Speaker 1: The story of Ken McElroy is what happens when people
Speaker 1: decide to take justice into their own hands. For years,
Speaker 1: Ken terrorized the town of Skidmore. He did whatever he wanted,
Speaker 1: and he did it whenever he wanted, and somehow he
Speaker 1: always got away with it. He walked the streets like
Speaker 1: he owned the place, threatening anyone who crossed him, and
Speaker 1: that included the police. But eventually, the people of Skidmore
Speaker 1: they had enough, and on July tenth, nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: in broad daylight, kenmcelroy was shot dead with as many
Speaker 1: as sixty people watching. The only problem, not a single
Speaker 1: witness ever identified the shooter. This is the story of
Speaker 1: Ken McElroy, also known as the town Bully.
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
Speaker 2: and Grim.
Speaker 1: A true crime podcast. The following material more material audience
Speaker 1: listener discretion. Daylight savings time is bullshit. I don't know
Speaker 1: if anyone out there who's listening lives with daylight savings time,
Speaker 1: but it sucks. It's stupid. I hate it. I'm tired, okay,
Speaker 1: but do.
Speaker 2: You like it when you actually gain an hour?
Speaker 1: No? I think it's ridiculous. Just let time be time.
Speaker 2: Ben is quite rumpy this morning.
Speaker 1: And Nicole is overly happy, and it is not a
Speaker 1: good contrast in the house right now.
Speaker 2: And it's also quite a rule reversal because usually it's
Speaker 2: the other way around. I feel like I.
Speaker 1: Slept like shit, and I'm pretty sure waking up an
Speaker 1: hour early with the whole daylight savings time is not
Speaker 1: making it any better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you that happened on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm still I'm still still adjusting. Well, hurry up, Well,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll hurry out.
Speaker 2: Taking away my bad to adjust my bad.
Speaker 1: Cha's Louise getting the third degree this morning?
Speaker 2: Well I'm just joking, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to, uh say, thank you guys for
Speaker 1: messaging us regarding your thoughts in what you think really
Speaker 1: happened on the previous episode. Uh, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of interesting theories, but the consensus was, yeah, no one
Speaker 1: really knows what the fuck I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a wild one.
Speaker 1: It was. I did decide that, you know what, we
Speaker 1: need to calm things down, and that's why I'm doing
Speaker 1: today's case.
Speaker 2: We need to calm things down.
Speaker 1: We need to calm things down, get our heads straight.
Speaker 1: And this is a case that I think will do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, there is a murder in it, but
Speaker 1: thankfully it's I'm not going to say someone who deserves it,
Speaker 1: but thankfully it's a happier ending. I don't really know
Speaker 1: how to say it politely.
Speaker 2: List No, someone still dies, but it seems like it's.
Speaker 1: Going to be an intriguing Yeah, this guy did have
Speaker 1: it coming. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go. That's a good way of putting it.
Speaker 1: He had it coming. But you know what else, we
Speaker 1: have some patrons to thank, don't we. We have some
Speaker 1: patrons who have a thank you coming their way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so thank you and shout out to Becky Williams, Paul
Speaker 1: Megan Wetzel, Paula, Joe Logan, Brandy Aiden, and Mark Nice.
Speaker 1: They all signed up over on Patreon getting that exclusive
Speaker 1: content and of course you know they're behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you guys. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding. I think we should get right into
Speaker 1: this case though, let's do it. I've already said I'm
Speaker 1: like five times, I'm tired and I'm cranky. Can you tell? Well,
Speaker 1: maybe if people.
Speaker 2: Will be able to tell something like that, I mean,
Speaker 2: probably a little bit.
Speaker 1: Actually I haven't even had a sip of coffe yet.
Speaker 2: It's too maybe. Oh, I was like, maybe that will
Speaker 2: help you, but not if it's going to burn your tongue.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's cooled off just the right amount. Perfect. I
Speaker 1: always let my coffee sit for like two to three minutes,
Speaker 1: and yeah, that's there we go.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised that I had a good sleep, considering Ripley
Speaker 2: like was always I would wake up constantly with no room,
Speaker 2: but I think I would just move and instantly go
Speaker 2: back to sleep.
Speaker 1: So yeah, fair enough I did. Okay, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. So today we're talking about the murder.
Speaker 1: That's uh, it's been a mystery for over forty years
Speaker 1: at this point, and not because no one saw it happen,
Speaker 1: but because no one will talk about it. And this
Speaker 1: is a story of ken Rex McElroy, also known as
Speaker 1: the town Bully. But it's not just a story on him.
Speaker 1: It's a story in how the entire town watched him
Speaker 1: get gunned down in broad daylight and then acted like
Speaker 1: they knew nothing about it. So the year was nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one. The place Skidmore, Missouri, a tiny farmtown, with
Speaker 1: about four hundred and thirty seven people at the time,
Speaker 1: surrounded by endless cornfields. You know, it's the kind of
Speaker 1: place where everyone knows everyone, and it's the quintessential life
Speaker 1: of the little, small, quiet farm town. But there was
Speaker 1: one big problem. Skidmore had him, meaning Ken McElroy. And
Speaker 1: as we know, as I've already said now once in
Speaker 1: the intro and once starting the script, Ken got gunned down,
Speaker 1: but no one talked about it. How is that possible?
Speaker 1: How does a murder happen right in the open with
Speaker 1: a crowd watching and the whole thing just go unsolved. Well,
Speaker 1: to get that answer, we first have to ask who
Speaker 1: exactly was Ken McElroy. So let's go back a bit.
