Bonnie Parker Owned This Purse? Oklahoma University Conducts DNA Tests to Determine

Tests are underway to see if the weathered-leather handbag can be used with “Bonnie Elizabeth Parker”Its front was engraved with the name Bonnie and Clyde.

Using DNA testing, forensic scientists at the University of Central Oklahoma are hopeful they can solve an old mystery about the pocketbook’s former owner.

The purse, which was hand-crafted by Parker, was donated to Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. However, it is believed that Parker was in the bag when Clyde Barrow and Parker were shot in the head in 1934.

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They traveled across the country during the Depression and robbed and killed their way to folklore, before being captured on a Louisiana deserted road.

“We decided to turn to science and contacted UCO, who graciously accepted to help us on this quest,”Melissa Owens, interim chief curator officer and registrar of the museum. “There are not many items directly associated with either Bonnie or Clyde. If it is Bonnie’s then as a historical piece it’s priceless.”

University of Central Oklahoma

“It’s a mystery and we are going to use forensic science to solve that mystery,”Caitlin Portfield, a professor of forensic science at the university, said:

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