The story of Ken McElroy is what happens when people decide to take justice into their own hands. For years, Ken terrorized the town of Skidmore. He did whatever he wanted, and he did it whenever he wanted, and somehow he always got away with it. He walked the streets like he owned the place, threatening anyone who crossed him, and
that included the police. But eventually, the people of Skidmore they had enough, and on July tenth, nineteen eighty one, in broad daylight, kenmcelroy was shot dead with as many as sixty people watching. The only problem, not a single witness ever identified the shooter. This is the story of Ken McElroy, also known as the town Bully.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
A true crime podcast. The following material more material audience listener discretion. Daylight savings time is bullshit. I don't know if anyone out there who's listening lives with daylight savings time, but it sucks. It's stupid. I hate it. I'm tired, okay, but do.
You like it when you actually gain an hour?
No? I think it's ridiculous. Just let time be time.
Ben is quite rumpy this morning.
And Nicole is overly happy, and it is not a good contrast in the house right now.
And it's also quite a rule reversal because usually it's the other way around. I feel like I.
Slept like shit, and I'm pretty sure waking up an hour early with the whole daylight savings time is not making it any better.
Yeah, but you that happened on Sunday.
Yeah, but I'm still I'm still still adjusting. Well, hurry up, Well, all right, I'll hurry out.
Taking away my bad to adjust my bad.
Cha's Louise getting the third degree this morning?
Well I'm just joking, but.
Yeah, I wanted to, uh say, thank you guys for messaging us regarding your thoughts in what you think really happened on the previous episode. Uh, there was a lot of interesting theories, but the consensus was, yeah, no one really knows what the fuck I think.
Yeah, that was a wild one.
It was. I did decide that, you know what, we need to calm things down, and that's why I'm doing today's case.
We need to calm things down.
We need to calm things down, get our heads straight. And this is a case that I think will do that. I mean, yes, there is a murder in it, but thankfully it's I'm not going to say someone who deserves it, but thankfully it's a happier ending. I don't really know how to say it politely.
List No, someone still dies, but it seems like it's.
Going to be an intriguing Yeah, this guy did have it coming. Let's put it that way.
Okay, there you go. That's a good way of putting it.
He had it coming. But you know what else, we have some patrons to thank, don't we. We have some patrons who have a thank you coming their way. Yeah, so thank you and shout out to Becky Williams, Paul Megan Wetzel, Paula, Joe Logan, Brandy Aiden, and Mark Nice. They all signed up over on Patreon getting that exclusive content and of course you know they're behind the scenes.
Yeah, thank you guys. That's awesome.
Yeah, no kidding. I think we should get right into this case though, let's do it. I've already said I'm like five times, I'm tired and I'm cranky. Can you tell? Well, maybe if people.
Will be able to tell something like that, I mean, probably a little bit.
Actually I haven't even had a sip of coffe yet.
It's too maybe. Oh, I was like, maybe that will help you, but not if it's going to burn your tongue.
Oh, it's cooled off just the right amount. Perfect. I always let my coffee sit for like two to three minutes, and yeah, that's there we go.
I'm surprised that I had a good sleep, considering Ripley like was always I would wake up constantly with no room, but I think I would just move and instantly go back to sleep.
So yeah, fair enough I did. Okay, okay, let's do it. Let's do it. So today we're talking about the murder. That's uh, it's been a mystery for over forty years at this point, and not because no one saw it happen, but because no one will talk about it. And this is a story of ken Rex McElroy, also known as the town Bully. But it's not just a story on him. It's a story in how the entire town watched him get gunned down in broad daylight and then acted like
they knew nothing about it. So the year was nineteen eighty one. The place Skidmore, Missouri, a tiny farmtown, with about four hundred and thirty seven people at the time, surrounded by endless cornfields. You know, it's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone, and it's the quintessential life of the little, small, quiet farm town. But there was
one big problem. Skidmore had him, meaning Ken McElroy. And as we know, as I've already said now once in the intro and once starting the script, Ken got gunned down, but no one talked about it. How is that possible? How does a murder happen right in the open with a crowd watching and the whole thing just go unsolved. Well, to get that answer, we first have to ask who exactly was Ken McElroy. So let's go back a bit.