Speaker 1: Ken was born on July first, nineteen thirty four. He
Speaker 1: was the fifteenth of sixteen kids in a poor tenant
Speaker 1: farming family.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, back then, Hey, they had that many kidds.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 1: It was a lot more common for kids back in
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now. His parents, Tony and Mabel, moved around between Kansas
Speaker 1: and Ozarks before eventually settling near Skidmore. He struggled in school.
Speaker 1: He dropped out by the eighth grade and was probably
Speaker 1: illiterate by what most people account for.
Speaker 2: Okay, I just have to say Tony and Mabel too.
Speaker 2: Those names are so fitting. Yeah, for back then, that's
Speaker 2: exactly what I would have like probably thrown.
Speaker 1: Out there, old fashioned farmtown type names. Yeah, we even
Speaker 1: have a chicken named Mabel, so checks out. Now, when
Speaker 1: he was eighteen, he got badly injured at a construction
Speaker 1: site when a steel slab fell on him. Now, he
Speaker 1: lived with chronic pain after that, and some people think
Speaker 1: it messed with his person, making him quite a bit
Speaker 1: more aggressive. But honestly, by this point, Kim was already
Speaker 1: known for being violent before the accident, so if anything,
Speaker 1: it may have just made things worse. But it's hard
Speaker 1: to say. Now. After the injury, he got a settlement
Speaker 1: which might have helped fund the lifestyle he was leading,
Speaker 1: one built on you know, threats, crime and scaring the
Speaker 1: hell out of everyone around him and just basically doing
Speaker 1: whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
Speaker 2: A menace, Yeah, he's Denis to society.
Speaker 1: He's not Dennis the Menace. He's Ken Mekelroy the menace. So, now,
Speaker 1: Ken wasn't just some scrawny troublemaker. He was a big
Speaker 1: guy reports say he weighed around two hundred and seventy pounds,
Speaker 1: built like a brick wall, and quite stocky. Now, while
Speaker 1: there's no solid record that I was able to find
Speaker 1: on his exact height, it sounded like he was just
Speaker 1: shive six feet tall, you know, like an inch or two.
Speaker 1: I'm shorter, so like five ten, five eleven something like that.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a towering giant, but he was definitely a
Speaker 1: imposing figure, an intimidating presence, and he knew it too.
Speaker 1: Ken used his size to push people around, literally and figuratively.
Speaker 1: He had a way of looming over people, making sure
Speaker 1: that they felt his presence, and if he wanted something,
Speaker 1: he wasn't afraid to use intimidation tactics to get it.
Speaker 1: A local farmer once summed him up perfectly, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: I think that Ken simply wanted to be big and
Speaker 1: important and have people afraid of him when he walked
Speaker 1: down the streets. Well, he got that they were.
Speaker 2: I don't love that. There are I have met a
Speaker 2: few people that they you almost they almost enjoy being intimidating,
Speaker 2: And yeah, I can hate that. I don't get intimidated
Speaker 2: by very many people. There's been the odd person, I guess,
Speaker 2: but I just feel like, go fuck yourself.
Speaker 1: Agreed. Yeah, Now, Ken wasn't just some menacing figure looking
Speaker 1: around town and that's that he was. Also, he was
Speaker 1: making a decent living. He was out leasing land near
Speaker 1: his farm. He traded race dogs on paper and it
Speaker 1: might have seemed like it was an honest way to
Speaker 1: get by, but of course Ken wasn't exactly an honest individual.
Speaker 1: He was also allegedly involved in stealing livestock, grain, alcohol, gasoline,
Speaker 1: and even antiques. So basically, if it wasn't nailed down,
Speaker 1: there was a good chance Ken would take it and
Speaker 1: find a way to make a profit from it. And
Speaker 1: with a track record like that, it's no surprise that
Speaker 1: he was in constant trouble with the law. And when
Speaker 1: I say constant, I mean he was in constant trouble.
Speaker 1: His own lawyer estimated that Ken was charged with something
Speaker 1: around the point of at least three times a year
Speaker 1: he was criminally charged.
Speaker 2: Well, what the hell, though, They're in such a small
Speaker 2: community and he's doing this shit, correct, obviously they're going
Speaker 2: to know who the hell it is.
Speaker 1: Oh, definitely. Now by some counts, he had actually even
Speaker 1: been indicted twenty one times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in a year span, sorry, or just like just
Speaker 2: in total okay, but still wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but somehow he always managed to escape by with
Speaker 1: only one conviction under his belt, which that conviction we'll
Speaker 1: talk about a little later.
Speaker 2: Is he like a charmer or like manipulator?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could say that, okay, kind.
Speaker 2: Of like almost maybe a serial killer mentality ish or
Speaker 2: we'll get there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk all about We're gonna talk about the
Speaker 1: things that you just brought up, every single one of them.
Speaker 1: Ust put it that way, okay, about manipulation, about charming,
Speaker 1: and about potential killings.
Speaker 2: Geez.
Speaker 1: Okay, So his crimes weren't just about stealing. Ken was
Speaker 1: accused of harassing and assaulting women, destroying property, threatening people's lives,
Speaker 1: and at least two separate instances of shooting people.
Speaker 2: Okay, dang, dang.
Speaker 1: Now, wildest part he bragged about this can we go
Speaker 1: around town boasting that he was untouchable, and he was
Speaker 1: untouchable thanks to his Ken's city lawyer, Richard Gene McFadden, who,
Speaker 1: according to Ken, had mob connections and could get him
Speaker 1: out of anything. And honestly, the record kind of backs
Speaker 1: that up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, how much is he paying this guy?
Speaker 1: Though, probably a lot. But by the sounds of it,
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of money. He's got this this
Speaker 1: settlement that he had, he's you know, leasing and trading
Speaker 1: and doing a bunch of stuff with his property and
Speaker 1: animals and stuff that he's making money from. Not to mention,
Speaker 1: he's also stealing a bunch of other shit. So I
Speaker 1: have a feeling he's probably got the money to back
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not really too concerned.
