Bonnie Parker wanted to be a famous actress.

Clyde Barrow wanted to be a musician and to wear classy clothing.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, a crime duo active between 1932 and 1934, made their name alongside other celebrity criminals, such as Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson, at the height of The Great Depression.

The Public Enemy era marked the beginning of lawmen being required to carry firearms, interstate police working together, bank robbery being charged as a federal crime, and Hoover’s formation of the FBI.

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This post explores the story of Bonnie and Clyde through Human Design.

Since there is no official birth time on public record for either of them, their charts were run through software for consistency.

Only the parts of their respective charts that did not change were used for this reading.

⚠️ Warning: Details of Bonnie, Clyde, and the Barrow Gang’s experiences, including killings, kidnapping of lawmen, robberies, poverty, loss, self-mutilation, and rape, are mentioned in this post. There will be no other trigger warnings outside of this paragraph. No images related to violent crime or killings are in this post.

Clyde Barrow’s potential Human Design type

Clyde’s birth date is made up of Manifestors. There is a small window where he could’ve been a Manifesting Generator, but due to a split between his sacral center in those hours, his ‘Manifestor’ side would’ve been what was connected to his throat.

Based on his life’s decisions, his need for control, and his birthday’s time windows, I think Clyde is a textbook Manifestor.

Manifestors:

• Described as going “0-100” in a figurative car, and if you don’t like it, you can get out.

• Dethrones and is dethroned through (figurative!) cutting off the head.

A classic interpretation of the Manifestor type is that they get in cars and slam on the pedal to go from 0-100. Don’t get in their way, or they’ll run you over.

This isn’t a literal interpretation, but for Clyde Barrow? It’s literal.

Clyde was known for being good at driving fast. Think of car chases in action movies. That’s how Clyde drove. He was so controlling over vehicles that he wouldn’t let other members of the gang drive unless it were the getaway car. He would rather drive eight hours straight by himself than trust someone else with the wheel.

More impressive is he drove with two toes missing and no shoes. When he was in Eastham Prison Farm, he deliberately cut off two of his toes (one being the big toe) using an axe to get out of the farm work.

Clyde’s first time in prison was for failing to return a rental car. He was 21 years old and 125 lbs (56.7 kg) when he was sentenced to Eastham Prison Farm.

For a single rental car his family couldn’t afford to pay back, he faced a year of daily: beatings, lack of food, and rape from a much larger inmate (encouraged and rewarded by the guards).

The rapist was in a feud with another inmate, Aubrey Scalley. Scalley, who was already serving a life sentence, gave Clyde a makeshift weapon and said if Clyde killed the rapist, he (Scalley) would take all the blame.

Clyde did. Scalley held up to his end of the bargain.

This marked the first time Clyde successfully dethroned someone who held power over the prison. For the rest of his short life, he would fantasize and scheme ways he could go back to Eastham with more firepower, kill all the guards, and release all the prisoners.

Bonnie Parker’s potential Human Design type

• Before 5 pm central time, she would likely be a Projector.

• After 5 pm central time, she would likely be a Generator.

Based on how introspective and dependent on outside socialization Bonnie was, I think she’s a Projector. If she was a Projector, there is a large window where she would’ve been a mental Projector.

Mental Projectors do not operate like other Projectors. They are the only ones with an external authority.

Mental authorities experience echolocation around them, waiting for information to bounce around, return, and leave again so answers can solidify. This authority isn’t about logical reasoning. It’s the ability to hold space for information and let it piece together over time.

While in prison, she spent much of her time writing poetry. She would also haul a typewriter around while she was with Clyde and the Barrow Gang so she could edit her poem, Suicide Sal.

Bonnie was thought to be introspective and self-aware, at least to her family. She always knew that she and Clyde lived on borrowed time, and despite her mother’s repeated pleas to stay home, Bonnie told her family she intended to stay with Clyde and die with him.

Bonnie had to be recognized and invited by the Barrow gang because who in the 1930s was bringing women to robberies? Aside from their relationship, Clyde invited Bonnie to go with them.

Bonnie Parker likely had an open ‘G’ center

Bonnie’s intention to die alongside Clyde shows how much she sees herself in him.

