What Bonnie and Clyde Were Like Before Their Life of Crime

The death of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in a hail of bullets while on the run from the law has become an American legend. But how they lived before their infamous 1930s crime spree is far less well known.

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Both Bonnie and Clyde were children of the 1920s, living in poverty in pre-Depression Texas. As shown in this exclusive clip from the upcoming PBS American Experience documentary Bonnie & Clyde, premiering Jan. 19, what the two were trying to get away from is key to understanding why they took such drastic steps to escape. Bonnie in particular made a drastic shift, from a good student to a teenage wife of an abusive husband to just the kind of bored and disadvantaged young woman who was looking for a man like Clyde.

Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com.