo and ways to catch them. As the song begins, Jay-Z is seen driving a gunmetal grey Aston Martin while Knowles sits in the passenger seat.^[35] As they drive through the sepia sands of Mexico,^[35] clips of the police from the beginning of the video are cut into the scene. As Jay-Z and Knowles pull over to a hotel, they cover the car to avoid notice from the police. As Knowles and Jay-Z count money in the bedroom, the police discover their hiding place and go upstairs only to find that the two have fled the scene in their car. Scenes of Knowles and Jay-Z at a Mexican bar are inter-cut with scenes of an intimate time in a phone-booth; behind the phone booth, spray-painted onto a wall is a tribute to Tupac Shakur. The duo again elude the police who are following one step behind. After Knowles performs her verse in an empty pool, the police form a blockade on the highway in an attempt to catch her and Jay-Z, only to be stumped again as two gas station attendant decoys are found driving the car.^[35] The video ends as Knowles and Jay-Z light a bonfire on the beach and drive away in a different car.

Corey Moss of MTV News noted that the end of the video does not reveal how the "real" Bonnie and Clyde met their end.^[34] The story continues in the 2004 video for Jay-Z's song "99 Problems".^[34] The music video for "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.^[36] In the official top 20 countdown of Jay-Z music videos, MTV UK listed the clip at number 10.^[37]

Toni Braxton feud[link]

On October 8, 2003, Toni Braxton and her team released a statement claiming that Jay-Z's song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" had stolen Braxton's idea to sample the 1996 Tupac Shakur song "Me and My Girlfriend".^[3] Braxton sampled Shakur's song on the track "Me & My Boyfriend", included on Braxton's album, More Than a Woman (2002). In a call to a New York radio station, Braxton stated that "Jay-Z and Beyoncé are messing with my money. They're trying to steal my mojo".^[3] Braxton said her song was recorded over the summer of 2002, and alleged that Jay-Z only decided to do "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" after she played her version of the song for Def Jam Recordings.^[3]

Kanye West responded to Braxton's claim in an interview for MTV News, "I had no idea about Toni Braxton's [song]. She can't act like ain't nobody ever heard 'Me and My Girlfriend' before. People hear the song all the time. I can [understand her complaint] if it [was] an original song."^[3] West defended the song's sample, stating that the idea came to him after listening to a friend's Makaveli album one night.^[3] Roc-A-Fella Records' Co-CEO responded to Braxton's claims:

Jay is a talented dude. I don't think he would steal anything intentionally. It's an ill coincidence, and things happen for a reason. We'll see what happens behind it... I read it in the paper, and Jay and I were talking about it this morning and it was a little funny. I know he didn't intentionally make the same record she made. I don't think he even heard it. [My] reaction is, 'Sorry, it wasn't intentional.' Jay makes records and puts them out. This [sh--] is music. It's just music. We don't sit around and have a blueprint to [f---] anybody's life up. The music business has been good to us. I'm not getting into any beef or nothing over music.^[3]

Speaking for MTV News, Jay-Z responded to Braxton's claims: "I wouldn't want to take it from her. I don't even think like that. My first thought would be, 'Maybe I could call her up, maybe I could get on that record.' The most obvious [explanation] is it's neither one of our records. It's not like you made an original idea. She's not in hip-hop, but it happens in hip-hop often. We go to sample the same thing and my record came out first. I'm sorry. What can I do?"^[33] He went on saying that if he had known they were both planning to sample the same Tupac song, he would have arranged a duet with her.^[38]

Formats and track listings[link]

Digital EP^[39]

1. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Radio Edit) – 3:27
2. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Explicit) – 3:26
3. "U Don't Know (Remix) (Jay-Z & M.O.P.) – 4:28

CD single^[40]

1. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Radio Edit) – 3:28
2. "U Don't Know (Remix) – 4:27
3. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Instrumental) – 3:27

Credits and personnel[link]

Adapted from the The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse's liner notes.^[41]

Charts and certifications[link]

References[link]

Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933, in a photo found by police at the Joplin, Missouri hideout

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their gang was known as the "Barrow Gang" which included Bonnie and Clyde, and at times Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Joe Palmer, Ralph Fults, and Henry Methvin. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. Though known today for his dozen-or-so bank robberies, Barrow in fact preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers. Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.^[1]

