In the early 1930s gangsters realized that Suicide Doors make it a lot easier to shove somebody out of a vehicle thanks to the wind holding them open. Ever since then Suicide Doors have enjoyed a long and bloody history that has enriched the movie going experience while provided interesting trivia for generations. In this piece I will examine three such bloody moments in suicide door history beginning with John Dillinger's getaway car, Bonnie & Clyde's death mobile, and John F Kennedy's convertible.
Police thought they finally had their man John Dillinger locked up for good at the Crown Point Jail in Indiana on March 3, 1934 before Dillinger tricked one of the guards into opening his cell and then locked him inside. He then stole Sheriff Lillian Holley's brand new Ford V8 police car complete with police headlights and siren, but like most Ford Model B series sedans with the exception of the Fordor it was just a two door vehicle not ideal to use as a getaway car for a gang of bank robbers. Desperate to carry on his crime spree and avoid capture Dillinger made the fatal error of crossing state lines in violation of the federal Motor Vehicle Theft Act before abandoning the blood soiled cop car in favor of a 1933 Terraplane 8 with Suicide Doors that would give his gang plenty of room to enter and exit the vehicle with machine guns and money bags. Dillinger kept that car with him until his dying day when he left his safe house in the woods to take his girlfriend to watch a movie and see him get gunned down by federal agents in the theater.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow suffered every vintage vehicle owners worst nightmare on May 34, 1934 when their 1934 Ford Deluxe Fordor was ripped apart by machine gun fire right before their very eyes. The hail of 130 rounds fired by Texas law enforcement officers armed with Browning Assault Rifles killed the young couple before they could ever get an estimate for the repair job that even the best body shops of today would have had a hell of a time fixing. In addition to the bullet holes ripping apart most of the front and rear Suicide Doors the vehicle suffered sever upholstery damage due to what historians believe were about 25 bullet wounds per corpse resulting in several pints worth of blood soaking into the drivers, front passenger, and rear passenger seats of the vehicle.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the last President of the United States to ride in a convertible with Suicide Doors on November 22, 1963 when an unknown gunman blew his brains out from behind the grassy noel at Dealy Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The initial arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald on charges of shooting Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository based on a magic bullet theory left most believing that blood spatter from the fatal bullet would have hit the seats to the front left of him because if the bullet came from the Book Depository to the right rear of the vehicle it would the Zapruder film would not have shown his head thrusting back and to the left resulting in blood splatter hitting the first lady, the passenger seat, and the left rear passenger suicide door. Unfortunately the United States government has never released all the facts surrounding the events that the Suicide Door of that 1961 Lincoln Model 74A Convertible.
Suicide Doors have stood the test of time servicing some of the most notable people in American history. John Dillinger realized that with no obstructions in the doorway his 1933 Terraplane made for a much better getaway car, Bonnie and Clyde proved that Suicide Doors were never intended to be bulletproof, and John F. Kennedy leaves much to the imagination with a hope that someday people will know who really killed the last president to ride in a convertible with Suicide Doors. Suicide Doors live on today in modern Rolls-Royce convertibles, restored hot rods, and custom rides with the help of aftermarket Suicide Door Hinges.
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