Economic desperation gripped the Midwest in the early 1930s. Kansas City saw its share of outlaws with automatic weapons in fast cars making quick getaways.

On the morning of June 17, 1933, Frank “Jelly” Nash, accompanied by the two FBI agents and the Oklahoma police chief who had apprehended Nash in Hot Springs, Arkansas, arrived by train at Kansas City’s Union Station. Joined by two more FBI agents and two Kansas City police officers, the law enforcement team was escorting Nash back to the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, from where he had escaped three years earlier.

The handcuffed fugitive and three escorting officers had just arrived at their Chevrolet sedan parked in front of the east entrance to Union Station when three men appeared—at least one with a machine gun—and opened fire. The assault lasted, perhaps, 30 seconds. Two of the police officers were killed as they stood next to their car. Seconds later Frank Nash and another lawman were murdered inside the vehicle. An FBI agent who had been shot beside the driver’s door was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

The gunmen rushed to the car and looked inside. One of them shouted, “They’re all dead. Let’s get out of here!” (Actually, two FBI agents inside the car and another lying behind it had survived). The gunmen then raced back toward their getaway car, a dark-colored Chevrolet. One of the killers, later identified by the FBI as Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, was hit with a bullet fired by a policeman emerging from Union Station. But, all three of the gunmen made it back to their Chevrolet which sped off westward out of the railroad station parking lot and vanished.

“Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed in a shootout on an Ohio farm the following year. With his dying breath, he denied any involvement in the Kansas City Massacre. An accomplice captured at the same time was returned to Kansas City, tried, convicted, and in 1938, executed. Following the massacre, laws were changed to allow FBI agents to carry guns and conduct arrests.

On July 18, 1933, the Barrow Gang needed rest and recuperation. Clyde thought Kansas City was the place to lay low for a while. His brother, Buck, disagreed, pointing out that it had been just a few weeks since the Kansas City Massacre and KC was crawling with federal, state, and local lawmen looking for gangsters.

While filling up in a gas station at the intersection of highways 59 and 71, about 20 miles northwest of downtown Kansas City, Clyde spotted some tourist cabins across the road behind a tavern. Made of brick and with attached garages, the Red Crown Tourist Court seemed like just the place.

However, strange behavior by the gang raised suspicion. The Red Crown manager alerted the local Missouri Highway Patrol captain and the Platte County sheriff. The Oklahoma license plate number confirmed that the Ford V8 Clyde had backed into the garage (as if for a quick getaway) was a stolen car.

With reinforcements from the Jackson County sheriff’s department, including men, weaponry, bulletproof shields, and even a bulletproof car, a 13-man posse approached the Barrow cabin at about 1 a.m. The sheriff’s knock on the door was answered with a barrage of fire from military-issue Browning assault rifles stolen from a National Guard supply depot two weeks before. The shootout could be heard for miles around.

In the chaos, the Barrow Gang escaped. Clyde, at the wheel of the Ford V8, roared past the lawmen and out onto U.S. 71, disappearing into the darkness. Buck Barrow received a head wound. The final volley of shots from the posse shattered the rear window of the car, sending slivers of glass into the eyes of Buck’s wife, Blanche. Amazingly, no lawmen were killed in the shootout.

Four days later, a posse numbering 100 surrounded the gang at an abandoned amusement park outside Dexter, Iowa. Bonnie and Clyde escaped yet again. Buck and Blanch, however, were captured. Buck died five days later. Blanch was returned to Platte County where she was found guilty of “assault with intent to kill” and spent six years in the Missouri State Penitentiary for Women.

Bonnie and Clyde would meet their fate 10 months later in an ambush on an isolated road near Gibsland, Louisiana.

[ Our grateful appreciation to the Missouri Valley Special Collections for photographs, Kansas City Public Library ]

Image Left Top:
Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Whether or not he was actually involved in the Kansas City Massacre, he was the one identified and hunted by the FBI.

Image Top Right:
The Kansas City Massacre at Union Station occurred on June 17, 1933. In 30 seconds, four lawmen and captured gangster Frank Nash were dead.

Image Bottom Left:
Clyde Barrow’s letter to Henry Ford telling him “…what a fine car you got in the V8.”

Image Bottom Middle:
The Red Crown Tourist Court (near what is today the I-29 exit to the Kansas City International Airport) was the site of the July 20, 1933 shoot-out between lawmen and the Barrow Gang.

Image Bottom Right:
With his impressive driving skills and her poetry, it was easy to romanticize Bonnie and Clyde as a young couple in love out on the open road. But they also murdered 13 people. (Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker in front of a 1932 Ford V8 stolen in Texas)