On The Trail Of Bonnie & Clyde: Then & Now

[onager]

Thought I'd post this for any fans of "historical" true crime. I have this book, and it's pretty amazing. It's a coffee table-sized book of 304 pages with over 850 photos and other illustrations.

On The Trail Of Bonnie & Clyde: Then & Now is published by the British company "After The Battle" (ATB). This book was a change for the company. ATB normally publishes books and magazines about World War II history. They've been in business for about 30 years.

The ATB format is interesting. They find old pictures where events occurred, then send a photographer out to try to match the exact location to show what the place looks like today.

They used this format in the Bonnie & Clyde book. While not many original locations from this era are left in Texas and the Midwest, a few are.

The book traces the career of B&C from the day they met until they were gunned down outside a small Louisiana town in 1934.

The authors tracked down every mention of the pair they could find in old, small-town newspapers and reprinted them in the book. They also include information about other gangsters of the time, as well as an overall social history of the Depression and its crime waves.

Some of the info is incredible. In the 1930's, National Guard Armories were located in places like old movie theaters and left pretty much unguarded. That's how the Barrow gang got so many automatic weapons, etc.

Here's a link with more info. I believe RZM is the only place you can order the book, since they're the importers for ATB publications in the US:

http://www.rzm.com/books/atb/bc.cfm