BONUS: Ken McElroy with Scott Williams

He's bad.

Whoa we did?

It was a great.

Proud of us.

I think that was an amazing really appreciate that. I did laugh at that you made. But that's okay.

But it's okay, okay, it's okay. It doesn't leave you say it's okay. It actually doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Now. When we sat down for you to tell us this story, you said to me, are you okay? With a really gnarly murder?

Yeah?

I did, and that is a good for me.

Yeah, okay, all right? Should I crack straight into all right? On July the tenth, nineteen eighty one, Ken McElroy and his wife Trina walked out of the DNG barring downtown Skid Moore, Missouri. They climbed in on.

Ski was skid, wrote to sound Glass. Yeah, thanks, you've a weird elder, said the actual.

They climbed into King's truck and he placed the six pack of beer he had purchased on the seat between them. Ken pulled a cigarette out of his pack, leaned forward to engage the truck cigarette lighter. As he sat back up, his wife screened in horror, he has a gun. Suddenly, shots rang out in the small town main street. Ken's truck was struck around fifty nine times from bullets firing

She was at all.

This is the story of the murder of Ken McElroy. It feels I want to warn you about two things.

Don't yell at me.

I'm not yelling at your Stop and listen to It's what's lovely story he's brought today.

It's lovely.

The thing about this story, this is the first thing I'll warn you out. The thing about this story. You're going to feel a lot more conflicted about this murder than you do now. No. And the second thing is I do actually think of the first for the first time as the third wheel of the podcast that we need to give a trigger warning this story. This story is full of violence, okay, and seafoods me.

Oh no, no, seafood. Not see, I'm fine with violence.

But if you had.

Offered me five million dollars to pick.

Your next that's a trigger warning, seafood.

So we will be mentioning what can only be called statutory rape, violence against women. And so if that is concerning for you, you actually might want to skip this episode on. Certainly not have it on with the kids in the car.

Sure, and seafood as well.

And seafood. In nineteen seventy two, Tony and Mabel McElroy lived in a small town in Kansas. Mabel had married Tony when she was fourteen years old, pregnant, and.

He was told, oh gross, yack.

Tony had trouble finding and keeping work because of his drinking and it's in explosive temper. However, Mabel was frugal and just before the start of the Great Depression, they were able to lease a large parcel of land just outside of Skidmore, Missouri. It was around two hundred acres with a four bedroom home included Wow. Tom planted corn crops. Unfortunately for the young couple, the season in Missouri was one of the driest on record, and the rainless season meant they lost the entire crop.

Oh my god.

Tony had to go back to menial jobs, working on other people's farms and taking on construction jobs to make ends meet. Despite their poverty, they continued having children, and Ken McElroy was born on June sixteen nine and thirty four. He was the fifteenth of the sixteen children.

Oh my god, that's so many.

Who lived in a four bedroom house.

Oh my gosh, sixteen children children.

Both his parents worked more than twelve hours a day in several jobs, and their children basically ranged as free as they liked.

You'd have to work some new jobs for sixteen children, Oh my god.

Being the youngest child, very few of the family paid any attention to Ken. He did not take to school, and he never learned to read well. One of his teachers remembered that when he did come to school, he would smell so badly that the teacher would have to take him to the washroom and show him how to clean himself so that the other children could stand having him in the same way.

Wow.

Ken decided to leave school part way through grade five, and no one in the family really noticed that he was no longer attending school.

Wow.

Ken was a bored child and would cause trouble in the town. In one incident, when he was a child, Ken was accused by a local store owner of stealing. He went home and complained to his father. Rather than reprimand the boy, his father, Toney charged into the store with a curved hunting knife in his hands and slammed the owner up against the wall. He allegedly said to the owner, if you ever touched my boy again, or cut your fucking heart out. Ken started stealing in the area,

This is Diggs's dream right now, driving town pigs.

It wouldn't sell them.

Bring him in here.

And when I wrote that, I just wanted to foot la la lah lovey.

Please watch Sammy's stand up special if you did not get that reference.

