The Strange Killing of Ken Rex McElroy

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(sirens) (ominous music) - This week on BuzzFeed Unsolved, we investigate the murder of Ken Rex McElroy in the small town of Skidmore, Missouri. This case is odd in that it deals with the question, is a murder justified if it's seemingly warranted? What do you think? - No. - Why not? - I don't trust people to do their homework. I mean, if you killed everyone you thought was a murderer, you'd have a lot of innocent lives on your hands. - On a general basis, I will say I agree with you, but uh, spoiler alert, not a lot of homework was needed for this fella. - Okay. Let's get into it. - [Ryan] The year is 1981. The town, Skidmore, Missouri. A town surrounded by cornfields with only 437 residents. - I've been to Missouri, lovely state. Can I say that? The Ozarks-- - Is this you, yeah, a positive statement to start this off. - I love Missouri! I saw a mosquito there that was almost the size of a bird. - That doesn't seem like something pleasant. - It was almost so big that it couldn't really move around too much. It was not a burden. It's a beautiful state. - A lot to unpack there. - Beautiful state! - I think we'll just move forward. Only July 10th, 1981, Ken Rex McElroy would be shot dead in the street in broad daylight, amongst as many as 60 witness. Yet, to this day, the crime remains unsolved. How could that be possible? Let's start from the beginning. Who was Ken Rex McElroy? Ken Rex McElroy was born June 1st, 1934 to a family of poor tenant farmers who moved near the town of Skidmore, Missouri. By the eighth grade, McElroy had left school and it's believed he was largely illiterate. At 18, he was said to have been seriously injured when a steel slab fell on him at a construction site. The incident left him with chronic pain, and some have attributed his bizarre and violent behavior to a head injury suffered in this event. - [Shane] They gotta do more research on that, right? - [Ryan] On what? - [Shane] Head injuries. Don't they say John Wayne Gacy was, uh, he fell off a swing when he was a boy? - [Ryan] So, like a CTE kind of thing? - [Shane] Yeah. Is there something, do they lack empathy? - [Ryan] (sighs) Oh, boy. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I'll give that a maybe. It just seems odd for me to blame everything on a head injury. - [Shane] I'm not blaming it all on a head injury, I'm just saying there seems to be a large occurrence of those. - [Ryan] I suppose, you might be right in that there's something to look at there. McElroy was reportedly a 270 pound giant of a man. A local farmer described McElroy saying, quote, "I think that Ken simply wanted to be big and important "and have people afraid of him "when he walked down the street. "And he got that, they were." End quote. 270 pounds, that's a beefy man. - That's a beefy guy. - I would not cross him under any circumstance. - You're gonna throw him down on the street? - How do I say, I'm a wimp. In spite of all this, McElroy made a relatively substantial living off of leasing land near his farm, trading and racing dogs, as well as allegedly stealing livestock, grain, alcohol, gasoline, and antiques. McElroy was in constant trouble with the law. His lawyer estimated that he was charged with various crimes at least three times a year, and by some counts, he was indicted as many as 21 times but escaped conviction all but once. McElroy was often known to brag that his Kansas City lawyer, Richard Gene McFadin, also represented the mob and would effectively keep him out of jail. So, he's walking around town saying, "I could do whatever I want, I got a big fancy-pants lawyer "from out of town and he's gonna make sure "all you small folk can't touch me." - [Shane] I wonder if part of it is because it seems like all of the things he did were relatively small time, right? At this point. - [Ryan] Oh, I mean, that 21 is including some of the bigger ones. - Some more. That we're going to get into. - [Ryan] That we're going to get into. - [Shane] At least the list that you've named so far, it was a lot of, oh, I stole some gasoline. - [Ryan] Oh, that's just an appetizer. I just fed you a cracker. I'm about to come with the full platter now. - [Shane] Oh boy. - [Ryan] And it's not a good platter. - [Shane] Well, it was a good cracker. - [Ryan] Enjoy it, because it's about to turn into a shit sandwich real quick. Another tactic to avoid jail that McElroy would employ is intimidating witnesses. To do this, he'd follow them or park outside their homes and watch them until they were no longer willing to testify against him. His various alleged crimes include robbery, harassing/assaulting women, destroying property, threatening lives, and assault, including shooting at least two people. One of those two people he shot was local farmer, Romaine Henry, who McElroy shot in the stomach when Henry tried to chase McElroy off Henry's