Chasing Bonnie & Clyde

It'’s called the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

You'’ve heard the story of Jesse James, of how he lived...

Bonnie'’s actually telling you her life story.

She'’s telling you from the beginning to the end.

-...Bonnie and Clyde. -If you listen to it,

she'’s telling you what'’s all happening to them.

...to the newspapers that print it.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang.

I'’m sure you all have read how they rob and steal

and those who squeal are usually found dyin'’ or dead.

They call them cold-hearted killers.

She'’s tellin' you right here.

They say they are heartless and mean.

But I say this with pride, that I once knew Clyde,

and he was honest, and upright, and clean.

When I was about 13 or 14,

I used to come down here all the time.

I live in Allen, but, like, this was my hood.

Like, I'’d come down here,

and this is where all my boys were at.

And this is also where I got into a lot of trouble.

So right here this is a busy street, right?

Up there is the target house.

We'’d always have somebody in the parking lot

that would keep a lookout.

He had a cop scanner that we were able to buy off.

At the time we knew all the cop codes,

so we knew that whatever code

that they pushed out, that'’s what it meant.

It was either a robbery, it was a burglary,

it was a fight, or whatever the deal is.

So we always had a keen idea of where the cops were in the area.

So down this street...

...would be a house that we would target, right?

And so,

we'’d have an extract point

approximately about two blocks out,

depending on if we were in disguise or not.

So what we usually went with is electricians.

We had buttoned some blue shirts,

we got those ironed-on letters,

and we'’d put TXU on our shirt.

The leader, he did all the talking.

And what he did was, he knocked on the door,

and the lady opened the door,

and he said, "Hi," you know, "we'’re from TXU,"

there was a transformer blowout in the neighborhood,

and we needed to check your fuse box.

So she allowed the three of us to go into her house,

and we went over to the garage.

Well, at that point, he had taken out a gun,

and pointed it at her head and said that we'’re gonna kill you

if you don'’t get down on the floor,

so she got on the floor, we tied her up,

and then I was assigned to the son,

and my other partner was assigned to the daughter.

And this is about nine o'’clock in the morning

so they were both sleeping at that time.

And so we walked to both of their rooms

and then tied them up while they were sleeping

and then grouped them up in one area.

We put a pillow case over their head and gagged them

so that way they wouldn'’t be able to talk.

We were trying to get the combination to the safe

and so we would take vases and smash them against the wall,

and say that we were going to kill the son

if she didn'’t give us the combination to the safe.

She was extremely scared at that point,

and with this particular job,

we ended up taking upwards of $67,000.

And so the idea of quitting did cross my mind

but it was just so lucrative

and seemed so easy at the time

and it was something that we all did together that

I knew I was never gonna stop.

Until I got caught.

Here we go, chasing around Bonnie and Clyde.

Well, one thing that I want to make clear is,

we'’re not here to memorialize a couple of spree killers,

we'’re here to try and understand what it is

that created a Bonnie and Clyde,

because it keeps happening again and again and again,

not necessarily male and female,

but crime keeps recurring.

And if we don'’t try and understand

what creates the criminal...

...we'’ll keep having criminals.

And a really interesting way for me

is to study Bonnie and Clyde.

It'’s a very interesting story,

very complex story.

There'’s no black and white in this story at all.

You want a modern day equivalent of Clyde and Bonnie?

Nowadays Clyde would be a 7/11 bandit

because he didn'’t like to rob banks.

He said they gave you too much press.

Okay, Bonnie would be a groupie,

because she never killed anybody.

But she would be a groupie

so infatuated with Clyde and everything

that she wouldn'’t turn loose.

She followed him to death.

My father was Ted Hinton.

He was a deputy sheriff,

and he and Bob Alcorn,

they chased Clyde and Bonnie for 17 months.

Ted had a saying that was two part.

He said one, they were a couple of kids that fell in love

after Clyde had fallen off the wrong side of the law fence.

The other was that if those two kids

had used their God-given gifts for legal endeavor,

that they'’d have both been world-beaters.

So, in other words,

he was giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Who among us is the same person today

that they were when they were 16 years old?

When we look at teenagers,

we always say, "What were they thinking?"

And the answer is they probably weren'’t thinking.

So we do need to come up with ways that--

or justice policies that recognize

that people are capable of change.

Being incarcerated definitely was a second chance in life.

I mean, I will say this, I mean, a lot of times,

as an inmate, you think that rehab is all BS, right?

But the lessons that I'’ve learned in rehab

I'’ve carried with me for the rest of my life,

and one thing that I'’m grateful for

is that I got to learn a lot about myself,

and the reasons why I committed the crimes,

and why I continued to commit them.

And one thing that I thought was

really sad or horrible about myself was that...

I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed having that power over somebody,

putting somebody in a vulnerable situation,

it gave me a thrill.

And that'’s something that I've always tried to stay away from,

or at least turn that into something positive.

'’Cause I never want to go back to that again.

Okay, nobody touches this.

That is a picture of a car still on the hook.

Henry, Mr. Barrow,

had very little education.

So did Cumie, Mrs. Barrow.

But they saw to it that the kids went to school,

they saw to it that they went to church and Sunday school.

Followin'’ Buck's lead was what basically got Clyde in trouble.

Buck started out as a good boy,

but Buck,

he liked to fight chickens.

Buck had a problem though:

he didn'’t have no chickens.

So he'’d go steal someone's dad gum fightin'’ chickens.

Buck was a--was probably--

he wasn'’t a--he didn't like work that much.

He was probably one of the laziest ones of them,

but he started--

like his father he started cleaning up this place.