Ken was born on July first, nineteen thirty four. He was the fifteenth of sixteen kids in a poor tenant farming family.
Holy shit, back then, Hey, they had that many kidds. That's crazy.
It was a lot more common for kids back in the day.
Yeah.
Now. His parents, Tony and Mabel, moved around between Kansas and Ozarks before eventually settling near Skidmore. He struggled in school. He dropped out by the eighth grade and was probably illiterate by what most people account for.
Okay, I just have to say Tony and Mabel too. Those names are so fitting. Yeah, for back then, that's exactly what I would have like probably thrown.
Out there, old fashioned farmtown type names. Yeah, we even have a chicken named Mabel, so checks out. Now, when he was eighteen, he got badly injured at a construction site when a steel slab fell on him. Now, he lived with chronic pain after that, and some people think it messed with his person, making him quite a bit more aggressive. But honestly, by this point, Kim was already known for being violent before the accident, so if anything, it may have just made things worse. But it's hard
to say. Now. After the injury, he got a settlement which might have helped fund the lifestyle he was leading, one built on you know, threats, crime and scaring the hell out of everyone around him and just basically doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
A menace, Yeah, he's Denis to society.
He's not Dennis the Menace. He's Ken Mekelroy the menace. So, now, Ken wasn't just some scrawny troublemaker. He was a big guy reports say he weighed around two hundred and seventy pounds, built like a brick wall, and quite stocky. Now, while there's no solid record that I was able to find on his exact height, it sounded like he was just shive six feet tall, you know, like an inch or two. I'm shorter, so like five ten, five eleven something like that.
He wasn't a towering giant, but he was definitely a imposing figure, an intimidating presence, and he knew it too. Ken used his size to push people around, literally and figuratively. He had a way of looming over people, making sure that they felt his presence, and if he wanted something, he wasn't afraid to use intimidation tactics to get it.
A local farmer once summed him up perfectly, saying, quote, I think that Ken simply wanted to be big and important and have people afraid of him when he walked down the streets. Well, he got that they were.
I don't love that. There are I have met a few people that they you almost they almost enjoy being intimidating, And yeah, I can hate that. I don't get intimidated by very many people. There's been the odd person, I guess, but I just feel like, go fuck yourself.
Agreed. Yeah, Now, Ken wasn't just some menacing figure looking around town and that's that he was. Also, he was making a decent living. He was out leasing land near his farm. He traded race dogs on paper and it might have seemed like it was an honest way to get by, but of course Ken wasn't exactly an honest individual. He was also allegedly involved in stealing livestock, grain, alcohol, gasoline,
and even antiques. So basically, if it wasn't nailed down, there was a good chance Ken would take it and find a way to make a profit from it. And with a track record like that, it's no surprise that he was in constant trouble with the law. And when I say constant, I mean he was in constant trouble. His own lawyer estimated that Ken was charged with something around the point of at least three times a year he was criminally charged.
Well, what the hell, though, They're in such a small community and he's doing this shit, correct, obviously they're going to know who the hell it is.
Oh, definitely. Now by some counts, he had actually even been indicted twenty one times.
Yeah, in a year span, sorry, or just like just in total okay, but still wow.
Yeah, but somehow he always managed to escape by with only one conviction under his belt, which that conviction we'll talk about a little later.
Is he like a charmer or like manipulator?
Yeah, you could say that, okay, kind.
Of like almost maybe a serial killer mentality ish or we'll get there.
We're gonna talk all about We're gonna talk about the things that you just brought up, every single one of them. Ust put it that way, okay, about manipulation, about charming, and about potential killings.
Geez.
Okay, So his crimes weren't just about stealing. Ken was accused of harassing and assaulting women, destroying property, threatening people's lives, and at least two separate instances of shooting people.
Okay, dang, dang.
Now, wildest part he bragged about this can we go around town boasting that he was untouchable, and he was untouchable thanks to his Ken's city lawyer, Richard Gene McFadden, who, according to Ken, had mob connections and could get him out of anything. And honestly, the record kind of backs that up.