land. - In the stomach of all places? - On his own land. - On his own land. - He was probably enjoying a nice glass of sweet tea. - Yeah. - And then this fuckin' knucklehead comes on his property, and he gets shot in the stomach. - The stomach, that's the worst place to get shot. - I'm sure any place is a pretty bad place to get shot. Oh yeah, shoulder, I guess, wouldn't be that bad. - Shoulder meat. - [Ryan] Before we get into McElroy's relationships, I'd like to issue a fair warning that what follows is upsetting and depicts extreme violence towards women, but is important for me to tell you in order to paint the full picture. McElroy was accused of raping two young women as young as 12 years old, both of which he was said to have married to keep them from testifying against him. One of these women was 24-year-old Trena McCloud, who was his partner and was also present at the time of McElroy's death. Trena was McElroy's third wife, though all unions were suspect due to the fact that some of his marriages overlapped, as well as the fact that McElroy was known to prefer girls around the age of 13 or 14. - [Shane] Fuck this guy. - [Ryan] That train arrived at the station rather quickly for me as well. In fact, McElroy actually entered a relationship with Trena when she was only 14 years old, having a child with her around that same time. Soon after having their first child, Trena attempted to escape to her parents' house. McElroy responded by allegedly burning down Trena's parents' home and shooting their dog. First off, holy shit is, I guess, the first reaction to that. Second off, it does amaze me that at this point, I know, I get he's intimating, he's a big force. It's a small town, maybe he could use that to manipulate his way around the law. But at this point, I do think law and order should come into play here, right? - Yes. - [Ryan] Yet, in 1981, Trena told People Magazine that the house fire was, quote, just faulty wiring, end quote. To make matters worse, McElroy was also accused of abusing his first two wives, Sharon and Alice, as is often the case in stories of domestic abuse. In later interviews with both Alice and Trena, they seemed to minimize their abuse and even claimed McElroy treated them well. In 1981, shortly after his death, Alice told People Magazine that, quote, "Ken was totally different from the way "they are saying he was now. "Oh, he was wild, but he wasn't guilty "of all those things they say. "He was honest and generous. "I never knew him to steal anything, ever." End quote. - That's common though, right? - That's common, it's common and it's sad. It makes it even grosser, because this guy was maybe, dare I say, charming in some aspects. - Obviously it sounds like he's an evil, evil man but people aren't always shades of black and white. It's not, "This person's a good person, "this person's an evil person." - Yeah, I agree with you. - So, as much as he was committing these heinous, heinous things, there were probably parts of him where people were like, "Well, he's not that bad of a guy." - Look, I'm all for seeing the good in people and finding redeemable qualities. - (laughs) Yeah, for the record, I'm not saying, "Well, let's look for the good qualities." - (laughs) I get what you were saying, I just wanted to make it absolutely, abundantly clear that we're for redeeming qualities and maybe seeing the good in people, but in some cases, throw it out. - Absolutely. - [Ryan] Trena said in that same interview, quote, "The officers were always hassling him. "They'd accuse him of anything, even things I know "he didn't do because I was with him. "They just hated him, "because he wouldn't kneel down to them." End quote. - So, the guy seems morally bankrupt to begin with. - Mmhmm, yeah. - He's got these horrible relationships with these minors. - Yes. - They're children. So, that gives you an idea of his character. It's more than likely that he just told them, "Oh, I didn't do that." His wives probably believed him. - And that's the sad part. - They're already in his camp. In all of these instances, is he just getting away with it? Is he going to court for these things? - He was getting, uh, the cops were apprehending him, he was going to court, it's just that his lawyer was actually that good that he would get him out. - Wow. - He could get him off every time. He probably was, maybe, a mob lawyer that was good enough to maneuver around the law through loopholes and whatnot. - I'm picturing, like, Al Pacino type. - I don't know. - He's gotta be good. - [Ryan] However, it's known that even the county's law enforcement officials were afraid of encountering McElroy, who was known to always be heavily armed and unafraid of shooting cops. For over two decades, the people of Skidmore often felt abandoned by the justice system that couldn't stop McElroy from further terrorizing them. Little did they know, an instance would occur that would change everything. On April 