At eighteen, Ken married for the first time to sixteen year old Aleta Holland. They moved to Denver, and for a short time, Ken was doing well. Then one day, while working on a construction site, a large beam fell around thirty feet, striking King directly on the head. He was wearing a helmet, which split in two.

He survived. Wow, Wow, that's so lucky.

Ken took this as a sign that the straight life was not for him, and he left his job. He and a lader moved back to Skidmore to live with his parents. At twenty years old, while still married to Alie, he allegedly raped and impregnated a local sixteen year old girl.

Oh god.

The girl took the pregnancy to term, and she died while giving birth to twins. The twins did also not survive.

No God.

A former classmate tells us that the pigs.

Yeah, go back to the happy pigs.

What was it that I said?

I agree?

Sorry, you think that's gnarly. A former classmate told the story that the girl's family began to raise concerns about what Ken had done. He broke into their house one night raped their other daughter to show them that they were vulnerable.

Oh my gosh, I think I'm going to have.

To leave the family stopped talking about their younger daughter's death, and they never raised charges with the police.

Oh my god, that is disgusting.

While this was happening, Ken had met and started dating a fifteen year old girl named Sharon. They had a complicated relationship, and during an argument when afternoon, while sitting in his truck, Ken pulled our shotgun and held it against Sharon's face. He told her if she didn't stop bloody talking, he would shoot. Later, Sharon said that the gun accidentally discharged, what ripping into her face and neck

Oh my god.

As soon as she was released from the hospital, Ken convinced her that they should get married. Ah. He divorced a letter and married Sharon, which ensured that Sharon could not testify against him for the shooting.

My god, I was.

Just going to say, Sammy has kindly invited you into his home.

That's true.

He's given you a glass of Shandon.

Thank you, and you thank you, and you have abused the open invite by coming in here and telling us g like that.

Telling us these stories.

G look, don't flick through your.

Pages at me on that clipboard.

We're at the start of this story. Sharon.

You if you're not watching on the YouTube, I was so creepy. You just read ahead and gave a creepiest little girl.

Oh no, just call me buttons. They had two children, Sharon and Ken. Then, around nineteen sixty one, twenty seven year old McElroy started dating a thirteen year old girl named Sally, who he had met while she was waiting at a local bus stop.

I was going to sit here and quietly disassociated.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He and Sharon were living with his parents, and McElroy decided to move Sally in with his wife, Sharon and their children. Sally had three children to Ken, and Sharon had two more.

And they were just still living together.

Yes.

The name of the slave that Thomas Jefferson repeatedly raped and I think she fathered children to him was also called Sally.

There you go.

Really just thought I'd tell you were disturbing stories, horrible things.

Ken would spend his days hanging out with his hunting buddies, and at night he would steal horses, hogs, and cattle. By this time, he had an old truck and a horse trailer that made stealing easier. In one incident, a local farmer, Glenn Graham, caught Ken and two of his friends stealing two horses. Allegedly, the farmer went out to the paddock to check his horses and was brutally attacked by Ken and his friends. This is where we get a little bit gnarly.

This is this is where gannali.

They allegedly used brass knuckles and clubs to beat Glenn. When he dropped to the ground, they continued beating him, and according to the sheriff's report, his left eye appeared to have been kicked out of his.

Head, out of his head, justut of his head. Horrendous correct use of the word horrenders horrendous.

Now I'm going to keep saying allegedly occasionally in this because Ken has never been convicted of men these crimes.

Wow.

Ken was charged with this assault and this is when he met attorney Richard McFadden on this occasion. He didn't need the attorney, however, because something other than stealing that Ken was great at was intimidation.

Yeah, I'm so surprised by that, saying he talked all these young women into marrying him.

And.

All these young women so far.

Also no not young women, children children.

The day after he was charged, McElroy visited the farmer asked him to drop the chargers, and when the farmer refused, McElroy returned to his truck, got a gun, entered the farmer's home and hit him in the face with the gun, breaking his nose and fracturing his other eye socket. The farmer, Glenn Graham, dropped all charges. The fact that the charges

Sha harmonized as value to good staff.

