He went back home and was shot within a couple of days, explains Conger, editor of the Bethany Republican-Clipper. The murder of Ken Rex McElroy took place in plain view of dozens of residents of this small farm town, under the glare of the morning sun. McElroy sat outside the foster home for hours at a time staring at it. McElroy's appeal hearing was again delayed. Everyone involved continues to keep the secret and gives no answers. McElroy burned down the girls home and shot her familys dog to force her parents to agree to the marriage. The meeting broke up after participants learned McElroy and Trena were at the D&G Tavern. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. No. According to reports, some 50 people were outside the tavern when the shooting started. 7 Good News Stories: Sense Of Belonging; Secrets To 70-Year Marriage, EPA Limits On Toxic Forever Chemicals Could Cost Utilities Billions, The Poop On Free-Range Cats And Your Lawn And Garden [Block Talk], Boeing Worker Claims $754.6M Powerball Jackpot, Barrier-Breaking Black Army Officer Finally Awarded Medal Of Honor, FL Blogging Bill Says Political Writers Should Register With State. Author Harry MacLean wrote a book McElroys story called In Broad Daylight. Immediately after being released at a post-trial hearing, McElroy went to the D&G Tavern, a local bar, with an M1 Garand rifle with a bayonet attached, and made graphic threats about what he would do to Bo Bowenkamp. A trial took place the following year and for the first time ever, Ken McElroy was convicted. McElroys wife was not injured and escaped the vehicle. Those who witnessed the killing didnt speak of it again, not because they were part of a conspiracy, MacLean believes, but because theyre stoic by nature. The final straw for Skidmore was when he was let out on bond. Estes, the sheriff some tried to implicate in a conspiracy, is dead. I said it in 1981, and Ill say it now, Baird told Patch. They sacrificed one for the betterment of hundreds. He stood silently at the back of the store, but his wife tore into Sumy in an argument laced with four-letter bombs, Monte said. But justice is a loaded term in a case that challenges the usual assumptions of victim and perpetrator. June 16th, 1934: Ken Rex McElroy is born to Mabel and Tony McElroy, the thirteenth out of fourteen children. No. His attorney, Richard McFadin, said he routinely defended Ken McElroy in three or four felonies a year. He said he was not at all disappointed to leave office with the case still unsolved. The Vigilantemurder of Ken Rex McElroy still remains a mystery today. He neutralized an entire criminal justice system.. As the story has been told by MacLean and others, McElroy showed up at the D&G tavern and pool hall the next day toting a rifle with a bayonet a violation of his bond and threatened to finish off the Bowenkamps. There may never be an answer to the question of who killed Ken Rex McElroy. We went everywhere we could, but justice would stay delicately out the way, she said. In July 1976, McElroy pulled a shotgun on farmer Romaine Henry and shot the man in the stomach. In August of 1980, McElroy made attempts to intimidate the Bowenkamp family and their supporters to prevent them from testifying. Buzzfeeds Unsolved Network produced a 24-minute true crime documentary on the shooting. The media descended on Skidmore after the killing, an event that continues to define the people of the small town to the world at times with wildly exaggerated versions of what happened. The Story Of Ken McElroy The Vicious Bully Killed By His Town. They could have pushed and dug, pushed and dug and gotten nothing, said Huston. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. McElroy was furious when he learned of the incident. According to court records, McElroy tracked them down and brought them back. Yet in a conspiracy of silence that has spanned the past 38 years, the townsfolk have held the secret close. If you liked reading this story on Ken McElroy, the bully who was killed by his town, check out the story of Budford Pussers cold-blooded revenge. 1969 or 1970: Ken McElroy becomes involved with a young girl named Trena McCloud. The murder of Ken Rex McElroy isn't 'unsolved' in the typical sense of the word. The law wasnt going to help the people of Skidmore. There wasn't much parental supervision, but McElroy had a knack for taking care of himself. The verdict was second-degree assault and two years. Sheriff Estes instructed the assembled group not to get into a direct confrontation with McElroy, but instead seriously consider forming a neighborhood watch program. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing. McElroy four years earlier had pumped a couple of rounds of buckshot into the stomach of local farmer Romaine Henry as he tried to run the blackguard off his land. Shortly after, McElroy was arrested and charged with attempted murder. And its likely to stay that way. McElroy was found not guilty. McElroy was accused of raping two young women, as young as 12 years old, both of whom he was said to have "married" to keep them from testifying against him. Richard McFadin, 87, a lawyer, now retired, who represented Mr. McElroy in numerous cases and, after the killing, his widow, said he believed there was enough evidence for a prosecution. The murder of Ken Rex McElroy took place in plain view of dozens of residents of this small farm town, under the glare of the morning sun. Everyone was keeping an eye on us. Nobody called an ambulance. He put those skills to work rustling hogs and cattle, MacLean recounts. It's hard to believe that this small town was once a bustlingcommunity. Everyone claimed they didnt see who fired the shots. The case inspired a book, In Broad Daylight by Harry McLean, and a 1991 TV movie of the same name starring Brian Dennehy. This past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of the killing of Ken Rex McElroy of Skidmore. SKIDMORE, Mo. McElroy made a living leasing land near his farm, and trading and racing dogs. The bar soon filled completely. Then, on the night of July 8, 1980, McElroy shot 70-year-old Skidmore grocer Ernst Bo Bowenkamp, unwittingly setting up his own murder a year later. They thought about his wife and his children, and where it left them particularly the children.. [1][3] The next day, McElroy was shot to death in broad daylight as he sat with his wife Trena in his pickup truck on Skidmore's main street. Get out of town, they said. He was known as "the town bully", [1] and his unsolved killing became the focus of international attention. McElroy was reportedly a large man (270 pounds), and a local farmer's description of him (seen above) was that he wanted to appear "big and important" and make people "afraid.". Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. Often, witnesses changed their mind about testifying before trials began, MacLean said, and if a case did make it to trial, a juror might open the mailbox to find a rattlesnake. They settle in Skidmore. The stories of McElroy's relationships contain some troubling details, but the information is important to paint the full picture. The justice system just crashed and burned over this case.. It was a matter of self-preservation. Trena McElroy accused Skidmore residents of turning her husband into a scapegoat. He was represented by defense attorney Richard Gene McFadin of Gallatin, Missouri. THE KILLING OF KEN REX MCELROY THIRTY YEARS LATER. E-mail:
[email protected]. McElroys wife named one person as a possible gunman, but no one couldor wouldidentify who fired the shots. He appeared in a local bar, the D&G Tavern, armed with an M1 Garand rifle and bayonet, and later threatened to kill Bowenkamp. Somebody would hear his name, and the legend grew bigger. The witnesses all claimed they had seen nothing. Bullet casings from two different guns were found. Dec. 15, 2010. Everyone was so uncomfortable and scared.. The mere mention of his surname was enough to cause anxiety, if not full terror. There is pretty much nothing in existence that was not stolen by McElroy during his 47 years. In all, there were 46 potential witnesses to the shooting, including Trena McElroy, who was in the truck with her husband when he was shot. Mable was born on February 28 1897, in Dover, Shawnee County, KS, USA. None of the witnesses called an ambulance or gave information about a shooter. Yes, its against the law, but you know, the law is not the final definitive word on him. This led to several patrons deciding to see what they could legally do to prevent McElroy from harming anyone else. Mr. McElroy has been dead for almost three decades now, a round number that has residents here bracing for the next round of visits by 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? The police chief who oversaw the investigation, Hal Riddle, disagrees. McElroy was also accused of abusing his first two wives, Sharon and Alice, but Alice defended him in an interview shortly after his death. And he has already asked the sheriffs office to re-examine some of the unsolved cases. in the A&E App.]. He testified that Bowenkamp attacked him with a knife and he acted in self-defense, MacLean writes. In April 1980, Trena McElroy told her husband a clerk in the Bowenkamps store had accused their 4-year-old daughter of stealing penny candy. On April 25, 1980 at Ernest "Bo" Bowenkamp's general store, a clerk asked McElroy's 8-year-old daughter to return a piece of candy she had not paid for. Weighing in at approximately 270 pounds with bushy black sideburns, McElroy held the entire . Trena McElroy fingered a local rancher as one of the gunmen, but he denied the claim. Ken is later charged and arrested. American criminal and murder victim, killed by vigilantes, "3 decades on, who killed Skidmore town bully still secret", "Ken McElroy Murderer, rapist and consummate intimidator", "Skidmore, Revisited Part 1: The Death of Ken McElroy", "Ken McElroy Murderer, rapist and consummate intimidator Another Teen Love", "Ken McElroy Murderer, rapist and consummate intimidator Saved by the Law", "Ken McElroy Murderer, rapist and consummate