25th, 1980, in Ernest "Bo" Bowenkamp's general store, the store clerk, Evelyn Sumy, would ask McElroy's eight year old daughter, Tonya, to return a piece of candy she had not paid for. When he learned of the incident, McElroy was so incensed he reportedly began stalking the Bowenkamp family. This led to the events of July 8th, 1980, when McElroy would drive into the alley behind the Bowenkamp General Store. Once there, he threatened Bo Bowenkamp and shot the grocer in the neck at close range with a shotgun, marking at least the second reported time McElroy had shot somebody. Yeah. - I assume that person died. - Uh, actually-- - He got shot point blank-- - With a shotgun. - With a shotgun, and he lived? - I wouldn't consider myself an overly religious man, but I could maybe buy into the concept of a little divine intervention. Luckily, Bo Bowenkamp survived, and McElroy was arrested and charged with attempted murder. His preliminary trial was set for August 18th, 1980. In typical fashion, McElroy made attempts to intimidate the Bowenkamp family and supporters to keep them from testifying. Bowenkamp's wife recalled, quote, "You can't know how intimidating it was after that. "Before his trial, he'd drive up to our house in his pickup "at night and just sit there. "Sometimes, he would fire his gun. (gunshot) "It was frightening." End quote. That is some over the top super villain bullshit. (laughs) That is fucking insane. - I don't like this man. - [Ryan] Through legal maneuvers, McElroy was able to delay the trial almost five months, until June 25th, 1981. During this time, the acting prosecuting attorney resigned and a young new prosecutor named David Baird was hired to fill his position. Some have speculated that McElroy had bullied the previous prosecutor to leave. The new prosecutor, David Baird, was only three years out of law school, yet Baird accomplished what no other lawyer had been able to do in all of McElroy's criminal history. He convicted him of a crime. Granted, McElroy was ultimately only convicted at his trial of second degree assault. The jury set a maximum sentence of two years, and the judge freed him on a $40,000 bail bond pending the appeal. This was partly because Baird lessened McElroy's charge from quote, attempt to kill, end quote, to quote, knowingly caused serious physical injury, end quote, to ensure that he could secure a conviction. - [Shane] You try to kill someone and there's eight different labels for it. - [Ryan] And he chose a label that would make the conviction a sure thing. - [Shane] That's nutty. Just put him in jail. - [Ryan] This lawyer that they're going up against must be very good for him to... The guy shot a guy in the fucking neck with a shotgun! - [Shane] I know, Ryan. - [Ryan] And he felt so strongly about this other dude's skills that he changed the labeling of that just so he could secure conviction, for only two years, and he got out! This is a case of seeing it go through the justice system and getting dunked on. - Yeah. - Just completely failing. - It seemed like a victory almost, and then nothing. - [Ryan] McElroy reportedly said at the trial, quote, "The jury convicted me and they gave me two years. "But I'll tell you what, I'll never go to jail. "I'll appeal and get off. "I've been fighting the law since I was 13, "and I'm damn near 50. "I've been arrested for over 53 felonies, "and this is the first one I ever lost." End quote. - [Shane] Unbelievable, the showboating here. - The braggadocio of this man right here is staggering. This is the problem with the man who, I guess, believes in his own myth, especially when that man is capable of cruelty. - He's Icarus, baby. - He is Icarus. And guess what? This bad boy is about to fly towards the sun. Soon after he was released, McElroy, bizarrely, was spotted with a rifle and bayonet at the town's local bar, D and G Tavern, where he was allegedly making graphic threats about murdering Bo Bowenkamp. So, he follows it up. - So, this isn't Icarus flying too close to the sun. - He's flying into the sun. - Yeah, this is Icarus turning 90 degrees, looking at the sun, and playing chicken with it. - (laughs) Exactly. As a result, he was arrested and quickly released, with the only consequence being the postponement of his court hearing to July 20th, 1981, for violating his bail provisions for being armed. In the wake of these events, on the morning of July 10th, 1981, there was a meeting at the town's Legion Hall just down the street from the D and G Tavern. As many as 60 Skidmore residents attended, including both the mayor and the sheriff. The meeting's entire purpose was to discuss what they could legally do to prevent McElroy from harming anyone else. County Sheriff Dan Estes suggested the formation of a neighborhood watch. You realize how deep of dire straits this town really is when the sheriff is saying, "Maybe we should form a neighborhood watch." - That's like someone just raising