The G center is the center of love, direction, and identity. Being open, Bonnie would’ve learned what love was through the people she was attracted to, even if platonic.

🙄 It’s a misconception that people with the undefined or open G center don’t have their own identities. They cultivate their identities through relatability and will often identify with other people in an alter ego manner. However, the open G is susceptible to other people projecting an identity onto them, and if the open G is frantically looking for anyone to identify with, they can force themselves to adopt projected identities.

Let’s note some of the things the 1930’s media said about Bonnie:

• Seductress; ‘loose woman’ who slept with multiple members of the Barrow Gang (she didn’t.)

• Takes sadistic joy out of killing (she hated it and would try to care for their hostages as best she could.)

• Unladylike because of her gun-toting, cigar-smoking lifestyle (she didn’t smoke cigars, it was a prop.)

Police Chief Percy Boyd recalled liking Bonnie because she took care of him while they held him hostage after a shootout. They scraped his head with a bullet (the Barrow Gang couldn’t aim), but Bonnie made Clyde stop the car so she could clean and tend Boyd’s wounds.

He said she made pleasant conversation. When they released him, he asked her if there were anything she would like to tell the press.

Bonnie loved reading about her and Clyde. They saved heaps of papers and clippings.

But her only request to Chief Boyd was to tell the press she didn’t smoke cigars. Of all things, that was what she didn’t want her identity associated with.

What we’re exploring in their Human Design connection chart

A connection chart combines two people’s Human Design charts. Unlike most compatibility systems, Human Design focuses on what each person brings to the relationship and then watches it happen. There is no more compatible or less compatible.

In this post, I’ll go over Bonnie and Clyde’s:

• Electromagnetic channels: they both climb the mountain together, each bringing something different to ensure success.

• Compromise channels: they both climb the mountain, but one makes it up; the other needs that person’s help to get over the top.

• Dominance channels: one person climbs the whole mountain while the other watches.

All gates mentioned in this post are specific to Bonnie and Clyde’s dynamics.

Bonnie and Clyde’s Electromagnetic channels

Wherever you see a channel that is half pink and half blue equally, it means they have an electromagnetic channel.

Below are their electromagnetic channels, which are what each of them brings on their journey to complement each other.

Channel of Abstraction (64-47)

Confusion leads to clarity.

• 🚗 Clyde (64): Quickly comes up with vague answers.

• 💄 Bonnie (47): Moves between optimism and hopelessness.

Clyde was designed for short-term thinking.

Bonnie oscillated between being optimistic about getting out of the crime life and understanding they could die at any time.

When she met Clyde, she was nineteen, couldn’t find a job, and her husband was in prison for robbery. She wanted to be a Broadway star, a poet, or anything grand and famous.

For Bonnie, Clyde was her way out of her boring life.

He was good at sudden, short-term decisions, but it was Bonnie who picked up the slack on the other end.

Channel of Transformation (54-32)

Intends to create wealth but require the correct allies.

• 🚗 Clyde (54): Prizes loyalty, especially when it comes to the disadvantaged. Angry when the loyalty isn’t reciprocated.

• 💄 Bonnie (32): Instinctual but fears failure.

The Barrow/Parker families were often gifted money and presents from the duo.

Sometimes, the money was up to $100 (about $1,400 today).

Marie Barrow, Clyde’s younger sister, said that Clyde’s gifts “often saved the Barrows from going hungry.”

Family was important to both of them.

They would also drive members of the Barrow Gang to visit their families. Unfortunately, this would lead to one of the members turning on them and 150 bullets hailing into their car and bodies.

Channel of Judgment (58-18)

Creates structures and criticisms to ensure ‘a better life’ for loved ones and self.

• 🚗 Clyde (58): Decadent and indulging lifestyle. Becomes unstable when faced with too much to handle.

• 💄 Bonnie (18): Obsessive over trying to help.

Clyde and the Barrow Gang had killed at least nine lawmen when they were active. Yet some of the hostages they took mentioned that they were treated well, such as Police Chief Percy Boyd, as mentioned above.

