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Title details for Go Down Together by Jeff Guinn - Available

Go Down Together

The True, Untold Story of Bonnie & Clyde

by Jeff Guinn
Jonathan Hogan
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Previous books and films have emphasized the supposed glamour of America's most notorious criminal couple, thus contributing to ongoing mythology. The real story is completely different—and far more fascinating.
With newly discovered material, bestselling author Jeff Guinn tells the real tale of two kids from a filthy Dallas slum who fell in love and then willingly traded their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more importantly, fame. The timing for their first heist could not have been better, when most Americans, reeling from the Great Depression, were desperate for escapist entertainment. Thanks to newsreels, true crime magazines, and new-fangled wire services that transmitted scandalous photos of Bonnie smoking a cigar to every newspaper in the nation, the Barrow Gang members almost instantly became household names. In the minds of the public, they were cool, calculating bandits who robbed banks and killed cops with equal impunity.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Clyde and Bonnie were perhaps the most inept crooks ever, and their two-year crime spree was as much a reign of error as it was of terror. Lacking the sophistication to plot robberies of big-city banks, the Barrow Gang preyed mostly on small mom-and-pop groceries and service stations. Even at that, they often came up empty-handed and were reduced to breaking into gum machines for meal money. Both were crippled, Clyde from cutting off two of his toes while in prison and Bonnie from a terrible car crash caused by Clyde's reckless driving. Constantly on the run from the law, they lived like animals, camping out in their latest stolen car, bathing in creeks, and dining on cans of cold beans and Vienna sausages. Yet theirs was a genuine love story. Their devotion to each other was as real as their overblown reputation as criminal masterminds was not.
Now, thanks in great part to surviving Barrow and Parker family members and collectors of criminal memorabilia who provided Jeff Guinn with access to never-before-published material, we finally have the real story of Bonnie and Clyde and their troubled times, delivered with cinematic sweep and unprecedented insight by a masterful storyteller.
"Engaging ... reads like a road story—two kids from the Dallas slums in a fast car, headed to nowhere good."—The New Yorker

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 8, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781456109783
      • File size: 476346 KB
      • Duration: 16:32:23

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Jeff Guinn's biography effectively intertwines interesting historical facts and references with personal details on the central characters of the Bonnie and Clyde saga. The author nimbly strikes a balance between the Bonnie and Clyde portrayed in the media and the couple as seen through the eyes of friends, family members, and acquaintances. The narration provided by Jonathan Hogan is not as solid as the book itself. It doesn't take long for Hogan's monotone to become distracting. Fluid pronunciation and grammar also seem to be a struggle. In the end, poor narration overrides the wonderful story. J.D. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 19, 2009
      May 23, 2009, will be the 75th anniversary of the bloody deaths of the Depression's dynamic crime duo.
      Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
      Jeff Guinn
      . Simon & Schuster
      , $27 (480p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5706-7

      Journalist Guinn (Our Land Before We Die
      ), in this intensely readable account, deromanticizes two of America's most notorious outlaws (they were “never... particularly competent crooks”) without undermining the mystique of the Depression-era gunslingers. Clyde Barrow, a scrawny kid in poverty-stricken West Dallasin the late 1920s, stole chickens before moving on to cars, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Buck. In 1930, he met 19-year-old Bonnie Parker, and during the next four years Clyde, Bonnie and the ever-revolving members of the Barrow Gang robbed banks and armories all over the South, murdering at least seven people. Bonnie, who fancied herself a poet, wrote, “Some day they'll go down together,” and they did, in a Louisiana ambush led by famed ex–Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. With the brisk pacing of a novel, Guinn's richly detailed history will leave readers breathless until the final hail of bullets. 16 pages of b&w photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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