their hand and saying, "What if we write a note?" - [Ryan] But the collective mindset of those in attendance seemingly could be summed up by one quote from an attendee. Quote, "We simply felt that the system had failed us. "We all knew what McElroy was like, "and there he was again and again. "It seemed like nobody could stop him." End quote. (horror screeching) Those at the meeting heard reports that McElroy and Trena were spotted heading to the D and G Tavern in Skidmore to grab drinks. It is said that the meeting adjourned, and that the crowd of about 60 people then quietly descended upon the D and G Tavern, flanking McElroy's truck. Some even went into the bar, where they waited for him to finish his drinks. Upon their return to the truck, where Trena was sitting in the passenger seat, McElroy lit a cigarette. Trena claimed to have turned over her shoulder and seen someone pull a rifle from the back of the truck and take aim at McElroy. And then, shots were fired, (gunshots) shattering the truck's windows. Trena reportedly dove from her side of the vehicle onto the street, and was picked up by a man named Jack Clement and walked toward the bank for safety. You could sort of feel the dread building when the meeting adjourned and you know, it's goin' down right now. - It's going down. - They'd had enough. They'd been pushed to their limit. It's time to take some action. I'm not afraid to admit, I felt some joy. McElroy, at the age of 47, remained in the car shot dead, getting hit twice. The shot came from roughly behind him, so he would not have seen his shooter. Bullet casings from two different guns were found. Notably, none of the witnesses called an ambulance. - Do you think there was one guy who was like, "I'll call, oh." - He just got a firm stare. Everyone just turns their heads toward him. While there were as many as 60 witnesses reported at the scene, no one but Trena would come forward in the investigation that followed to say who had fired the shots. Cheryl Huston, the daughter of Bo Bowenkamp, witnessed the shooting from her family's store, and said this on the silence that followed the murder. Quote, "Once the shroud of silence fell, "there was going to be no one talking. "They could have pushed and dug, "pushed and dug, and gotten nothing. "We were so bitter and so angry at the law letting us down "that it came to somebody taking matters in their own hand. "No one has any idea what a nightmare we lived." End quote. - I would kill to know what his dying thoughts were. Just to know that it was this guy who was so sure of himself, so sure that he had the world in the palm of his hand, that he could get away with anything, and suddenly, the world, seemingly collectively, turns in on him and says, "No, we're going to shoot you in the street like a dog." - And you know what? I hate to say, but I think he may have known it was coming and he was one of those types that was like, "Whatever, I allow this to happen." - That makes me angry. - Right? In the murder investigation that followed, there was only one suspect, a shooter that Trena identified as Del Clement, who was a part owner of the D and G Tavern. However, Clement denied the charge and there were no other witnesses to come forward. Ultimately, the DA and the coroner's jury did not order an arrest warrant or press charges. Harry N. MacLean, author of a book on the case titled In Broad Daylight, spent some time with Clement during his years researching his book and describes Clement as a, quote, short man with a chip on his shoulder and a hot temper, wore a cowboy hat and drank heavily, end quote. In regards to the shooting, MacLean describes Clement saying, quote, "It wasn't hard to imagine him jerking the gun "from his pickup in a burst of anger and opening up "on the large black head on the other side "of the rear window of the pickup." End quote. MacLean also says that in the years he spent researching, he never heard another name seriously mentioned as the shooter besides Del Clement. In 2009, Clement passed away, and up until his death, he continued to deny any role in the killing. - [Shane] I don't think anyone was after glory in this incident. - [Ryan] No. - [Shane] You know, I don't think anyone needed to say, the people who were directly affected by it, they seemingly were all gathered around. They know what happened, they know who shot him, so you don't have to shout to the world, "Hey, it was me!" - No. - Because you walk into that general store, they give you the nod, you give them the nod. - It brings the town together. - Yeah. - In a weird way, this horrible event has brought the town together in a very poetic and beautiful moment. - I can imagine the town was a lot happier after this. - [Ryan] That being said, author Harry N. MacLean has also noted, quote, "I personally believe it's a mistake "to put too much emphasis on who pulled the trigger," end quote, which brings us back to the town hall