intimidator Intent to Kill", The Death Of Ken McElroy *Interesting History* - YouTube, "AS her daughter Tami listens, Trena McElroy retells how she watched", "3 decades on, who killed Skidmore town bully still secret | McClatchy", "Ken McElroy Murderer, rapist and consummate intimidator Murder in Broad Daylight", "Wrongful death lawsuit settled in re Ken McElroy", "Trena McElroy Passed Away | Harry N. MacLean", "You Get What You Pay For, by Larry Beinhart", "Stream It Or Skip It: 'No One Saw A Thing' On SundanceTV, A Docuseries About How Skidmore, Missouri Has Kept A Murder Unsolved For 38 Years", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ken_McElroy&oldid=1136590059, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Pages using infobox criminal with known for parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Bo Bowenkamp (survived an attempted murder), This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 02:52. The morning of July 10, 1981, a group of frustrated and angry men gathered at the Legion Hall in Skidmore, MacLean writes. However, when the matter came to trial, McElroys attorney produced a pair of witnesses who testified they were hunting with McElroy that day and he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. Instead, he continued to harass Bowenkamp. The DA declined to press charges and the following investigation proved to be futile. Shortly after being released, McElroy was at D&G Tavern making threats about murdering Bowenkamp. The couple then moved to Colorado. Ken Rex McElroy (June 1, 1934 - July 10, 1981) was an American criminal and convicted attempted murderer who resided in Skidmore, Missouri, United States. Ken Rex McElroy was shot dead inside his pick-up truck on the 10th of July, 1981, via a storm of bullets. [10] No one called for an ambulance. In the end, fear is what killed him, Goslee said. Many wondered: Why didnt Baird press charges against the man Trena McElroy fingered as her husbands killer? McElroy was a resident of Skidmore, Missouri. Then McElroy, described by veteran journalist Phil Conger as a big brute of a guy with slicked-back hair like Elvis, took the stand. Ken Rex McElroy sat in his truck for over an hour before the law was called. After all these years, people talk about it still, said Marla Messner, 37, a restaurant manager who remembers being hurried inside her home for safety anytime Mr. McElroy came to town. July 8th, 1980: The Bowenkamps filed a legal proceeding against Ken McElroy after the incident in their store. He made no deathbed confession, but someone wrote in a memorial tribute that he was a good, brave man. McFadin, the lawyer who once told The New York Times the town got away with murder, is dead, too. When Estes and state troopers arrived back in town, the streets were empty and quiet, save the rumbling, smoking engine of McElroys truck. [2], In all, he was indicted 21 times but escaped conviction each time, except for the last. Ken McElroy was shot to death on the main street of Skidmore in July 1981, in front of 45 witnesses. Trena claimed to have seen someone pull a rifle from the back of the truck, take aim at McElroy, and fire shots that shattered the truck's windows. We didnt have sufficient evidence to go to trial.. I got in the car and was shaking so bad.. So what was left?. After dropping out of school in the eighth grade, it didnt take long for Ken McElroy to fall into a life of delinquency. How could it? Is dumpster diving legal in Missouri and Illinois? Trena jumped from the truck and a man helped her to safety. Before you tell yourself the case closed, no, this case still remains unsolved. He never finished high school but knew how to hunt, drive fast and navigate the back roads of Nodaway County by his early teens. Its never going to happen.. Meanwhile, McElroy and his wife arrived at the D&G Tavern for a morning drink. On the morning of July 10, 1981, several townspeople met with the Nodaway County sheriff at a local hall to discuss what could be done about McElroy. Almost everyone, with the exception of Bo Bowenkamp, backed down. Ken Rex McElroy (June 1, 1934 July 10, 1981) was an American criminal and convicted attempted murderer who resided in Skidmore, Missouri, United States. How to get started raising backyard, Missouri killer: DNA evidence helps solve 1956 cold-case, McElroy terrorized the denizens of Skidmore, Pam Hupp charged with murder of Betsy Faria; prosecutor seeking death penalty, the group walked from the hall and went down the street to the tavern, Best athletic wear for kids joining baseball and, How to watch all the Oscar-nominated movies in style, Best smart home devices for older users, according, Great weekend weather, just watch rising river levels, The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is in St. Charles this, Rally to support Kim Gardner in St. Louis today, STL Co. stakeholders look for juvenile crime solutions, STL County school district still recovering from, Block party kicks off history making weekend for, Woman shot in St. Peters Schnucks parking lot, Mo