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:
“The true colour of life is the colour of the body, the colour of the covered red, the implicit and not explicit red of the living heart and the pulses. It is the modest colour of the unpublished blood.”
—Alice Meynell (1847–1922)
““Mother of heaven, regina of the clouds,
O sceptre of the sun, crown of the moon,
There is not nothing, no, no, never nothing,
Like the clashed edges of two words that kill.””
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Parents who want a fresh point of view on their furniture are advised to drop down on all fours and accompany the nine or ten month old on his rounds. It is probably many years since you last studied the underside of a dining room chair. The ten month old will study this marvel with as much concentration and reverence as a tourist in the Cathedral of Chartres.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“A friend i’the court is better than a penny in purse.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)