Bonnie & Clyde's Ford V-8 (5 photos)

The history of cars is full of warm moments and happy endings – but also gloomy corners, dead ends and tragedies that happened at high speeds. Some cars have become part of history due to the fact that they were involved in murder and mutilation. They have gained notoriety. The Ford V-8 made history under the control of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie & Clyde.




From the moment they met in January 1930, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker had been on a date with a bloody fate. Barrow, who had just turned 21 this year, went to prison for burglary, but didn't spend much time there: Parker smuggled him a gun, and he escaped, only to be caught again and jailed for 14 years. After another prisoner cut off two of Barrow's toes for refusing to do work, Barrow was released at the request of his mother.



And this marked the beginning of an increase in criminal activity that gave rise to the legend of Bonnie and Clyde. They organized a gang with Clyde's brother Buck Barrow and his wife Blanche, armed bandit Raymond Hamilton, and W.D. Jones, and traveled five states from Missouri to Texas, robbing banks and gas stations and stores, creating an image of criminals.

The press quickly spread their story, as did the public, at least until their crimes led to murder. In four years, their total crimes amount to 13 deaths, among the victims were several police officers. They killed a policeman in early 1934 in Grapevine, Texas; another was killed by them five days later in Oklahoma.



In order to move from crime to crime, from robbery to robbery, the Barrow gang stole cars — and among them was a Ford V-8, which later gained notoriety as Bonnie and Clyde's death machine. Barrow was known for his love of Ford cars, and at the time, the Ford V-8 was the fastest car. Barrow wrote, or perhaps did not write, a letter to the Ford Motor Company saying that this car actually "made all the other cars fade in front of him."

In the spring of 1934, the Barrow gang stole a Ford V-8 Deluxe with a greyhound on the hood, with a mileage of just under 1,000 miles (1,609 km). Ruth and Jess Warren owned it, having bought it a few days before the theft from a Ford car dealer in Topeka, Kansas. It was almost new, but within weeks of the theft, the Barrow gang drove it for about 7,000 miles (11,263 km) in their crime race.



During the last trip, gang members were shot dead by law enforcement officers or caught and imprisoned. But Bonnie and Clyde remained free until May 1934, when the authorities decided to catch them. The Texas State Police drove to Bienville Parish, Louisiana, where the Louisiana State Police helped ambush them. More than 100 shots were fired at their car, Barrow and Parker were killed in the fight, and the Ford V-8 they stole served as a makeshift hearse as it was taken off the battlefield on a cable.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were buried in Dallas, Texas. But their death machine still lives on at the Primmm Valley Resort in Primm, Nevada. This 4-door Ford sedan is said to have made millions for the museum's owners. Entrance to the Primm Museum is paid, but just imagine for a moment how much this "free" car cost Parker and Barrow.