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So sorry I have not kept this blog up. It's not that I haven't been writing. I've written plenty and most of it can be found at the news site lincolnparishjournal.com. But I will begin posting many of those articles here.
At lunch last week, three men I know well sat nearby discussing a new book about the death of outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker—a book I had just read. Although about a dozen previous books address the ambush that relieved mid-America of these killers, “The Trap” aims to tell the true story of their demise.
Two of the three men had personal connections to the story, being related to Prentiss Oakley, a Bienville Parish deputy sheriff who was part of the ambush party. While their interest in the new book comes in part from the familial connection, there’s thousands of other Americans who research and study the Barrow gang and even worship them.
Imagine, adoring two people linked to the murders of 13 men, 12 of them law enforcement officers.
My own interest comes from the couple’s connection to Ruston history and my law enforcement background. About a year before the ambush, Barrow and Parker and Clyde’s brother Buck and Buck’s wife Blanche kidnapped two Ruston residents.
In American crime lore, few duos evoke the same blend of romanticism, rebellion, and tragedy as Barrow and Parker. Ambushed and killed on a rural Bienville Parish road in 1934, they were just 25 and 23 years old. Nearly a century later, their names remain etched in American memory—not merely as criminals, but as cultural icons. What is it about these Great Depression Era outlaws that continues to captivate the public imagination?