meeting that preceded the shooting. It's easy to wonder if the murder was a plot that formed there. Though, MacLean has posed that he doesn't believe the killing was a planned vigilante action. Rather, he believes that few people made an impulsive decision to take action, but the small town stood by them in solidarity with their complicit silence. - [Shane] I love it. - [Ryan] Let me ask you this. - [Shane] Mmhmm. - [Ryan] Some people have maybe questioned, was this meeting a place where they were like, "Okay, we're gonna go out there, "you two are gonna shoot him, "and we're not gonna say anything." I'm not saying that is what happened, but if it is in fact how it happened, is that fine? Does that make this worse? - [Shane] I don't think it makes it worse. I do think it was probably spontaneous though. - [Ryan] I agree. I think, maybe, the meeting went poorly. People saw that nothing was gonna happen, the sheriff was mentioning a neighborhood watch as a solution. - But I think that maybe fed the idea. If they were talking about, "Well, we need to keep an eye on this guy. "We all need to band together." Then they get news that he's heading to the tavern so they were probably like, "Great, let's just go intimidate him." Maybe all of them, a group of them, decided to go do that, which would lead to one of them, just-- - Yeah, I mean, I think it was a meeting where obviously everyone was airing out their disdain for this man. - And if you collectively understand that everyone in this town feels the same way for the first, I don't know-- - For the first, maybe, maybe this is the first time they're all airing out their grievances. They realize there's nothing they can do to stop this man. They know everyone feels this way. - Yeah. - And then you hear he's outside by the tavern. - Green light. - Everyone goes, "Let's just go out there and look." And two people-- - They know. - They're like, "Nah, it's ending right now." - They know everybody's got their back. - [Ryan] Once the local Major Case Squad investigated, the FBI also investigated. Ultimately, three grand juries heard evidence, but no one was ever indicted for the murder. Trena filed a six million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against the town of Skidmore, Nodaway County, the Sheriff Danny Estes, Skidmore's Mayor, Steve Peters, and Del Clement, only July 9th, 1984. However, the case ultimately settled for $17,600. Trena ended up leaving town and remarrying, and passed away in 2012 on her 55th birthday. As recently as 2006, then Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey said of the McElroy case, quote, "They all seem to know who did it, "but they don't want to get involved. "I'll do everything in my power to arrest the person." End quote. Though, it's noted that he is said to have said this in a tone, quote, conveying no particular optimism. - Vigilante justice is a slippery slope. - It is, it's an ethical dilemma. - You don't want a whole town getting carried away. Maybe that guy doesn't cut his lawn often enough. You don't want a whole town murdering him. But in this case, I think it's abundantly clear-- - I do. - That some action was needed. - Action was needed to be taken. Whatever that action ended up being, we were just gonna have to live with, because they've gone through years, and decades, literally, of oppression from this man. I think it would be unfortunate to take away from what this town did together and the fact that they took a stand against something that was truly evil. - I don't think we've ever really delved into moral dilemmas quite like this. - We did metaphorically draw the line in the sand. Where you stand on it is up to you. After McElroy's death, the town as a whole saw a significant decrease in the amount of cattle and pig thefts in the county, even just in the subsequent month. The case garnered national media attention from outlets such as Rolling Stone and 60 Minutes. Headlines often emphasized the vigilante nature of the killing. What remains concrete are the facts. A man was killed on account of his actions, and we'll likely never officially know the shooter. How you feel about it can be debated both internally and externally. But regardless, the case of Ken Rex McElroy will officially remain unsolved. (ominous music)
Info
Channel: BuzzFeed Multiplayer
Views: 6,277,293
Rating: 4.954813 out of 5
Keywords: Buzzfeed unsolved, BuzzFeed, unsolved, mystery, unsolved mystery, unexplained, investigation, investigate, investigative, true crime, crime, criminal, theory, theories, case, cold case, cold-case, detective, detectives, scary, spooky, creepy, eerie, weird, strange, haunted, ghost, monster, demon, creepypasta, supernatural, paranormal, Ken Rex McElroy, murder, small town, vigilante, crowd, bar, justice, moral, morals, shotgun, ryan bergara, shane madej
Id: tZktTdGHaJY
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)
Published: Fri Feb 23 2018
Reddit Comments

