(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)
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.
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.
bunsolved
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.
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.