In nineteen sixty four, now thirty year old Ken McElroy met Alice outside the corner store. She asked him to buy her cigarettes, and he agreed on the condition that she would smoke them in his truck. Ils was twelve. Oh my god, when Ken first seduced her.

Ah.

And please note I use the word seduced because that's how Ken's wife described it. But it's actually not the right word. It's statutory rape. In fact, it's not that. In nineteen sixty nine, thirty four year old Ken was introduced by Alice to her eighth grade friend, Trina McGinn, who became very who became very fond of Ken very quickly. Trina would get other twelve year old students to sign her mother's name on absentee notes so she could sneak

Wow.

At fourteen years old, Trina had her first child.

To what He's like thirty six, thirty.

Four, thirty four on thirty six. Now that she's w.

Your math is amazing then, because it's usually not.

Something's happening today. You've rewired my brain incredibly disturbing, so much I can now do add to like nobody. Thank you.

He became math. That was amazing.

There was no room for Trina at his parents' house, so Ken kick Sally out and Trina moved in with Ken. Sharon, Sharon's kids and Ken's parents and.

Ken's parents are still around through all of this. Yep, oh, I have some words.

But the happy home did not last long. Just after Trina gave birth, Sharon convinced her that they had to get out of the house, and they ran off and went to Trina's parents home for refuge.

So Trena's parents were on board with this as well.

Well. Trina's parents were around, ran exactly on board.

They were around.

Ken came to Trena's parents home with a gun and forced the girls to come back home with him. When he got them home, he beat them each He beat each of them and then made each of them have sex with him.

Oh my god, I hate this.

Yes. He then took Trina in his truck back to her parents' house, shot the family dog, poured petrol around the outside of the house, and burned it down so Trina's family would know never to protect her again.

Oh what the fuck?

What the fuck?

A few days later, Trina attended a doctor because the wounds from her beating and sexual assult were severe. The doctor was able to convince Trina to tell him the truth about the beating, the shooting, and the arson.

The Big three.

Yep. The doctor contacted social wa who took Trina and her child to a foster care. Remember she was fourteen years old.

Oh, I got to hurt to foster care too, because she's.

Because she's still a fucking toil. That's why. On the basis of her testimony, Ken was indicted for arson, statutory rape, and assault. Richard McFadden represented mcaorory, again, saying that he was his favorite client because he always comes back and he always pays cash.

Jesus cursed.

The attorney's tactic each time was to delay the case until he and Kean could work out a solution. Guess what Ken's solution was on this occasion, intimidation. He found the foster home where Trina was house and started making threatening phone calls. He would sit outside the house for hours with his headlights on, shining through the windows of the home, and occasionally he would fire a shotgun into

Oh I wonder lie.

To get Trina's mother to agree to the marriage, Ken went to the house where they now lived, because remember he'd burned out, he killed their new dog, and he holed a knife to Trina's mother's throat, and, according to Trina's mother, politely asked her to reconsider how.

Did to throat? And politely? After plight what a psycho?

Trina's mother signed the paperwork allowing Trina to marry Ken. Marrying Trina meant that she could not be compelled to testify against him. She also signed a statement to say she'd made up the beating of rape charges and the arson story just because she was mad at Ken, and McElroy was beat the charges. In nineteen seventy six, he shot his neighbor, another farmer, with a shotgun filled with

It doesn't kill him, okay.

He would drive past the farmer's house, shine a spotlight through his windows at night, destroy his tractors, and he stood out on the property boundary firing guns into the neighbor's crops. The farmer said McElroy was packed out his home at least one hundred times. Ken also went to the judge's property and burned down his barn, leaving a poorly written note which said your cattle and children next to the judge.

To the judge, Okay, I'm going to just say here.

Doing the story very much, I do not come.

He thanks you for that, condone, And I have never I don't think ever in my life thought before that taking someone else's life would be a good thing. But right now I want to ask you, why no one seeing everyone's and farmers and everyone in the land, and everyone's got guns. Why did no one even perhaps accidentally maybe go out hunting?

