Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde

Rating:
Summary: Overall, a very good book.
Review: A very good book, written from the perspective of one of the officers on the trail of the fugitives. This book provides insight into several areas which aren't mentioned by other writers on the Barrow gang. A well-written, fluid book, for the most part. Definitely worth searching for, since it appears to be out of print.

Rating:
Summary: Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde
Review: Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde is Ted Hinton's account describing the early years and the facts leading up to the bloody end of two desparate criminals. Hinton speaks out as one of the six men who killed Bonnie and Clyde in a hailstorm of bullets without warning on the morning of May 23, 1934 near Gibsland, Louisiana. This book is well illustrated and provides several rare pictures. I recommend this book to readers.

Rating:
Summary: Not the Real Story But...
Review: Ted Hinton was one of the six officers who ambushed and killed Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. He had also known Clyde and Bonnie before they became outlaws, growing up in the same West Dallas slum, and remained a friend of the Barrow and Parker families. This gives the book some unique personal insights usually absent from cops & robbers documentaries. That, plus some previously unpublished photos, are worth an extra star in this reviewer's mind. On the other hand, Hinton's version of the final ambush is as questionable as every previous account and there are errors scattered throughout the book, possibly owing to slips of memory, or possibly due to slipups from Hinton's collaborator. Bonnie Parker was not present at the Stringtown, OK shooting, a fact attested to by all eyewitness accounts. Moreover, the Hinton-Grove account of the shooting, with Bonnie dancing with both Clyde and Hamilton, whirling about in a red dress, and the "prettiest girl" in the place, is actually copied almost word for from a 1945 dime novel (The Blood-Soaked Career of Bonnie Parker: How Clyde Barrow and His Cigar-Smoking Moll Fought It Out With the Law! by W.R. and Mabel Draper). The chapter on "Machine Gun" Kelly and Harvey Bailey appears to be largely nonsensical fiction. Contrary to Hinton--and he seems to inject himself into the case much sooner than he actually was--W.D. Jones was not identified by Dallas deputies immediately after the Joplin, MO gun battle and remained unidentified for months afterwards. The Barrows' participation in professionally executed bank robberies at Okabena, MN and Alma, ARK is highly questionable and, again contrary to Hinton, no witnesses identified Clyde and Bonnie in the November 1933 robbery of a Texas refinery (a job actually pulled by the Whitey Walker-Blackie Thompson gang). Still, there is much good information here and it is a must for Bonnie and Clyde aficionados.