Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde

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Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 754 ratings · 161 reviews

Forget everything you think you know about Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Previous books and films, including the brilliant 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, have emphasized the supposed glamour of America's most notorious criminal couple, thus contributing to ongoing mythology. The real story is completely different -- and far more fascinating.

In Go Dow...more Forget everything you think you know about Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Previous books and films, including the brilliant 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, have emphasized the supposed glamour of America's most notorious criminal couple, thus contributing to ongoing mythology. The real story is completely different -- and far more fascinating.

In Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, bestselling author Jeff Guinn combines exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material to tell the real tale of two kids from a filthy Dallas slum who fell in love and then willingly traded their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more important, fame. Their timing could not have been better -- the Barrow Gang pulled its first heist in 1932 when most Americans, reeling from the Great Depression, were desperate for escapist entertainment. Thanks to newsreels, true crime magazines, and new-fangled wire services that transmitted scandalous photos of Bonnie smoking a cigar to every newspaper in the nation, the Barrow Gang members almost instantly became household names on a par with Charles Lindbergh, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth. In the minds of the public, they were cool, calculating bandits who robbed banks and killed cops with equal impunity.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. Clyde and Bonnie were perhaps the most inept crooks ever, and their two-year crime spree was as much a reign of error as it was of terror. Lacking the sophistication to plot robberies of big-city banks, the Barrow Gang preyed mostly on small mom-and-pop groceries and service stations. Even at that, they often came up empty-handed and were reduced to breaking into gum machines for meal money. Both were crippled, Clyde from cutting off two of his toes while in prison and Bonnie from a terrible car crash caused by Clyde's reckless driving. Constantly on the run from the law, they lived like animals, camping out in their latest stolen car, bathing in creeks, and dining on cans of cold beans and Vienna sausages. Yet theirs was a genuine love story. Their devotion to each other was as real as their overblown reputation as criminal masterminds was not.

Go Down Together has it all -- true romance, rebellion against authority, bullets flying, cars crashing, and, in the end, a dramatic death at the hands of a celebrity lawman hired to hunt them down. Thanks in great part to surviving Barrow and Parker family members and collectors of criminal memorabilia who provided Jeff Guinn with access to never-before-published material, we finally have the real story of Bonnie and Clyde and their troubled times, delivered with cinematic sweep and unprecedented insight by a masterful storyteller.(less)

Hardcover, 468 pages

Published March 10th 2009 by Simon & Schuster (first published January 1st 2009)

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Dec 13, 2011 ~☆ Alice☆~ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: everyone-should-read, texas

I just started this one and I think its going to hold my attention. Lately nothing does since the Stephen King book. First I like the setting in Texas and the background is very interesting to me as this is the time frame when my parents were growing up. Its hard to imagine what people's lives were like then.

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Apr 15, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: may-june-2009

All those who read Guinn's account of Bonnie and Clyde were impressed by the unprecedented level of detail he brings to the story. But a few seemed to think that all of Guinn's data got in the way of the chase. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel admitted that the level of detail posed the book's "only problem," while acknowledging that "the legend still stands under its own power." Indeed, reviewers were generally pleased by Guinn's ability to add new layers to Bonnie and Clyde's brief, hardscrabble

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Nov 29, 2012 Matt Kuhns rated it 4 of 5 stars

An absolutely fantastic work, rich in absorbing detail.

I’m far from being an expert on Bonnie & Clyde, so I can’t evaluate this against any other works on the pair. But it certainly seems like Guinn did a lot of research, and used it to very good effect. Unsurprisingly, there’s no Hollywood glamour in the story; yet for a tale of two largely inept, ineffective small-time criminals, it’s a remarkably dramatic and even moving story.

The element of inevitable doom in Bonnie & Clyde’s tale p...more

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Jul 18, 2012 David Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

When it comes to Bonnie and Clyde I will admit my initial knowledge before reading this book was very limited. I knew that they were a gun toting couple that had a brief but famous crime spree in America before the law eventually ambushed and killed them in the 1930s. Jeff Guinn’s book promised to set the record straight on previous depictions of this infamous couple and the result is a gripping story full of amazing events.