And what happened at the start of the story? G But this is later before now I know.

Yep.

So, even though there were witnesses to the shooting, two of Ken's hunting buddies testified that he'd been with them the whole day and the witnesses must be mistaken. Remarkably, the judge accepted that testimony. The judge so judge, and Ken was not convicted. In nineteen eighty two of Ken and Trina's daughters went to the local store to buy some household groceries. The store was run by Lois and Ernest bowen Camp, a couple who were beloved in the town.

Lois and Earnest as they were.

Leaving, Yeah, as they were leaving, the five year old picked up two pieces of candy and put them in her pocket. Seventy two year old Ernest saw her do this, grabbed her arm and told her to put them back or pay for them. The girl wriggled free and ran home to complain about her treatment to her mother, Trina. Shortly after, Trina and Ken entered the store and confronted the old couple who owned the store about how they had treated Trena's daughter, very similar to what his dad

But their names are Lewis and Ernest.

Scott changed the story.

Change the story, Scott rewrite.

It back to Disneyland. He would Ken would sit outside the store on the front of his truck with a knife or a gun, or a gun with a bayonet attached. Around a month after around a month of harassment, McElroy pulled up behind the store one afternoon, waited for Ernest Bowen Camp to come out the back door, and shot him, hitting him in the face and neck with the shotgun. The store owner lived and Ken was arrested and charged for this shooting. Oh His response was to continue to

My god.

When he found out that the town's minister had visited the store owner in hospital, he ran the minister's car off the road.

What the fuck.

Got out and threatened Ernest bowen Camp sorry, and threatened that he ever visited Ernest bowen Camp in hospital again, he would car straight the minister and then kill and dismember the minister's son in front of him.

What is this? What is this story?

McFadden was Ken's lawyer again, and guess what. He tried to delay the trial, but this time it did not work. Ken was tried and convicted to second degree assault and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Second degree assault. He shot him in the face.

But he didn't intend to kill him.

But that would be mansorter. That's a sault brother, that's a salt brother.

But as was the lawyer at the time, Ken was allowed to turn home on bail appeared.

Oh god.

The day after the trial, Ken was back at the bar, drinking heavily and telling everyone in the bar he was going to kill the store owner and the minister around three pm, Trina arrived at the bar with a loaded shotgun, which she gave to Ken. He continued to drink with the gun sitting in his lap. However, possessing a gun was a breach of his parole and this was reported to the sheriff.

Yay.

Ken was arrested and arraigned to appear in the local court for the parole breach, and this time he was held in the town lock.

Yay, things are looking up so far.

On the day of the hearing, around one hundred towns people turned up to the court to watch Ken be taken into custody.

Yay.

What they did know was that McFadden had had the case delayed and moved from Skidmore. Because of this, Ken was released from the Skidmore lockup and llowed to remain free until the date of the new arraignment.

I would like to retract all of my all.

The ones I've ever done. This story is ruined, memory.

Ruined Christmas. Furious, the town people arranged to meet the next day, July the tenth, at the American Legion Hall. For decades, Ken McElroy had bullied and victimized the count of Sycamore, most of the men of Skidmore Town attended

That feels like that.

I feel like that was said with a fair amount of win Kingdom. Yeah, I'm here as the official representative. Definitely don't do anything.

It's funny you say that, because immediately after he said this, the police officer left the meeting, got in his police cruiser and drove until he was outside the town limits, where he.

Stopped city limits.

While the townsfolk were meeting, Ken and Trina were drinking in the DNG. Bartender remembers hearing Ken say, I have been fighting the law since I was fourteen years old. I'm forty seven now, damn near fifty, and this is the closest I've ever come to losing.

Oh yea also so like, oh my god, almost fifty years old.

He's never been.

