WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Ken McElroy 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:07.960 What you Have to Understand Hosted by Joe, Written by Joe, 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.600 podcasted by Joe and missed You to by Joe. I 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.080 look for Television by Joe. What you Have to Understand 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.800 Brought to your ear holes by Joe. Thank Joe. Later 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:27.360 Cube Explosions by There. Welcome to another episode of What 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.320 you Have to Understand. I'm your host Joe, and today 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.960 we're gonna talk about the unsolved murder of Ken McElroy. 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.800 Ken Rex McElroy was a resident of Skidmore, Missouri. He 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.120 died on July tenth in front of the dn G 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.480 Tavern on skid Boards Maiden Drag. The cause of death 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.680 was two bullet wounds from two different rifles, and to 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.319 this day his murder is unsolved. First, let me give 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.600 you a little background on Ken uh and the events 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.240 that led up to his death. Ken McElroy was a 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.120 well liked local man who loved kids and dogs and 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.120 wouldn't hurt a fly. Well, okay, not really. Ken McClay 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.200 was actually a pedophile, arsonist, thief, and a whole lot 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.440 of other things. He was a town bully and he 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.120 never hesitated to threaten or hurt anybody who got in 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.680 his way. He'd shot at least four people, none of 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:16.240 them fatally as far as I know, But you know, 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.120 there might have been other people that he did kill, 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:20.840 but we don't know. He was just generally a violent, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.319 ill tempered guy. Let me tell you about Skidmore, Missouri. 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.560 It was a tiny town of about four fifty people 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.559 back in the early nineteen eighties when Kent's murder took place. 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.679 It's about a hundred miles north of Kansas City. It's 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.640 got two paved streets and no traffic lights. DNG Tavern 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.520 was on Elm Street, just east of Smith Street. If 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:42.320 you're on street, are you looking at it? I'm sure 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.160 half of you are. The dn G is that low 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.880 white building with metal siding and blue trim. It's no 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.280 longer the DNG Tavern. So the sign has gone, but 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.040 the building last night checked is still there. Besides the tavern, 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.640 Skidmore has a small mom and Pops or excuse me, 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.280 had it since the stores not there anymore. It had 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.320 a small moment pop store a calf day in a 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.080 gas station. The gas station is also gone. I mean 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.400 it's still there, but it's no longer a gas station. 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.880 They've kind of fallen on hard times. Apparently they've lost 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:13.000 some population. Anyway, let's get back to Ken. Ken McElroy 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.360 was a one man crime spree, and I think he 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.080 had two real jobs his entire life, and he didn't 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.000 hold onto those for very long. He mostly made his 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.359 living by stealing stuff, and he always seemed to have 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.800 a lot of money, and in fact, not long before 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.160 he died, he bought himself a brand new Chevy Silverado 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.519 pickup and paid cash for it, so apparently he was 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.919 getting money from somewhere. Uh. He's His main specialty was 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.040 rustling cattle and hogs, and after his death, local law 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.840 enforcement noted that rustling in the county and actually in 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:45.200 all the northwestern Missouri dropped way down. He did have 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:47.799 one legitimate job, which was training and selling coon hounds, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.400 and I'm told that he was actually a good dog trainer. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:55.160 Peabody didn't do that full time. Ken waste of fourteen children. 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.880 He grew up poor. His family moved to Skidmore than 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.720 nine forties, about seventy acres of farmland with a house 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.320 on it, about four miles southeast as skid More So. 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.480 The houses I think three or four bedrooms, so it 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.000 was probably kind of crowded in there with fourteen kids 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.800 and two parents, Ken took up stealing animals before he 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.840 was eighteen. He bought an old fort sedan, took the 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.240 back seat out, reinforced the floor with plywood, and he 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:22.480 hadded a switch so you could shut the brake lights off, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.520 and then started going right at night, stealing hogs all 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.840 over the northwest corner of Missouri and sometimes adventure as 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.520 far as Kansas and Iowa. Later on, Ken had enough 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:34.440 money to buy himself a horse trailer, and he started 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.680 stealing cattle and sometimes horses. When Ken got caught stealing, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.080 and he occasionally did, he would use violence and threats 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.720 to keep himself out of jail. There's one time a 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.880 farmer caught him stealing two horses and the farmer reported 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.640 it to the police and he filed charges. So Ken 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.120 McElroy went to see the farmer and basically with a 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.560 rifle and but stroked him in the face with it. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.280 The farmer dropped the charges and so Ken got off again. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.160 Ken married his first wife when he was eighteen she 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.360 was sixteen, but being married didn't stop him from philandering. 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.040 When he was twenty years so he started dating a 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.160 thirteen year old girl named Donna, who eventually got pregnant 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.680 gave birth to a boy. By the time that this 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.240 this kid was born, Ken was dating a fifteen year 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.480 old girl named Sharon and they had a rocky relationship. 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:21.440 They they were having an argument, he shot her in 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.800 the neck with a shotgun, which didn't kill her, but 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.360 it did leave her with scars um and eventually Ken 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.480 divorced his first wife and married Sharon. And yes, you 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.400 heard that right, the guy that shot you he married him. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.640 Sharon wound up having two kids by Ken, the boy 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.480 and the girl. By the time the girl was born, 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.000 Ken mc elroy was regularly beating her and he found 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.920 himself a new girlfriend, a thirteen year old named Sally. 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.800 This was around so Ken would have been about twenty 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.720 seven dating a thirteen year old. Eventually, Ken moves Sally 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.000 into the farmhouse with him his parents is his wife Sharon, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.240 Yeah really uh and their kids. Uh. Sally had three 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.880 kids and Sharon had two more and can't wind up 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.479 having a lot of kids. During this period, Ken was 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.640 also seeing another underage girl named Alice Wood. In n 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.120 four he looked, he left the family and took up 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.000 with her. He beat or got her pregnant, et cetera 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.200 on the usual stuff, and eventually she left the farm 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.560 with her son moved in with her mom and stepfather 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.320 in St. Joseph, which is a town not too far away. Uh. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.160 Kim McElroy called the stepfather, whose name was Oath to 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.000 Embury and said he was coming to get his son 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.120 and that he would kill anybody who got in his way. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.680 Embery told him to pounce, and mcarlroy shows up not 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.279 long after with the rifle and he shot Embery in 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.400 the thigh through his living room window. McElroy was arrested 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:43.240 for felonious assault, but there was no case without Embery's testimony, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.400 so he started calling Embury and threatening him to kill him, 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.960 his wife, his kids. He also followed him in his car. 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.800 He'd drive slowly past his house or sometimes park outside, 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.520 and finally Kim mcboy found Embury in a bar in St. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.760 Joe and threatened up with a knife. When that didn't 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.080 get results, he left and went to his car and 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.559 got a shotgun, came inside, shot the floor by Embery's feet, 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.040 and Embery still refused to drop the charges, so Ken 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.880 stormed out. He wound up getting arrested, but the charges 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:13.800 were dropped because none of the people in the bar 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.160 would testify against him, so I'm assuming he had a 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.760 chat with all of them too. Oh Ambury eventually dropped 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.760 his slonious assault charge. I'm assuming that he thought that 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.960 Ken would probably kill him if he didn't, so probably 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.960 best to do so. And not long after this incident, 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.320 Alice came back to live on the farm, but by 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.240 this time Ken McIlroy had a new girlfriend, trying to McLeod. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.600 She was twelve, Kenn was in his mid thirties by 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.400 this time. She got pregnant at age fourteen and moved 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.960 on to the McElroy farm. And of course Ken was 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.400 abusive and violent with both Alice and trying him, and 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.440 at one point they took their kids and left him 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.520 and went to stay at treting his parents place. Nick 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.080 Elroy went and got them and basically forced him to 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.440 come back to the farm. He beat treating us so 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:57.719 badly he broke her nose and cheap bones, and then 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.560 he got himself a can of gas and a trinad 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.280 go back with him to her parents house. He went inside, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.840 splashed gasoline all around and towards the place and then 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.600 they headed back home. At this point, you're probably wondering, 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:14.160 why hasn't somebody shot Ken already? Other people wondered about that. 