Even during their lifetimes, the couple's depiction in the press was at considerable odds with the hardscrabble reality of their life on the road—particularly in the case of Parker. Though she was present at a hundred or more felonies during her two years as Barrow's companion,^[2] she was not the machine gun-wielding cartoon killer portrayed in the newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Gang member W. D. Jones was unsure whether he had ever seen her fire at officers.^[3][4] Parker's reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a playful snapshot found by police at an abandoned hideout, released to the press, and published nationwide; while she did chain-smoke Camel cigarettes, she was not a cigar smoker.^[5]

Author-historian Jeff Guinn explains that it was the release of these very photos that put the outlaws on the media map and launched their legend: "John Dillinger had matinee-idol good looks and Pretty Boy Floyd had the best possible nickname, but the Joplin photos introduced new criminal superstars with the most titillating trademark of all—illicit sex. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were young and unmarried. They undoubtedly slept together. Without Bonnie, the media outside Texas might have dismissed Clyde as a gun-toting punk, if it ever considered him at all. With her sassy photographs, Bonnie supplied the sex-appeal, the oomph, that allowed the two of them to transcend the small-scale thefts and needless killings that actually comprised their criminal careers."^[6]

Beginnings[link]

Bonnie Parker[link]

Bonnie Parker
Parker with 1932 Ford V-8 B-400 convertible sedan. Captured Joplin film
Born	Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (1910-10-01)October 1, 1910 Rowena, Texas
Died	May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) (aged 23) Bienville Parish, Louisiana 32°26′28″N 93°05′34″W / 32.441217°N 93.092659°W / 32.441217; -93.092659 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Ambush)
Cause of death	Gunshot
Resting place	Crown Hill Memorial Park Dallas, Texas
Nationality	American

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Parker, a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four.^[7] Her mother, Emma Krause, moved with the children to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas, where she found work as a seamstress.^[8] Parker was one of the best students in her high school, winning top prizes in spelling, writing and public speaking.^[9] As an adult, her fondness for writing found expression in poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal"^[10] and "The Trail's End" (known since as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"^[11]).

In her second year of high school, Parker met Roy Thornton. They dropped out of school and were married on September 25, 1926, six days before Parker's 16th birthday.^[12] Their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived, and after January 1929 their paths never crossed again. But they were never divorced, and Parker was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died.^[13] Thornton was in prison in 1934 when he learned of his wife's death. His reaction was, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."^[14]

In 1929, after the breakdown of her marriage and before her first meeting with Clyde Barrow in January 1930, Parker lived with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas. One of her regular customers in the café was postal worker Ted Hinton, who would join the Dallas Sheriff's Department in 1932 and, as a posse member, would participate in her ambush in 1934.^[15] In the diary she kept briefly early in 1929, she wrote of her loneliness, her impatience with life in provincial Dallas, and her love of talking pictures.^[16]

Clyde Barrow[link]

Clyde Barrow
Clyde Barrow in 1926, aged 16
Born	Clyde Chestnut Barrow (1909-03-24)March 24, 1909 Ellis County, Texas
Died	May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) (aged 25) Bienville Parish, Louisiana 32°26′28″N 93°05′34″W / 32.441217°N 93.092659°W / 32.441217; -93.092659 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Ambush)
Cause of death	Gunshot
Resting place	Western Heights Cemetery Dallas, Texas
Nationality	American

Clyde Chestnut Barrow^[17] (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) was born in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico, a town just south of Dallas.^[18] He was the fifth of seven children of Henry Basil Barrow (1874–1957) and Cumie T. Walker (1874–1943), a poor farming family that emigrated, piecemeal, to Dallas in the early 1920s as part of a wave of resettlement from the impoverished nearby farms to the urban slum known as West Dallas. The Barrows spent their first months in West Dallas living under their wagon. When father Henry had earned enough money to buy a tent, it was a major step up for the family.^[19]

Clyde was first arrested in late 1926, after running when police confronted him over a rental car he had failed to return on time. His second arrest, with brother Marvin "Buck" Barrow, came soon after, this time for possession of stolen goods (turkeys). Despite having legitimate jobs during the period 1927 through 1929, he also cracked safes, robbed stores, and stole cars. After sequential arrests in 1928 and 1929, he was sent to Eastham Prison Farm in April 1930. While in prison, Barrow beat to death another inmate who had repeatedly assaulted him sexually.^[20] It was Clyde Barrow's first killing.