Speaker 1: No, So, his lawyer McFadden had defended Ken multiple times
Speaker 1: over the years, and every time Ken would walk away
Speaker 1: scott free, he felt more and more invincible every time.
Speaker 1: In fact, it got to the point where he was
Speaker 1: walking around town with an attitude, you know, like I
Speaker 1: can do whatever I want. You know, I got this
Speaker 1: fancy lawyer from out of town. He's going to make
Speaker 1: sure that no one can touch me, you know, YadA
Speaker 1: YadA YadA kind of attitude. And for a long time
Speaker 1: he was right. His lawyer was definitely his golden ticket,
Speaker 1: his ace up his sleeve. But legal maneuvering wasn't his
Speaker 1: only strategy of staying out of jail. When the law
Speaker 1: wasn't enough to protect him, he turned to something far simpler, fear.
Speaker 1: If someone dared speak out against him, Ken made sure
Speaker 1: that they regretted it. He tailed them around town, making
Speaker 1: a habit of parking outside their home and just sitting
Speaker 1: there staring, even in the middle of the night. He
Speaker 1: didn't need to say anything. His presence alone was enough
Speaker 1: to send a message keep your mouth shut.
Speaker 2: What a complete creeper. That would piss me right off.
Speaker 2: I feel like, I don't know, I would lose my shit,
Speaker 2: go out there and be like, excuse me, what the
Speaker 2: fuck are you doing? Sir? Well, not even sir, he's
Speaker 2: just a douche. Well.
Speaker 1: The problem is, you know, like everyone knows this man.
Speaker 1: It's a small town mentality, right, Everyone knows each other.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows this man. Everyone knows what he's done to
Speaker 1: other people. He has a reputation for not being afraid
Speaker 1: of anyone and not being afraid to shoot people. And
Speaker 1: so you have this man parked outside of your home,
Speaker 1: say two am, just sitting there watching you. You know
Speaker 1: he's got a gun because even at times in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night when he's watching people, he would
Speaker 1: just shoot his gun off in the air, just so
Speaker 1: you know. He's there and you know he's watching, and
Speaker 1: you know he's loaded.
Speaker 2: Well, I would still get completely pissed, fair enough, would
Speaker 2: you not? Like I don't know, maybe I wouldn't go
Speaker 2: over there. I'd be pissed in my house, but.
Speaker 1: Under their way. Now, in nineteen seventy six, a man
Speaker 1: by the name of Romayne Henry caught McElroy trespassing on
Speaker 1: his land. And Romayne was a man who he decided
Speaker 1: he was going to stand up for the situation right good.
Speaker 1: To this day, no one really knows what McElroy was
Speaker 1: doing on this guy's land, on this farmer's land. But
Speaker 1: when Romayne confronted him about it, McElroy answered the way
Speaker 1: he always did with violence. He pulled out a shotgun
Speaker 1: and shot Romayne twice in the stomach with a shotgun.
Speaker 1: Somehow Romayne survived the shooting.
Speaker 2: So he's actually like shooting and hurting people to kill them,
Speaker 2: like it doesn't matter to him.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, Okay, Okay, he does not give a shit.
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess it's a little bit more scary then.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now imagine that sitting outside of your house at
Speaker 1: two am.
Speaker 2: Because I thought maybe he's just like kind of shooting
Speaker 2: people just like maybe not just next to them or
Speaker 2: their arm or leg or something, but he's like even
Speaker 2: doing fatal blows.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he just unloaded a shotgun twice in this
Speaker 1: dude's stomach and he.
Speaker 2: Is the one on the wrong, trespassing on this guy's property. Correct,
Speaker 2: What a complete asshole.
Speaker 1: Now. Unlike so many others, Romayne refused to stay quiet
Speaker 1: with the situation and he pressed charges, taking McElroy to
Speaker 1: court for assault with intent to kill. Now it should
Speaker 1: have been an open and shutcase obviously, right, he's trespassing
Speaker 1: on his land. He shot him in the stomach twice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: done right, easy peasy. But McElroy had won final card
Speaker 1: to play his ace up asleep, his lawyer, Richard Jen McFadden.
Speaker 1: McFadden somehow managed to pull the same trick that had
Speaker 1: worked so many times before. He found a witness quote
Speaker 1: unquote who swore up and down that McElroy wasn't even
Speaker 1: there on the property that day, and just like that,
Speaker 1: the case fell apart because he had an alibi, no conviction,
Speaker 1: and no consequences followed.
Speaker 2: Seriously, So they're paying people, yeah, probably to come up
Speaker 2: with these false stories.
Speaker 1: Most likely McElroy walked away again, knowing that no matter
Speaker 1: what he did, the law couldn't touch him, and the
Speaker 1: more he got away with, the more untouchable he felt. Now,
Speaker 1: shooting some one is of course bad, and I want
Speaker 1: to clarify that before I say anymore here. But things
Speaker 1: get a little darker yet when we look at McElroy's
Speaker 1: relationships and fair warning, it involves young girls. Ken had
Speaker 1: been accused of sexually assaulting and raping two young women
Speaker 1: who were as young as twelve years old, both of
Speaker 1: which he reportedly ended up marrying to keep them from
Speaker 1: testifying against him in court. One of them was a
Speaker 1: girl named Trina McLeod, who was indeed just twelve years old.
Speaker 1: When they the two met, she caught the attention of Ken,
Speaker 1: who was thirty eight at the time, more than three
Speaker 1: times her age.
