Her lawyer has said she did not want to speak with reporters. McElroy started his pickup and the sound of shots pierced the silence. Hurt in a car wreck, or due to someone else's negligence? Longstanding Grudges. Henry, his entrails falling into his lap, eased into unconsciousness and assumed death. No one else corroborated Trenas story. One assumption Skidmore hasnt been able to shed is that McElroys killing was an act of vigilante justice. On leaving school (and likely even before) McElroy began stealing items such as antiques, alcohol, grain and gasoline. He returned when Trenas parents were away, shot the family dog and burned down the house. 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. Although Ken Rex was married to his second wife Alice, he could not help but notice the pretty girl with long blonde locks. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. His lawyer managed to delay the process for so long, however, that Trena, who was still a child and very nave, got bored of foster care and ran away. ''We follow new leads, but there aren't many,'' Mr. Baird said. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. McElroy and Trena got into their truck. POPULATION: ONE BAD MAN PART I. Ken Rexs cruelty was well known because he was so brazen about showing it. A hearing was scheduled, in which the witnesses would testify that they had seen McElroy in the bar in possession of a loaded weapon. Was justice served? By the age of 15, Ken Rex had dropped out of school and established himself as a coon hunter, and thief. Someone had to put an end to it. It could be all in my mind, but I dont think so. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. Ken was 18 and Oleta was 16. McElroy would just sit and glower at you just stare at you and youd never know what he was thinking.. Ernst Bo Bowenkamp (source: morbidology.com). With the businesses gone, the Punkin Festival defunct, it has little vibrancy. They were running away, seeking refuge away from Ken Rex. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Ken McElroy (21971)? McElroy for years had terrorized the small town of Skidmore Missouri, and was considered the town bully. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. SKIDMORE, MO Four decades after Ken Rex McElroy was gunned down on the main drag of Skidmore, Missouri, in one of Americas most infamous cold cases, the story of the notoriously brutal town bully has refused to die with him no matter how much the farmers and blue-collar workers who live in the small farming town wish it would. How could it? She was born July 5, 1965 in Skidmore, Mo. based on information from your browser. It wasnt the kind of murder which goes unsolved for decades and eventually someone comes forward with the tip that breaks the case open. Try again. Oops, something didn't work. Are you sure that you want to delete this flower? There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Dunbar talked to him, and [McElroy] pulled a gun on him, Monte said. Born in 1934 the fifteenth of sixteen children McElroy dropped out of school by the time he hit fifth grade and spent the 4. Death. Verify and try again. WebThe 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. The Story of the trials, life and death of Ken Rex McElroy and the Town of Skidmore, Missouri. He knew which people to pick on the weak people and he followed through on his threats just often enough to make people believe he was going to do what he said he was going to do. Looking back, the justice system had as much to do with killing Ken McElroy as anyone in Skidmore did.. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Sorry! Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. A shotgun in his hands, Ken Rex turned toward the truck as it approached. Refusing to argue, he and Lois went home. Police said he had previously been charged with chicken theft, attempted McElroy got in his truck and drove away, leaving the farmer to whatever fate. Skidmore is down from 450 (when I was there) to 325. A lot of old timers complain that they dont know many of the other residents, a lot of whom work in surrounding communities. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. We went to the courts. Before you tell yourself the case closed, no, this case ''It doesn't make for a real talkative environment. In order to stop him from doing so, McElroy carried on with his usual scare tactics he told him he would kill his entire family if he testified, followed him and sat outside his house for hours. Try again. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224629012/debbie-ann-mcelroy. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. He would sit outside of their house in his truck for hours in the evening. 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. He was the fifteenth of sixteen children born to a poor, migrant tenant farming family that moved between Kansas and the Ozarks before settling outside of Skidmore, Missouri. McElroy tracked the women down, beat them both severely, and brought them home. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. just happened . Need help writing a will or setting up a trust? The mere mention of his surname was enough to cause anxiety, if not full terror. McElroy soon bored of Sharon, Sally and his seven children, and found another underage girl, Alice Wood, who is widely referred to as McElroys second wife. It failed McElroy, too, because it failed to protect him from himself. 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. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Why are you doing this? Trena moved away from Skidmore, remarried and had more children. Last Names. Then, on July 9 1981, Richard McFadin got the hearing delayed for two weeks. Three grand jury investigations and an FBI probe resulted in no indictments and no trial. Beside him was his wife, Trena. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. 