lawmakers back ban on Chinese ownership of land, Lawsuit: Muslims praying at Missouri prison pepper-sprayed, Local organization hosts fundraiser for Janae Edmondson, Heavy rain, wind slam St. Louis region on Friday, Man shot and killed on his front porch in Illinois, TSA at Lambert warns travelers about flights ahead, Check out these new must-see Missouri attractions. [1] To date, no one has been charged in connection with McElroy's death. The people of Skidmore were becoming more and more frustrated with the failures to protect them in the justice system. As many as 60 Skidmore residents attended, including the mayor and the sheriff. But in a dramatic act of . McElroy was in town and behaving belligerently. Town Mute for 30 Years About a Bullys Killing, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/us/16bully.html. Here are 13 things you need to know about Ken McElroy and his death before you tune into No One Saw A Thing, premiering this Thursday, Aug. 1, pulled from sources including Harry MacLean,. A conviction should have been a victory for the people of Skidmore, but the jury set a maximum sentence of two years, and the judge, without protest from Mr. Baird, released Mr. McElroy on bond pending appeal. Stratton knew McElroy from a previous stop when he threatened the trooper with a shotgun. McElroy was convicted of assault but let out of jail awaiting appeal. Once, he even got out and fired a shotgun up in the pine tree by their house. Anticipating McElroys typical moves, Stratton waited on a back road near the Kansas border. Road signs bear a picture of a young man who disappeared nine years ago and is feared dead. Evelyn tried to explain what had happened, that nobody had accused the children of stealing, and Trena said, Why would my effing daughter lie? . SKIDMORE, Mo. He found a macabre scene. [2] He was struck by bullets from at least two different firearms, in front of a crowd of people estimated as numbering between 30 and 46. I heard shooting and got down. Of the most serious, McElroy was accused of child molestation and statutory rape. [14] Trena remarried and moved to Lebanon, Missouri, where she died of cancer on her 55th birthday on January 24, 2012.[15]. On July 27, 1976, Skidmore farmer Romaine Henry said McElroy shot him twice with a shotgun after Henry challenged him for shooting weapons on Henry's property. Actually, I think those shooters saved lives in the end, she said. The sheriff said, If you have to shoot him, let us know and well come get him before he starts stinking, Monte said. In all, he was indicted 21 times but escaped conviction each time, except for the last. McElroy was never a popular man. When you didnt know where he was, you didnt dare take the chance of not being on your guard.. He was punctual, always said he didnt do it, paid in cash and kept coming back.. On July 8, 1980, McElroy drove to the alley behind the Bowenkamp general store. A couple of men hustled Trena to a nearby bank, away from the gunfire. I think its something thats going to define this town forever.. He was charged 21 times in theft cases but was said to have avoided conviction through witness intimidation, either by direct confrontation or by parking his truck outside their home. Joyce Monte, daughter of injured grocer. The town has seen more than its share of tragedy. For more than two decades, McElroy was suspected of being involved in theft of grain, gasoline, alcohol, antiques, and livestock, but he avoided conviction when charges were brought against him 21 timesoften after witnesses refused to testify because he allegedly intimidated them, frequently by following his targets or parking outside their homes and watching them. A deer slug in one chamber tore through Bowenkamps neck, coming within 3 inches of his head. Tensions in Skidmore soared as McElroys trial neared. It went beyond just hammering people and being mean-spirited. You know what he was like. Alas, the victory was short-lived. Once you boil away to the facts of what occurred, you can probably point to hundreds of similar reports every week across the United States., If McElroy had been shot by a lone gunman on a dark road at night, it would have made the Maryville paper for a day, MacLean said. The local major-cases squad investigated, then the Federal Bureau of Investigation. August 18th, 1980: Ken's preliminary trial begins. Ken stalks the family afterwards, and on the 8th, Ken shoots Bo Bowenkamp. Local police, state investigators and FBI agents tried to break the towns silence, without success. You dont have a town full of people who were hiding a guilty conscience, he said. In what could only be described as vigilante justice, they conspired to kill Ken McElroy. [6] Trena and her baby were placed in foster care at a home in Maryville, Missouri. In the months before McElroy went to trial, the Bowenkamps and Sumy went to bed scared, woke up frightened and lived in terror with every breath. His last wife, Trena, became pregnant with their first child at age 14.
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