For more information or to visit the website go to www.holmanhowe.com. Maryville, Missouri, lawyer David Baird, the Nodaway County prosecutor at the time, said the crime is fairly unremarkable in the context of current-day gang shootings witnessed by many, but seen by few willing to risk their safety by ratting out the crew. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. A pact of silence was made between the witnesses. What happened in Skidmore that day wasnt much different than the completely predictable result from shaking a carbonated beverage until the top finally blows. He had been charged with more than 20 felonies, robbing, raping, burning, shootings. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. We didnt have sufficient evidence to go to trial.. By the age of 15, Ken Rex had dropped out of school and established himself as a coon hunter, and thief. Weve updated the security on the site. In the plainspoken manner of speaking in Skidmore, McElroy simply needed killing, like a gangrened leg needs to be severed to save the whole body. It should have been open and shut - there were dozens of witnesses, and the shooting occurred in broad daylight - but it wound up being anything but. Failed to delete flower. I went to his gravesite a few years after he died , & took a piss on his grave, thats how much I thought of him", https://www.harrymaclean.com/blog/no-death-bed-confession/. Trena McCloud first caught Ken Rex McElroys eye when she was twelve years old. When a wife a Ken Rex McElroy came into town with a black eye, or busted lip, or broken bones of all varieties, the townspeople were not likely to guess or wonder at what malevolence may have befallen the lady. You just didnt do that.. The more McElroy got away with, the more it seemed as though he was exempt from the law. By the time their second child was born, McElroy found another girlfriend, Sally, who was only thirteen, while Ken was around twenty-seven. A system error has occurred. Harry MacLean, author of "In Broad Daylight". He forced the two women and the children into his truck and drove them back to the farmhouse. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. McFadin, McElroys lawyer, got the hearing postponed. One account even said that McElroy rode into town on a horse and was shot and killed, Baird, the former prosecutor, said. Everyone just went home. That it was a vigilante killing is not true for a lot of reasons; if they had decided to kill him, they wouldnt have stood in the street to watch the murder unfold, he said. Why were they diligently carrying out this investigation into the killing of the man who had made their lives miserable for so long? Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. They could finally sleep peacefully at night, especially Bo and Lois Bowenkamp and their children. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. How could it? This was a punch in the gut to everybody in Skidmore. The citizens of Skidmore Missouri apparently protecting the person or persons firing the shots. MacLean told Inside Edition: Whatever had been done might not be morally right, but he needed killing. Former Nodaway County prosecutor David Baird, Its proceedings are secret, but in news interviews at the time, McElroys widow said she told a county grand jury who murdered her husband. In the end, fear is what killed him, Goslee said. The truth is that the people of Skidmore, Missouri, were sick and tired of living their lives in fear under tyrannical reign of Ken McElroy, which by then had stretched over two decades. McElroy for years had terrorized the small town of Skidmore Missouri, and was considered the town bully. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? GREAT NEWS! The truck engine burned up in the half-hour he was left slumped in the cab, his foot lodged on the accelerator. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. There is a problem with your email/password. He liked young underage girls starting around twelve to fourteen. Skidmore is down from 450 (when I was there) to 325. The older daughter paid for her items, but as they were leaving, the younger daughter grabbed some candy out of a jar and headed for the door. This is a carousel with slides. A lot of old timers complain that they dont know many of the other residents, a lot of whom work in surrounding communities. Weve updated the security on the site. . Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. The guns were never recovered. Nearly 30 years of The trucks windows were shattered; at least one of the bullets hit McElroy in the back of the head. U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-Current, U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current, U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2, Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. They worked as sharecroppers and moved often before settling in Skidmore. He left town just as Ken and Trena McElroy were driving in, likely passing McElroys Chevrolet Silverado pickup in his cruiser on the road. (Editors Note: Patch Deputy National Editor Beth Dalbey grew up on a farm about 10 miles from Skidmore, Missouri.). We went to the police. There are