The book begins with Clyde’s origins, his birth in 1910 in the farming...more When it comes to Bonnie and Clyde I will admit my initial knowledge before reading this book was very limited. I knew that they were a gun toting couple that had a brief but famous crime spree in America before the law eventually ambushed and killed them in the 1930s. Jeff Guinn’s book promised to set the record straight on previous depictions of this infamous couple and the result is a gripping story full of amazing events.

The book begins with Clyde’s origins, his birth in 1910 in the farming communities of East Texas and the onset of the Great Depression which impacted hard on agriculture and forced the Barrow family to move to Dallas where they took up residence in the west of the city, comprising of the slums. In his teens Clyde initially tried to work for an honest living but his hard upbringing and meagre wages from a local factory convinced him crime was the only way to obtain the sort of life he desired – one of smart suits and fancy cars. Also in Dallas was Bonnie Parker who had married at fifteen and soon never saw her husband again. She dreamed of a career in films or on the stage but from such humble origins this was unlikely ever to happen. The lives of Bonnie and Clyde were changed forever when they met at a party and their story began.

Having consulted with surviving members of the Barrow and Parker families as well as using a wide range of evidence, Jeff Guinn creates a thoroughly detailed account of Bonnie and Clyde’s lives. Such details as Clyde’s imprisonment in the infamous Eastham Prison Farm or “Bloody Ham” as it was known where he killed an inmate that had been raping him for months before removing some of his own toes with an axe to be transferred to a compound with lighter work duties were all hard-hitting moments. Clyde’s vow never to return to prison no matter what would prove to be a promise he stuck by until the end. Even more shocking were details of the horrific injuries Bonnie suffered in a car crash, the result of Clyde’s reckless driving, which left her struggling to walk for the rest of her life and is further evidence that her role in The Barrow gang was not as prominent as the media believed.

Other surprising elements of Bonnie and Clyde’s story for me was that they were often working with other criminals such as WD Jones, Raymond Hamilton, Henry Methvin and even Clyde’s older brother, Buck, who would pay for joining his sibling with his life. The couple even met with legendary crime figure, Pretty Boy Floyd, though he didn’t take them seriously nor did the other notorious bank robber of the time, John Dillinger. Their perception of Bonnie and Clyde as a bunch of immature kids did have some degree of truth to it. Jeff Guinn’s book delivers an unexpected reality to Bonnie and Clyde’s lives which was in stark contrast to the image of them projected in the newspapers. Both Bonnie and Clyde were considered to be always armed and robbing banks and stores together. This was based on an infamous picture of Bonnie discovered by police showing her holding a gun and seemingly smoking. Truth be told, Bonnie liked a drink but didn’t smoke nor did she fire a gun. She was always by Clyde’s side but the crimes committed by the couple were always at the behest of Clyde who conducted them alone or with other members of the gang while Bonnie waited in one of the many cars they stole. Clyde’s preferences were not for banks but small stores, again in contrast to what the media would write. The media’s portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde along with subsequent films and books would obscure the reality of the couple and propel Bonnie to the forefront of the American consciousness with Clyde considered the obedient lover responding to Bonnie’s schemes.

Bonnie and Clyde’s two-year crime spree is also reflected as one of frequent mistakes and it is probably only down to luck and Clyde’s exemplary driving out of tight spots that they weren’t killed or captured sooner. Bonnie and Clyde were always dressed smart in their photos giving way to the belief that they always appeared that way but life on the road, sleeping in cars or camping in woods was more akin to the difficult life they chose for themselves. Eventually it all had to come to an end and sadly for Bonnie and Clyde only a posse, led by a famous ex-Texas ranger, and the betrayal of a family they trusted was the reason they didn’t go on longer. Bonnie and Clyde’s deaths are teemed with controversy for they were said to have died shooting. The truth was neither was armed and they were never given the chance to surrender. Despite their criminal activity there was some poignancy to the last few months of Bonnie and Clyde’s lives. After Clyde’s brother Buck was killed the couple tried to see their families more often, each time risking capture whenever they returned to West Dallas. Bonnie and Clyde’s reign of crime seemed more born of necessity in the midst of the Great Depression rather than a compulsion for evil. Clyde himself is revealed to frequently be merciful, especially to hostages with all he captured being released and some with money to get them safely home, while he remained a man of his word even to the extent of busting men he despised out of jail.

