Search above to list available cemeteries. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Ken McElroy - Wikipedia Seventy-five or so people gathered at the Sam R. Albright American Legion Hall on July 10, 1981, to discuss what could be done. They killed. McElroy was arrested on assault charges, but Alices stepfather would need to testify. A lot of old timers complain that they dont know many of the other residents, a lot of whom work in surrounding communities. The truck engine burned up in the half-hour he was left slumped in the cab, his foot lodged on the accelerator. Born June 2, 1948, in Louisville, Ky., he was the son of the late C.C. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21971/ken-rex-mcelroy. Not long after leaving school, McElroy sustained a head injury when he fell from a hay wagon. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. McElroy dropped out of school in the eighth grade. However, he lived only to experience the next chapter in the saga of being a victim of Ken Rex McElroy. The two came out from the back of the store, also becoming subject to the couples ranting. It has been a year since Kenneth Rex McElroy, described as the town bully, was shot to death on the main street of this farming community. He lived to satisfy his own desires, and abided by his own sense of self-serving justice. What could legally be done about McElroy, they asked Sheriff Danny Estes, who had been elected months earlier. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. McElroy and Trena got up without saying a word, pushing their way through the crowd towards the exit. ''Sure, I want this thing solved. She was in shock but not physically injured. She took her complaint to at-the-time Nodaway County Sheriff Roger Cronk. No, he would dutifully pull the bus over and offer her up, no doubt justifying his action by touting the safety of the other students as well as his own. This part is a rollercoaster. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. There is a problem with your email/password. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. After the photos. Once, he even got out and fired a shotgun up in the pine tree by their house. (SECOM) Evelyn lived cross the street, and he made sure she could see them. In Part II we will learn more about the incident that would make Skidmore Missouri and Ken Rex McElroy a national news story and a mystery that stills haunts the town nearly forty years later. McElroy was hardly a loving husband and regularly beat Sharon. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. Thanks for your help! Trena McCloud went on to become Ken McElroys third wife (lifedaily.com). Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. Now that the hearing had been delayed, and McElroy no doubt knew who the witnesses were, the entire town felt a sense of impending doom about what was to come. No one called an ambulance. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224629012/debbie-ann-mcelroy. Bo survived, McElroy was arrestedbut he got out on bail, and began harassing the officer who arrested him, Richard Stratton. McElroy got in his truck and drove away, leaving the farmer to whatever fate. SLAIN BULLY'S TOWN LOOKS BACK WITHOUT PITY, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/11/us/slain-bully-s-town-looks-back-without-pity.html. That they had guns at the ready wasnt unusual. There was an error deleting this problem. 20 What set off McElroy and put the local grocer in his crosshairs was the pettiest of offenses. As Trena told the story to reporters, a group of men followed them as they left the D&G. Had I sought out the Clements and their crowd, I would have gone to the Elks Club in Maryville on Saturday night, the scene of my almost-violent encounter with Del and his friends years ago. A trucker had warned that I had better not write about Clement at all anymore, and another had said my facts were wrongthat Del was a wonderful human beingand that I should in fact just forget about the whole thing, since everyone else had. So is Stratton. His lifelong career as a criminal started with petty offenses, but he increasingly became more violent, amassing a rap sheet that included nearly two dozen felony charges for assault, child molestation, statutory rape, arson, burglary, grain theft, and hog and cattle rustling enterprises that kept a thick roll of hundred-dollar bills in his pocket. Ken Rex McElroy was shot in broad daylight on July 10, 1981, as he sat with his wife, Trina, in the front seat of their pickup truck in Skidmore. The guns were never recovered. But not one person has come forward. I went to his gravesite a few years after he died , & took a piss on his grave, thats how much I thought of him", https://www.harrymaclean.com/blog/no-death-bed-confession/. Eventually, Sharon and McElroy had two children. They were witnesses. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. . Why are you doing this? By 14 years old Trena was pregnant with their first child. Despite his conviction, he was still the arrogant goon he had always been. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? Your Scrapbook is currently empty. A couple of men hustled Trena to a nearby bank, away from the gunfire. The truth is that the people of Skidmore, Missouri, were sick and tired of living their lives in fear under tyrannical reign of Ken McElroy, which by then had stretched over two decades. Ernst Bo Bowenkamp (source: morbidology.com). Anyone heard any new info from people who were there? Cite This Collection "British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries." Davis The charges came as a result of what Trena had told the police. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Many wondered: Why didnt Baird press charges against the man Trena McElroy fingered as her husbands killer? 3PL . At this point Ken Rex McElroy had terrorized the community of Skidmore for over a decade, and all indications were that he was going to keep getting away with it. 0 cemeteries found in Saint Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA. This is when the rage amongst locals reached boiling point. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Women had a harder time with it than the men. Ken Rex took, and the only thing he ever gave was fear. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. Longstanding Grudges. Everyone in town seemed to know McElroy had done it, yet he spent only a single night in jail for nearly killing the man. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. They became disenchanted with the legal processes, yet frightened by Mr. McElroy's volatile disposition. McElroy swaggered around town as he always did and sat drinking for hours at his usual haunt, the D&G Tavern. Ken Rex made bail and was out within a day or so, and went looking for Trena. Burial. Eventually, after an altercation at a bar during which McElroy threatened him with a shotgun, Alices stepfather dropped the assault charges. Faces turn away at a strangers approach. On the south side of the Garden of the Last Supper memorial. This is not the story of a brutal man that terrorized his family and did bad things. After McElroy fired a gun outside her house, Evelyn Sumy appealed to Dave Dunbar, the town marshal. Once you boil away to the facts of what occurred, you can probably point to hundreds of similar reports every week across the United States., If McElroy had been shot by a lone gunman on a dark road at night, it would have made the Maryville paper for a day, MacLean said. By the time McElroy was shot dead under the glare of the morning sun on July 10, 1981, everybody feared his hair-trigger temper and brooding presence. Ken Rex McElroy was not a nice man. Weve updated the security on the site. By the time their second child was born, McElroy found another girlfriend, Sally, who was only thirteen, while Ken was around twenty-seven. They talked about the bail bond that allowed Mr. McElroy to circulate freely after an assault conviction for shooting an elderly grocer, Ernest Bowenkamp. McFadin, McElroys lawyer, got the hearing postponed. He stalked the house where she was, brandishing his shotgun, and boring holes into the residents of the home with his steely eyes. SLAIN BULLY'S TOWN LOOKS BACK WITHOUT PITY Make sure that the file is a photo. It wasnt long before he became a violent menace, his more serious crimes including rape, assault and child molestation. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Few residents seem to care. Recent leaks into killing of town bully Ken Rex McElroy - Reddit It went beyond just hammering people and being mean-spirited. Ken Rex grew into a large and intimidating figure. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Heavy lids veiled cold, steel-blue eyes, making them look like half moons. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. We went to the courts. But of course, McElroy filed an appeal of his conviction, and was let out on $40,000 bond while his appeal was pending. Ken Rex McElroy did not limit his torture and abuse just to those who lived with him. Fidelity wasnt a strong suit of Ken Rex, or of any interest to him at all for that matter. Still working within the justice system, witnesses who saw McElroy with the gun gave the information the county prosecutor needed to request a bond revocation hearing. Calling the sheriff about his threats was risk few were willing to take not that it would have done much good, Goslee said. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. His favored methods of intimidation included approaching people, hissing threats at them and shoving his shotgun in their faces. This browser does not support getting your location. Skidmore looks different. This leaves three Clement boys.). This account has been disabled. Ken Rex McElroy Yes, that would make him Ken McElroys grandson. Ken was my grandfather derome was my father Im deromes oldest my mother is trace I wish I could of meet my grandfather An understandable wish. Im sure youve heard many good and bad things about him. Tony , I am your aunt Tina your dad is my brother . I havent seen you since you was about 2. They delivered messages in code. In the months before McElroy went to trial, the Bowenkamps and Sumy went to bed scared, woke up frightened and lived in terror with every breath. No one else corroborated Trenas story. Try again. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Debbie McElroy (224629012)? 1955 or 56: Ken and Oleta McElroy move back to Missouri after Ken's accident in Colorado. The townspeople organized a caravan to escort the witnesses to the hearing both to protect them and to show solidarity. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Nobody tried to hang them for finding a way to kill a germ. That it was a vigilante killing is not true for a lot of reasons; if they had decided to kill him, they wouldnt have stood in the street to watch the murder unfold, he said. Just as he was taking his first drag, the sound of two gunshots rang out. He was literally untouchable right up until the day he wasnt. The murder of Ken Rex McElroy took place in plain view of dozens of residents in Skidmore, Mo., and will most likely never be solved. Trena Louise McNeeley McElroy Williams (1957-2012) - Find a When Estes and state troopers arrived back in town, the streets were empty and quiet, save the rumbling, smoking engine of McElroys truck. They know how everybody thinks.. Close to fifty of them had come together and made a plan to protect the witnesses who were going to testify against McElroy. A lot of old timers complain that they dont know many of the other residents, a lot of whom work in surrounding communities. A hearing was scheduled, in which the witnesses would testify that they had seen McElroy in the bar in possession of a loaded weapon. SKIDMORE, MO Four decades after Ken Rex McElroy was gunned down on the main drag of Skidmore, Missouri, in one of Americas most infamous cold cases, the story of the notoriously brutal town bully has refused to die with him no matter how much the farmers and blue-collar workers who live in the small farming town wish it would. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. One assumption Skidmore hasnt been able to shed is that McElroys killing was an act of vigilante justice. From 12 to 60 people, by varying estimates, marched down the street. He relied on witness intimidation to prove his innocence, and he was a master at it. The bank is closed; Moms cafe is closed; the grocery store where McElroy shot Bo over one of his kids swiping some candy is closed. After her husband's death, Mrs. McElroy moved away. His first wife, Sharon, was fifteen when they met, while McElroy was at least twenty. There just wouldnt have been a story.. , [ : (, )] Designed by McWilliams Media Tulsa, OK Website Design, McAlester Estate Planning | McAlester Attorneys | Will and Trust. Your email address will not be published. Those who witnessed the killing didnt speak of it again, not because they were part of a conspiracy, MacLean believes, but because theyre stoic by nature. Wife says one of 60 vigilantes killed husband - UPI Archives What gave rise to that theory is that they were in the Legion hall for a meeting, then went down to the D&G [when they heard McElroy was in town]. I have a feeling his neighbors would have described him somewhat differently. Police said he had previously been charged with chicken theft, attempted
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