Customer Reviews

Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update

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Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed a couple of years before I was born but as I was growing up I was continually asked if I was related to Frank Hamer, so that everyone will know, Frank Hamer was my great Uncle. I have read and reviewed many books and video tapes of the lifes of Bonnie and Clyde and I was very very impressed with way James Knight has written this book. It tells the story as it happened, neither embellishing them as Robin Hoods or playing them down as cold blooded and ruthless killers. I came away from reading the book with a lot better understanding of the minds of Bonnie and Clyde. This book also is the only published item that I have ever seen that identifies two of Frank's brothers in a picture and tells a little of his brothers which were also Texas Rangers. After reviewing the book I let my sister read it and she said the same thing as I have, James Knight has done an outstanding job of telling the story in a very factual and interesting way. His research is outstanding as shown by the minute details he puts in books. I would recommend everyone that is interested in Bonnie and Clyde to read this book to get the real story.

Harrison F. Hamer

When I was 12 years old back in 1967, my mother allowed me to watch my first "adult" movie - "Bonnie & Clyde". I wanted to see it largely because of the trailer that showed lots of automatic weapon fire (I was a "gun nut" even at that early age) and also because of the stories of the outlaw couple that my Grandparents remembered during the Depression and told me out on their porch on the old farm. I was so mesmerized by the film that I sat through all three matinees and I noticed a strange sight: Lots of people got up and left right before the last scene where Bonnie and Clyde get shot apart. The movie was certainly important: It launched the careers of Beatty and Dunaway as well as Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder. As I recall, it became somewhat of a cult movie on the order of "Easy Rider" and "Billy Jack" - the anti-establishment hero against the cruel society - the "Haves" vs. "The Have Nots". So my interest was peaked, but alas, there was little factual information for a young researcher to grasp - but I didn't have long to wait because less than a year after the Warner Brothers movie, "Playboy" ran a story by outlaw W.D. Jones who rode, robbed and murdered with Bonnie and Clyde. How very different from the movie this account was! My search for the "real" Bonnie and Clyde had begun! Knight's 2003 book is outstanding in its search for the "real" outlaws as well. Knight digs deep with a Rhodes Scholar's intensity - interviewing surviving family members, visiting every outlaw scene in several states, sifting through original documents, displaying more photos/poems/wanted posters than any other B&C book and it makes this fat 230 page volume not only a reseacher's "dream", but it reads like a rich novel. Every gun fight is carefully described - down to each side's weapons (a fact I especially like), every movement of the gang is chronicled throughout the two years they terrorized over eight states. And let's face it: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were very simply "Tattoed Southern White Trash" from the wrong side of the tracks in West Dallas (Clyde was raised in a campground) and they did deplorable deliberate acts like shoot law enforcement officers who were down on the ground, robbed poor folk and blasted innocent storekeepers and civilians. They cut a bloody and awful swath through the South that can only be likened to "Sherman's March". It was bloody and they met the same end they gave others. A bit of poetic justice... I'm very, very impressed with Knight's effort - he scorns and avoids the "tabloid approach" of simply writing off the pair and their deadly cronies as "one dimensional cartoon gangsters" and delves into their complexity, ironies and paradoxes (one day Clyde would shoot the face off a lawman and the next day kidnap one and ride him around in the car for 400 miles joking along and then release him unharmed). Knight's "Endnotes" are outstanding in this treatise and provide a rich layer of research and facts for a serious reader - these are worth the price of the book alone. Also endearing is a detailed list of all victims, lawmen who ran after them, fellow outlaws who rode in the cars and the Parker/Barrow families. This a great, great read! I could not put it down and spent a wonderful night reading the book with pop-eyed excitement. Knight was especially good to me in answering some questions I had after the reading. This is a top-flight, highly academic - but entertaining read - DO NOT MISS IT! It's tight, right and at places you feel like you're right in the old Ford V-8 with the gang cradling a BAR! - Scott T. Weber

Jim Knight and Jonathan Davis have crafted the definitive biography of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Combining their own meticulous research and insights with the best of what's been written before--with a special nod to John Neal Phillips' "Running With Bonnie and Clyde"--they have put together a dramatic and exciting but completely factual volume, crammed with previously unknown information and previously unpublished photos. Errors and misconceptions of the past (recycled in nearly every other volume on the Barrow gang and '30's outlaws) are blown away like a burst from a B.A.R. and the truth stands revealed as the gunsmoke clears.

Bonnie And Clyde: A Twenty-First Century Update by James R. Knight (with the assistance of Jonathan Davis) offers a new look at the historical research gathered to date concerning what is arguably America's most famous outlaw couple. Eyewitness accounts not seen elsewhere are the star highlight of this thought-provoking and strongly recommended historical biography, which includes black-and-white photographs and a tell-it-like-it-really-was narrative tone.

This new book on Bonnie & Clyde does greatly to enhance the lives and times of the Barrow gang from start to finish. It is laden with new photo's and research and the authors obviously spent a lot of time and money to travel to the various sites mention in the book. I would rate this as one of the best, if not the best book on the lives and crimes of the Barrow gang. Knight and Davis are great researchers and have done an outstanding job with bringing to life the deeds and misdeeds of Bonnie and Clyde and their partners in crime. I would greatly recommend it to anyone interested in this genre.

Mike Koch, author of The Kimes Gang

I've read many good books on the subject of Bonnie & Clyde, and even though the 1967 movie was far from accurate historically, it is one of my all time favorite movies. This book does the best job I've found of setting some of the inaccurate facts straight. I live less than 30 miles from Dexter Park, where the gang was ambushed, and I find it fascinating to finally read so many details of what transpired during those events. If this subject interests you at all, then this book is an absolute must read.

Finally a promising new look at the most famous outlaw couple in history. I'd like to praise the authors for bringing forth the best written book on Bonnie & Clyde to date. Authors James R. Knight and Jonathan Davis have done an excellent job presenting this updated, factual and honest look at the Barrow gang.
I have read several good books written on Bonnie & Clyde over the years but this one is the best yet. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in learning the inside story with accounts from Marie Barrow and the serious in-depth research by the authors. Good book for collectors! Thank you
Recommended by Tony Stewart, Author of Dillinger, The Hidden Truth."

A fantastic book James. I couldn't put the book down, only to sleep. This book explored the entire lives of Bonnie and Clyde, their gange members, family ties and their dramatic and illustrious end of fugitive life. Since James compliments John Phillips, I just order, due to Knight's recommendation, the November, 2004 release of "My Life with Bonnie and Clyde" by Blanche Caldwell Barrow. James Knight's book, A 21st Century Update, is a book that I know I will read and refer back to many times. It is one of those books that you can read over and over again and obtain something new that you missed before. Thanks for your endless and hard work James. Please keep researching their lives in order to print another informative book on the duo. Best to you and yours James.
Rick Penrod
Circleville, Ohio
October, 2004
email: thepen50@hotmail.com
Rick Penrod

Best book written on Bonnie and Clyde in regards to telling their entire story from A to Z. If you only read one book on this desperate duo this is the one.

James & Jonathan have but together a easy to read book that tells things very few people know.
I can & will testify for there work, because I have proof!
I must say I have been most pleased with the follow up they have done on the Methvin Family.
I love the layout & it makes it hard to put down.
Somebody get this back in print!!!