Synopses & Reviews
Bestselling author Jeff Guinn combines exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material to tell 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 important, fame. andlt;Iandgt;Go Down Together andlt;/Iandgt;has it alland#8212;true romance, rebellion against authority, bullets flying, cars crashing, and, in the end, a dramatic death at the hands of a celebrity lawman. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;This is the real story of Bonnie and Clyde and their troubled times, delivered with cinematic sweep by a masterful storyteller.
Review
"Go Down Together casts a brilliant new light, not just on two hapless criminals but on the creation and then the devouring of the first American media darlings. Jeff Guinn is a great storyteller." -- Richard Ben Cramer, author of Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life
Review
"Go Down Together is thorough, precise, beautifully written, and compulsively readable. It shines a brilliant lamp on two very unusual people, and, a bonus, it richly illuminates middle America between the wars. Completely fascinating." -- Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser novels
Review
"This is the best Bonnie and Clyde book I've ever seen. Three-quarters of a century after their deaths, and following a multitude of contradictory accounts by surviving participants, Go Down Together still manages to lift the veil and uncover surprising new stories and details and fresh insights into both the famous outlaw lovers and the team of manhunters who brought them down. An eye-opener that will set historians and crime buffs alike talking for a long time to come." -- Rick Mattix, coauthor of The Complete Public Enemy Almanac
Review
"Guinn cuts through the sex and gunsmoke surrounding the gangster love story of Bonnie and Clyde, and he reveals a couple of kids from the wrong side of the river who were anything but the sharpest gangsters to roam the countryside. His gritty chronicle is a welcome corrective to the affectionate portrait of the couple played by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in Arthur Penn's 1967 movie, Bonnie and Clyde, which told us much more about the rise of the Hollywood antihero than it did about the real-life criminals." -- J. Lynn Lunsford, The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Go Down Together is a rollicking read, an astonishing story of perseverance in the face of hopelessness, and a perverse tale of two lovers whom only death could part.... Jeff Guinn strips away the glamour...to reveal the desperadoes as they really were.... His exhaustively researched chronicle of their misadventures seems definitive." -- Mark Dunkelman, The Providence Journal
Review
"Go Down Together is a richly detailed dual biography.... Guinn, a Texas-based journalist, has researched their lives and times with the kind of thoroughness generally reserved for politicians and captains of industry." -- Allen Barra, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review
"The true story of Bonnie and Clyde.... Intense but fascinating...rubs the gloss from the mythos and replaces it with a patina of true grit.... Guinn succeeds marvelously in re-creating the spirit of the times, the desperation of unemployment and financial ruin. It's a zeitgeist becoming chillingly familiar today, and that gives this book a wallop." -- Jackie Loohauis-Bennett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review
"Forget what you've heard or read (or seen in the laughable 1967 movie) about a glamorous young couple pulling off brilliant bank robberies, outsmarting and killing their pursuers.... Jeff Guinn relates Bonnie and Clyde's heyday of robbery and killing, their remarkable flight from justice and their grisly ending in such careful detail that you might wonder if he's making it up. He isn't. Go Down Together is the product of remarkable research through letters, diaries, memoirs, police and FBI reports, and interviews with family members. Much of the material has never been made public before." -- Bob Simmons, The Seattle Times
Review
"An embracing biography of the Barrow Gang that draws us in like an old wanted poster.... Not only does Guinn maintain control of the mayhem.... the author manages to humanize the characters...while inserting them into the historical context of the times." -- Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express-News
Review
"This intensely readable account de-romanticizes two of America's most notorious outlaws without undermining the mystique of the Depression-era gunslingers.... With the brisk pacing of a novel, Guinn's richly detailed history will leave readers breathless until the final hail of bullets." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
and#8220;Engaging. . . reads like a road storyand#8212;two kids from the Dallas slums in a fast car, headed to nowhere good.and#8221; 9 781416 557074 and#8212;The New Yorker
Review
and#8220;A fine work of history. . . . Easily readable and includes much of the lastandlt;BRandgt; two decadesand#8217; new scholarship. . . . Especially good at . . . placing Bonnieandlt;BRandgt; and Clyde in context.and#8221; and#8212;Bryan Burrough,andlt;BRandgt; The New York Times Book Review
Review
and#8220;A rollicking read, an astonishing story of perseverance in the face of hopelessness,andlt;BRandgt; and a perverse tale of two lovers whom only death could part.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Mark Dunkelman, The Providence Journal
Review
and#8220;Guinn cuts through the sex and gunsmoke surrounding the gangsterandlt;BRandgt; love story of Bonnie and Clyde. . . . A welcome corrective.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;J. Lynn Lunsford, The Wall Street Journal
Review
and#8220;Guinn has deftly restored the humanity of Americaand#8217;s best knownandlt;BRandgt; crime couple, stripping away the Hollywood glamour and hype withandlt;BRandgt; the unvarnished but equally compelling truth.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; and#8212;Kathleen Krog, The Miami Herald
Synopsis
Now in paperback, the widely acclaimed book that at last gives us the true story of the most famous and romantic gangsters in American history.
Synopsis
This is the real story of Bonnie and Clyde and their troubled times, separating fact from fiction, delivered with cinematic sweep by the author of bestselling true crime biographies of Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and the shootout at the OK Corral. Bestselling author Jeff Guinn combines exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material to tell 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 important, fame. Go Down Together has it all--true romance, rebellion against authority, bullets flying, cars crashing, and, in the end, a dramatic death at the hands of a celebrity lawman.
Synopsis
Forget everything you think you know about Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker--previous books and films, including the brilliant 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, 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. In Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, bestselling author Jeff Guinn combines exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material to tell 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 important, fame. Their timing could not have been better--the Barrow Gang pulled its first heist in 1932 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 on a par with Charles Lindbergh, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth. 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.
Go Down Together has it all--true romance, rebellion against authority, bullets flying, cars crashing, and, in the end, a dramatic death at the hands of a celebrity lawman hired to hunt them down. 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.
Synopsis
Bestselling author Guinn combines exhaustive research with newly discovered material to tell the real tale of Bonnie and Clyde--two kids from a Dallas slum who fall in love and willingly trade their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more important, fame.
About the Author
Jeff Guinnandlt;Bandgt; andlt;/Bandgt;is the bestselling author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including andlt;i andgt;Mansonandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;iandgt;The Last Gunfightandlt;/iandgt;, andandlt;iandgt; Go Down Togetherandlt;/iandgt;, which was a finalist for an Edgar Award in 2010. Formerly an award-winning investigative journalist and now a frequent guest on national radio andandnbsp;TV programs,andnbsp;he lives in Fort Worth, Texas.