Jeff Guinn’s account of Bonnie and Clyde was a real eye opener for me. Though their actions were wrong and the law did its duty in stopping them there is something to admire in a couple that went through so much together and remained by each other’s side until the end. The only sadness in the aftermath of their deaths is that Bonnie’s mother ensured her daughter and Clyde were not buried side by side.
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Aug 27, 2011 Rhonda rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read a wide variety of books, and many of them are history based, being a history teacher leads me in that direction. I also am fascinated by Depression era gangsters. My grandparents lived in northern Wisconsin, just down the road from Little Bohemia and John Dillinger's infamous shootout. Also just down the road is Mercer WI, where Al Capone's brother Ray owned a bar. I once asked my Grandmother about Bonnie and Clyde and she scoffed that they were just "two bit" criminals.

Reading this book...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Caroline rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, biography

I never really knew anything about Bonnie and Clyde beyond the fact that they were Depression-Era bank robbers, they died in a bullet-riddled ambush and they were played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the film. That was literally the sum total of my knowledge, so this book was a real revelation and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I couldn't put it down.

There's always been a certain glamour attached to the celebrity criminals of this era - Bonnie and Clyde themselves, John Dillinger, Pret...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars

We have all heard the stories of Bonnie and Clyde. We have all seen movies depicting the lives of Bonnie and Clyde. What if 90% of what we have heard and seen was fabricated? According to Jeff Guinn about the only thing, until this book was published, that other writers got correct was the names, Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde were a product of their enviorment. Well, maybe and then maybe not. They certainly had it tough growing up in the West Texas slums during the depression. Clyde started...more We have all heard the stories of Bonnie and Clyde. We have all seen movies depicting the lives of Bonnie and Clyde. What if 90% of what we have heard and seen was fabricated? According to Jeff Guinn about the only thing, until this book was published, that other writers got correct was the names, Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde were a product of their enviorment. Well, maybe and then maybe not. They certainly had it tough growing up in the West Texas slums during the depression. Clyde started out small by stealing cars. His favorite car was the Ford, especially the Ford V-8. This car could easily out run anything the police could put on the road. He even wrote Henry Ford praising the cars performance.

Bonnie wanted to better her life and was looking for excitement and adventure. Clyde would provide this for her.

The Barrow Gang, as they were called, became famous, not because of their exploits, but more due to the sensationalist coverage given to them by the media. The media, remember this was the depression, was having a hard time selling their product. Newspapers and magazines found that if they hyped the deeds of Bonnie and Clyde their sells would sometimes double or triple. Little thought was given to accuracy. Sells took another jump when they were able to print a picture of Bonnie leaning on a car brandishing a pistol in her hand and a cigar in her mouth.

The truth of the matter is Bonnie and Clyde were two bit crooks, living from day to day, and sleeping and eating either in their car or in the woods. The majority of their "heists" were small gas stations and grocery stores. They seldom made off with more than $25. The were able to "hit" a few banks for larger amounts, but most of their bank attempts ended in failure.

Jeff Gyin does show the fierce loyalty and love that Bonnie and Clyde had for each other and their families. Their families also showed the same love and loyalty to Bonnie and Clyde and kept in touch with them as much as possible.

One of the oddities of the book is that the author refers to them as Clyde and Boone throughout the book. He felt that Clyde was the main character and Bonnie was used by the press only to sell papers. Bonnie's only participation in the robberies was to drive the get-away car.

This is a great read that is well documented, with some really good pictures.(less)

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Aug 24, 2010 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

The mention of Bonnie and Clyde stirs images of glamorous gunslingers mocking the law through jailbreaks and bank robberies. Jeff Guinn’s new book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clydeshatters that portrayal by providing a real, demystified account of the couple’s ultimately tragic lives.

Guinn tells of Clyde Barrow’s and Bonnie Parker’s childhoods in the poverty-stricken slums of West Dallas. Clyde hoped to be a professional musician, and Bonnie dreamt of being a famous a...more The mention of Bonnie and Clyde stirs images of glamorous gunslingers mocking the law through jailbreaks and bank robberies. Jeff Guinn’s new book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clydeshatters that portrayal by providing a real, demystified account of the couple’s ultimately tragic lives.