Paroled in February 1932, Barrow emerged from Eastham a hardened and bitter criminal. His sister Marie said "Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn't the same person when he got out."^[21] A fellow inmate, Ralph Fults, said he watched him "change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake."^[22]

In his post-Eastham career, he focused on smaller jobs, robbing grocery stores and gas stations, at a rate far outpacing the mere ten to fifteen bank robberies attributed to him and the Barrow Gang. Barrow's favored weapon was the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (called a BAR). According to John Neal Phillips, Barrow's goal in life was not to gain fame or fortune from robbing banks, but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time.^[23]

First meeting[link]

There are several versions of the story describing Bonnie's and Clyde's first meeting, but the most credible version indicates that Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in January 1930 at a friend's house. Parker was out of work and was staying in West Dallas to assist a girl friend with a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was supposedly in the kitchen making hot chocolate.^[24]

When they met, both were smitten immediately; most historians believe Parker joined Barrow because she was in love. She remained a loyal companion to him as they carried out their crime spree and awaited the violent deaths they viewed as inevitable.^[25]

The spree[link]

1932: Early jobs, early murders[link]

Parker poses with cigar and is branded by newspapers as "cigar smoking gun moll" after cops find Joplin film

After Barrow was released from prison in February 1932, he and Ralph Fults assembled a rotating core group of associates and began a series of small robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations; their goal was to collect enough money and firepower to launch a raid of liberation against Eastham prison.^[23] On April 19, Bonnie Parker and Fults were captured in a failed hardware store burglary in Kaufman, Texas, and subsequently jailed.^[26] While Parker would be released in a few months, Fults remained in jail and never rejoined the gang. On April 30, Barrow was the wheelman in a robbery in Hillsboro, Texas, during which the store's owner, J.N. Bucher, was shot and killed.^[27] When shown mugshots, the victim's wife identified Barrow as one of the shooters, even though he had stayed outside in the car;^[28] it was his first murder accusation. Meanwhile, Parker remained in jail until June 17, writing poetry to wile away the time.^[29] When the Kaufman County grand jury convened, it declined to indict her, and she was released.^[30] Within a few weeks, she reunited with Barrow.

On August 5, while Parker was visiting her mother in Dallas, Barrow, Raymond Hamilton and Ross Dyer^[31] were drinking alcohol at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma, when Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C. Moore, approached them in the parking lot. Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing the deputy and gravely wounding the sheriff;^[32][33] it was the first killing of a lawman by Barrow and his gang, a total eventually amounting to nine officers killed. Another civilian was added to the list on October 11, when storekeeper Howard Hall was killed during a robbery of his store in Sherman, Texas. The stolen goods consisted of $28 and some groceries.^[34]

W. D. Jones had been a friend of the Barrow family since childhood, and though he was only 16 years old on Christmas Eve 1932, he persuaded Barrow to let him join up with the pair and ride out of Dallas with them that night.^[35] The very next day, Jones was initiated into homicide when he and Barrow killed Doyle Johnson, a young family man, in the process of stealing his car in Temple, Texas.^[36] Less than two weeks later, on January 6, 1933, Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis when he, Parker and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal.^[37] The total murdered by the gang since April was now five.

1933: Buck joins the gang[link]

Life changed for the gang after they shot their way out of Joplin hideout; photos and Bonnie's poem hit papers nationwide.
37°03′06″N 94°31′00″W / 37.051671°N 94.516693°W / 37.051671; -94.516693 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Garage Apartment)

On March 22, 1933, Buck Barrow was granted a full pardon and released from prison. Within days, he and his wife, Blanche, had set up housekeeping with Clyde Barrow, Parker and Jones in a temporary hideout at 3347 1/2 Oakridge Drive in Joplin, Missouri. According to family sources,^[38] Buck and Blanche were there merely to visit, in an attempt to persuade Clyde to surrender to law enforcement. As was common with Bonnie and Clyde, their next brush with the law arose from their generally suspicious—and conspicuous—behavior, not because their identities had been discovered. Beer had just been legalized after Prohibition, and the group ran loud, alcohol-fueled card games late into the night in the quiet neighborhood. "We bought a case of beer a day," Blanche would later recall.^[39] The menfolk came and went noisily at all hours, and once, a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) discharged in the apartment while Clyde was cleaning it;^[40] the short burst did not bring any neighbors directly to the house, but at least one registered suspicions with the Joplin Police Department.

