Bonnie & Clyde Museum

As usual, running the roads less travelled, showed me an unusual place and an amazing man just outside of Arcadia LA. The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum is housed in the former location of the luncheonette where police encountered Bonnie and Clyde prior to their eventual death in a road block 7 miles away. The man who ran the facility was the son of one of the Sheriffs who had pursued these two for months. He has spent his life fighting the misinformation and urban legends surrounding this event

The collection of photos, original or photocopied documents and footage taken by his father with a 16 mm B&H black and white hand crank movie camera so soon after the ambush that the gun smoke was still visible in the air around the vehicle are the highlights. It was interesting to compare the urban legends surrounding these two and the facts. After touring the facility, I spent over an hour sitting out on the sidewalk of this little town, listening to tales of not only these two desperados, but the history of this very rural and unique area of the country as it dealt with the ebb and flow of changes in the social, economic and political climates.

Looking at the changes the last 100 years brought to this area, as the area dealt with the impact of the integrating the changes after the War of Northern Aggression, gas and oil discoveries in the area, and the disparity in the rich and the poor that made even worse. The First World War sent away a lot of young men (how are you going to keep them down on the farm when they have seen Paris was more than a song) and the boom bust cycle afterwards in the farming area. Add in dealing with the rise of the KKK, the draught and dust bowl of the 30's on top of the Great Depression, the Second World War, and all the differences that the laws based on a totally different basis than any other state in the Nation. I continue to find the most amazing people to sit and listen to as I travel the road less travelled. This is one stop I would urge every one to make.

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