Guinn tells of Clyde Barrow’s and Bonnie Parker’s childhoods in the poverty-stricken slums of West Dallas. Clyde hoped to be a professional musician, and Bonnie dreamt of being a famous actress or poet. More than anything both wanted to escape their lives of destitution. However, their ambitions of fortune and fame resulted in crime and infamy.

Go Down Togetheroffers an in-depth look at the outlaws’ mostly unglamorous lives as criminals on the run. The reader is placed in the backseat of the countless stolen Ford V-8 coupes as the outlaws traverse the country, trying to stay one step ahead of the law. The rush of bank robberies, prison escapes, and shoot-outs are juxtaposed with a deromanticized depiction of criminal life: sleeping in cars, makeshift campsites, and petty theft, just to get enough money for food and clothing.

Guinn extensively researched this book. He interviewed family members, contacted historians, and gained access to never-before-published memoirs written by Cumie Parker, Bonnie’s mother, and Marie Barrow Scoma, Clyde’s sister. The impressive sixty-two pages of source notes makes Go Down Togetherthe most thoroughly researched account of Bonnie’s and Clyde’s short lives.

The author’s homework pays off in this compelling read. At times the overwhelming details slow the pace of the story, but Guinn’s accounts of haphazard robbery attempts, foolish decisions, and brazen behavior capture the reader’s attention through the final gunshots and the couple’s ultimate downfall.

Readers will also appreciate the regional settings of the criminals’ escapades. Clyde’s first successful bank robbery took place at Lawrence’s First National Bank. The Barrow Gang stayed at the Eldridge Hotel as they cased their target. And in 1934, the couple stole their final car from a Topeka woman. The fugitives met their fate while driving the Ford V-8, and the bullet-ridden automobile later toured the nation as the famous “Death Car.”

Clyde Barrow’s West Dallas tombstone reads: “Gone but not forgotten.” This inscription rings true after reading Guinn’s unforgettably raw portrayal of two of history’s most notorious outlaws. If you’re looking for romance, action, and tragedy in one riveting summer read, escape with Bonnie and Clyde.(less)

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Jul 14, 2009 Arnie Harris rated it 3 of 5 stars

twainfile's Full Review: Jeff Guinn - Go Down Together: The True, Untold St...
Jeff Guinn's account of Bonnie and Clyde has the plus of being comprehensive, but ironically suffers from that virtue.
Guinn certainly seems to set the record straight concerning many myths and misconceptions about the legendary pair, but in the process drowns his narrative with such a welter of details that this impatient reader got about one-third through the book, and began scanning the rest.
Guinn's book presen...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Bit rated it 5 of 5 stars

Watch the movie, Bonnie and Clyde, and then read this book. While some of the stuff does jive, the popular "Hollywood" story is much less interesting than the real one.

Born dirt poor, raised in slums, Bonnie and Clyde were basically two kids looking for recognition. They certainly found it. This book gives their entire background, including how both tried to work their way up in the world via the usual hard work but found that they were bound for nowhere.

Included is information on their famili...more

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Dec 22, 2009 Sheila rated it 5 of 5 stars

Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn is one of the most readable history books. It is not dry and I liked how he started with the parents of Bonnie and Clyde and their families and infancies. It was interesting to see how they grew up and have the time period spoken about. I was surprised how the local cops, even though they were hounding the family, when Buck, Clyde's older brother died, paid so Mrs. Barrows could bring him back to West Dallas for burial. I...more

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Jan 15, 2011 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, 2011

Clearly, the facts of the short criminal lives of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are quite different from the myth of Bonnie and Clyde. They were pretty ordinary in most ways and they were rotten criminals, more likely to break open gum machines and knock over small liquor stores than rob banks (and when they did rob banks, they did so really incompetently). According to the myth, they were glamorous rebels, striking back at a corrupt and oppressive world that wouldn't give them a break. They we...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Tin Wee rated it 4 of 5 stars

A nicely paced biography of America's most famous outlaw couple, explaining their upbringing amidst extreme poverty, how Clyde was in a way forced to crime due to constant harassment by suspicious law enforcement, his hooking up with Bonnie and subsequent incarceration in a cruel prison facility which led to his promise never to go to jail again. This set the stage for his later exploits and life on the run, in the process stealing more cars (Ford V-8s!), robbing more banks and shops, shooting a...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Maura853 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was very disappointed in this book. The writing style is plodding. Some of the assumptions about Bonnie and Clyde are a stretch. (Bonnie was a prostitute ... because she wrote a very bad, childish poem about prostitutes?) Having said that, the subject matter is fascinating, and compelled me to stick with the book. Discovering that B&C were aged 24 and 23 respectively when they died came as a great shock: they were monsters, but they were hardly more than children.