Speaker 2: Oh this guy is nasty, you bet ya. If we
Speaker 2: already disliked him like, this is just going to get
Speaker 2: worse and worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now. Trina was Ken's third wife, though all of
Speaker 1: these marriages and unions were a little on the suspect
Speaker 1: side due to the fact that some of them overlapped
Speaker 1: a bit the legality on where they actually married or not,
Speaker 1: who knows, but that's neither here nor there, as well
Speaker 1: as the fact that McElroy was known to prefer, you know,
Speaker 1: young girls around the age of thirteen or four tomorrow, whatever, right.
Speaker 1: He entered the relationship with Trina when she was only
Speaker 1: fourteen years old, and she would give birth to their
Speaker 1: first child together around the same time, which means a relationship,
Speaker 1: if you can call it, that had started before she
Speaker 1: was fourteen, because she birthed at fourteen.
Speaker 2: Okay, And was that shitting on illegal back then?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, but again he's just getting away with this stuff,
Speaker 2: I guess exactly. Dang now.
Speaker 1: Not long after having the child, Trina tried to make
Speaker 1: an escape. She ran back to her parents home, probably
Speaker 1: hoping for some kind of safety. But McElroy he wasn't
Speaker 1: the kind of man to let someone walk away from him,
Speaker 1: especially not someone he considered his His response, he went
Speaker 1: and burned down her parents home and shot their family dog.
Speaker 2: Okay, this guy is making me real angry at this point.
Speaker 1: Understandable, but he sent a message and it was loud
Speaker 1: and clear, you do not get to leave me. But
Speaker 1: here's where things get more complicated. In nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: Trina gave an interview to People magazine and claimed that
Speaker 1: the fire wasn't Ken, It wasn't his doing at all.
Speaker 1: She claimed it was just quote faulty wiring. Now, whether
Speaker 1: she was actually believing that or she was just repeating
Speaker 1: what she had been told and conditioned to say, is
Speaker 1: anyone's guess. But she wasn't the only one who seemed
Speaker 1: to downplay the abuse on their end.
Speaker 2: Okay, but this is quite a bit down the road
Speaker 2: that she's saying this.
Speaker 1: No, nineteen eighty one is the same year that Ken.
Speaker 2: Dies, Okay, Okay, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: I mean this is only a few years later. Like
Speaker 1: I think, when would they have met. I'm not exactly
Speaker 1: sure when they would have met. It would have been
Speaker 1: late seventies though. Okay, yeah, where am I here? Lost
Speaker 1: my spot? Now I had to scroll back. Okay. So Ken's
Speaker 1: first two wives, Sharon and Alice, they were also said
Speaker 1: to be victims of his violence, yet in later interviews
Speaker 1: both women defended him. It's something that happens far too
Speaker 1: often in abusive relationships, unfortunately, victims making excuses, you know,
Speaker 1: rewriting the past, or even conditioning themselves that things weren't
Speaker 1: that bad. And I'm not saying making excuses for themselves.
Speaker 1: I'm saying making excuses for the person who you know
Speaker 1: was abusing them.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, they were like brainwashed manipulated by this person.
Speaker 1: Alice, just after Ken's death, told People magazine quote, Ken
Speaker 1: was totally different from the way they are saying he was. Now, Oh,
Speaker 1: he was wild, but he wasn't guilty of all those
Speaker 1: things they say. He was honest. He was honest and generous.
Speaker 1: I never knew him to steal anything ever.
Speaker 2: Hmm. Okay, but let's just let's just sit back for
Speaker 2: a sec. Because say anything goes wrong in that town,
Speaker 2: there could have been another like menace on the loose
Speaker 2: or something. But then everyone would just always blame Ken
Speaker 2: for everything. True, right, True, for sure they would.
Speaker 1: True, However, they had a control measure to go by,
Speaker 1: because I say this later on, but once he's gone,
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff just stops.
Speaker 2: Okay. But also if someone else was kind of doing
Speaker 2: some things, they would and then Ken dies like they
Speaker 2: would probably also be like, okay, I gotta stop my shit.
Speaker 2: True enough, I don't know I'm really playing devil's advocate here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say you're probably right, to some degree. I
Speaker 1: can imagine that someone would be like doing all of
Speaker 1: it and Ken's just getting blamed. But there's a possibility
Speaker 1: a theft here or there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, he's I'm sure doing the majority, but there
Speaker 2: could be the odd thing that someone else does. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and everyone's just gonna conclude that it's Ken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be like five percent or less, might
Speaker 1: be random other happenings, but that ninety five percent is
Speaker 1: Ken's doing for sure. But back to these relationships with
Speaker 1: these young girls. It's kind of heartbreaking, but it's also
Speaker 1: not surprising. I mean, whether it's Stockholm syndrome, manipulation, or
Speaker 1: just years of straight up being lied to, Ken had
Speaker 1: a way of twisting reality for the people closest to him.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe he convinced them that he wasn't a
Speaker 1: bad person at all, and that people were saying these
Speaker 1: things and it wasn't true. Maybe they needed to believe
Speaker 1: that just to survive. It's hard to say, but what
Speaker 1: I do know is that's the real tragedy of this story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is terrible.
Speaker 1: No matter what people thought of Ken, though, one thing
Speaker 1: was certain. They were afraid of him, and for good reason.
Speaker 1: I mean, even law enforcement wanted nothing to do with them.
Speaker 1: He was always heavily armed, and he had zero hesitation
Speaker 1: when it came to pulling the trigger, and that means
Speaker 1: even to cops. For over two decades, two fucking decades,
Speaker 1: the people of Skidmore had to live with the fact
Speaker 1: that the justice system just wasn't going to save them.