Yeah. Well, how much is he paying this guy?
Though, probably a lot. But by the sounds of it, he's got a lot of money. He's got this this settlement that he had, he's you know, leasing and trading and doing a bunch of stuff with his property and animals and stuff that he's making money from. Not to mention, he's also stealing a bunch of other shit. So I have a feeling he's probably got the money to back it up.
Yeah, he's not really too concerned.
No, So, his lawyer McFadden had defended Ken multiple times over the years, and every time Ken would walk away scott free, he felt more and more invincible every time. In fact, it got to the point where he was walking around town with an attitude, you know, like I can do whatever I want. You know, I got this fancy lawyer from out of town. He's going to make sure that no one can touch me, you know, YadA YadA YadA kind of attitude. And for a long time
he was right. His lawyer was definitely his golden ticket, his ace up his sleeve. But legal maneuvering wasn't his only strategy of staying out of jail. When the law wasn't enough to protect him, he turned to something far simpler, fear. If someone dared speak out against him, Ken made sure that they regretted it. He tailed them around town, making a habit of parking outside their home and just sitting there staring, even in the middle of the night. He
didn't need to say anything. His presence alone was enough to send a message keep your mouth shut.
What a complete creeper. That would piss me right off. I feel like, I don't know, I would lose my shit, go out there and be like, excuse me, what the fuck are you doing? Sir? Well, not even sir, he's just a douche. Well.
The problem is, you know, like everyone knows this man. It's a small town mentality, right, Everyone knows each other. Everyone knows this man. Everyone knows what he's done to other people. He has a reputation for not being afraid of anyone and not being afraid to shoot people. And so you have this man parked outside of your home,
say two am, just sitting there watching you. You know he's got a gun because even at times in the middle of the night when he's watching people, he would just shoot his gun off in the air, just so you know. He's there and you know he's watching, and you know he's loaded.
Well, I would still get completely pissed, fair enough, would you not? Like I don't know, maybe I wouldn't go over there. I'd be pissed in my house, but.
Under their way. Now, in nineteen seventy six, a man by the name of Romayne Henry caught McElroy trespassing on his land. And Romayne was a man who he decided he was going to stand up for the situation right good. To this day, no one really knows what McElroy was doing on this guy's land, on this farmer's land. But when Romayne confronted him about it, McElroy answered the way he always did with violence. He pulled out a shotgun and shot Romayne twice in the stomach with a shotgun.
Somehow Romayne survived the shooting.
So he's actually like shooting and hurting people to kill them, like it doesn't matter to him.
It doesn't matter, Okay, Okay, he does not give a shit.
Okay, I guess it's a little bit more scary then.
Yeah. Now imagine that sitting outside of your house at two am.
Because I thought maybe he's just like kind of shooting people just like maybe not just next to them or their arm or leg or something, but he's like even doing fatal blows.
Yeah, so he just unloaded a shotgun twice in this dude's stomach and he.
Is the one on the wrong, trespassing on this guy's property. Correct, What a complete asshole.
Now. Unlike so many others, Romayne refused to stay quiet with the situation and he pressed charges, taking McElroy to court for assault with intent to kill. Now it should have been an open and shutcase obviously, right, he's trespassing on his land. He shot him in the stomach twice. Yeah, done right, easy peasy. But McElroy had won final card to play his ace up asleep, his lawyer, Richard Jen McFadden. McFadden somehow managed to pull the same trick that had
worked so many times before. He found a witness quote unquote who swore up and down that McElroy wasn't even there on the property that day, and just like that, the case fell apart because he had an alibi, no conviction, and no consequences followed.
Seriously, So they're paying people, yeah, probably to come up with these false stories.
Most likely McElroy walked away again, knowing that no matter what he did, the law couldn't touch him, and the more he got away with, the more untouchable he felt. Now, shooting some one is of course bad, and I want to clarify that before I say anymore here. But things get a little darker yet when we look at McElroy's
relationships and fair warning, it involves young girls. Ken had been accused of sexually assaulting and raping two young women who were as young as twelve years old, both of which he reportedly ended up marrying to keep them from testifying against him in court. One of them was a girl named Trina McLeod, who was indeed just twelve years old. When they the two met, she caught the attention of Ken, who was thirty eight at the time, more than three times her age.