Having finished the book,...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Dixie added it · review of another edition

I finished this about a week ago. Now I'm reading another title about Bonnie and Clyde. Fascinating subject. I thought this book was very well done. I read all of the notes in the back, as well. I enjoyed the background on Dallas and even Louisiana. My folks were married about a year before Bonnie married, so the era is very interesting to me. The author did a fine job of documenting the facts and remaining objective. The facts lead to the reader making up their own minds about the situation. Th...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Kurt rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm a big fan of books about the crime wave of 1933-34 (Public Enemies, Vendetta, Dary Matera's Dillinger book), so I was familiar with the Bonnie and Clyde story when I bought this book. Even though Guinn's book didn't contain many surprises for me, I absolutely loved it. Guinn is a phenomenal storyteller, and in this volume he not only fleshes out the lives of the famous couple through personal interviews and well-documented research from public records, he also draws in bigger picture details...more

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Jul 25, 2009 The Listmaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-crime, biography

If you think you know the story of Bonnie and Clyde, chances are you don't.

If your knowledge, like mine, is based on the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde you'd be surprised to find out just how much of that movie is an inaccurate, romanticized and fictionalized account of real life events.

I can't swear to the veracity of this biography, but its story is a far cry from that of the movie.

It's an interesting book, albeit one that seems to glorify both Clyde and Bonnie a bit; making them out to be tragic...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am somewhat of a Bonnie and Clyde afficionado, so this book was practically written for me. This book takes you in depth and step by step with these two kids on their journey into infamy. Now, most people see nothing but the romanticism of two lovers gunning their way to an early grave (as horribly portrayed by Beatty and Dunaway in Arthur Penn's historically inaccurate movie), but what you find in the text are two kids affraid of the having to return to the social class they were unfortunatel...more

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May 10, 2010 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

Mr.Guinn has done an amazing amount of research to bring the real story of Bonnie and Clyde to light. The film, which has become a classic, paints the couple as romantic, glamorous and skilled criminals. In reality, they were basically bumblers, who stole paltry amounts of money, numerous cars and seemed to kill impulsively. They caught the fancy of the news media of the day and became cult figures.
The author graphically depicts the grinding poverty of the 20s and 30s which drove many to petty c...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Jeannie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book

I grew up fascinated with Bonnie and Clyde in main due to my parents who lived in Missouri during this era and told me stories about them. When the movie came out I begged and pleaded to go see it but being so young my parents resisted my urgings before finally giving in and allowing me to go with my older brothers. It was an experience I'll never forget and even then I felt the allure of "Bonnie and Clyde". Needless to say that movie made quite an impression on my young mind so I found myself t...more

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Apr 17, 2009 Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Go Down Together may be more than anyone needs to know about the criminal careers of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, but like any good researcher, Jeff Guinn just couldn't resist using every interesting insight he had gleaned. Guinn ferretted out new sources that correct the notion of Clyde and Bonnie as bank-robbing masterminds, using them to demonstrate that the two spent much more time aimlessly driving around the South and Southwest, knocking off small groceries and robbing gumball machines...more

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Mar 13, 2010 Bunny rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of true crime stories

Shelves: read-in-10

I was worried when I started this book that I was going to be bored. All of the GR reviews seemed really positive, so I had hope, but I just have bad lucks with biographies.

This book is pretty much AWESOME.

The backstory on the two families is just right. There's not long drawn out discussion about how the parents grew up and met. You get the gist of what they went through to get to the poverty they were at when Clyde and Bonnie were born, what their lives were like growing up, and how they met...more I was worried when I started this book that I was going to be bored. All of the GR reviews seemed really positive, so I had hope, but I just have bad lucks with biographies.

This book is pretty much AWESOME.

The backstory on the two families is just right. There's not long drawn out discussion about how the parents grew up and met. You get the gist of what they went through to get to the poverty they were at when Clyde and Bonnie were born, what their lives were like growing up, and how they met. This book is only a little under 400 pages long, and even then, a large chunk is dedicated to source notes (love those). This author managed to explain a hell of a lot in pretty much 350 pages, and I love him for it.