Once. The meeting at the legiond Hall ended. Approximately forty five people walked from the hall into the bar, an argument occurred between Ken and some of the townspeople. Trina has been quoted as saying that she found the atmosphere in the bar that day intimidating, hostile, little bit hostile. Ken listened to the anger of the man whilst his rifle with a bayonet attached rested on his lap, finished his bier, and he walked calmly up to the bar and bought a six pack. He and Trina left the

Wow.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, gunshots rang out, one shot after another. When the shooting stopped, Ken was shot in the neck, back, back of the head, h and temple God. Several of the bullets were of different calibers, suggesting that they came from different gars, and the wounds suggested that shots had come from many directions.

Ah yeah or not? Yeah yeah, wait for it, Wait for it.

Trina later said she knew one of the men who was holding a rifle and identified him as Dell Clement, but she couldn't tell if dan Dal had fired. In total, Ken's truck was riddled with more than fifty bullets.

Wow.

A woman reached into the passenger side of the truck and urged Trena to come with her or they will kill you too. Treny was taken to the bank and kept safe until a phone call was made to a very surprised sheriff. Oh. Yes, he was sitting outside the town limits when the murder occurred.

He couldn't have just sitting there. It is a shame that he was outside.

Of By the time he returned to the main street, the truck, with Ken dead at the wheel, was sitting abandoned in the street outside the bar. There was no one in the street and very few faces anywhere in the town.

He couldn't possibly identify who would have have done it.

An ambulance had not been called.

Again, my god.

The police report later stated the incredible fact that there was not a single casing from a bullet left or any shotgun cartridges remaining.

Cleaned it all up.

Wait, wait, Wait, could we get a clean wait, go for it. Yeah.

Now, if you remember at the start of the story, I said to you, you are going to feel more conflicted about this murder.

I sound very conflicted. Countdown to the gay.

Under the circumstances, the local sheriff made the decision that it might not be right for him to investigate Ken's death.

Wow.

He handed the case over to the north West Missouri Investigative Squad. If you will, You're on it.

I will.

Despite interviewing over one hundred locals, Nomas found that no one was in the town on July tenth, and no one saw a.

Thing what the.

The only person Treatment Traina could name was Dell Clement, a local farmer and council member who was well thought of in the community. No MIS focused the no MIS focused their investigation on Trina's eyewitness testimony and tried to build a case against Dell and the town of Skidmore. Nomas presented the case to the district attorney, who, due to its circumstantial nature and lack of witnesses, declined to press charges.

Wow.

Frustrated, Nomas referred the case to the FBI.

This is a case for the FBI.

I love that you just.

Joined me in that Scott, I refuse, I am more of a musical girl than you imagine. The FBI came to Skidmore, bringing the full weight of the bureau with them. FBI records show that they interviewed three hundred and twenty six of the four hundred and forty nine skid Moore residence.

Wow.

However, no one was able to confirm they were on Main Street on until I tenth. No one could verify if del Clements was at the Legion Hall meeting, or even if he had been in the town that day. Not a single resident was able to state for the record that they saw anything Wow. The only person who had ever confirmed that the town meeting in the legiond

I love him.

I love Based on forensic evidence. It is believed that there was at least five shooters, one behind the truck, one on the driver's side, one a little way right, one or two a little way from the driver's truck on the side yep, and one potentially outside the post office. Despite the allegations that there was at least sixty people in main Street that day, investigators found it impossible to find anyone who admit they saw anything, and they had

Clements Nope, we've gone, I'm back off her the case.

The case was settled with no admission of guilt and a payment of seventeen thousand, six hundred dollars.

I'm bit happy with that off from what bit happy without.

That this payment? In a statement against the lawyers, a statement the lawyers against Trina said the settlement was simply the approximate cost of what the legal costs would be if the case proceeded.

Oh wow, okay.

Ken left behind ten children and two wives, Trina and.

Sharon, two current wives.

Trina remarried to one of Ken's cousins, Oh Dear, and moved to Lebanon, Missouri, where she died on January twenty fourth, twenty twelve. January twenty fourth was her fifty fifth his birthday. As of twenty twenty five, no one has ever been charged for the forty four year old crime that is the murder of Ken McElroy.

That's so sad.