Oh this guy is nasty, you bet ya. If we already disliked him like, this is just going to get worse and worse.
Yeah. Now. Trina was Ken's third wife, though all of these marriages and unions were a little on the suspect side due to the fact that some of them overlapped a bit the legality on where they actually married or not, who knows, but that's neither here nor there, as well as the fact that McElroy was known to prefer, you know, young girls around the age of thirteen or four tomorrow, whatever, right.
He entered the relationship with Trina when she was only fourteen years old, and she would give birth to their first child together around the same time, which means a relationship, if you can call it, that had started before she was fourteen, because she birthed at fourteen.
Okay, And was that shitting on illegal back then?
Yeah?
Okay, but again he's just getting away with this stuff, I guess exactly. Dang now.
Not long after having the child, Trina tried to make an escape. She ran back to her parents home, probably hoping for some kind of safety. But McElroy he wasn't the kind of man to let someone walk away from him, especially not someone he considered his His response, he went and burned down her parents home and shot their family dog.
Okay, this guy is making me real angry at this point.
Understandable, but he sent a message and it was loud and clear, you do not get to leave me. But here's where things get more complicated. In nineteen eighty one, Trina gave an interview to People magazine and claimed that the fire wasn't Ken, It wasn't his doing at all. She claimed it was just quote faulty wiring. Now, whether she was actually believing that or she was just repeating what she had been told and conditioned to say, is
anyone's guess. But she wasn't the only one who seemed to downplay the abuse on their end.
Okay, but this is quite a bit down the road that she's saying this.
No, nineteen eighty one is the same year that Ken.
Dies, Okay, Okay, yeah, so.
I mean this is only a few years later. Like I think, when would they have met. I'm not exactly sure when they would have met. It would have been late seventies though. Okay, yeah, where am I here? Lost my spot? Now I had to scroll back. Okay. So Ken's first two wives, Sharon and Alice, they were also said to be victims of his violence, yet in later interviews
both women defended him. It's something that happens far too often in abusive relationships, unfortunately, victims making excuses, you know, rewriting the past, or even conditioning themselves that things weren't that bad. And I'm not saying making excuses for themselves. I'm saying making excuses for the person who you know was abusing them.
Well, yeah, they were like brainwashed manipulated by this person.
Alice, just after Ken's death, told People magazine 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. He was honest and generous. I never knew him to steal anything ever.
Hmm. Okay, but let's just let's just sit back for a sec. Because say anything goes wrong in that town, there could have been another like menace on the loose or something. But then everyone would just always blame Ken for everything. True, right, True, for sure they would.
True, However, they had a control measure to go by, because I say this later on, but once he's gone, a lot of that stuff just stops.
Okay. But also if someone else was kind of doing some things, they would and then Ken dies like they would probably also be like, okay, I gotta stop my shit. True enough, I don't know I'm really playing devil's advocate here.
I'm gonna say you're probably right, to some degree. I can imagine that someone would be like doing all of it and Ken's just getting blamed. But there's a possibility a theft here or there.
Yeah, No, he's I'm sure doing the majority, but there could be the odd thing that someone else does. Yeah, and everyone's just gonna conclude that it's Ken.
Yeah, it could be like five percent or less, might be random other happenings, but that ninety five percent is Ken's doing for sure. But back to these relationships with these young girls. It's kind of heartbreaking, but it's also not surprising. I mean, whether it's Stockholm syndrome, manipulation, or just years of straight up being lied to, Ken had a way of twisting reality for the people closest to him.
I mean, maybe he convinced them that he wasn't a bad person at all, and that people were saying these things and it wasn't true. Maybe they needed to believe that just to survive. It's hard to say, but what I do know is that's the real tragedy of this story.
Yeah, that is terrible.