The research this author did is so in depth. He addresses what is "known" about B&C, and explains why he's sure it didn't happen that way, and what sources tell him what. Even before the insane source notes, he lets you know that he knows his stuff. And it's so refreshing. I would read a biography by him any day.

The ineptitude of Bonnie and Clyde is utterly bizarre. The only thing I knew of them when I was little was based on the Looney Tunes version of "Bunny and Clyde", which I loved (of course). I never watched the Faye Dunaway/Warren Beatty movie, but I did see a TV movie at some point. I remember practically nothing about it, but I'd always liked their story. This version blows anything I really knew about them (which was practically nothing) out of the water.

This is another one I enjoyed giving people facts out of, as well. That's always my favorite part of a book.

The pictures in the book are absolutely horrifying. I couldn't believe the picture of the shot-up car with Clyde still inside. They actually published that picture in a newspaper. And the bodies laid out, still bloody, with their eyes open? My god. According to the book, there was even a picture posted after their clothing was removed, to show off "Bonnie's dead breasts." WTF? Even more WTF, when crowds swarmed the car, they tried to take souvenirs. Such as Clyde's trigger finger, or ear. What is wrong with humans?

They were kids. My sympathy for them is so ridiculously strong. They were just kids in a bad situation. And they loved each other. So sad. So very sad.(less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Jessie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: guys-book-club, non-fiction

Normally I wouldn't post a review for a book club book until everyone else was done reading it for fear of spoilers...but I think everyone knows how this story ends. I'm actually rating this one star higher than my gut instinct. It was well-written, well-researched, and made two criminals very sympathetic. I found his tracking of the mythology fascinating as well. In the end though, I think I don't care and I didn't feel like that should take away from everything I liked about this book. We comp...more

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Jan 28, 2011 Sterling rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history buffs, Bonnie & Clyde fans, people who like a good story

Sixteen seconds.

This is the time, by best accounts, between the first and final shots fired by the posse of lawmen at the Ford V-8 driven by Clyde Barrow with his partner Bonnie Parker in the passenger seat on the morning of May 23rd 1934.

We all know how the story ends, I knew going in how the story was going to end, but that small fact, that miniscule span of time still hit me like a punch to the chest. People have criticized Jeff Guinn for adding too many details to the book, making it more a...more Sixteen seconds.

This is the time, by best accounts, between the first and final shots fired by the posse of lawmen at the Ford V-8 driven by Clyde Barrow with his partner Bonnie Parker in the passenger seat on the morning of May 23rd 1934.

We all know how the story ends, I knew going in how the story was going to end, but that small fact, that miniscule span of time still hit me like a punch to the chest. People have criticized Jeff Guinn for adding too many details to the book, making it more a history of the time than of the people, but that was one of the things I liked best about it. I think this is also part of the reason that the fact that the gunshots only lasted sixteen seconds hit me as hard as it did, because by the time I got to the end I felt like I was right there in the middle of it, and had been for the whole ride. To me it felt like I knew these people, Bonnie, Clyde, even the posse shooting at them, these were people I’d come to know, even respect.

Jeff Guinn takes two larger-than-life folk heroes and writes about them in a way that makes them very accessible and very, very human. They were just two young people who loved each other and loved their families and were doing their best to get by in a world that seemed intent on keeping them down.
Buck Barrow (Clyde’s brother) had a self-professed philosophy of life and that was: “A good run is better than a poor stand.” This seems to have been a lifelong theme with both Clyde and Bonnie, because wherever he went, she went along, she loved him and knew from the start that if he was going down, they’d go down together.

It’s the little details that Guinn adds that really make the book for me, things like the fact that during a shootout in Joplin, Missouri on April 13th 1933 Blanche Barrow (Buck Barrow’s wife) had a dog named Snow Ball that ran off during the skirmish, Guinn notes: “No one knows what became of the dog”
In the same vein, not long after, in Lucerne, Indiana May 11th the gang robbed a bank and during their escape, a local farmer ran a herd of pigs into the road in attempt to stop their car, Clyde just kept on driving, accelerating and plowing right through them. According to Guinn: “Two hogs were killed - the only fatalities in Lucerne that morning.” These little throwaway lines are two of my favorite, and there are many others, just gentle notations that transcend good biography-writing and move into just good storytelling.