a bar, a grain elevator, a bank, Mom's Cafe, B & B Groceries and a hardware store, but agriculture is the main business. Many wondered: Why didnt Baird press charges against the man Trena McElroy fingered as her husbands killer? Despite the facts, the residents of Skidmore, MO, weren't so eager to talk I was in town to spend time with the Goslee family, who had put me up and supported my research for many years, and had received considerable grief for doing it, and to attend a barbecue put on my Dave Dunbar in Lamoni, Iowa. The death of the 47-year-old McElroy, who was known as a thief with a violent temper, drew attention for its resemblance to Wild West, vigilante- style justice. Before driving away, McElroy stopped to light a cigarette. McElroy Williams. The next morning, people gathered once again, this time at the American Legion hall located across the street from the D&G Tavern. Richard Stratton reflects on capturing notorious thug Ken Rex McElroy, 13 Things About Ken McElroy's Shooting You Need To Know Before Watching 'No One Saw A Thing', To the Killer of Her Least Favorite Son, Skidmore, Mo. He returned when Trenas parents were away, shot the family dog and burned down the house. This part is a rollercoaster. Please reset your password. McElroy moved out of his family home to be with Alice, but this relationship was no different from his previous ones. While the meeting was going on, McElroy was back in the D&G Tavern drinking with Trena. McElroy was charged with arson, rape and brandishing a deadly weapon. Try again later. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. There was an error deleting this problem. I have no doubt hed have tried to kill my mom. Seventy-five or so people gathered at the Sam R. Albright American Legion Hall on July 10, 1981, to discuss what could be done. Since the killing, the town has been besieged with reporters and investigators. When Henry responded that he didnt even have a car like that, Ken Rex told him that he was a Lyin S.O.B. and pulled the trigger. Anywhere from 30 to 90 people watched the 47-year-old McElroy die in an act that ended his decade-long reign of terror over the people of Skidmore. Last Names. ; Oleta McElroy-Anderson of Conway, Tammy Wertenberger of St. Joseph, Teresa Dorris of Helena, Mo. He would often be spotted hunting racoons and was notorious for rustling hogs and cattle in the small farming community. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Ken McElroy (21971)? Somebody was going to get killed. A shotgun in his hands, Ken Rex turned toward the truck as it approached. Try again later. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? Then, on July 9 1981, Richard McFadin got the hearing delayed for two weeks. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Ken Rex grew into a large and intimidating figure. Learn more about managing a memorial . We went everywhere we could, but justice would stay delicately out the way, she said. That became the pattern. An outsider has taken to buying residences, and storing tremendous amounts of junk in the yards. spur of the moment that got completely out of hand how do I know I was one of the people who witnessed the killing , or as some people say , murder all of us took an oath , the shooters & the other witnesss .it was surreal as to what happened he sat their [in his pickup truck] , just like in the movie calmly & looked in his mirror to see the crowd behind him , he knew I believed that it was the end for him & that he was about to die , no way in hell was that crowd letting him leave. A deer slug in one chamber tore through Bowenkamps neck, coming within 3 inches of his head. His lifelong career as a criminal started with petty offenses, but he increasingly became more violent, amassing a rap sheet that included nearly two dozen felony charges for assault, child molestation, statutory rape, arson, burglary, grain theft, and hog and cattle rustling enterprises that kept a thick roll of hundred-dollar bills in his pocket. ''We follow new leads, but there aren't many,'' Mr. Baird said. Horton, Brown County, Kansas, USA. Ken was eventually convicted for shooting a local general store owner for accusing his daughters of shoplifting. There were so many nights Dad couldnt go out and mow the yard or water the flowers because there was a truck parked down the street, and they were watching the house, Monte said. Despite two grand jury investigations, no one has been charged in the killing. ''That was a really nice truck.''. The McElroys never had any money. Enraged by Alice leaving with his son, McElroy called the home and began threatening Alice and her family. (This was Dels mother, Barbara Clement, who died herself just a month or so before my visit. Not one of them felt bad. Eventually, Trena grew tired of the foster house and the rules she was expected to mind under, after all she was still a young girl, and she ran away. She ended up dropping the charges. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. based on information from your browser. