Before Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow and became one half of the most notable outlaw couple in the U.S., she was a waitress in East Dallas.
And now, she’s back in town to haunt us forever. Or at least, show up in a mural painted on what used to be her former workplace, Hartgraves Cafe (sometimes called Mrs. Hartgraves’ Cafe), near the intersection of Swiss Avenue and Hall Street. Oak Cliff Advocate reports that she worked there between 1928 to 1929.
The law firm Texas Defenders, which ironically focuses on criminal defense, moved into the crescent-shaped building last year. Attorneys Robert Abtahi and David Payma were fascinated by the idea of working in a historical location. Abtahi said it had been vacant for a while.
“It’s a piece of Dallas history,” Abtahi said in a previous article. “I thought it was a great opportunity to save a piece of history and really be stewards of it for the future. People talk about buying their forever home. David and I talked about this being our forever office.”
In fact, when setting up shop, the lawyers knew they eventually wanted to do something to commemorate Parker. So they recruited Jeremy Biggers, a Dallas native and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts alumnus, to paint the mural…