On the morning of May 23, 1934, Clyde Barrow was driving a stolen Ford V8 down a rural Louisiana road with Bonnie Parker beside him. They were eating sandwiches. The car was a rolling arsenal - rifles, shotguns, pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition - because Bonnie and Clyde had been running from the law for two years, leaving a trail of murdered policemen, bank robberies, and sensational headlines. Hidden in the brush beside Highway 154 near Gibsland were six lawmen who had been waiting since before dawn. When Clyde stopped to help what appeared to be a stranded motorist (actually a trap), the lawmen opened fire. They shot approximately 130 rounds in 16 seconds. Bonnie and Clyde died instantly. The violence of the ambush shocked even those who wanted them dead.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had become America's most wanted fugitives by 1934. Their Barrow Gang had killed nine police officers and several civilians. They robbed banks, gas stations, and stores across the Southwest. But the murders of two highway patrolmen at Grapevine, Texas, on Easter Sunday 1934, intensified the hunt. Former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer came out of retirement specifically to track them down. He studied their patterns, learned they visited family in Louisiana, and set up an ambush using Clyde's own father as unwitting bait - parking a truck as if broken down on a road the gang was known to travel.
Six lawmen waited in the brush: Frank Hamer and Manny Gault from Texas, Henderson Jordan (Bienville Parish Sheriff) and Prentiss Oakley from Louisiana, and two others. They had orders to take the fugitives alive if possible. When Clyde's Ford approached and slowed near the 'stranded' truck, Deputy Oakley allegedly opened fire before Hamer could call for surrender. The other officers joined immediately. In approximately 16 seconds, they fired some 130 rounds - .30 caliber rifles, Thompson submachine guns, shotguns - into the car. The vehicle coasted forward into an embankment. Both occupants were dead, their bodies riddled with bullets. Bonnie had 26 wounds; Clyde had 17.
Word spread instantly. Within hours, thousands of people had converged on the site. Souvenir hunters cut bloody swatches of clothing and locks of hair from the bodies. Someone tried to cut off Clyde's ear. The bodies were dragged to Arcadia, Louisiana, where a mob pushed into the funeral home. The coroner's report noted that embalming was difficult because of the damage. The car, pierced by 167 bullet holes, was towed to town and became an immediate attraction. Bonnie had wished to be buried alongside Clyde; her mother refused. They lie in separate Dallas cemeteries.
Bonnie and Clyde became folk heroes almost immediately - Depression-era outlaws striking back at the banks that had foreclosed on farms. The reality was grimmer: they were killers who died violent deaths. But the legend persisted, fueled by the 1967 film and subsequent romanticization. The ambush site has become a pilgrimage destination. Visitors leave flowers, coins, and notes. The violence of the end - six lawmen firing into a car until the occupants were unrecognizable - troubles some who visit. Others see justice. The site memorializes a moment when the law caught up with legend.
The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Site is located on Highway 154, about 8 miles south of Gibsland, Louisiana. A stone marker indicates the location where the car stopped. The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum operates in Gibsland, displaying artifacts including the shirt Clyde was wearing and the original marker. The Bonnie and Clyde Trade Days festival occurs twice yearly in Arcadia. The bullet-riddled 'death car' has traveled to various locations; its current display varies. Both Bonnie and Clyde are buried in Dallas. Shreveport Regional Airport is 45 miles west. The site is rural and unmarked except for the monument - easy to miss if you don't know where to look.
Located at 32.36°N, 93.14°W on Highway 154 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, about 8 miles south of Gibsland. From altitude, the ambush site is unremarkable - a spot along a rural two-lane highway through pine forests. The small town of Gibsland lies to the north. Shreveport is 45 miles to the west. The terrain is typical north Louisiana piney woods, gently rolling and rural. The isolation that made it a good ambush site is visible - nothing around for miles. Shreveport Regional Airport is the nearest commercial airport.