Not gonna lie, this case was pretty satisfying tbh. I enjoy unsolved mysteries, but it’s nice to hear one where you can more or less make out the solution. Usually with their videos, I get all excited to see who the killer is and then I’m like “shit wait it’s unsolved”.

Obviously vigilante justice is not okay, but...the people of this town really had their backs against the wall here.

👍︎︎ 28 👤︎︎ u/MakinBaconPancakezz 📅︎︎ Feb 23 2018 🗫︎ replies

I wanna have my two cents on this, because the amount of people saying it’s wrong is a little upsetting. Let me start off by saying, we’re all adults here, and can be civil. We all have opinions, and they aren’t facts so it isn’t ever possible for someone’s opinion to be wrong, but I think it’s much more arguable that this guy deserved this. I’m a firm believer in two “wrongs don’t make a right”, but we live in a society wherein the “wrongs” or crimes don’t need to be punished by our neighbours because we have police and a justice system to do that for us; so what the fuck is going to happen when crime is allowed to continue?

This guy was blatantly tormenting the people around him, and never being punished for it. He clearly relished in their torment, and it isn’t something that can be easily ignored for the victims. As someone who’s been a victim of long-term abuse from individuals, I can vouch for how much is breaks your spirit and makes you live in total fear. And honestly, knowing that these people are still out there makes me feel uneasy, as that level of fear just doesn’t leave you. It’s easy to assume that now people would go to the police, they’d find some evidence, and the guy would be arrested, but that unfortunately wasn’t the case. I’m just glad all the people he tormented eventually were released from the horrible man.

👍︎︎ 13 👤︎︎ u/molly_lyon 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

bunsolved

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/zachieattackie45 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

I may not believe in murder BUT I understand their reasoning for doing it. This guy was a menace who used his size to intimidate and abuse other people in the town and somehow avoided jail time for most of it. Honestly, he had it coming.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/jazziefey 📅︎︎ Feb 24 2018 🗫︎ replies

I knew a little about this case beforehand, but I didn't fully understand the amount of torment he was putting the town through. It's interesting that the women in his life defended him though and I wonder whether that was down to genuine affection or speaks to the psychological hold he had them under.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/WoollyNinja 📅︎︎ Feb 25 2018 🗫︎ replies
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