Skip to main content
USA TODAY 10 Best
  • Follow 10Best
  • Like 10Best
USA TODAY 10 Best
  • Home
  • Readers' Choice
  • Interests
  • Food & Drink
  • Arts & Culture
  • Travel Guides
search
  • Follow
  • Like
close
  • facebook share
  • twitter share
  • pinterest share
  • linkedin share
  • Flipboard
Advertisement
Advertisement
graphic

Also Recently Published

  • Your complete guide to pickleball and the coolest courts in the country
    Your complete guide to pickleball and the coolest courts in the country
    View This Article
  • From farmers markets to food halls, where are your favorite places to enjoy local food?
    From farmers markets to food halls, where are your favorite places to enjoy local food?
    View This Article
  • 10 delicious Thai dishes you absolutely must try that aren't pad thai
    10 delicious Thai dishes you absolutely must try that aren't pad thai
    View This Article
  • Feast your eyes on these 10 over-the-top desserts served at Las Vegas restaurants
    Feast your eyes on these 10 over-the-top desserts served at Las Vegas restaurants
    View This Article
  • All aboard! Get an exclusive look inside Princess Cruises' legendary Discovery Princess
    All aboard! Get an exclusive look inside Princess Cruises' legendary Discovery Princess
    View This Slideshow
Advertisement
 

— When you buy through a link on our site, 10Best may earn a commission. Our editors operate independently of affiliate relationships.

  • Interests
  • //
  • Explore

USA TODAY 10Best

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A Visit

See where America's worst criminals cavorted
Lyn Mettler

November 13, 2015 // By Lyn Mettler

By Lyn Mettler
Travel Expert November 13, 2015

 

Bullet holes, wooden bars and vaults are just a few of the items visitors can see at these favorite stomping grounds of the most famous outlaws, gangsters and criminals in American history.  

Advertisement

Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse

Chicago

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse

Where today stands a lovely steakhouse named after famous Cubs announcer Harry Caray in the River North district of Chicago was once the home to a notorious mobster. Frank Nitti, the enforcer of Al Capone's gang, lived in a fourth floor apartment during the early 1940s in the 1895 building designed by renowned architect Henry Ives Cobb.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Today, take a tour with Chicago Crime Tours to visit the basement level of the restaurant to see many of the personal effects, including a vault and phone book with gangster contacts, left behind by Nitti.

Big Nose Kate's Saloon

Tombstone, Ariz.

There is likely no more famous gunfight than the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, and visitors to this Old West town can still see many of the places frequented by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Cowboys.  Boot Hill, the cemetery which serves as the final resting places of many outlaws remains, and tourists can also rest their elbows on the same wooden bar as did the Earps, Doc and the Clantons.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The bar, once a part of the Grand Hotel where several of the gunslingers were staying the night before the shootout, is one of the only objects that survived when the hotel burned in 1882. Now it sits in Big Nose Kate's Saloon, which stands on the site of the Grand Hotel.

Slippery Noodle Inn

Indianapolis

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of Visit Indy

The oldest bar in the state of Indiana, opened in 1850, was formerly a hangout of Public Enemy No. 1, John Dillinger. Dillinger, an Indianapolis native, spent most of his days planning and executing bank robberies across the Midwest.

Advertisement
Advertisement

He and his gang would head to old horse stables behind the the Slippery Noodle Inn, located in downtown Indianapolis, for target practice. Their bullet holes remain to this day. The "Noodle" has also seen everything from illegal beer production in the Prohibition Era to slaves passing through as a way station on the Underground Railroad.

Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon No. 10

Deadwood, S.D.

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of SD Department of Tourism/Deadwood.com

This saloon in the Wild West town of Deadwood is the spot where Wild Bill Hickock was gunned down by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876. The original location of the No. 10 Saloon was destroyed by a massive fire in 1879, along with much of Deadwood’s downtown core district.

