Coordinates: 39°18′36″N 94°41′06″W / 39.309962°N 94.684896°W / 39.309962; -94.684896 The Red Crown Tavern and Red Crown Tourist Court in Platte County, Missouri was the site of the July 20, 1933 gun battle between lawmen and outlaws Bonnie and Clyde and three members of their gang. The outlaws made their escape, but would be tracked down and cornered four days later near Dexter, Iowa and engaged by another posse. The shootout was depicted in Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, though the sign on the motel in the movie reads "Platte City, Iowa," not Missouri.
Built in 1931 by Parkville, Missouri banker and developer Emmett Breen at the junction of US 71 and Route 59 (now I-435), the red brick and tile Tavern included a popular restaurant and ballroom. Back behind the Tavern was the Tourist Court — just two small cabins connected by two garages. The site is just northeast of the main Kansas City International Airport exit off I-29. Today it is within the city limits of Kansas City, and an Interstate exit cloverleaf runs almost squarely through the property.
Read more about Red Crown Tourist Court: The Gang Seeks Refuge, At The Red Crown, The Gun Battle, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words red, crown, tourist and/or court:
“One encounters very capable fathers abashed by their piano-playing daughters. Three measures of Schumann make them red with embarrassment.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“There might you have beheld one joy crown another, so and in such manner that it seemed sorrow wept to take leave of them, for their joy waded in tears.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is a mystery that floats between
The tourist and the town. Imagination
Estranges it from her. She need not suffer
Or die here. It is none of her affair,
Its calm heroic vistas make no claim.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)