There is much that is contested about Clyde and Bonnie both, such as whether or not Clyde wrote a letter to Henry Ford in 1934, praising him on his automobiles: “Even if my business hasen’t been strickly legal it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8” Even if this wasn’t penned by Clyde it seems to most the kind of thing he would have done, because it fit his sense of humor.
Bonnie, also, had a sense of humor, upon giving her mother Emma a rabbit named Sonny Boy, Bonnie reportedly said: “Keep him away from the cops, he’s been in two gun battles and he’ll land at Huntsville [a Texas penitentiary] if the law finds it out.”

These are the kind of things that I liked about Guinn’s writing, the things that helped me connect with Bonnie and Clyde in a way I never thought I would. I would recommend this book to fans of history, fans of Bonnie and Clyde lore, and people who just like a good story. I think we can all relate to the famous duo with the way they’re presented in Go Down Together.

Clyde’s epitaph, the one that graces the headstone shared with his brother Buck, as Guinn notes, says it best: “Gone but not forgotten.”(less)

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Sep 05, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I should have given this history of Bonnie and Clyde a 4 -- it just seemed the subject matter didn't justify a 4. It is a serious, well-researched biography of this crime duo. It should be read by every would-be criminal (if they could read). It shows that crime doesn't pay, it's a lot of work, it's dangerous, dirty, involves a lot of unpleasant travel, and will most likely wind up badly. Bonnie and Clyde spent a lot of time driving around to steal $20 or $30. Getting a job would have been easie...more

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May 31, 2010 Beth Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

an interesting read. i, for one, love the "story" of Bonnie and Clyde. the movie is a favorite of mine. this book was very interesting in the telling of a familiar story that really isn't what i thought it was.

a few things i want to say...

first, the author was definately biased in his telling of the making of this criminal gang. he blames the Great Depression, the childhood circumstances, the prison system, the cards that bonnie and clyde were dealt in life, for their turning into murderous cri...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Literatemoose added it

I've always been under the impression that a vast majority of books written about Bonnie and Clyde were inaccurate and speculative. They seemed to either romantasize their exploits as expert, charming criminals, or as coldblooded psychopaths. That's why I was so thrilled to find this book, which seems to have an honest, balanced look at them. The author explores them as people, and reflects on what is most likely to have happened based on the reliable evidence he has, and states his reasoning fo...more

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Jul 21, 2011 rabbitprincess rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of true crime, the 1930s, gangsters

Recommended to rabbitprincess by: inspiration from the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde

Shelves: non-fiction, bibliotheque, 2011

An excellent, well-researched, meticulous account of the lives of Bonnie and Clyde. I picked this up looking for more information than the 1967 Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway film provided, and boy did it ever deliver! This book traces both Bonnie's and Clyde's lives from birth to death and draws extensively from Barrow relatives' unpublished memoirs to provide some truth to the legend. Guinn writes well and really draws you in. The fatal ambush that killed Bonnie and Clyde is so realistically descr...more

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Aug 16, 2009 Luna rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't know much about Bonnie & Clyde, so I enjoyed reading about their hardscrabble childhoods, their families, and what compelled them to lead a life of crime. They weren't exactly good people, but I found myself kind of liking them - maybe because they were so inept at robbing banks. They met their end in their early twenties, after being set up by a "friend," who'd made a deal with the police, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Everyone knows their bodies & car were riddled with bullets...more

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Oct 04, 2009 jillian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: americana, history, nonfiction

This book was a fantastic, myth-busting account of the sad story of Bonnie & Clyde. It turns out they stole to get by from day to day, not to live in high style like the American consciousness seems to think they did. It was meticulously researched, and looked at their crime sprees from a totally different angle. They were kids who were trying to find a way to earn money, because they were dirt-poor, because they were the first generation of city-raised farm kids descended from farmers with...more

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About Jeff Guinn

Jeff Guinn is books editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is the author of several books, including The Sixteenth Minute: Life in the Aftermath of Fame and Our Land Before We Die: The Proud Story of the Seminole Negro, which received the Texas Book Award. He is also the author of The Autobiography of Santa Claus and How Mrs Claus Saved Christmas.

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