Speaker 1: No matter how many times Ken was arrested, he walked
Speaker 1: away free. He terrorized the town and no one, not
Speaker 1: the police, not the courts, no one could stop him.
Speaker 1: But all of that was about to change. On April
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen eighty, at Bohencamp General Store, a store
Speaker 1: clerk Evelyn Summy caught Ken's eight year old daughter, Tanya,
Speaker 1: taking candy without paying. Not like any employee would. She
Speaker 1: told the girl to put it back right, a simple moment,
Speaker 1: a small, you know, everyday thing that happens for this
Speaker 1: sort of you know, employment. But Ken didn't see it
Speaker 1: that way. When he found out, he lost it. Instead
Speaker 1: of letting go, Ken began stocking the Bowencamp family For weeks.
Speaker 1: He lurked outside their store and outside their home, making
Speaker 1: sure that they knew that he was watching. And then
Speaker 1: on July eighth, nineteen eighty, he took things a step farther.
Speaker 1: Ken pulled his truck into the alley behind the Boone
Speaker 1: Camp General store. Once there, he confronted the seventy year
Speaker 1: old Bowing Camp men and shot him in the neck
Speaker 1: with a shotgun at close range.
Speaker 2: Did he die? I'm assuming.
Speaker 1: By some miracle, bow Bowing Camp survived. Wow.
Speaker 2: So he thought that his kid should just also be
Speaker 2: able to kind of like walk on water pretty much. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's great. Lessons say that this kid can just go
Speaker 2: into a store and be able to take whatever they want,
Speaker 2: and that's okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no shit right. So Ken was arrested in charge
Speaker 1: with attempted murder, and for the first time in a
Speaker 1: long time, it seemed like Skidmore might finally see justice.
Speaker 1: His preliminary trial was a set for August eighteenth, nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: But of course, Ken wasn't about to go down without
Speaker 1: a fight. Just like always, he tried to scare his
Speaker 1: way out of trouble. He parked outside the bow And
Speaker 1: Camp's home at night, just sitting there in his truck, watching,
Speaker 1: sometimes even firing his gun off into the night, and
Speaker 1: Bo's wife later said, quote, you can't know how intimidating.
Speaker 1: It was after that, before his trial, he'd drive up
Speaker 1: to her house and his pick up at night and
Speaker 1: just sit there. Sometimes he would fire his gun. It
Speaker 1: was frightening.
Speaker 2: Well the fact too, Yeah, that he's just firing his gun.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I don't know. Just sitting here listening to
Speaker 2: this just makes me like I rate for these people. Well,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't I guess listening to the story more
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like there's really anything they can do because
Speaker 2: like the police also don't want anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: So I guess, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And imagine being in their shoes. Sure, there's someone parked
Speaker 1: outside your house at night, try and ignore them, just
Speaker 1: go to sleep. You're just drifting off to sleep, and
Speaker 1: guess what, Oh, a shot goes off right outside your
Speaker 1: house to wake you up and remind you what's there.
Speaker 2: And then I guess if you do go outside and
Speaker 2: confront him, then like at this point, and you're guaranteed
Speaker 2: to get shot too.
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure, exactly.
Speaker 2: Oh that's tough. Okay.
Speaker 1: So at this point, Ken pulled his favorite legal trick, delay, delay, Delay.
Speaker 1: He managed to push his trial back nearly five months
Speaker 1: up until sorry June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty one. Now,
Speaker 1: during that time, the acting prosecuting attorney resigned. It was
Speaker 1: a young, newly hired prosecutor named David Baird who stepped
Speaker 1: in to take over the case. Now, some people believe
Speaker 1: that Ken bullied the previous prosecutor into actually stepping down.
Speaker 1: Whether or not that's true, what we do know is
Speaker 1: that when David Baird took over, things finally changed. Baird
Speaker 1: was fresh out of law school, just three years into
Speaker 1: his career, but he managed to do what no other
Speaker 1: lawyer had ever done. A conviction. It was a huge victory.
Speaker 1: Ken was not only convicted of second degree assault, but
Speaker 1: the grand jury, the grand scheme of things. It was
Speaker 1: nothing though honestly, the jury handed down the maximum sentence
Speaker 1: of two years, so he didn't even get attempted murder.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was second degree assault and he got two years.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: But it was a conviction on him.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 1: It looked like Ken might actually pay in some manner
Speaker 1: for what he did. But as always there was a catch.
Speaker 1: Ken never even set foot in a prison cell. The
Speaker 1: judge let him walk free on a forty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: bond while he appealed the conviction. Oh okay, the appeal
Speaker 1: was overturned.
Speaker 2: Are they not looking at his history as well? Because
Speaker 2: I always think that this guy is causing issue after
Speaker 2: issue after issue. I feel like that the courts take
Speaker 2: that into account. At least I thought they did. Maybe not,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. So part of the reason that this
Speaker 1: even happened was was because Baird had strategically reduced the charge. Now,
Speaker 1: instead of going for the attempted murder, the official charge was,
Speaker 1: you know, knowingly causing serious physical injury. I mean, the
Speaker 1: logic was simple. If they charged him with attempted murder,
Speaker 1: there was a good chance that Ken would actually weasel
Speaker 1: his way out of it, just as he always did.
Speaker 1: So lowering the charge, Baird made it harder for the
Speaker 1: jury to let him off completely, I mean, and it worked.
Speaker 1: He was finally convicted, right, so it was at least something.
Speaker 2: But still no jail time.
