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GIBSLAND, La. (WAFB) - Perry Carver’s fascination with Bonnie and Clyde started with a car. His grandparents in Georgia were friends with the man who owned the car that Bonnie and Clyde were killed in.

“He’d let me play in the car and it just kind of grew from that, you know, he gave me a shoebox full of shattered glass, you know, that came from the car. He gave me a door handle. Uh, one day I’m sitting in the front seat and he walks out there with a little box knife, and he cuts me out a square out of the front seat and gives it to me. It’s got their blood on it,” said Carver.

Carver now owns the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in the small north Louisiana town of Gibsland. The building used to house Canfield’s Cafe, the last stop for Bonnie and Clyde before the ambush.

“Clyde went in, got him a fried bologna sandwich, got Bonnie a BLT while she sat in the car, they road down to their destination. You know, they, they were seven and a half miles. They were killed.”

A stone marker stands along Parish Road 300, the spot where Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow drove into a trap with officers hiding behind trees. One of those was Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton, who shot this film of the scene after Bonnie and Clyde were killed. Hinton was the father of the late Boots Hinton, who created the Ambush Museum and later sold it to Carver. I met Boots 14 years ago.

“Ted said one thing ran through every one of those officers minds. Simultaneously, this clown’s gotten out of 11 traps is this number 12. And with that, everybody unloaded,” said Hinton.

One of the disputed facts about the ambush is whether officers shouted a warning before opening fire.

“Their adrenalines going, they’re a nervous wreck. They know Clyde has hand grenades. That’s another reason there was no warning given,” Carver said.

I guess you spend a lot of time dispelling some of the myths, the legends, the folklore that’s arisen around these two gangsters.

“A lot of people take it of what, just what they heard. There’s very little research done on them,” said Carver.

The museum has a replica of the death car, complete with bullet holes and shattered windows.

“The holes are, are pretty much accurate. Uh, and, and honestly, I’ve never counted how many holes are in this car. There’s 167 holes in the real car,” Carver said.

Carver continues adding to his large collection of Bonnie and Clyde memorabilia. And he loves sharing what he says are the real facts about the infamous couple.

“The story is history, period. You don’t need to add to it. There’s no Hollywood writer smarter than history. You can’t write the story better than what it was,” said Carver.

And there’s plenty of history here from weapons to personal items and photos from before and after the ambush. And stories that are still fascinating 90 years after it all came to an end for Bonnie and Clyde.

More information on the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum can be found on Heart of Louisiana’s website.

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