From 1933 to 1934, the Barrow Gang’s crime spree escalated into something far more violent...

And far more desperate.

In Part II, we follow Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow through their final months on the run: the deadly shootout in Joplin, Bonnie’s devastating injuries, the collapse of the gang, the Eastham prison break, and the relentless pursuit led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer.

As the net tightens, betrayals mount, bodies fall, and the road narrows to a single stretch of highway in rural Louisiana.

We also explore what happened after the gunfire stopped and how the pair’s violent legacy transformed into American legend.

*Some of the links here are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you:

• My Life With Bonnie and Clyde — Richard E. Blanche Caldwell Barrow

https://amzn.to/3YBFf1r

• Go Down Together — Jeff Guinn

https://amzn.to/459Z7MS

Before they became infamous, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were just two young people trying to survive in a broken system.

In Part I, we step back into the desperate world of 1930s Texas during the Great Depression...when poverty, failed banks, and harsh prison conditions helped isolate and radicalize a generation.

From Clyde Barrow’s early run-ins with the law, the brutal realities of the Texas prison system, to how resentment, violence, and survival began shaping his path.

When Bonnie meets Clyde, their connection is immediate...and dangerous.

This episode traces the origins of the Barrow Gang, the early robberies, and the moment their lives cross a line that can’t be uncrossed.

This is the story of how Bonnie and Clyde became Bonnie and Clyde.

In the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, the violence faded from view...but the consequences did not.

In Part III, we examine what followed the destruction of the Baker–Fancher party in southern Utah Territory. Tracing the fate of the surviving children, the immediate efforts to manage the massacre narrative, and the long delay before accountability was pursued.

This final chapter focuses on the aftermath of the massacre...how it was remembered, how it was concealed, and how its legacy continued to surface long after 1857.

References & Further Reading

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre — Juanita Brooks
  
• Massacre at Mountain Meadows — Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, Glen M. Leonard
  
• Vengeance Is Mine — Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, Glen M. Leonard
  
• Blood of the Prophets — Will Bagley

In early September 1857, the Baker–Fancher party found themselves trapped in a remote mountain valley in southern Utah, under siege and running out of options. What had begun as suspicion and rumor had now turned deadly.

In Part II, we follow the final days at Mountain Meadows... the failed negotiations, the desperate decisions, and the massacre itself. We examine how fear, obedience, and silence shaped the choices made by local Mormon leaders and militia men, and what happened in the immediate aftermath as survivors were scattered, and the truth was buried.

See why there is a long shadow cast over the American West from this incident.

References & Further Reading

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre — Juanita Brooks
  
• Massacre at Mountain Meadows — Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, Glen M. Leonard
  
• Vengeance Is Mine — Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, Glen M. Leonard
  
• Blood of the Prophets — Will Bagley

In the late summer of 1857, a well-equipped wagon train of emigrants known as the Baker–Fancher party rolled into Utah Territory on their way to California... They were exhausted, hopeful, and unaware that they were arriving during one of the most dangerous moments in early Mormon-American history.

What followed would become one of the most shocking and disputed tragedies of the nineteenth century: the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

In Part I, The Road to Murder, we trace the rising tensions that set the stage long before a single shot was fired.

From early Latter Day Saint tragedies, pioneer identity and the U.S. government’s standoff with Brigham Young, that shaped the paranoia gripping frontier settlements...

References & Further Reading

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre — Juanita Brooks
  
• Massacre at Mountain Meadows — Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, Glen M. Leonard
  
• Vengeance Is Mine — Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, Glen M. Leonard
  
• Blood of the Prophets — Will Bagley

In Part II, we examine the final hours of the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg...what unfolded in the basement room, why the execution became so chaotic, and how the hidden jewels sewn into the grand duchesses’ clothing affected the brutal scene. We follow the cover-up that followed, the search for the bodies, and the decades-long mystery surrounding the investigation.

* You may hear a bit of audio distortion toward the end. I'm traveling for the holidays, but I still wanted to bring you this week’s episode! Thanks for understanding!

Before revolution swept Russia into chaos, the Romanov dynasty was at a crossroads. Nicholas II inherited a vast empire he was never fully prepared to rule, and the entire family found themselves at the center of a storm they couldn’t escape.

The stage was being set for terrible crimes to come...

The murders of Andrew and Abby Borden shocked Fall River...but the trial that followed would capture the entire nation.

In Part II, we step inside the packed courtroom to unravel the evidence, the contradictions, and the spectacle that turned a family tragedy into America’s first true “media crime.”

Through Victorian criminology and social ideas of gendered crime, we follow how Lizzie Borden went from a quiet churchwoman to a national headline....and why the jury’s decision remains debated more than a century later.