When Clyde had to steal change from a gum machine to get food and gas, Boyd tried to give Clyde $25 (roughly $350 today), but Clyde refused. Instead, Clyde used the stolen change to feed himself, Bonnie, another gang member, and Boyd. He also didn’t want Boyd to show up in bloody clothes, so he dressed the Police Chief in a fresh shirt, suit coat, and tie before they released him close to town.

Clyde believed that the Barrow Gang should always be dressed nicely (decadent and indulging lifestyle.) This extended to how he wanted his hostage to look respectable when they released him.

Bonnie and Clyde’s Compromise Channels

Below are Bonnie and Clyde’s compromise channels. Think of compromise channels as one person being able to climb the whole mountain by themselves where the other person can climb, but needs help getting to the top.

Primarily pink means Bonnie is the one helping Clyde up.

Primarily blue means Clyde is the one helping Bonnie up.

The term compromise in compromise channel can be misleading. They didn’t have to ‘compromise’ anything. Bonnie was more than happy to partake and help Clyde while Clyde was more than happy to take care of Bonnie.

Channel of Structure (43-23)

• 🚗 Clyde (43): Pushes through any goal and challenges those who oppose it.

• 💄 Bonnie (whole channel): The ability to put patterns together and innovate but requires letting go of control.

It’s unclear how much influence Bonnie had on Clyde’s decisions, but based on their compromise channels, I’d think Bonnie did have a hand in Clyde’s ideas. Due to the time period, she may not have received credit.

With the channel of structure, we see that Clyde has a firm grip on control, but Bonnie is designed to release that control for the sake of practicality.

After Clyde got out of Eastham, he didn’t forget how Aubrey Scalley gave him the weapon to kill his rapist.

This created Bonnie’s first task for the Barrow Gang.

Bonnie walked right into Eastham prison and told the guards she was Scalley’s cousin. No one suspected the 4’11’ girl to be capable of doing anything to help a convict. Clyde was adamant about paying Scalley back, and Bonnie was there to deliver the plan.

For a moment, Bonnie got to live out her dream of being an actress.

Clyde would always have a vendetta against lawmen due to what happened to him in Eastham. While he never had the firepower to take on the whole prison, he’d find ways to help the people who helped him. Some were recruited into the Barrow Gang.

Members of the Barrow Gang came and went quickly- except Bonnie Parker. Clyde had the schemes and willpower, but Bonnie had the capacity to deal with Clyde’s controlling leadership style.

Channel of Money (21-45)

• 🚗 Clyde (whole channel): Has to be in control. Will retaliate when being controlled. Other people must submit to his willpower if they want to join the journey to gather resources, money, and other material assets.

• 💄 Bonnie (45): Can scope out people together. Leadership in relation to money/materialistic goals.

Clyde’s need for being in control was about power, which is true for many Manifestors. He also felt that other people weren’t able to do the job like he did, which is true for many Manifestors.

But his forms of control weren’t about forcing others to submit through violence. It was self-preservation.

He tried to get a stable job when he was out of Eastham but was repeatedly harassed by police at work, which led to him getting fired from every job he tried to keep. He retaliated for the rest of his short life.

Clyde would grab the cash and run if given the choice in a robbery. He preferred the Barrow Gang to flee rather than fight. They took hostages but intended to release them as long as the hostages didn’t try anything.

Members who joined the Barrow Gang were familiar with the glamorous frenzy written in the papers. They were underwhelmed when they realized Clyde didn’t rob banks, he robbed grocery and convenience stores which weren’t making money during The Great Depression. Clyde didn’t like going in or out, guns blazing, but that’s what his recruits wanted.

Manifestors in control are usually seen as dictators and tyrants because Manifestors do not need to be elected to lead. Clyde’s form of control was through anger, telling his gang to stop complaining and yelling at them if they fired a weapon unnecessarily. This lack of glamour, combined with his temperament, made it difficult to retain members of the Barrow Gang.

Other forms of resource-money-material control included what his gang wore, the treatment of hostages, when and where they ate, where they camped, the fate of the people he looked out for, and his alcohol intake. Bonnie was known to have an alcohol problem after Clyde crashed a car that spilled battery acid all over her legs. He “let her have as much whiskey as she wanted for the pain.” But Clyde stayed sober, ready to make a run for it at any moment.

