“The dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them” – George Eliot

On the afternoon of May 26, 1934, the funeral of a young woman took place at McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home in Dallas, Texas. The two-story Greek-Colonial Revival building was situated among similarly styled houses and businesses. On any other day, the McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home could be easily mistaken for any of the other residences surrounding it. This day, however, 1921 Forest Avenue was immediately distinguishable due to the abundance of visitors gathered outside waiting to glimpse the twenty-three-year-old woman who lay in her coffin.

The young woman was not a film star, lounge singer, or stage performer. Instead, she was one of America’s most prolific serial killers, the second half of the deadly duo that had plagued police officers and businesses across Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The young woman was Bonnie Parker.

An estimated 20,000 spectators came to Dallas to view the body of Bonnie Parker and attend the funeral of a woman most of them had only known through news headlines.[1] While two months prior, in April of 1934, another funeral took place. This one has a vastly different story. Instead of 20,000 people gathered outside, only close family, friends, and co-workers were in attendance. The young man, only three years older than Bonnie, was fallen highway patrolmen E. B. Wheeler, one of her final victims. Outside of his identity as a man felled by Bonnie and Clyde, who was E. B Wheeler? Who were the other six Texans to predecease patrolmen Wheeler at the hands of the lethal pairing? What happened in each of their lives to hold them forever as side characters in someone else's stories rather than principal players in their own histories?

The idea for this collection stemmed from reading The Five[2] by English historian, Hallie Rubenhold. The Five is the story of prolific London-based serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Unlike most other true crime retellings, The Five focuses its energy on the victims. Each of the “canonical five” have their own biography, beginning with their family history and ending with the impact of their deaths. Very little, if any, space is given to the crimes themselves because The Five is not about Jack the Ripper, it is about Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Catherine Eddows, Elizabeth Stride, and Mary Jane Kelly. While reading The Five, a particular quote remained in my mind, “I do so in the hope that we may now hear their stories clearly and give back to them that which was so brutally taken away with their lives: their dignity.”[3] In giving notoriety and fame to the most prolific criminals, society often strips the victims of their dignity and memory. Consider the following collection of biographies a small step toward the reclamation of previously disregarded individuals.[4]

[1] Parker, Cowan, Fortune, The True Story of Bonnie and Clyde, 175.

[2] Rubenhold, The Five.

[3] Rubenhold, The Five, 13

[4] Because of location and archival materials available, this compilation includes only nine the victims of Bonnie and Clyde. The remaining individuals will follow in time.