Threatening Bonnie and Clyde Letter to Former Gang Member Up for Auction

BOSTON, MA — A newly discovered letter from Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, aka Bonnie and Clyde, is coming up for auction at the Royal Sonesta Boston on Sept. 26. It's a beautiful, cutting document of spite and revenge. The note, dictated and signed by Clyde, and transcribed by Bonnie, was written to a former member of their gang who had been arrested.

Clyde's letter begins with biting sarcasm: "I'm very sorry to hear of your getting captured..." He goes on to say: "The most I can hope for you is that you don't get 'the chair'."

The letter becomes more incendiary as it proceeds: "I guess you find where your boastful long tongue has gotten you."

In the letter, Clyde basically said, "I’m going to kill you," Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, told Patch.

The note was intended for Raymond Hamilton, who had publicly disavowed the Barrow gang following his arrest in 1934. Bonnie and Clyde's note was a response to an earlier letter Hamilton had written to his lawyer (a letter to a lawyer is 1934's version of a subtweet). Sitting in Dallas County Jail, Hamilton denied any association with Bonnie and Clyde, writing that he wasn’t part of that “two-bit” Barrow gang.

Hamilton’s lawyer gave the note to the press, and when Clyde read it, he dictated a response, which Bonnie wrote for him.

Clyde had held a grudge against Hamilton even before he started running his mouth from behind bars. Clyde was annoyed at the way Hamilton had conducted himself during robberies. After one bank job, according to the letter, Clyde looked in his rearview mirror to see Hamilton giving a share of his loot to a prostitute friend. Clyde was annoyed that Hamilton gave money to the prostitute because Clyde never gave money to Bonnie.

Clyde’s angry letter never made it to Hamilton though. The sheriff at Dallas County Jail, Smoot Schmid, kept it for himself, and his family has held it ever since. The crime duo was killed a month after writing the note.

Livingston believes it could fetch more than $40,000.

RR Auction has previously sold guns associated with the Barrow gang that have garnered $500,000 at auction.

The authenticity of the letter was confirmed by comparing Bonnie’s handwriting to previous letters. “Clyde’s signature is identical,” Livingston said.

The last line of the letter is perhaps the best one: "I hope this will serve the purpose of letting you know that you can never expect the least of sympathy or assistance from me," Clyde says.

It’s just a matter of time before someone starts a new drinking game: Clyde Barrow diss or Fall Out Boy lyric.

Check out the full copy of the four-page letter below:

Letter courtesy of RR Auction

Photo of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker courtesy of Thomas's Pics via flickr