Bonnie didn’t have notable relationships with other members of the gang. Accounts of interacting with Bonnie were usually from those who harbored them (people weren’t turning down cash), hostages, and family. She loved to socialize. Whether people found her underwhelming or were beguiled by her charm, she was the human side of the Barrow Gang.

Bonnie and Clyde’s Dominance Channels

Dominance channels are when one person brings the whole channel, and the other one learns from it (if they want to). This is something one contributes while the other is not designed for it.

In the image below, the name in parenthesis is the person who has that dominance channel.

Channel of Acceptance (17-62) (Bonnie)

The ability to come up with answers due to mental organization. Think of having a Google Drive in your brain; an answer may appear when everything is sorted and nice.

It may have bothered Bonnie that Clyde isn’t able to give someone else control. Projectors have a piercing, sharp aura that needs to be invited in. Manifestors have a closed, protective aura. When the uninvited Projector attempts to pierce the Manifestor’s security system, it’s war. While spending a holiday with Clyde, Buck and Blanche Barrow, Clyde’s brother, and sister-in-law, witnessed Bonnie and Clyde throwing objects at each other, yelling, screaming, and hitting each other when they fought over what to do next.

This specific event (they swung at each other often) happened after Bonnie lost her ability to walk. She demanded to be listened to to the point she would physically attack and be attacked to get her point across.

Clyde’s mother, Cumie Barrow, initially had harsh things to say about Bonnie. Once, Cumie saw Bonnie listening to the radio. Bonnie was anxious to hear whether there was any news about Clyde. Cumie asked Bonnie why she never tried to stop Clyde. Bonnie said she didn’t want to say things like that because he would just get distracted and be unable to do his job. After that, Cumie thought much more highly of Bonnie.

You can see that Bonnie has moments where she understood when her opinion was uninvited.

Channel of Community (37-40) (Clyde)

Bringing people together through understanding life’s purpose. When life’s purpose is understood, the right people are invited to come along.

Ralph Fults was an inmate with Clyde. They arrived at Eastham together, and he gave Clyde the rundown of how the prison worked. Fults mentioned that since he (Fults) escaped in the past, he would face more severe punishment when he got there. The next day, Clyde watched Fults get beaten by a half-dozen inmates, but Clyde made a point to help Fults onto his feet and tend his wounds. The guards threatened to do the same to him, but Clyde valued his loyalty more than his life.

Clyde’s loyalty to Fults ended up getting him sent to one of the worst dorms, where he would be raped every day for a year. But Clyde never abandoned Fults.

Thanks to his mother’s persistent efforts to secure Clyde’s parole, he was released after serving two of his fourteen-year sentence. He was involved in several jailbreaks at Eastham, including helping Fults get out.

Clyde’s feelings about someone had no effect on his loyalty.

This would prove to be his downfall. Henry Methvin, a member of the Barrow Gang involved with the high-profile killing of highway patrolman H.D. Murphy, turned the tide of the public’s support of Bonnie and Clyde into public outrage. This was a few days before H.D. Murphy was supposed to marry his fiance. She wore her wedding dress to his funeral.

Methvin’s family knew that he would likely get the chair since he’d already been implicated in several police murders. Methvin’s mother knew that Bonnie and Clyde had a soft spot for helping those who had broken down on the side of the road. She used that to lure them into an ambush.

Bonnie and Clyde were killed, with 150 bullets pelting into their stolen car.

The Trail’s End

“Some day they'll go down together
they'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief,
to the law a relief
but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.”

-The Trail’s End by Bonnie Parker

Parker, B. (n.d.). The Trail's End. Retrieved from https://allpoetry.com/The-Trail's-End

Guinn, J. (2010). Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Simon & Schuster.

Fortune, J. I. (Compiler), Parker, E. (Narrator), & Cowan, N. B. (Narrator). (2013). Fugitives: The Story of Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Category: Bonnie and Clyde. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bonnie_and_Clyde