When Estes and state troopers arrived back in town, the streets were empty and quiet, save the rumbling, smoking engine of McElroys truck. [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. No one bothered to turn it off. A&E, Rolling Stone, Playboy, 60 Minutes, and other media outlets covered the story in print or television. 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.". Mr. McElroy was quickly rearrested after he appeared in town with a rifle, but he was again released. The murder took place on July 10, 1981, the day after McElroy had threatened Bowenkamp at the tavern. April 10th, 1972: After Alice runs away with their son, Ken McElroy gets into an altercation with Alice's stepfather and shoots him. But justice is a loaded term in a case that challenges the usual assumptions of victim and perpetrator.
If those responsible for killing McElroy are vigilantes, its because the justice system made them that way, Monte said. On July 10th, 1981 Ken Rex McElroy was shot dead in the street in broad daylight infront of 60 witnesses. 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.
Timeline | McElroy No one has been indicted for the murder of McElroy. Ken McElroy was born in 1934, one of 16 children, author Harry MacLean explains in his book In Broad Daylight, an account of the case. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Win a Midday Makeover from Studio STL and West County, Hold my beer its time to sign up for the St. Patricks, Tims Travels: Dreaming in silestone and slabs its, Downtown is turning green for St. Patricks Day Parade, The 7brew Crew brings kindness, joy and of course,, Freshen up finds: Give your skin a slug-hug, What the Cluck! Dozens of them gathered at Skidmores American Legion hall on the morning of July 10, 1981. US residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data. Ken Rex McElroy was an illiterate hog farmer who lived on the outskirts of a small town in Northwest Missouri. Retaliation would be severe. According to a report, no one called an ambulance. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. When you didnt know where he was, you didnt dare take the chance of not being on your guard.. 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. McElroy was a big man with cold eyes who always carried a gun. Additional charges were filed against McElroy.[7]. Somebody would hear his name, and the legend grew bigger. In all, McElroy was indicted 21 times and managed to escape conviction every time. 1954: While working for his sister's husband in construction, McElroy suffers a traumatic head injury that leaves him with lifelong pain. After Sally had had three kids, Ken kicks her out of the house. It's said the county's law enforcement officials were afraid of encountering McElroy, who was known to be heavily armed. She was present at the time of his death. Farmers carried them to kill varmints, or for hunting displaying them in plain sight in rear window gun racks. Shortly after being released, McElroy was at D&G Tavern making threats about murdering Bowenkamp. [2], In all, he was indicted 21 times but escaped conviction each time, except for the last. Then, on a warm July night, McElroy shot my dad as he sat on the back loading dock of his store, waiting for an air conditioner repairman, Monte said. Anticipating McElroys typical moves, Stratton waited on a back road near the Kansas border. [12] The DA declined to press charges. 1958: Ken McElroy becomes involved with a young woman named Sharon. He made no deathbed confession, but someone wrote in a memorial tribute that he . Another was McElroys intimidation tactics, MacLean writes. Instead of playing out in court, the details emerged in newspaper and magazine accounts, as well as a best-selling book, In Broad Daylight: A Murder in Skidmore, Missouri, which was later made into a television movie. Investigators found shell casings from two weapons a .22-caliber Magnum rifle and an 8 mm Mauser, a German World War I-era long-range rifle. There's a long list of crimes said to have been committed by McElroy, including shooting multiple people. In 1981, McElroy was convicted of shooting . If they thought it was getting too out of hand, they would send one of us up and down the aisle. And its likely to stay that way. What gave rise to that theory is that they were in the Legion hall for a meeting, then went down to the D&G [when they heard McElroy was in town]. The townspeople organized a caravan to escort the witnesses to the hearing both to protect them and to show solidarity. He then returned to Trena's parents' home when they were away and, once again, shot the family dog and burned the house down. McElroy sat outside the foster home for hours at a time staring at it. He was known as "the town bully",[1] and his unsolved killing became the focus of international attention. Women had a harder time with it than the men. Road signs bear a picture of a young man who disappeared nine years ago and is feared dead. Ken is later charged and arrested. A couple of men hustled Trena to a nearby bank, away from the gunfire. Its never going to happen.. He was accused or suspected of dozens of crimes, including theft, livestock rustling, burglary, arson, assault, rape, and child molestation. No. On July 9, 1984, Trena McElroy filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Town of Skidmore, County of Nodaway, Sheriff Danny Estes, Steve Peters (Mayor of Skidmore), and Del Clement (whom Trena accused of being the shooter, but who was never charged). No One Saw A Thing centers around the 1981 murder of Ken Rex McElroy in Skidmore Missouri and other crimes committed in the town and surrounding area over the years. It's said that the meeting adjourned, and the crowd quietly descended upon the tavern, flanking McElroy's truck. He neutralized an entire criminal justice system.. A museum dedicated to Skidmore, Mo., sits on Elm Street, the towns main drag. Before you tell yourself the case closed, no, this case still remains unsolved. However, he was also charged with various crimes. McElroy was born in 1934, the fifteenth of sixteen children born to a poor . 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. [9] McElroy was convicted at trial of assault, but freed on bail pending his appeal. In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean / Via. Born in 1934, Ken Rex McElroy was a resident of Skidmore, Missouri. 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. He was charged with wading through the sensational details and moral ambiguities of the case to ensure that, in his words, justice was served. 1964: Ken meets another girlfriend named Alice Wood. I have no doubt hed have tried to kill my mom. Hed leave, then hed come back, Monte said. Posted on July 14, 2011 by Harry. McElroys wifewhom he victimized as a childremarried and moved to Lebanon, Missouri. She died of cancer on Jan. 24, 2012; it was her 55th birthday. 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. It really is that it was never spoken of they had an instinctive reaction to close up. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved.