No matter what people thought of Ken, though, one thing was certain. They were afraid of him, and for good reason. I mean, even law enforcement wanted nothing to do with them. He was always heavily armed, and he had zero hesitation when it came to pulling the trigger, and that means even to cops. For over two decades, two fucking decades, the people of Skidmore had to live with the fact that the justice system just wasn't going to save them. No matter how many times Ken was arrested, he walked
away free. He terrorized the town and no one, not the police, not the courts, no one could stop him. But all of that was about to change. On April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty, at Bohencamp General Store, a store clerk Evelyn Summy caught Ken's eight year old daughter, Tanya, taking candy without paying. Not like any employee would. She told the girl to put it back right, a simple moment, a small, you know, everyday thing that happens for this sort of you know, employment. But Ken didn't see it
that way. When he found out, he lost it. Instead of letting go, Ken began stocking the Bowencamp family For weeks. He lurked outside their store and outside their home, making sure that they knew that he was watching. And then on July eighth, nineteen eighty, he took things a step farther. Ken pulled his truck into the alley behind the Boone Camp General store. Once there, he confronted the seventy year old Bowing Camp men and shot him in the neck with a shotgun at close range.
Did he die? I'm assuming.
By some miracle, bow Bowing Camp survived. Wow.
So he thought that his kid should just also be able to kind of like walk on water pretty much. Okay, that's great. Lessons say that this kid can just go into a store and be able to take whatever they want, and that's okay.
Yeah, no shit right. So Ken was arrested in charge with attempted murder, and for the first time in a long time, it seemed like Skidmore might finally see justice. His preliminary trial was a set for August eighteenth, nineteen eighty. But of course, Ken wasn't about to go down without a fight. Just like always, he tried to scare his
way out of trouble. He parked outside the bow And Camp's home at night, just sitting there in his truck, watching, sometimes even firing his gun off into the night, and Bo's wife later said, quote, you can't know how intimidating. It was after that, before his trial, he'd drive up to her house and his pick up at night and just sit there. Sometimes he would fire his gun. It was frightening.
Well the fact too, Yeah, that he's just firing his gun. Oh man, I don't know. Just sitting here listening to this just makes me like I rate for these people. Well, and it doesn't I guess listening to the story more doesn't seem like there's really anything they can do because like the police also don't want anything to do with it. So I guess, yeah, I don't know.
And imagine being in their shoes. Sure, there's someone parked outside your house at night, try and ignore them, just go to sleep. You're just drifting off to sleep, and guess what, Oh, a shot goes off right outside your house to wake you up and remind you what's there.
And then I guess if you do go outside and confront him, then like at this point, and you're guaranteed to get shot too.
Yeah for sure, exactly.
Oh that's tough. Okay.
So at this point, Ken pulled his favorite legal trick, delay, delay, Delay. He managed to push his trial back nearly five months up until sorry June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty one. Now, during that time, the acting prosecuting attorney resigned. It was a young, newly hired prosecutor named David Baird who stepped in to take over the case. Now, some people believe that Ken bullied the previous prosecutor into actually stepping down. Whether or not that's true, what we do know is
that when David Baird took over, things finally changed. Baird was fresh out of law school, just three years into his career, but he managed to do what no other lawyer had ever done. A conviction. It was a huge victory. Ken was not only convicted of second degree assault, but the grand jury, the grand scheme of things. It was nothing though honestly, the jury handed down the maximum sentence of two years, so he didn't even get attempted murder.
It was.
It was second degree assault and he got two years.
That's it.
But it was a conviction on him.
Though.
It looked like Ken might actually pay in some manner for what he did. But as always there was a catch. Ken never even set foot in a prison cell. The judge let him walk free on a forty thousand dollars bond while he appealed the conviction. Oh okay, the appeal was overturned.
Are they not looking at his history as well? Because I always think that this guy is causing issue after issue after issue. I feel like that the courts take that into account. At least I thought they did. Maybe not, I don't know.
I don't know. So part of the reason that this even happened was was because Baird had strategically reduced the charge. Now, instead of going for the attempted murder, the official charge was, you know, knowingly causing serious physical injury. I mean, the logic was simple. If they charged him with attempted murder, there was a good chance that Ken would actually weasel his way out of it, just as he always did.