Advertisement
Advertisement

In 1898, a new building was built on the site, which now contains a bar scene on the lower level designed to resemble what the original saloon may have looked like. Visitors can also take a short tour of the original location of Wild Bill's murder.

Alcalde Hotel

Gonzales, Texas

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of Alcalde Hotel

A visit to the Alcalde Hotel in Gonzales, Texas, lets you lay eyes on the second-story window where criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde jumped to avoid capture by the police. The pair, known for their many bank robberies during the Great Depression, stayed at the hotel while on the run.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Guests can even reserve the "Bonnie and Clyde" room when visiting the hotel, which was built in 1926. The couple weren't the only famous guests; Elvis Presley also stayed at the hotel on multiple occasions. 

Stockyards Hotel

Fort Worth

Another stop on Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree was the Stockyards Hotel in Fort Worth. Reserve the actual room where the couple holed up, which features a king-size bed, lamps made of spurs and horseshoes and a gaming table. There are also historic artifacts, including Bonnie's revolver, photographs, newspaper clippings and a poem written by Bonnie for Clyde. 

Advertisement
Advertisement

Old Trail Town

Cody, Wyo.

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of Buffalo Bill's Cody-Yellowstone Country

Old Trail Town is a living history museum on the road to Yellowstone National Park of many buildings from the Old West. The Mud Spring Cabin, constructed in 1897, was used by Kid Curry and the Sundance Kid as a hideout before they tried to rob a Montana bank.

Visitors can also see the cabin where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their Hole in the Wall Gang used to hang out, and stop in the 1888 Rivers Saloon, which was frequented by cowboys, gold miners and outlaws, complete with bullet holes still in the wall.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Occidental Hotel

Buffalo, Wyo.

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of The Occidental

Another Old West hangout, which saw many famous faces, such as Butch Cassidy, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill and even two U.S. presidents, is the Occidental Hotel in Wyoming.

The hotel, which was restored to its original grandeur when it was built in 1880, has amazingly remained standing when so many other buildings of the Old West burned or were torn down. Be sure to stop in the saloon where you can not only stand where many outlaws once cavorted but see original bullet holes in the ceiling. 

Advertisement
Advertisement

French Country Inn

Lake Geneva, Wis.

Situated on Lake Como, today's French Country Inn was once part of Lake Como Inn, a popular Wisconsin getaway for notorious Chicago gangsters. 

George “Bugs” Moran and Baby Face Nelson, as well as their "molls" and wives, and members of the John Dillinger gang, visited the inn during summers to escape the city in the 1920s and 30s, according to current owner Tony Navilio. Navilio has penned a fictional book about the inn based on its history entitled, Murder at the French Country Inn.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Jesse James Bank

Liberty, Miss.

Bad Boys: Famous Outlaw Hangouts Worthy Of A VisitPhoto courtesy of Missouri Division of Tourism

The Jesse James Bank in Liberty, Missouri, is the site of the first daylight, peacetime bank robbery in the United States. James and his gang rode into town on horseback and held up the bank, leaving one person dead.

Visitors to the bank, which is decorated as it was in 1866 with period furnishings, can now see the original vault and hear the story of the robbery as told by an actor portraying a bank teller. 

x

Next Up

Discover what Shelbyville, KY, is known for and the beauty of this idyllic small town

Read More »

Advertisement

Lyn Mettler

About Lyn Mettler

Lyn Mettler lives in Indianapolis, the former grounds of Public Enemy No. 1, John Dillinger. 

Read more about Lyn Mettler here.

Connect with Lyn via: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest


Share

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Flipboard
×

×
Advertisement
Advertisement
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • instagram
10Best logo 10Best logo
  • About 10Best
  • Experts & Contributors
  • Sitemap
  • Newsletter
  • Reprints & Permissions
  • Contact Us

  • Cookie Settings
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy

A division of USA TODAY · Copyright © 2023 www.10best.com. · All rights reserved.

incrementing counter