The Killing of Ken Rex McElroy Thirty Years Later The stories of McElroy's relationships contain some troubling details, but the information is important to paint the full picture. Then you can read about chilling cold cases where the murderers and victims were both unknown. He didnt have a bank account, didnt have a Social Security number, he didnt read. SKIDMORE, Mo. But the silence of the townspeople held. The local major-cases squad investigated, then the Federal Bureau of Investigation. McElroys wife was not injured and escaped the vehicle. Within hours, Mr. Baird heard that there had been a shooting downtown. The couple then moved to Colorado. A girl from a poor, rural family, McElroy had begun having sex with her when she was barely fourteen. The Mirny Diamond Mine Might Be The Most Mysterious Hole Ever, The Story Of Alain Lamare The Cop Who Moonlit As The Murderer He Was Trying To Catch, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. As a result, he was arrested, but quickly released. Only July 10, 1981, there was a meeting at the town hall, down the street from D&G Tavern. As he sat drinking at the bar, word got back to the men at the Legion Hall that he was in town.
The Town That Got Away With Murder - Ken Rex McElroy - Morbidology Henry survived and McElroy was charged with assault with intent to kill. He had been terrorizing Skidmore for years and he kept getting away with it. Trena McElroy accused Skidmore residents of turning her husband into a scapegoat. Not only that, they recommended he spend no more than two years in prison.
No One Saw a Thing - Wikipedia 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. 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. He had a legendary status, and it all got to be bigger than he was. The larger-than-life bully who menaced the farming community of Skidmore died in seconds. A deer slug in one chamber tore through Bowenkamps neck, coming within 3 inches of his head. 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. The grocer lived and McElroy was again arrested and charged with attempted murder. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. By the time McElroy was shot dead under the glare of the morning sun on July 10, 1981, everybody feared his hair-trigger temper and brooding presence. Ken McElroy died in a hail of gunfire on the morning of July 10, 1981, while sitting in his truck outside a local tavern. 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. Everyone claimed they didnt see who fired the shots. Trena dove from the truck and was taken to safety. The son of a bitch would just as soon shoot them as anyone else..
Bully's murder remains a secret in Missouri town for 40 years - FOX 2 You know how he oppressed and threatened us. Ken McElroy issues threats against the Bowenkamp family. Police had charged him with various alleged crimes from stealing hogs to assault, but nothing stuck. The courts would not help us or Skidmore. No one was charged, and the FBI closed the case. McElroys wife named one person as a possible gunman, but no one couldor wouldidentify who fired the shots. His hunch paid off, and McElroy found himself handcuffed and charged with assault. McElroy allegedly stole livestock, grain, gasoline, and antiques. Within a few years, she had had four children by him. Still working within the justice system, witnesses who saw McElroy with the gun gave the information the county prosecutor needed to request a bond revocation hearing. 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. One night after he pulled a speeding pickup truck over, Boyer came face to face with McElroy. RELATED: 10 Of The Best Docuseries You Should Be Watching Now Each episode is around 40 minutes each and contains dramatic and intimate . McElroy escaped jail on an appeal bond and could remain free until he exhausted his appeals, free to taunt his victims with what had become painfully clear: He would never go to jail. It cruised up the street, came back and just sat there for 20 seconds, says Boyer, adding he couldnt prove it was McElroy but waited behind a tree with his shotgun just in case. The group heard McElroy and Trena McCloud were spotted heading to the tavern nearby. Theoretically, [the murder] could be re-investigated, veteran Kansas City criminal defense attorney J.R. Hobbs tells A&E True Crime.
Is No One Saw A Thing A True Story? The Real-Life Murder - ScreenRant They just went stone silent. Lessons from History is a platform for writers who share ideas and inspirational stories from world history. He went back home and was shot within a couple of days, explains Conger, editor of the Bethany Republican-Clipper. If you were to go to Skidmore today, there isn't much to see. In the ensuing confrontation, McElroy shot Bowenkamp in the neck; Bowenkamp survived, and McElroy was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Some of these things are simply assumed to be factual, Baird said. He said he was not at all disappointed to leave office with the case still unsolved. YouTubeThe towns local bar in Skidmore, Missouri. July 8th, 1980: The Bowenkamps filed a legal proceeding against Ken McElroy after the incident in their store. Anthony was born on August 27 1890, in Shelton, Knox County, MO, USA. An extensive federal investigation did not lead to any charges. McCloud attempted to escape to her parents' house, but McElroy allegedly responded by burning down Trena's parents' home and shooting their dog. 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. [4], McElroy fathered more than 10 children with different women. The case inspired a book, In Broad Daylight by Harry McLean, and a 1991 TV movie of the same name starring Brian Dennehy. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD8iUdp33PqTsix2sGblEQZ8m5FQycC5D Vigilante justice, or.
13 Things About Ken McElroy's Shooting You Need To Know Before - Bustle