Unaware of what awaited them, the lawmen assembled only a 5-man force in two cars on April 13 to confront the suspected bootleggers living in the garage apartment. Though taken by surprise, Clyde, noted for remaining cool under fire, was gaining far more experience in gun battles than most lawmen. He, Jones and Buck quickly killed Detective McGinnis and fatally wounded Constable Harryman.^[41][42] During the escape from the apartment, Parker laid down covering fire with her own BAR, forcing Highway Patrol sergeant G. B. Kahler to duck behind a large oak tree while .30-06 slugs struck the other side, forcing wood splinters into the sergeant's face.^[43] Parker then got into the car with the others. The car slowed long enough to pull in Blanche Barrow from the street, where she was pursuing her fleeing dog, Snow Ball.^[44] The surviving officers later testified that their side had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict,^[45] although one of these hit Jones in the side, one struck Clyde and was deflected by his suitcoat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.

W. D. Jones poses with some of the gang's weapons.

The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left most of their possessions at the rented apartment: Buck and Blanche's marriage license, Buck's parole papers (only three weeks old), a large arsenal of weapons, a handwritten poem by Bonnie, and a camera with several rolls of undeveloped film.^[46] The film was developed at The Joplin Globe and yielded many now-famous photos of Barrow, Parker and Jones clowning and pointing ordnance at one another.^[47] When the poem and the photos, including one of Parker clenching a cigar in her teeth and a pistol in her hand, went out on the newly installed newswire, the obscure fivesome from Dallas became front page news across America as The Barrow Gang, fully illustrated and with the poem "Story of 'Suicide Sal'" as an apparent backstory.

For the next three months, they ranged from Texas as far north as Minnesota. In May, they attempted to rob the bank in Lucerne, Indiana^[48] and robbed the bank in Okabena, Minnesota.^[49] Previously they had kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone at Ruston, Louisiana, in the course of stealing Darby's car; this was one of several incidents between 1932 and 1934 in which they kidnapped lawmen or robbery victims,^[50] usually releasing them far from home, sometimes with money to help them return.^[4][51] Stories of these encounters made headlines, but so too did the darker encounters. The Barrow Gang would not hesitate to shoot anyone, lawman or civilian, who got in their way. Other members of the Barrow Gang known or thought to have committed murders included Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Buck Barrow and Henry Methvin. Eventually, the cold-bloodedness of the killings would not only sour the public perception of the outlaws, but lead directly to their undoing.^[52]

While the photos in the papers might have suggested a glamorous lifestyle for the Barrow Gang, in reality they were desperate and discontented, as noted in the account of their life written by Blanche Barrow while she was in jail through the latter 1930s.^[53] With their new notoriety came difficulty in the smallest tasks of everyday living. Restaurants and motels became less and less of an option; cooking and bathing became campfire and cold-stream propositions.^[54] The unrelieved, round-the-clock proximity of life among two couples, plus a fifth-wheel, in one car gave rise to vicious bickering.^[55][56] So unpleasant did it become that W.D. Jones, who was the actual wheelman in the theft of Dillard Darby's car in late April, used that car to get himself separated from the others—and managed to stay separated throughout May and up until June 8.^[57]

On June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, Barrow missed warning signs at a bridge under construction and flipped their car into a ravine.^[4][58] Sources disagree on whether there was an actual gasoline fire^[59] or that Parker was doused with acid from the car's battery under the floorboards.^[60] What is certain is that Parker sustained serious third degree burns to her right leg. The burn was so severe, the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up";^[61] near the end of her life, Parker could hardly walk and would either hop on her good leg or be carried by Clyde. After getting help from a nearby farm family and kidnapping two local lawmen,^[62] the three outlaws rendezvoused with Blanche and Buck Barrow again and they hid out in a tourist court near Fort Smith, Arkansas, nursing Parker's burns. Then Buck and Jones bungled a local robbery and killed Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.^[63] With the renewed pursuit from the law, they had to flee again, despite the grave condition of Bonnie Parker.^[64]