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. United States Attorney Robert Ulrich declared that the Government was still working on its case despite the failure of the two grand juries to find witnesses who would talk. We have set your language to Why were they diligently carrying out this investigation into the killing of the man who had made their lives miserable for so long? McElroy was in town and behaving belligerently. McElroy pretty much got whatever he wanted, and women were no exception. Add to your scrapbook. Its called the Outcast Cafe, and is big and clean and cheap. The citizens of Skidmore Missouri apparently protecting the person or persons firing the shots. 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. Harry MacLean, author of "In Broad Daylight". In April 1980, two of McElroys daughters were shopping at a local corner store. Please enter your email and password to sign in. You know what he was like. Failed to delete memorial. Undaunted, Mr. McElroy hoisted himself into the truck and pulled out a cigarette. GREAT NEWS! Close to fifty of them had come together and made a plan to protect the witnesses who were going to testify against McElroy. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Debbie McElroy (224629012)? Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Ken Rex fell quickly in lust with Trena. Designed by McWilliams Media Tulsa, OK Website Design, McAlester Estate Planning | McAlester Attorneys | Will and Trust. Cite This Collection "British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries." You have chosen this person to be their own family member. Born in Overland Park, Kansas, on June 1, 1934, McElroy was the fifteenth of Tony and Mabel McElroys sixteen children. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Not a one of 'em felt sorry for him. He had steel blue eyes that would bore a hole right through you. Almost everyone, with the exception of Bo Bowenkamp, backed down. Trena, who was twenty-three by this time, began yelling at the clerk, which drew the attention of the stores owners, Ernst and Lois Bowenkamp. This is a carousel with slides. Harry MacLean, author of the award winning book In Broad Daylight about the McElroy case, spent several years living in Skidmore, interviewing those who were there that day. The attending physician was so appalled at the beating that the underage girl had taken and the history of abuse that she gave, family services was called in and took the girl into custody. Neither Baird nor MacLean, whose crime novel has been praised as an accurate account of McElroys killing, buy that. Several patrons witnessed McElroys display at the tavern and called the prosecutor, who revoked McElroys bail. It is widely accepted that he fired one of the guns that shot McElroy. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. While parked in front of the D & G Tavern on Main Street, in broad daylight, with a crowd estimated at 45 people around his pickup truck, Ken McElroy was shot in the head with a high powered rifle, while his wife sat in the seat beside him. Kenneth Rex McElroy in MyHeritage family trees Not long after leaving school, McElroy sustained a head injury when he fell from a hay wagon. (source: Inside Edition). He neutralized an entire criminal justice system.. More Options. He forced the two women and the children into his truck and drove them back to the farmhouse. Thanks for your help! Gene McFadin, McElroys nickel-slick lawyer from Kansas City could get Ken off every time, Kirby Goslee, a 71-year-old Skidmore farmer who still works the land his family homesteaded six generations ago, told Patch. Now that the hearing had been delayed, and McElroy no doubt knew who the witnesses were, the entire town felt a sense of impending doom about what was to come. How could it? They became disenchanted with the legal processes, yet frightened by Mr. McElroy's volatile disposition. This account has been disabled. Somebody was going to get killed. Ken was eventually convicted for shooting a local general store owner for accusing his daughters of shoplifting. That they had guns at the ready wasnt unusual. An outsider has taken to buying residences, and storing tremendous amounts of junk in the yards. From talking to witnesses, he concluded that the killing of McElroy was not planned. Verify and try again. She had seen a man named Del Clement (the co-owner of the D&G Tavern) standing across the street with a rifle, at which point she told Ken they needed to get out of there because he was going to get shot. Submissions should outline a mystery and provide a link to a more detailed review of the case such as a Wiki article or news report. But Skidmore is still Skidmore. They talked about the bail bond that allowed Mr. McElroy to circulate freely after an assault conviction for shooting an elderly grocer, Ernest Bowenkamp. 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. WebKen Rex McElroy (1934-1981) - Find a Grave Memorial McElroy for years had terrorized the small town of Skidmore Missouri, and was considered the town bully. , ; Julie Tia of Jensen Beach, Fla. and Tonia Goben of Springfield; five brothers, Jerome McElroy of Seattle, Wash.; Juarez McElroy and Ken McElory, both of Springfield; Reno McElroy of Pittsburg, Pa. and Derome McCloud of Lebanon, and a number of nieces and nephews.All arrangements for Debbie Ann McElroy will be private under the care and direction of Holman-Howe Funeral Home of Lebanon. No one bothered to turn it off. Much of his cash, however, went to Richard Gene McFadin, his lawyer. But right now, we don't have the evidence. McElroy was acquitted, thanks to his talented attorney. The county prosecutor, David Baird, said there was not much more he could do. The next morning, people gathered once again, this time at the American Legion hall located across the street from the D&G Tavern. 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. Required fields are marked *. 