Speaker 1: No jail time. And Ken wasn't even worried about the
Speaker 1: situation because at the trial he laughed off like the
Speaker 1: whole thing, saying, quote, the jury convicted me and they
Speaker 1: gave me two years, But I'll tell you what, I'll
Speaker 1: never go to jail. I'll appeal and get off. I've
Speaker 1: been fighting the law since I was thirteen, and I'm
Speaker 1: damn near fifty. I've been arrested for over fifty three
Speaker 1: felonies and and this is the first I've ever lost.
Speaker 1: The appeal, he appealed it, and yeah, he got out,
Speaker 1: which is why he didn't step foot in jail.
Speaker 2: Piece of shit. This guy is just nasty.
Speaker 1: Yep, the system failed once again, and this time it
Speaker 1: seemed like Ken may have been pushing his luck, pushing
Speaker 1: the final straw onto the community now. Not long after
Speaker 1: his release, Ken walked into the DNNG Tavern, a local bar.
Speaker 1: He was carrying a rifle with a bayonet attached to it.
Speaker 1: In front of everyone. He started making graphic, detailed threats
Speaker 1: about murdering bo Bowen Camp. This time police did arrest him,
Speaker 1: but predictably, he was quickly released. The only consequence they
Speaker 1: postponed his court heering to July twentieth, nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: because he had violated his bail terms by being armed.
Speaker 1: It's not really in punishment, it's not really no consequences.
Speaker 1: Nothing's really happening from these public threats, and with Ken
Speaker 1: still walking free, the town of Skidmore was finally at
Speaker 1: that breaking point that little action of the public threats
Speaker 1: was enough, and on the morning of July tenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, the people of Skidmore they had a meeting.
Speaker 1: A meeting was called at the town Legion Hall, just
Speaker 1: down the street from the D ANDNG Tavern. Around sixty
Speaker 1: residents showed up, including the mayor and county Sheriff Dan Eats.
Speaker 1: The entire purpose of the meeting to figure out what
Speaker 1: they could legally do to stop Ken McElroy from terrorizing
Speaker 1: the town any further now. The sheriff suggested forming a
Speaker 1: neighborhood watch. That was his solution, which I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: coming from law enforcement, it says a lot about the
Speaker 1: helplessness of the situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it's pretty safe to suggest that, right.
Speaker 1: Well, honestly, it's so minimal. Yeah, you have a you
Speaker 1: have a man who's shot people, who's stolen from people,
Speaker 1: who's bullied from people, who's literally had people fearing for
Speaker 1: their lives, he's publicly threatening people, he's gotten away with
Speaker 1: all of this, and you have a shriff of saying
Speaker 1: what if we do? You know, like some some watch parties,
Speaker 1: some neighbor who watches to watch out for him and
Speaker 1: warn each other when he's coming, Like that's the solution.
Speaker 2: But clearly he's not like a corrupt sheriff at all, right,
Speaker 2: Like he's he's not wanting more people to like break
Speaker 2: the law and stuff.
Speaker 1: Right, So true enough, true enough, But it was just
Speaker 1: such a minimal thing that coming from an officer, the sheriff,
Speaker 1: you know, it just it really paints the situation.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: One of the meeting attendees later summed up the feeling
Speaker 1: in the room quote, we simply felt that the system
Speaker 1: had failed us. We all knew that McElroy. We simply
Speaker 1: felt that the system had failed us. We all knew
Speaker 1: what McElroy was like. And there he was again and again.
Speaker 1: It seemed like nobody could stop him. And it seemed
Speaker 1: like that feeling, the desperation, the frustration, and the helplessness,
Speaker 1: it became that final straw. Words spread that McElroy and
Speaker 1: Trina had just arrived at the DNG tavern for drinks. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I stumbled out the DNNG tavern for drinks. Shortly after that,
Speaker 1: the meeting ended, and in near silence, the entire group
Speaker 1: of sixty people left the hall and made their way
Speaker 1: towards the tavern. They scoured McElroy's Chevy Silverado in the
Speaker 1: parking lot, flanking it on all sides. Some of them
Speaker 1: went inside the bar. They didn't confront him when he
Speaker 1: was in there. They didn't make a scene, They just waited.
Speaker 1: When McElroy and Trina finally stepped out of the bar
Speaker 1: and returned to the truck, the entire town was watching.
Speaker 1: Trina climbed into the passenger seat. Ken McElroy sat behind
Speaker 1: the wheel, casually lighting a cigarette, and then, in a
Speaker 1: moment that must have felt like slow motion, someone raised
Speaker 1: a rifle. Trina later claimed that she saw a gunman
Speaker 1: pull the rifle from the back of a truck and
Speaker 1: take aim, and then gunfire erupted. Windows in the truck shattered,
Speaker 1: and Ken was hit. Trina threw herself out of the truck,
Speaker 1: diving into the streets, and a man named Jack Clement
Speaker 1: pulled her up and guided her towards a nearby bank
Speaker 1: for safety. At forty seven years old, Ken McElroy was
Speaker 1: finally stopped. He was shot twice, slumped over in his truck,
Speaker 1: never even seeing it coming. The bullets came from behind him,
Speaker 1: meaning his killer or killers approached unnoticed to him.
Speaker 2: Okay, because I'm a little bit shocked that they did
Speaker 2: this with his wife or whatever in there as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't think that they were going
Speaker 1: to wait for a perfect opportunity. I think it was
Speaker 1: just enough's enough and it has to happen now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that she's a potential witness.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, Interestingly enough, two different sets of bullet casings
Speaker 1: were found. I'm not clear on the if these bullet
Speaker 1: casings were from different guns. By the sounds of it,
Speaker 1: I think they were, which if that is the case,
Speaker 1: it could mean there were at least two different guns
Speaker 1: that were fired. Yeah, but there's But here's the part
Speaker 1: that stands out to me the most and stands out
Speaker 1: to everyone for the most No one called for help.