1933: Platte City and Dexfield Park[link]

Two-unit Red Crown Tourist Court, where the gang's conspicuous behavior drew the police, a gunfight, and a mortal head wound for Buck Barrow. 39°18′43″N 94°41′11″W / 39.31194°N 94.68639°W / 39.31194; -94.68639 (1933 Site of Red Crown Tourist Court Platte City, Missouri)

On July 18, 1933, the gang checked into the Red Crown Tourist Court^[65] south of Platte City, Missouri (now within the city limits of Kansas City, Missouri across I-29 from Kansas City International Airport). The Red Crown Court was just two brick cabins joined by garages and the gang rented both.^[65] To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant and a favorite watering hole for Missouri Highway Patrolmen. Once again, the gang seemed to go out of their way to draw attention to themselves:^[66] owner Neal Houser became interested in the group immediately when Blanche Barrow registered the party as three guests, and Houser, out his rear window, could see five people exiting their car—which the driver backed into the garage, "gangster style," for a quick getaway.^[67] Blanche paid the lodging tab with coins rather than paper money, and did the same thing again later when she purchased five dinners and five beers for, presumably, three guests.^[68] The next day, Houser noticed that his guests had taped newspapers over the windows of their cabin, and Blanche once again paid in silver for five meals. Even Blanche's outfit— tight jodhpurs riding breeches^[69]—attracted undue attention: they were just not the kind of thing the staid women of Platte City would ever wear, and were the first thing mentioned by eyewitnesses reminiscing even 40 years later.^[67] It was all too much for Houser, who brought the conspicuous group to the attention of his restaurant patron, Captain William Baxter of the Highway Patrol.^[65]

When Clyde and Jones went into town^[70] to purchase bandages, crackers, cheese, and atropine sulfate to treat Bonnie's leg,^[71] the druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under watch. Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas to be on the lookout for strangers seeking such supplies. The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City including an armored car.^[65] At 11 pm that night, Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers armed with Thompson submachine guns toward the cabins.^[72] But in a pitched gunfight at considerable distances, the submachine guns proved no match for Clyde Barrow's preferred Browning Automatic Rifles, stolen July 7 from the National Guard armory at Enid, Oklahoma.^[73] The Barrows laid down withering fire and made their escape when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armored car^[74] and the lawmen mistook it for a cease-fire signal. They did not pursue the retreating Barrow automobile.^[65]

With Buck mortally wounded nearby, Blanche is captured by posse at Dexfield Park, IA
41°33′52″N 94°13′44″W / 41.564388°N 94.228942°W / 41.564388; -94.228942 (Site of Barrow Gang shootout at Dexfield Park, IA)

Jones's "confession" after his capture sparked murder warrants against the gang

Although the gang evaded law enforcement once again, Buck Barrow had sustained a horrific wound to the side of the head and Blanche Barrow was nearly blinded from glass fragments in both her eyes.^[65][75] Their prospects for holding out against the ensuing manhunt dwindled.

Five days later, on July 24, the Barrow Gang was camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa.^[4][76] Buck's head wound was so severe that Clyde and Jones dug a grave for him.^[77] After their bloody bandages were noticed by local citizens, it was determined that the campers were the Barrow gang. Surrounded by local lawmen and approximately one hundred spectators, the Barrows once again found themselves under fire.^[76] Clyde Barrow, Parker, and W.D. Jones escaped on foot.^[4][76] Buck was shot again, in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers. Buck died five days later, at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa, of pneumonia after surgery.^[76]

For the next six weeks, the remaining trio ranged far afield of their usual area of operations—west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi—keeping a low profile and pulling only small robberies for daily-bread money.^[78] They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones burglarized an armory at Plattville, Illinois on August 20, acquiring three BARs, handguns, and a large quantity of ammunition.^[79]

By early September, they risked a run back to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months, and Jones parted company with them, continuing on to Houston, where his mother had moved.^[4][76][80] He was arrested there without incident on November 16 and returned to Dallas. Through the autumn, Barrow executed a series of small-time robberies with a series of small-time local accomplices while his family and Parker's attended to her considerable medical needs.