Clyde Barrow was likely not going to grow up to be a law-abiding man, but whether or not he was destined to become the violent murderer he eventually became is far from clear. Keen to escape poverty and be respected, he saw crime as a way to achieve that goal, according to the FBI. As a teen, his crimes were relatively minor, according to the FBI; failing to return a rental car on time, for example, or stealing turkeys. But when he was sent to Texas’ notorious Eastham Prison Farm, he came out a changed man — a violent man bent on revenge.
The list of abuses at Eastham is lengthy. As Texas Monthly reports, prisoners were often forced to sit on a barrel for hours at a time, their handcuffed hands affixed to a pipe above their heads. Guards routinely beat the prisoners, and one guard had a habit of shooting prisoners and then claiming they were trying to escape. Those who lived would face grueling hours of hard labor.
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Prison definitely changed Clyde Barrow. His friend Ralph Fults would later say that Barrow went “from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake” during his incarceration.
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