On May 23, 1934, the day the law finally caught up with Bonnie and Clyde, a tow truck hauling the couple's shot up Ford - their bloody bodies still inside - pulled into the itty-bitty town of Arcadia, La.

Thousands of people from nearby towns showed up hoping to see, and maybe even touch, the bodies of the murderous lovers whose exploits had captivated the nation.

The surreal scene is depicted in the new Netflix film, “ The Highwaymen ,” staring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as the Texas Rangers who hunted Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow down after they killed 13 people on a multi-state crime spree.

According to Jeff Guinn, the author of "Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde," readers wanted diversion - sports heroes, movie stars, gangsters.

They became so large in the country's imagination - Hollywood-like actors directing their own real-life drama - that the fans who showed up in Arcadia to literally get a piece of them were stunned by what they saw and later learned about them in newspapers.

The stolen V8 Ford that Bonnie and Clyde were killed in - dubbed the Death Car in the media - was returned to the Kansas woman who owned it.