So lowering the charge, Baird made it harder for the jury to let him off completely, I mean, and it worked. He was finally convicted, right, so it was at least something.
But still no jail time.
No jail time. And Ken wasn't even worried about the situation because at the trial he laughed off like the whole thing, saying, 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 thirteen, and I'm damn near fifty. I've been arrested for over fifty three felonies and and this is the first I've ever lost.
The appeal, he appealed it, and yeah, he got out, which is why he didn't step foot in jail.
Piece of shit. This guy is just nasty.
Yep, the system failed once again, and this time it seemed like Ken may have been pushing his luck, pushing the final straw onto the community now. Not long after his release, Ken walked into the DNNG Tavern, a local bar. He was carrying a rifle with a bayonet attached to it. In front of everyone. He started making graphic, detailed threats about murdering bo Bowen Camp. This time police did arrest him,
but predictably, he was quickly released. The only consequence they postponed his court heering to July twentieth, nineteen eighty one, because he had violated his bail terms by being armed. It's not really in punishment, it's not really no consequences.
Nothing's really happening from these public threats, and with Ken still walking free, the town of Skidmore was finally at that breaking point that little action of the public threats was enough, and on the morning of July tenth, nineteen eighty one, the people of Skidmore they had a meeting. A meeting was called at the town Legion Hall, just down the street from the D ANDNG Tavern. Around sixty residents showed up, including the mayor and county Sheriff Dan Eats.
The entire purpose of the meeting to figure out what they could legally do to stop Ken McElroy from terrorizing the town any further now. The sheriff suggested forming a neighborhood watch. That was his solution, which I mean, honestly, coming from law enforcement, it says a lot about the helplessness of the situation.
Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it's pretty safe to suggest that, right.
Well, honestly, it's so minimal. Yeah, you have a you have a man who's shot people, who's stolen from people, who's bullied from people, who's literally had people fearing for their lives, he's publicly threatening people, he's gotten away with all of this, and you have a shriff of saying what if we do? You know, like some some watch parties, some neighbor who watches to watch out for him and warn each other when he's coming, Like that's the solution.
But clearly he's not like a corrupt sheriff at all, right, Like he's he's not wanting more people to like break the law and stuff.
Right, So true enough, true enough, But it was just such a minimal thing that coming from an officer, the sheriff, you know, it just it really paints the situation.
Now.
One of the meeting attendees later summed up the feeling in the room quote, we simply felt that the system had failed us. We all knew that McElroy. 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. And it seemed like that feeling, the desperation, the frustration, and the helplessness, it became that final straw. Words spread that McElroy and
Trina had just arrived at the DNG tavern for drinks. Sorry, I stumbled out the DNNG tavern for drinks. Shortly after that, the meeting ended, and in near silence, the entire group of sixty people left the hall and made their way towards the tavern. They scoured McElroy's Chevy Silverado in the parking lot, flanking it on all sides. Some of them went inside the bar. They didn't confront him when he was in there. They didn't make a scene, They just waited.
When McElroy and Trina finally stepped out of the bar and returned to the truck, the entire town was watching. Trina climbed into the passenger seat. Ken McElroy sat behind the wheel, casually lighting a cigarette, and then, in a moment that must have felt like slow motion, someone raised a rifle. Trina later claimed that she saw a gunman pull the rifle from the back of a truck and take aim, and then gunfire erupted. Windows in the truck shattered,
and Ken was hit. Trina threw herself out of the truck, diving into the streets, and a man named Jack Clement pulled her up and guided her towards a nearby bank for safety. At forty seven years old, Ken McElroy was finally stopped. He was shot twice, slumped over in his truck, never even seeing it coming. The bullets came from behind him, meaning his killer or killers approached unnoticed to him.
Okay, because I'm a little bit shocked that they did this with his wife or whatever in there as well.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think that they were going to wait for a perfect opportunity. I think it was just enough's enough and it has to happen now.
Yeah, but that she's a potential witness.