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? This browser does not support getting your location. Of course, McElroy had a gun. He would sit outside a witnesss home, and shoot those cold blue eyes and the death that sat fixed behind them into the psyche of his target. Ken Rexs cruelty was well known because he was so brazen about showing it. Verify and try again. You may request to transfer up to 250,000 memorials managed by Find a Grave. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Although Ken Rex was married to his second wife Alice, he could not help but notice the pretty girl with long blonde locks. There is a problem with your email/password. He was as mean as he looked, but there was more to his baleful demeanor, said Colorado lawyer and author Harry MacLean, who lived with a prominent Skidmore farm family off and on for about five years while he researched In Broad Daylight, a New York Times bestseller chronicling McElroys life and death. Cite This Collection "British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries." cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Her lawyer has said she did not want to speak with reporters. The story was thrust back to the forefront this month by No One Saw a Thing, a six-part Sundance TV docu-series exploring the moral ambiguity of frontier justice and the unspoken, yet universally intriguing, question: When, if ever, does someone like McElroy deserve to die? McElroy for the most part escaped prosecution and, certainly, conviction for various crimes. Family members linked to this person will appear here. Required fields are marked *. The mainstreet is eerily quiet in mid-morning. The D & G Tavern, most recently the Skidmore Tavern, in front of which Ken was sitting in his Silverado when the bullets tore through the window glass and shattered his skull, was also closed. Place. He quickly divorced Alice, then drove Trena to Kansas and married her to avoid conviction of statutory rape. A system error has occurred. I was in and around Skidmore for three days and two nights, and encountered no trouble. Investigators dug and dug, but Skidmore residents maintained their silence. Henry survived, and unlike the majority of McElroys other victims, actually went on to testify in court against him. Skidmore townsfolk may not all have liked how he was killed it was murder, after all but when he died, most of the towns 435 residents let out a heavy sigh of relief. Yet in a conspiracy of silence that has spanned the past 38 years, the townsfolk have held the secret close. Please enter your email and password to sign in. Bo survived, McElroy was arrestedbut he got out on bail, and began harassing the officer who arrested him, Richard Stratton. You dont take cases to trial to see what might happen, the former prosecutor said. '', People are friendly and smiling on first acquaintance but quickly withdraw or become guarded when the McElroy case is brought up. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. The Story of the trials, life and death of Ken Rex McElroy and the Town of Skidmore, Missouri. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. ''There were a couple of bangs,'' said Mr. Hartman, whose office is near the tavern, ''and at first I thought it was firecrackers. You know what he was like. On of his hands came to him one afternoon and reported that someone was on the property shooting a firearm. Somebody opened the passenger door and pulled Trena out of the truck and into another building nearby. While driving down a gravel farm road that abutted his property, Henry came upon a figure and a vehicle that he recognized instantly, Ken Rex McElroy. POPULATION: ONE BAD MAN PART I. Everyone in town seemed to know McElroy had done it, yet he spent only a single night in jail for nearly killing the man. His first wife, Sharon, was fifteen when they met, while McElroy was at least twenty. If Trena did have a choice, it would never fall to the bus driver to protect the little girl if she chose to not go with Ken Rex. . McElroy got in his truck and drove away, leaving the farmer to whatever fate. Evelyn tried to explain what had happened, that nobody had accused the children of stealing, and Trena said, Why would my effing daughter lie? . Retaliation would be severe. Please try again later. A couple of times, he got out of the truck and fired his shotgun into the air - all this over a couple pieces of candy. ''Sure, I want this thing solved. Ken Rex made bail and was out within a day or so, and went looking for Trena. They knew this because they had all either witnessed or been the victim of a similar intentional violent act, and it was always at the hands of Ken Rex McElroy. But there was no reason to go looking for trouble. The sheriff said, If you have to shoot him, let us know and well come get him before he starts stinking, Monte said. In fact, anywhere between thirty and ninety people witnessed the shooting of the 270lb brute of a man on that hot July day in 1981. He dropped out of school before he reached high school, and by 13 was already a familiar character to the cops around Nodaway County. ''I can't think that anyone feels any different than you would about the people who invented penicillin. Close to fifty of them had come together and made a plan to protect the witnesses who were going to testify against McElroy.