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]. His first wife, Sharon, was fifteen when they met, while McElroy was at least twenty. -. Faulkner wrote that The past is never dead. They killed. 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. The more McElroy got away with, the more it seemed as though he was exempt from the law. No one was surprised. After McElroy fired a gun outside her house, Evelyn Sumy appealed to Dave Dunbar, the town marshal. By the time the word came that Mr. McElroy was at the D & G Tavern, tempers were hotter. A lot of people were not happy about what happened, MacLean said. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Skidmore residents were pleased that (some) justice was finally being served. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The townspeople resented the constant feeling of anxiety McElroys presence left them with. From 12 to 60 people, by varying estimates, marched down the street. MacLean told Inside Edition: Whatever had been done might not be morally right, but he needed killing. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21971/ken-rex-mcelroy. 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. Just as he was taking his first drag, the sound of two gunshots rang out. When he found where Trena was staying he began relying on his old tactics of intimidation. . At least some of the witnesses surely knew who fired the bullet that shattered the back window of McElroys truck and blew off the back of his head. System Learn more about managing a memorial . It was not the kind of justice they shouldve gotten, 60-year-old Joyce Monte, the Bowenkamps daughter, told Patch in a telephone interview from her home in Oklahoma. Ken Rex McElroy was not a nice man. ; Oleta McElroy-Anderson of Conway, Tammy Wertenberger of St. Joseph, Teresa Dorris of Helena, Mo. He lived to satisfy his own desires, and abided by his own sense of self-serving justice. No. She ran away back into the arms of Ken Rex McElroy. Add to your scrapbook. Year. Dozens of them gathered at Skidmores American Legion hall on the morning of July 10, 1981. He would often be spotted hunting racoons and was notorious for rustling hogs and cattle in the small farming community. Both were fuming over the seemingly insignificant incident. He quit.. It was widely reported that he was illiterate, but he did not let this hold him back from getting what he wanted in life. Please try again later. (D & G stood for Del and Greg Clement. Behind those eyes laid the cold, calm embrace of violence and death that wrote his biography. Farmers carried them to kill varmints, or for hunting displaying them in plain sight in rear window gun racks. Trena McCloud's Civil Suit Against Skidmore, Missouri Revealed There was a kind of silent charity on the part of my parents, and they never prosecuted. When you didnt know where he was, you didnt dare take the chance of not being on your guard.. She said her dad told her that del clement lived a rather miserable life after this happened. He left town just as Ken and Trena McElroy were driving in, likely passing McElroys Chevrolet Silverado pickup in his cruiser on the road. Who Killed Ken Rex McElroy: Town Keeps Its Secret For 38 Years Still, the panel didnt return an indictment, giving rise to conspiracy theories about a law enforcement coverup, also a theme in No One Saw a Thing.. . McElroy for the most part escaped prosecution and, certainly, conviction for various crimes. We have set your language to However, most of his sexual affairs werent with women, but rather underage girls, with whom he collectively had at least ten children. Before driving away, McElroy stopped to light a cigarette. A swarthy, physically intimidating man who carried about 270 pounds on his more than 6-foot frame, McElroy had thick black eyebrows and bushy sideburns. 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. McElroy had just finished another stint at a local tavern when he stumbled back into his pickup truck. Del Clement has since died, and he never confessed. McElroy was known to pay local kids for information about who was where in town at what time, so the Bowenkamps developed their own network of informants. It wasnt that he was necessarily slick of sly in any way, he was a brute. The trucks windows were shattered; at least one of the bullets hit McElroy in the back of the head. Somebody opened the passenger door and pulled Trena out of the truck and into another building nearby. But they continued and I ducked. One account even said that McElroy rode into town on a horse and was shot and killed, Baird, the former prosecutor, said. McElroy yelled to Henry when he got to the window. 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. As a result, he was no stranger to the Nodaway County Sheriffs Dept. The story of Ken Rex McElroy began on June 1, 1934. The sheriff said, If you have to shoot him, let us know and well come get him before he starts stinking, Monte said. The Story Of Ken McElroy, The Vicious Bully Killed By His Town MacLean doesnt believe the men gathered at the Legion hall that morning ever made a group decision to kill McElroy. Few residents seem to care. And not too long ago, Sumys, a gas station and coffee shop since 1943, closed. ''No,'' he said. McElroy got a divorce from Sharon (or Alice, honestly Im not sure who he was married to at the time) and married Trena so that she would not be compelled to testify against him. McElroy, known as 'Kenrex' by his friends and his enemies, had an extensive arrest record. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Ken Rex McElroy was not a nice man. 31 Mar. They left, but for McElroy, it wasnt over. Search above to list available cemeteries. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Who was Ken Rex McElroy? He relied on witness intimidation to prove his innocence, and he was a master at it. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. The doctor who treated her was appalled and called child services.
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