Roadhouse, the movie+real life

Factual Questions
1
      • What was the name of the town that the movie was based on? - Where the people actually got killed and nobody would say who done it? - MC
2

According to the IMDB the move Road House (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0098206) is a remake of a 1971 Bruce Lee movie called Tang shan da xiong (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0067824) which is about workers at an ice factory. (Which doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a real Road House somewhere either, of course).

“Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China.”

Dennis Matheson — dennis@mountaindiver.com
Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb — www.mountaindiver.com

3

Are you talking about the movie with Patrick Swayze? It was in Missouri, but I don’t know the name of the town.

4

I’ve never seen the movie. Is THAT what it’s about?

The town in Missouri you’re probably thinking of is Skidmore, and the person killed was Ken McElroy.

5
      • No, not another movie. There was a little town somewhere, with a population of only a couple hundred people or so, maybe less. A family moved into town and began harassing everybody. (This is foggy) I can’t remember why, but the new family began making violent threats against other people there. - One fine day the “troublemaker” family rolled into downtown main street and were ambushed. All the “troublemakers” in the two vehicles were killed by gunfire. The state police investigated later and found that at least twelve different people, each using different firearms and standing in different positions fired on the two vehicles containing the “troublemakers”, but there were no witnesses: none of the townspeople would say who did it. Nobody was ever arrested for it, and the case was (at the time) completely unsolved. The story of the real town was all over the news at the time it happened. Some time later, -maybe a year, the movie Roadhouse was released. - MC
6

I lived about 50-75 miles from Skidmore at the time of the shooting.

It wasn’t “just” harassment and violent threats. The guy was suspected in a number of crimes or assaults in the area, and had recently “allegedly” shot someone.

I say “allegedly”, because he hadn’t actually been tried for it yet – he was out on bail when he was killed – but I don’t think there’s any real doubt he did it.

He was threatening witnesses and bragging that he’d never be convicted. As it turns out he was right, but not in quite the way he expected.

I think someone else… a partner, or maybe his wife… was also shot at the same time, but that’s been twenty years ago and I’m a little foggy about the details. I only remembered the name of the guy because I did a web search on “Skidmore” and “murder”.

7

ROADHOUSE was about a famous BOUNCER cleaning up a violent country bar, which a rich guy wanted to shut down to get the land and sent thugs into to mess it up.

The other thing about the guy getting shot and killed is another story.

8
      • Well, what I meant was, the ending was similar: everybody in town got together to kill the bad guy, and nobody would tell the police who did it. - MC