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Perversely, the towns share of tragedy has grown. 1 or 2 men (unclear) took guns and shot Ken Rex McElroy dead in his truck. We went to the courts. The man asked, what are you doing here? Boyer remembers. As he sat drinking at the bar, word got back to the men at the Legion Hall that he was in town. The FBI entered the case stiff-arming and threatening people, is how Monte, the Bowenkamps daughter, relates it. The justice system just crashed and burned over this case.. Ken is later charged and arrested. It was Richard McFadin, the man who kept Ken McElroy out of jail 21 times, who said it best: The town got away with murder.. SKIDMORE, Mo. As his long tenure comes to an end questions about the lack of resolution in the murder case perhaps the most infamous in the area since Jesse James was shot nearby a century earlier continue to follow Mr. Baird. McElroy was also accused of abusing his first two wives, Sharon and Alice, but Alice defended him in an interview shortly after his death. Of the potential 40 or so witnesses, with the exception of Trena, none could name a shooter. The Vigilantemurder of Ken Rex McElroy still remains a mystery today. He put those skills to work rustling hogs and cattle, MacLean recounts. The courts would not help us or Skidmore. We went everywhere we could, but justice would stay delicately out the way, she said. Absolutely not, he said. Nobody called an ambulance. But unless a very credible witness came forward, its not likely to happen., The Burger Chef Cold Case: Four Murders Still Unsolved Over 40 Years Later. When Daylight Saving Time 2023 Begins, Will It Be For The Last Time. The people of the town keep their heads down and prefer to not speak about the incident. June 25th, 1981: Ken McElroy is sentenced to two years in jail. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. Ken Rex McElroy was an American known as "the town bully" of Skidmore, Missouri. There's a long list of crimes said to have been committed by McElroy, including shooting multiple people. Immediately after being released at a post-trial hearing, McElroy went to the D&G Tavern, a local bar, with an M1 Garand rifle with a bayonet attached, and made graphic threats about what he would do to Bo Bowenkamp. McElroy wound up shooting Bowenkamp in the neck, nearly killing him. Many buildings are closed and falling apart. July 10th, 1981: The townspeople gather around Ken's truck once he and Trena exit the bar. They delivered messages in code. What started with hunting raccoons escalated into petty crime until McElroy ultimately emerged as a full-fledged criminal. McElroy's appeal hearing was again delayed. That they had guns at the ready wasnt unusual. Women had a harder time with it than the men. After Sally had had three kids, Ken kicks her out of the house. Few were criticized as mightily as Baird over the lack of prosecution in McElroys murder. Sixteen days after Trena gave birth, both she and Alice fled to Trena's mother's and stepfather's house. Is dumpster diving legal in Missouri and Illinois? McElroys wife named one person as a possible gunman, but no one couldor wouldidentify who fired the shots. Shortly after being released, McElroy was at D&G Tavern making threats about murdering Bowenkamp. Ive never thought there was a series of phone calls that went around dont say this or that. Those farmers have known each other since they were children. Part of his teeth were lying on the dashboard, Boyer recalls. I got in the car and was shaking so bad.. Often, witnesses changed their mind about testifying before trials began, MacLean said, and if a case did make it to trial, a juror might open the mailbox to find a rattlesnake. The murder took place on July 10, 1981, the day after McElroy had threatened Bowenkamp at the tavern. Everyone was keeping an eye on us. Yet in a conspiracy of silence that has spanned the past 38 years, the townsfolk have held the secret close. The death of Ken Rex McElroy is a perplexing case that has hung heavy over the town of Skidmore, Missouri for decades. He made no deathbed confession, but someone wrote in a memorial tribute that he . In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean / Via. You know what he was like. This past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of the killing of Ken Rex McElroy of Skidmore. It was a misunderstanding, but one that made the Bowenkamps lives a living hell for months. McElroy was accused of raping two young women, as young as 12 years old, both of whom he was said to have "married" to keep them from testifying against him. McElroy divorced Alice and married Trena in order to escape charges of statutory rape, to which she was the only witness. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD8iUdp33PqTsix2sGblEQZ8m5FQycC5D Vigilante justice, or cold-blooded murder?MERCH: We've got it! He quit.. The people of the town keep their heads down and prefer to not speak about the incident. They could finally sleep peacefully at night, especially Bo and Lois Bowenkamp and their children. The DA declined to press charges and the following investigation proved to be futile. You dont take cases to trial to see what might happen, the former prosecutor said. How could it? Ken Rex McElroy was shot dead in Skidmore, Missouri on July 10, 1981. Instead, he continued to harass Bowenkamp. He showed up to the towns local bar, armed with a rifle and bayonet, threatening to kill the elderly grocer. Ken was 18 and Oleta was 16. The grocer lived and McElroy was again arrested and charged with attempted murder. Trena McElroy fingered a local rancher as one of the gunmen, but he denied the claim. No one has any idea what a nightmare we lived.. It's said the county's law enforcement officials were afraid of encountering McElroy, who was known to be heavily armed. Get out of town, they said. McElory was struck by two different firearms and died behind the wheel of his truck. Its never going to happen.. [1], McElroy was born in 1934, the 15th of 16 children born to a poor, migrant tenant-farming couple named Tony and Mabel (ne Lister) McElroy, who had moved between Kansas and the Ozarks before settling outside of Skidmore. Then, on a warm July night, McElroy shot my dad as he sat on the back loading dock of his store, waiting for an air conditioner repairman, Monte said. Additional charges were filed against McElroy.[7]. In all, there were 46 potential witnesses to the shooting, including Trena McElroy, who was in the truck with her husband when he was shot. An extensive federal investigation did not lead to any charges. He was a goodhearted person. 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. No one bothered to turn it off. 1952: Ken McElroy marries his first wife Oleta. The stories of McElroy's relationships contain some troubling details, but the information is important to paint the full picture. in the A&E App.]. 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. He raped McCloud repeatedly. Posted on July 14, 2011 by Harry. Things reached a boiling point in 1980 when Ken McElroy got into a confrontation with the towns elderly grocer, Ernest Bo Bowenkamp. According to reports, some 50 people were outside the tavern when the shooting started. To the residents of the small town, he was the town bully. Then, on the night of July 8, 1980, McElroy shot 70-year-old Skidmore grocer Ernst Bo Bowenkamp, unwittingly setting up his own murder a year later. Like so many other small towns, Skidmore has shrunk inside itself, watching businesses close and residents depart. According to a report, no one called an ambulance. In court, Bowenkamp testified about how McElroy confronted him in the loading dock of the grocery while he was cutting up boxes and shot him in the neck. He was charged 21 times in theft cases but was said to have avoided conviction through witness intimidation, either by direct confrontation or by parking his truck outside their home. One night after he pulled a speeding pickup truck over, Boyer came face to face with McElroy. In a trial for shooting a Skidmore man in 1976 two witnesses appeared saying they had been with McElroy hunting miles away from the scene. I have no doubt hed have tried to kill my mom. After all these years, people talk about it still, said Marla Messner, 37, a restaurant manager who remembers being hurried inside her home for safety anytime Mr. McElroy came to town. After dropping out of school in the eighth grade, it didn't take long for Ken McElroy to fall into a life of delinquency. But even after a federal prosecutor forwarded to Mr. Baird what he called substantial new evidence, no one was indicted. There was a kind of silent charity on the part of my parents, and they never prosecuted. My experience is that trying a case is not always good at bringing closure, Mr. Baird said. They just went stone silent. McElroy was hit twice and died. They could have pushed and dug, pushed and dug and gotten nothing, said Huston. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Win a Midday Makeover from Studio STL and West County, Hold my beer its time to sign up for the St. Patricks, Tims Travels: Dreaming in silestone and slabs its, Downtown is turning green for St. Patricks Day Parade, The 7brew Crew brings kindness, joy and of course,, Freshen up finds: Give your skin a slug-hug, What the Cluck! McElroy was eventually convicted, but the charge was lessened from "attempt to kill" to "knowingly caused serious physical injury" to ensure a conviction. And despite there being dozens of witnesses, no one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with McElroys murder. He then returned to Trena's parents' home when they were away and, once again, shot the family dog and burned the house down. 1. His foot fell to the accelerator when he was shot, causing the engine to run at full bore. Allegedly, even the mayor was in on it. The law wasnt going to help the people of Skidmore. [14] Trena remarried and moved to Lebanon, Missouri, where she died of cancer on her 55th birthday on January 24, 2012.[15]. He was known as the town bully , but they may be putting it mildly. They were witnesses. 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]. The Oscars will air on ABC and can be streamed on ABC.com and the ABC app as well as Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV or FuboTV. McElroy four years earlier had pumped a couple of rounds of buckshot into the stomach of local farmer Romaine Henry as he tried to run the blackguard off his land. All Rights Reserved. Carjackers Steal More Cars Many With Kids Still Inside, After Indulgent Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday Signals Abstinence, Fasting.