Bonneski and Clydeofski

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow Gang,

I’m sure you must have read

How they rob and steal

And how those who squeal

Are usually found dying or dead.

 

-Bonnie Parker

 

          Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are in the news again. This time the Depression-era killers and thieves were somehow featured photographically in Russia’s annual observation of the victory over Nazi Germany during World War II. The theme of the celebration was to honor all Russians who suffered during the war against Hitler’s invasion of Russia.

This image of Bonnie and Clyde
was shown to a Russian audience
at a national celebration recently.

          A photograph of the bandit-lovers from Texas appeared among the images of Russians who suffered during the horrible conflict in the 1940s during the state-sponsored event this week. And the Russian people did suffer horrifically after the German army invaded Mother Russia. Look it up: As much as we owe to the Red Army for the destruction to the Nazi war machine, so too do we owe to the courage of the Russian people.

          The Parker-Barrow couple died as the result of an ambush in Louisiana in 1934, nearly a decade before the Germans attacked the Russians. Further, neither Parker nor Barrow had immediate links – to my knowledge – to Russia. The guns used by Fred Hammer’s posse that killed the outlaws were of American manufacturer. Clyde preferred the American-made Browning Automatic Rifle to all other weapons. That’s ironic, since one of the weapons used by the ambushers was a BAR.

          That begs the question: Why would an image of Bonnie and Clyde be inserted among those shown at a celebration of the Russian victory over the Germans? Assuming that every image shown on the big screens at the event was intentionally shown to the Russian people at the Victory Day celebration (Vlad Putin does not seem to be the kind of guy to leave things to chance; surely the right people had control of the images viewed), there had to be a message.

          Bonnie Parker wrote poetry. The words above were part of a poem she wrote about her life on the run, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. That poem may supply the answers to our question. Take the stanza quoted above and note the words,

How they rob and steal

and how those who squeal

Are usually found dying or dead.

 

          From what we are given to understand about the Russian President, he formally led the KGB, Russia’s state police. Bonnie’s words could be interpreted as a threat to Putin’s people: What happens in Russia stays in Russia. Otherwise, squealers, you’ll be found dying or dead.

Bonnie and Clyde.

          A more uplifting stanza could be aimed at the Russian people, telling them that things are not so bad as they seem. Bonnie wrote:

From heart-break some people have suffered;

From weariness some people have died;

But take it all-in-all,

Our troubles are small

Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

 

          Bonnie Parker’s poetry has a philosophical bent. For example, she wrote that, “Death is the wages of sin.” But there is no more telling point than the one she made in her final stanza. Perhaps it sums up the life expectancy of all criminals, be they elected or not. Bonnie wrote:

         

Some day they’ll go down together;

And they’ll bury them side by side;

To few it’ll be grief

To the law a relief

But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.

         

          The infamous couple was not buried side by side. Instead, they were interred in separate cemeteries. But the Barrow Gang’s violent ways begat more violence and finally brought about the Gang’s fall. Partially because of Bonnie’s poetry and not a little because of the trail of blood they left behind them, the Parker-Barrow tandem has never really been out of America’s consciousness. It looks like they’re as popular as ever.

          Especially in Russia.