In 1981, the good people of tiny Skidmore, Missouri (pop. 441 then, 245 in the 2020 census) gathered to decide what to do with a bully who had terrorized them for years. What they decided was to dish out lethal vigilante justice, in public, in front of dozens of witnesses. And they got away with it. Below are some fascinating facts about what remains to this day, an unsolved murder, even though it had been witnessed by dozens.
The Skidmore Psycho
Ken Rex McElroy was a bad ‘un from early on. The 15th of 16 children born to poor sharecroppers in 1934, McElroy fell off a hay wagon in his parents’ farm when he was a child, and cracked his skull bad enough to require a steel plate implanted in his head. That childhood accident might have caused a brain injury that explains why he became so awful. Whatever the reason for his awfulness, McElroy became a delinquent before he hit puberty – a bad kid who grew into an evil man.
He began his criminal career small, with petty thefts, then advanced to more serious offenses when he got into livestock rustling. From there, McElroy graduated to far more serious crimes such as violent assaults and vicious mayhem. McElroy was helped by an intimidating appearance. In adulthood, he stood at over six feet, weighed about 270 pounds, had bushy eyebrows and bushier sideburns, and heavily lidded, crazy-looking, cold steel-blue eyes.
A Long Rap Sheet
McElroy piled up a long list of indictments that included burglary, child abuse, attempted murder, and stuff that nowadays gets people placed on offender registries. His lawyer, Richard McFadin, estimated that he defended McElroy from about three or four felonies each year. However, the indictments produced no convictions. McElroy so terrorized the residents of Skidmore with his viciousness and threats of the revenge, that none dared testify against him.
The region’s livestock owners, more often than not, had no choice but to look the other way when some of their cattle or hogs vanished, or if the gas barrels used to fuel their farms were emptied. If a case actually did make it to trial, jurors received unsubtle warnings such as rattlesnakes in their mailboxes or shotgun blasts shattering the quiet of the night near their homes. The result was a series of mistrials followed by the eventual dismissal of charges, or outright acquittals.
Ken and His Underage Barbie
In addition to thefts and violent assaults, Ken McElroy was a heavy boozer and notorious womanizer. Although, “womanizer” might not be the most accurate term, since most of the females he was attracted to were underage – technically children. Over the years, he fathered fifteen kids with many women, both in and out of wedlock. Most of his baby mamas were barely past puberty. In 1971, a 37-year-old McElroy met his youngest and last wife, Trena, when she was twelve years old. Two years later, she was pregnant. When she gave birth, Trena fled with her newborn son to her parents’ home to escape McElroy’s mistreatment. He refused to let Trena get away, followed her to her parents’ home, demanded her return, and would not take no for an answer.
Amazingly, although this was in mid-1970s America, not the 1670s or 1270s, McElroy got what he wanted. When Trena’s parents refused to hand over their daughter, he shot their dog and burned down their house. He then forcibly took Trena and the baby back home, where he punished her for her defiance. Trena told a doctor about the abuse and arson, and he contacted social services. Faced with child abuse and assault charges, McElroy discovered that if Trena was his wife, she would be exempt from having to testify against him. Since she was a minor, he needed her parents’ permission. He got it, after he threatened to burn their new house to the ground if they said no. Thus, McElroy got a child bride, and the charges vanished.
Skidmore’s Scariest Scumbag
Ken Rex McElroy’s education left a lot to be desired. He had dropped out of school when he was thirteen years old, before he had mastered mastering basic reading and writing. He never resumed his schooling, and spent his life as a de facto illiterate. However, whatever his educational shortcomings, McElroy was canny. He knew that the fear he instilled in others was his greatest protection. So he carefully cultivated and enhanced an intimidating reputation.
As the author of a biography that chronicled McElroy’s life and death put it: “He knew which people to pick on — the weak people — and he followed through on his threats just often enough to make people believe he was going to do what he said he was going to do. He had a legendary status, and it all got to be bigger than he was. Somebody would hear his name, and the legend grew bigger. When he got off on a trial, it grew even bigger. It went beyond just hammering people and being mean-spirited”.
Crossing the Line
By 1980, Ken Rex McElroy had firmly cemented his reputation as Skidmore’s reigning thug and town bully. People had so long been intimidated to put up with his violent antics, that his depredations became an accepted part of life in that part of Missouri. All things come to an end however, and McElroy’s reign of terror and intimidation was no exception. Things began to change in April, 1980, when Skidmore’s town bully finally went too far. By then, McElroy’s wife and erstwhile child bride had grown up into a nasty woman in her own right.
Trena told her hubby that the owners of the local grocery story, seventy-year-old Bowenkamp and his wife Lois, had accused the McElroys’ four-year-old daughter of shoplifting candy. Accompanied by her husband, Trena returned to the store, where she subjected the elderly owners to a profanity-filled tirade. In the meantime, Ken Rex vowed vengeance for the insult to his kid. As seen in the next article, what finally did in Skidmore’s resident bully was his decision to follow through on that vow.
[This is the first of two articles about the unsolved case of Skidmore and Ken Rex McElroy. For the conclusion, click here]
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – Cases That Shocked America: How the Tiny Town of Skidmore Dealt With its Resident Bully
MacLean, Harry N. – In Broad Daylight (1988)
New York Times, December 16th, 2010 – Town Mute for 30 Years About a Bully’s Killing
Patch – Who Killed Ken Rex McElroy: Town Keeps Its Secret For 38 Years
