The documentary crew of “Time Traveling with Brian Unger” spent the day Jan 10 in the Cedar Creek Lake area filiming an episode about the legendary bank robbery duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
The series produced by Half Yard Productions begin airing on the Travel Network in April, and the Bonnie and Clyde episode featuring Kemp, Mabank and Kaufman will be aired in June.
“Time Traveling with Brian Unger” is described by Scripps Network Interactive as an entertainment feature that “goes where ordinary travelers can’t, using eye-popping graphics to visually travel back in time and tell stories from yesteryear. Host Brian Unger is the ultimate tour guide, sharing tales that tourists won’t find in the guidebooks.” There will be 13 different episodes airing this year, according to the current schedule.
The Bonnie and Clyde episode goes back to 1932 during the Great Depression when the fabled criminals terrorized banks and other businesses during a two-year crime spree. They murdered 13 people during their robberies.
The criminal gang Bonnie and Clyde led tried to rob a grocery store in Mabank, but police interrupted them and gave chase. Bonnie and another gang member were arrested along the banks of a creek near Kemp. Clyde apparently escaped, but he and Bonnie reunited in Dallas later.
Bonnie and the other gang member were jailed in the 1900s-era calaboose that still stands behind Kemp City Hall.
Filming took place in Kemp at the calaboose and in the "Bottoms" near King's Creek to the east of downtown Kemp. In Mabank, the crew filmed in the alley behind Market Street.
Pictured below is the Kemp calaboose. A marker stands in front of it identifying the jail as the site of Bonnie and Clyde's detention for one night.