DALLAS (May 28, 2009)--The FBI’s Dallas Field Office said Thursday it’s releasing a thousand pages of records that detail the hunt for the Texas Depression-era outlaws Bonnie and Clyde to mark the 75th anniversary of the ambush in which the pair died.

The case records from the Dallas office were uncovered during work on an historical exhibit last year in Dallas and detail the FBI’s yearlong involvement in the effort to end the couple’s deadly cross-country crime spree.

The files include an FBI “Interesting Case” memorandum first prepared in 1934 and revised 50 years later in 1984 that summarizes the background of the two outlaws and the effort to bring them to justice. It provided background information about the case for journalists, researchers and bureau employees.

The bulk of the material, however, comes from a Dallas Field Office file that consists of yellowed newspaper clippings, old photographs, memos, letters and other documents gathered during the investigation.

Using a gun smuggled to him by Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow escaped from the McLennan County Jail on March 12, 1930, according to the Handbook of Waco and McLennan County Texas (some sources set the date at March 11, 1930).

Clyde was eventually recaptured and sentenced to prison, but after his parole in February 1932, he and Bonnie embarked on a cross-country crime spree that ended on May 23, 1934 when a group of officers led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer ambushed them on a rural road in Bienville Parish, La., ending a violent run that included auto theft, bank robbery and the murders of more than a dozen people including a number of law enforcement officers.