Speaker 2: They just left him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sixty witnesses. Not a single person dialed nine to
Speaker 1: one one, Not a single person called an ambulance, not
Speaker 1: a single person alerted the police. The only person willing
Speaker 1: to say anything after the fact was Trina herself, and
Speaker 1: even she couldn't get anyone to back her up.
Speaker 2: Not a single person gave a fuck.
Speaker 1: Nope. Basically, it was just silence that fell after that.
Speaker 1: It was eerie, It was deliberate, and honestly, it was
Speaker 1: probably peaceful.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's almost amazing that they didn't celebrate. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 2: they did that later.
Speaker 1: They might have done that in the privacy of their homes.
Speaker 1: I guess. Yeah. Now. Cheryl Houston, the daughter of Boboing Camp,
Speaker 1: had watched the shooting unfold from her family store. Later,
Speaker 1: she summed up exactly why no one stepped forward to
Speaker 1: quote her quote, they could have pushed and dug, pushed
Speaker 1: and dug and gotten nothing. We were so bitter and
Speaker 1: so angry at the law letting us down that it
Speaker 1: came to somebody taking matters into their own hands. No
Speaker 1: one has any idea what a nightmare we lived.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you had said at one point it was
Speaker 2: two decades of this ship.
Speaker 1: It was so. With the murder investigation, there was only
Speaker 1: one suspect that came from it. An individual by the
Speaker 1: name of Dell Clement, a part owner of the DNG tavern,
Speaker 1: now identified him as the shooter, but no one else
Speaker 1: would confirm it. Now Dell denied everything, and with no
Speaker 1: other witnesses, no other names, and no one willing to
Speaker 1: testify against him. No charges were ever filed against Dell.
Speaker 1: The case simply went cold.
Speaker 2: Wow, just to think that that many people actually did
Speaker 2: witness this. Yep, and no one broke.
Speaker 1: No one broke. Not to this day, no one's broke.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it's almost shocking.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, one person who spent years investigating the case
Speaker 1: was a man by the name of Harry N. McLean
Speaker 1: the author of a book called In Broad Daylight, a
Speaker 1: book on Ken's murder. Now, he actually spent time with
Speaker 1: del Clement and later described him as someone who would
Speaker 1: have easily snapped in the moment. To quote him, it
Speaker 1: wasn't hard to imagine him jerking the gun from his
Speaker 1: pickup in a burst of anger and opening up on
Speaker 1: the large head on the other side of the rear
Speaker 1: window of the pickup truck. So over the years, Harry
Speaker 1: McLain had never heard any other name seriously mentioned as
Speaker 1: the shooter. It was only ever this individual mentioned.
Speaker 3: So it was probably most likely him, most likely, But
Speaker 3: there is also the potential there were allegedly two different bulletins, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: so if it was him, there was at least someone else,
Speaker 3: or he had two guns.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. Yeah, Now, Dell did die in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, and until the day he passed,
Speaker 1: he never admitted to any role playing any sort of
Speaker 1: role in Ken mcleroy's murder. But in the grand scheme
Speaker 1: of things, does it really matter who pulled the trigger?
Speaker 1: Does it? The author McLain doesn't think so. He once said, quote,
Speaker 1: I personally believe it's a mistake to put too much
Speaker 1: emphasis on who pulled the trigger, which brings us back
Speaker 1: to that town hall meeting just hours before the shooting.
Speaker 1: It's easy to wonder if the killing was planned, you know,
Speaker 1: a vigilante action agreed upon by the town in that
Speaker 1: moment of time when they're all put together in that
Speaker 1: same room, frustrated over by this individual. But MacLean doesn't
Speaker 1: think so. He believes that a few people made an
Speaker 1: impulsive decision and the rest of the town stood by
Speaker 1: them to a complicit silence. No one's confessed, no one's talked,
Speaker 1: And after Ken's death, the Major Case Squad launched an investigation,
Speaker 1: and even the FBI got involved. But despite all the attention,
Speaker 1: the results were the same. Nothing. In total, three grand
Speaker 1: juries reviewed the evidence, but not a single person was
Speaker 1: ever indicted. The silence of the Skidmore town held strong. Trina, however,
Speaker 1: wasn't done fighting. On July ninth, nineteen eighty four, she
Speaker 1: filed a six million dollars wrongful death lawsuit against the
Speaker 1: Town of Skidmore Nowaday County Sheriff Dan Eats and Mayor
Speaker 1: Steve Peters and of course dal Clements. But like everything
Speaker 1: else in the case, the outcome was rather anti climactic.
Speaker 1: The lawsuit settled for just seventeen thy six hundred, a
Speaker 1: far cry from the millions that she was originally seeking,
Speaker 1: And after that Trina left town. She remarried, built a
Speaker 1: new life, and in twenty twelve, on her fifty fifth birthday,
Speaker 1: she would pass away. Even decades later, the town still
Speaker 1: refuses to talk. In two thousand and six, the Nowaday
Speaker 1: County Sheriff Ben Epsy summed it up, quote, they all
Speaker 1: seem to know who did it, but they don't want
Speaker 1: to get involved.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I honestly feel like they're kind of
Speaker 2: playing his game a little bit, really, I mean potentially yeah, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not right, like they're getting away with all with
Speaker 2: this and.
Speaker 1: If he can get away with it, so yeah, we
Speaker 1: exactly yep. Now, within a single month after Ken's death,
Speaker 1: report of cattle and pig thefts in the county dropped significantly.