Yeah. Now, Interestingly enough, two different sets of bullet casings were found. I'm not clear on the if these bullet casings were from different guns. By the sounds of it, I think they were, which if that is the case, it could mean there were at least two different guns that were fired. Yeah, but there's But here's the part that stands out to me the most and stands out to everyone for the most No one called for help.
They just left him.
Yeah, sixty witnesses. Not a single person dialed nine to one one, Not a single person called an ambulance, not a single person alerted the police. The only person willing to say anything after the fact was Trina herself, and even she couldn't get anyone to back her up.
Not a single person gave a fuck.
Nope. Basically, it was just silence that fell after that. It was eerie, It was deliberate, and honestly, it was probably peaceful.
Oh, it's almost amazing that they didn't celebrate. Yeah, maybe they did that later.
They might have done that in the privacy of their homes. I guess. Yeah. Now. Cheryl Houston, the daughter of Boboing Camp, had watched the shooting unfold from her family store. Later, she summed up exactly why no one stepped forward to quote her quote, 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 into their own hands. No one has any idea what a nightmare we lived.
Well, yeah, you had said at one point it was two decades of this ship.
It was so. With the murder investigation, there was only one suspect that came from it. An individual by the name of Dell Clement, a part owner of the DNG tavern, now identified him as the shooter, but no one else would confirm it. Now Dell denied everything, and with no other witnesses, no other names, and no one willing to testify against him. No charges were ever filed against Dell. The case simply went cold.
Wow, just to think that that many people actually did witness this. Yep, and no one broke.
No one broke. Not to this day, no one's broke.
Yeah, that's it's almost shocking.
Yeah. Now, one person who spent years investigating the case was a man by the name of Harry N. McLean the author of a book called In Broad Daylight, a book on Ken's murder. Now, he actually spent time with del Clement and later described him as someone who would have easily snapped in the moment. To quote him, it wasn't hard to imagine him jerking the gun from his pickup in a burst of anger and opening up on the large head on the other side of the rear
window of the pickup truck. So over the years, Harry McLain had never heard any other name seriously mentioned as the shooter. It was only ever this individual mentioned.
So it was probably most likely him, most likely, But there is also the potential there were allegedly two different bulletins, right, Yeah, so if it was him, there was at least someone else, or he had two guns.
Maybe I don't know. Yeah, Now, Dell did die in two thousand and nine, and until the day he passed, he never admitted to any role playing any sort of role in Ken mcleroy's murder. But in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter who pulled the trigger? Does it? The author McLain doesn't think so. He once said, quote, I personally believe it's a mistake to put too much emphasis on who pulled the trigger, which brings us back to that town hall meeting just hours before the shooting.
It's easy to wonder if the killing was planned, you know, a vigilante action agreed upon by the town in that moment of time when they're all put together in that same room, frustrated over by this individual. But MacLean doesn't think so. He believes that a few people made an impulsive decision and the rest of the town stood by them to a complicit silence. No one's confessed, no one's talked, And after Ken's death, the Major Case Squad launched an investigation,
and even the FBI got involved. But despite all the attention, the results were the same. Nothing. In total, three grand juries reviewed the evidence, but not a single person was ever indicted. The silence of the Skidmore town held strong. Trina, however, wasn't done fighting. On July ninth, nineteen eighty four, she filed a six million dollars wrongful death lawsuit against the Town of Skidmore Nowaday County Sheriff Dan Eats and Mayor
Steve Peters and of course dal Clements. But like everything else in the case, the outcome was rather anti climactic. The lawsuit settled for just seventeen thy six hundred, a far cry from the millions that she was originally seeking, And after that Trina left town. She remarried, built a new life, and in twenty twelve, on her fifty fifth birthday, she would pass away. Even decades later, the town still
refuses to talk. In two thousand and six, the Nowaday County Sheriff Ben Epsy summed it up, quote, they all seem to know who did it, but they don't want to get involved.
Well, I mean, I honestly feel like they're kind of playing his game a little bit, really, I mean potentially yeah, right, yeah, you're not right, like they're getting away with all with this and.