No one has ever spoken about who they suspect committed the crime, and it remains unsolved. And that's the true story of the murder of Ken McElroy, a bully whose violent life led to a violent death in a murder when no one saw anything.

Can I solve it right now? Town? Did it?

Hey? Hey?

You have to say allegedly making are you making a Simpsons joke? Speak?

That was right, okay, it's felt right.

I am feeling a lot better than I was for a good That.

Was good, I promise, really yeah, really mad.

He's going to do another after you came on up the Disney one to go. You're never coming back, never get out, you know, you're always walking back on my watch.

Oh thanks mate, thanks Jeff. No, no, it's all right, there won't be that's that's.

That's gnarly as.

It was there. There's an excellent documentary oh called No One Saw a.

Thing, Oh great, okay.

Which I watched and yeah, it's really really good and they interview quite a few of the town people that are still like fascinating, and it's fascinating to watch them just deadpan and go yeah, yeah, I only know about the Legend Hall meeting because it was written up in the press. I don't know what you're talking about. They're just completely the whole town forty four years later and.

Wow, remembered anything. Such a shame, it is. The only part I'm conflicted about is that I am happy about this. That's what I'm That's what I'm conflicted with is that that's a that's a horrible thing to think and a way to feel and before I knew what I mean, who had shot him? And of course they still don't because it's not solved. I had said to you, I would never ever say. I don't think I've ever thought about anyone. Someone needs to go and take this guy out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you did through the story.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Even then, I was like, someone needs to take him out.

All the horrible, horrible things that he did. Yeah, oh my god. Yeah. How did you hear about this? Was through watching the documentary.

It was before watching the documentary I heard about it, and that then I watched the documentary and then went and then I went, I know who I can traumatized with him?

Yes, say the eighties, because that to me seems so late in the piece for something, so.

You'd feel this would happen in the twenties or something.

The part of it, I think the eighties were twenty years ago.

Yeah, yeah, a problem.

For all of us.

They were.

And I will not hear another word because I was born.

In the eighties. But I'm only twenty three, so.

Twenty three today.

Yes, it's a nice way to.

It was the least committal I really love, So you see on my Instagram and TikTok when people say I'm going to see if my friend, my partner, my boss, whoever will match my energy, and then they just do something weird and see if the people energy. You just started seeing Happy birthday. It's not my birthday, but obviously not twenty three and all three of us just we found our people.

During COVID, I decided the smart thing to do would be to get a master's. I did an MBA and not get back toated. Yeah and nod get vaccinated.

Than traumastizing story.

And it was.

To protect me, to protect me, I'm an MBA. Get away from me. And so most of my classes were on a Tuesday night, so I'd go to the study and right and Julian knocks on my door if the study one night and then I hear it run down the hall.

One Hilaria door knocking right just straight up.

To the met gala and I opened the door and she starts sasheting down the hall completely covered in black like Kim Kardashi. That is incredible on the on the and I was like, oh my god, I'm in so so I.

I was.

I was laughing my head off I filmed her, I filmed in slow motion. It's absolutely fantastic. And then I went and searched the met gala and found a picture of someone that I could dress up as and got one of her, Like there was a guy. He's somebody famous, so I can't remembers. He's a very famous fashion designer, very attractive man. Anyone Renolds, He's not a fashion designer. To a you idiot, Roland Renolds is also not a fashion designer. But he was wearing like these white shorts

Ag Oh yeah, the girl from Magic Mind, Yeah.

The guy from It's a very very strong a picture of imposing like this on a rock you recreated near our house.

It's amazing.

We definitely haven't married when we met.

I love that so much. I oh god, you're right. Conflicted, is the right work because I'm conflicted about that story because I hated it for so long, but then I kind of love it at the end.

Is that fun enough that we can do it again?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah you're back.

Not that we're not doing the same story again.

Story every week. That's not how we do this podcast. But can we am in today.

On Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday.

Did me Georgiagia, Happy birthday to you?

Wait, who's our HIPIP? You are?

You are?

Bye bye? You is so un impressed.

He's so impressed by this old thing. He's exhausted. Thank you so much much by