Speaker 1: It seemed like his death solved more problems than just
Speaker 1: the justice system ever ever could. Now, of course, the
Speaker 1: case has grabbed national media attention. Outlets like Rolling Stone
Speaker 1: sixty minutes ran pieces on the murder, painting it as
Speaker 1: you know, a vigilante act, you know, a town that
Speaker 1: had taken law into its own hands. But no matter
Speaker 1: how the media framed it, the fact remains the same.
Speaker 1: A man was murdered because of his own actions. The
Speaker 1: town of Skidmore closed ranks to protect whoever pulled that trigger,
Speaker 1: and the identity of the shooter will likely never officially
Speaker 1: be known, and the case of Ken Rex McElroy will
Speaker 1: forever remain a mystery.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: And that's the story of Ken Mechs McElroy aka the
Speaker 1: Town the blown Bully.
Speaker 2: Holy shit. Well yeah, even at this point, I feel
Speaker 2: like if someone comes forward or it's just going to
Speaker 2: be all like hearsay, like it's I don't think that
Speaker 2: it's going to get solved, but that is it's crazy
Speaker 2: that no one has no one.
Speaker 1: Has broke I mean, I disagree, actually do you I
Speaker 1: disagree with the the way I wrote this story. Even
Speaker 1: I disagree, I think it will get solved one day,
Speaker 1: do you I do I think that every not everyone.
Speaker 1: I do think it's common knowledge. Let me put it
Speaker 1: that way. I think it's common knowledge in the town
Speaker 1: of Skidmore on who killed Ken macelroy. And I think
Speaker 1: that somewhere someone's family has evidence of their grandpa or
Speaker 1: whoever being the one to pull the trigger. And I
Speaker 1: think eventually that will come to light and they will
Speaker 1: be named. Of course, they will have passed away.
Speaker 2: They will not have to what's going to come of it, really.
Speaker 1: And it'll just be telling the full story. And honestly,
Speaker 1: he'll probably be celebrated the end of the person who
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger, they'll be celebrated.
Speaker 2: But the thing is too, it's it could there could
Speaker 2: easily be.
Speaker 1: Two people, right, Yeah, there could be.
Speaker 2: So even if someone comes forward and has evidence that
Speaker 2: it was like their grandpa or whatever, they're not going
Speaker 2: to be able to pinpoint that it was the grandpa
Speaker 2: slowly correct, so wow, huh.
Speaker 1: But I do believe that names will eventually come to light.
Speaker 1: It may take a while, but I do believe names
Speaker 1: will huh.
Speaker 2: I know, you almost feel bad because it's like someone died,
Speaker 2: But that guy was a complete asshole.
Speaker 1: He was He really was like just.
Speaker 2: Disgusting, disturbing. Just the shit he did is like he even.
Speaker 1: Oh man, your head's like trying to twist and think
Speaker 1: about how.
Speaker 2: To just even just the being with such young girls
Speaker 2: and stuff like that right there alone is enough. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like that is gross.
Speaker 1: And then he's shooting people just because he's on their property, Like,
Speaker 1: could you imagine just being like, oh, you caught me
Speaker 1: stealing some crops? Your dead? Both.
Speaker 2: I know you would never think that if you confronted
Speaker 2: someone on your property. You would never think that, Well
Speaker 2: you would, I guess. I guess you would. The I
Speaker 2: don't know. At first I didn't think you would. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's easy that someone trespassing could shoot you quite easily,
Speaker 2: oh man.
Speaker 1: But it just goes to show the type of individual
Speaker 1: he was. You know, he's trespassing and he's shooting the landowner.
Speaker 2: And the fact that he's just getting away with all
Speaker 2: of this stuff, it's a little bit mind blowing.
Speaker 1: Well, in the end, he didn't get away with it.
Speaker 1: In the end, his own actions is why he died.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, hopefully you guys enjoyed that story. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different one, and yeah, fuck
Speaker 1: Ken Rex Mackelroy.
Speaker 2: No kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm not one to like bullies. I quite often will
Speaker 1: stand up to bullies if I see one. I have
Speaker 1: no problems speaking out against them. So I have a
Speaker 1: feeling if I were in that situation.
Speaker 2: You probably would have got shot.
Speaker 1: I probably would have gotten shot. I either I would
Speaker 1: have gotten shot or he would have gotten shot. One
Speaker 1: of us would have gotten shot.
Speaker 2: Guarantee you would be what's the guy's name? Del Yeah, potentially,
Speaker 2: I know because at the beginning, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I would go out there because I don't know. I
Speaker 2: still feel like if someone was just outside my home,
Speaker 2: I would lose my shit and just like go out there.
Speaker 1: But if you know who it is and you know
Speaker 1: what they're capable of, it's a different story.
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 1: You know the monster lurking outside your home.
Speaker 2: At night, and then yeah, you can't even really do
Speaker 2: anything about it r in regards to like like with
Speaker 2: police and stuff. So I guess, but oh.
Speaker 1: Man, that's a lock your doors and just pray for
Speaker 1: safety situation for most people.
Speaker 2: Or just or there's other options.
Speaker 1: That's why I said for most people, I clarified I
Speaker 1: left room for that.
Speaker 2: I'll just stop it at that A.
Speaker 1: But yeah, thank you for being here. You guys are
Speaker 1: absolutely incredible. Your support means the absolute world to us.
Speaker 1: We are going through a little bit of administrative stuff
Speaker 1: in the back end of this podcast, so if you're
Speaker 1: noticing some little quirks and stuff lately, we are working
Speaker 1: on getting them all solved out. We have had some
Speaker 1: emails and messages on some little interesting little quarks that
Speaker 1: are happening, so we do know about them. We're working
Speaker 1: on them, and they should be taken care of soon. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So all our stuff is an inscription, you know the deal.
Speaker 1: And until next
Speaker 2: Time, stay wicked.