If he can get away with it, so yeah, we exactly yep. Now, within a single month after Ken's death, report of cattle and pig thefts in the county dropped significantly. It seemed like his death solved more problems than just the justice system ever ever could. Now, of course, the case has grabbed national media attention. Outlets like Rolling Stone sixty minutes ran pieces on the murder, painting it as you know, a vigilante act, you know, a town that
had taken law into its own hands. But no matter how the media framed it, the fact remains the same. A man was murdered because of his own actions. The town of Skidmore closed ranks to protect whoever pulled that trigger, and the identity of the shooter will likely never officially be known, and the case of Ken Rex McElroy will forever remain a mystery.
Huh.
And that's the story of Ken Mechs McElroy aka the Town the blown Bully.
Holy shit. Well yeah, even at this point, I feel like if someone comes forward or it's just going to be all like hearsay, like it's I don't think that it's going to get solved, but that is it's crazy that no one has no one.
Has broke I mean, I disagree, actually do you I disagree with the the way I wrote this story. Even I disagree, I think it will get solved one day, do you I do I think that every not everyone. I do think it's common knowledge. Let me put it that way. I think it's common knowledge in the town of Skidmore on who killed Ken macelroy. And I think that somewhere someone's family has evidence of their grandpa or
whoever being the one to pull the trigger. And I think eventually that will come to light and they will be named. Of course, they will have passed away.
They will not have to what's going to come of it, really.
And it'll just be telling the full story. And honestly, he'll probably be celebrated the end of the person who pulled the trigger, they'll be celebrated.
But the thing is too, it's it could there could easily be.
Two people, right, Yeah, there could be.
So even if someone comes forward and has evidence that it was like their grandpa or whatever, they're not going to be able to pinpoint that it was the grandpa slowly correct, so wow, huh.
But I do believe that names will eventually come to light. It may take a while, but I do believe names will huh.
I know, you almost feel bad because it's like someone died, But that guy was a complete asshole.
He was He really was like just.
Disgusting, disturbing. Just the shit he did is like he even.
Oh man, your head's like trying to twist and think about how.
To just even just the being with such young girls and stuff like that right there alone is enough. Yeah, like that is gross.
And then he's shooting people just because he's on their property, Like, could you imagine just being like, oh, you caught me stealing some crops? Your dead? Both.
I know you would never think that if you confronted someone on your property. You would never think that, Well you would, I guess. I guess you would. The I don't know. At first I didn't think you would. But yeah, it's easy that someone trespassing could shoot you quite easily, oh man.
But it just goes to show the type of individual he was. You know, he's trespassing and he's shooting the landowner.
And the fact that he's just getting away with all of this stuff, it's a little bit mind blowing.
Well, in the end, he didn't get away with it. In the end, his own actions is why he died. So but yeah, hopefully you guys enjoyed that story. It's a little bit of a different one, and yeah, fuck Ken Rex Mackelroy.
No kidding.
I'm not one to like bullies. I quite often will stand up to bullies if I see one. I have no problems speaking out against them. So I have a feeling if I were in that situation.
You probably would have got shot.
I probably would have gotten shot. I either I would have gotten shot or he would have gotten shot. One of us would have gotten shot.
Guarantee you would be what's the guy's name? Del Yeah, potentially, I know because at the beginning, I was like, oh, I would go out there because I don't know. I still feel like if someone was just outside my home, I would lose my shit and just like go out there.
But if you know who it is and you know what they're capable of, it's a different story.
I guess.
You know the monster lurking outside your home.
At night, and then yeah, you can't even really do anything about it r in regards to like like with police and stuff. So I guess, but oh.
Man, that's a lock your doors and just pray for safety situation for most people.
Or just or there's other options.
That's why I said for most people, I clarified I left room for that.
I'll just stop it at that A.
But yeah, thank you for being here. You guys are absolutely incredible. Your support means the absolute world to us. We are going through a little bit of administrative stuff in the back end of this podcast, so if you're noticing some little quirks and stuff lately, we are working on getting them all solved out. We have had some emails and messages on some little interesting little quarks that are happening, so we do know about them. We're working
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Time, stay wicked.