HVACR NewsMagazine December 2017

to the public imagination. E.R. Milner, a historian, writer, and expert on Bonnie and Clyde and their era, put the duo's enduring appeal to the public, both during the Depression and continuing on through the decades, into historical and cultural perspective. To those people who, as Milner says, "consider themselves outsiders, or oppose the existing system," Bonnie and Clyde represent the ultimate outsiders, revolting against an uncaring system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonni e_and_Clyde By the time Bonnie and Clyde became well known, many had felt that the capitalistic system had been abused by big business and government officials ... Now here were Bonnie and Clyde striking back." Milner, E.R. The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde . Southern Illinois University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8093-2552-7 . Published 1996. If you were only reading the papers, their exploits seemed exciting, even laudable. They were striking back at society. They were just trying to make a living in a world that had become filled with the unemployed and soup kitchens. “They were to be admired.” Of course, if you were one of the store clerks or gas station owners who were holding on to life and your business by the skin of your teeth, the money Bonnie and Clyde stole may have ended your independence and ability to feed your family. If you were the wife or child of one of the civilians or police officers killed by their gang, you mourned for your

Just Trying to

Make a Living

Bonnie & Clyde Bonnie Elizabeth Parker 1910 – 1934 Clyde Barrow 1909 – 1934

Born to poor Texas families and living through hard times, Bonnie Parker and Clyd Barrow, Bonnie and Clyde as they came to to be known, committed over 100 crimes. While known for their dozen or so bank robberies, they mostly robed small stores and rural gas stations. In their string of crimes, it was reported that they killed up to 13 including 9 police officers. Thousands attended their funerals--over 20,000 for Bonnie with flowers coming from all over the country. Theirs was a romantic tale with readers following the details of their life in the newspaper. Their funerals sold over 500,000 papers in Dallas alone. They were a couple to love, a couple to hate. Through the decades, many cultural historians have analyzed Bonnie's and Clyde's enduring appeal