Ballad of the brutal bards
QUESTION Has any of the poetry written by outlaws Bonnie and Clyde survived?
BONNIE PARKER and Clyde Barrow were the most notorious and celebrated outlaw couple of the Great Depression.
The pair went on a 21-month crime spree across the southern states of the U.S., robbing banks, petrol stations and restaurants. Bonnie was 23 and Clyde 25 when they died in a hail of gunfire during a police ambush in Louisiana on May 23, 1934.
Bonnie enjoyed writing poetry, embellishing her work with gangster vernacular, such as moll, inside man, henchman and joint, used in Hollywood movies. Her writing shows she was well aware of her own mythology and where it would eventually take her.
in 1932, while Bonnie was serving three months in Kaufman County Jail following a botched armed robbery, she composed poems under the title Poetry From Life’s other Side.
Appropriately, she wrote them in a bank book, from the First national Bank of Burkburnett, Texas. The book, which Bonham’s sold at auction for £18,000 in 2007, contained a collection of original verse and copies of popular ballads.
The Prostitutes Convention tells of West end Rose, Lonesome Lou and Subway Sue, who meet up for a chat, but scatter when the police arrive.
The Fate of Tiger Rose tells of a female criminal growing old in jail, reminiscing how she was once a ‘woman of shame/who played a hard game’.
The Story of Suicide Sal is full of gangster slang and ends with: ‘Not long ago I read in the paper That a gal on the East Side got ‘hot’ And when the smoke finally retreated, Two of gangdom were found ‘on the spot’. It related the colorful story Of a ‘jilted gangster gal’ Two days later, a ‘sub-gun’ ended The story of ‘Suicide Sal’.’
Bonnie’s most famous poem was The Trail’s end, which predicted the couple’s demise. it featured in the 1967 film Bonnie And Clyde, with Faye Dunaway (Bonnie) reading it to an admiring Clyde (Warren Beatty). it begins: ‘You’ve read the story of Jesse James Of how he lived and died. If you’re still in need; Of something to read, Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde. Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang I’m sure you all have read. How they rob and steal; And those who squeal, Are usually found dying or dead.’ The ending is spookily accurate: ‘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.’
it appears Clyde was inspired by his crime partner to try his hand at verse, too. A notebook, owned by the Barrow family and due to be auctioned in May, includes a poem, complete with spelling mistakes, that appears to be written by Clyde: ‘Bonnie’s just written a poem The story of Bonnie & Clyde. So I will try my hand at poetry With her riding by my side [ . . . ] ‘We donte want to hurt anney one But we have to steal to eat. And if it’s a shoot-out To live that’s the way it Will have to bee.’ Charles Danvers, Coventry.
QUESTION Is there a killer hornet in Japan?
THe Japanese giant hornet ( Vespa
mandarinia japonica) is a subspecies of the Asian giant hornet ( V. mandarinia). in Japan, it is known as Oo-Suzumebachi, the giant sparrow bee. it is five times the size of a european honeybee — 1½ in long, with a 2½ in wingspan.
The venom of the Japanese giant hornet attacks the nervous system and damages the tissue of its victims. its potency is in part due to the large amount of venom it injects via a short stinger.
it kills as many as 40 people a year, mostly through anaphylactic shock in allergic people, though it can also be lethal to people without an allergy.
in other respects, this hornet is a beneficial creature because it eats crop pests. one problem is that it is a voracious predator of the european honey bee, which has been imported by the Japanese because these bees produce more honey than native species.
A hornet scout locates a hive and leaves a pheromone marker to attract other hornets to the site. one hornet can kill 40 bees in a minute, and a group of 30 hornets can wipe out a colony of 30,000 bees in three hours. Honey bee venom is ineffective against the hornets, which chew up choice parts of the bees and feed them to their larvae.
Japanese honey bees have a remarkable strategy for combating the hornet. A group of 500 or so swarm the scout and flap their wings, heating the invader up to 47c, which proves lethal. Honey bees can survive up to 50c.
Colin Brewer, Scarborough, N. Yorks.
QUESTION Who was the footballer unwittingly used as the face of an Indian cigarette advert?
JOHN TERRY, then of Chelsea, was the footballer whose face was used in an indian cigarette advertisement.
in 2011, without his knowledge or permission, indian health and government officials allowed his photo — complete with a graphic showing his lungs filling with black tar — to be used on packets of Gold Flake cigarettes as part of a ‘ Smoking Kills’ warning campaign.
The photograph was blurred, but was still unmistakably Terry. There was a swift response from the player’s agents, elite Management, who said: ‘We have compared the images with Mr Terry and instructed his solicitors to begin legal action for violation of image rights.’ Tony Matthews, author, The Who’s Who Of Chelsea, Almeria, Spain.
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