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.000 Later after Kenn's death, the local Church of Christ minister 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.600 Tim Warren said to a reporter and I quote quote 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.360 my only regret about what happened to Ken Rex McElroy 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.280 is that somebody didn't kill him sooner unquote. You got 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.880 that town minister is glad he's dead. Oh, back to 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.200 our story. Anyway, Trina had to go to a doctor 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.080 for her injuries. Um, he was so appalled he called 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.720 juvenile authorities because that's right. At this point, Trina was 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.800 still technically a child. She and her son were put 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.280 in foster care. Mcarroy was facing charges of rape, arson 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.400 and brandishing a deadly weapon. Ken was facing a little 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.480 legal trouble by this point, but then as lawyer went 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.520 to work as lawyer, Gene McFadden once said that Ken 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.720 mcarroy was his favorite client because he was punctual, He 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.480 always paid cash, and he always came back. And you 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.880 can certainly see why. Uh, he used his usual strategy 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.720 of getting court delays and continuances and basically strung it 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.119 out so long that by. After a while Trina came back. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.720 She got bored with being in foster care, and so 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.840 she returned and Keim McElroy divorced his wife Sharon and 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.360 married Trina so that she couldn't be compelled to testify 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.480 against him, and she also signed a statement saying that 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.680 Chim mckelroy was guilty of nothing and that she'd been 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.920 lying before when she said that he had been beating 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.040 her and raping her and committed arson, So that kind 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.760 of got him out of that squeak. The next major 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.480 incident was in nineteen seventy six when McElroy shot a 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.439 neighboring farmer named Romaine Henry. He shot him twice in 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.320 the stomach and in the head with a shotgun. Likely 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.439 luckily most of the shot didn't actually hit Henry, and 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.920 the gun was loaded with bird shot too. He had 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.440 to go to the hospital. McElroy was arrested and once 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.040 again his lawyer wants to work and got the trial 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.160 delayed until nineteen seventy seven. In the meantime, McElroy harassed 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.160 Henry by having slowly passed his house or parking and 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.760 shining spotlight into his windows. Uh, somebody I guessing Ken 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.960 McElroy put sugar into the gas tanks of Henry's tractors. 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.280 At the trial, his lawyer, Jeane McFadden produced to witness 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.079 says he swore in her oath that they had been 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.240 with Ken McElroy at his house at the time of 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.320 the shooting. So he got off again. And then time 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.680 goes by. There were, all, of course, all kinds of 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.640 minor incidents, but the next big one happened in April. 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.360 Uh This was kind at the beginning of the end 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.720 for McElroy. Two of his daughters went into the BnB store, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.120 which was just around the corner from the DG tavern. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.000 It was owned by bow and Lowest Bowen Camp. The 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.280 oldest McElroy daughter, Debbie, was a teenager. She bought cigarettes 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.360 and cookies and on and on their way out the door, 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.719 the younger one, Alita, who was five, grabbed a few 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.720 pieces of candy from Iraq. When the store's clerk said 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.640 something about the candy, Debbie grabbed it from Alida, threw 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:55.640 it back into the rack and stomped out of the store. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.560 A little later, McElroy and his wife Trino, who was 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.079 by this pinned about twenty five. They showed up. McElroy 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.800 had himself a knife. Trina did most of the talking 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.240 and which basically consisted of chewing out the bowling camps 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.760 and their and their clerk, and finally lowest bowling camp 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.240 had had enough. She told them to leave the store 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.120 and never come back. Nobody in the McElroy clan was 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.439 welcome with the store anymore. Well, that didn't set well 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.160 with Kim McElroy. Another campaign of harassment and intimidation started. 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.160 He once again would drive slowly past their house or 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.360 park outside their house. One night, he got out and 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.040 fired a shotgun into the air. Two days later he 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.600 came back and she fired the shotgun again twice. This 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.319 time this kind of stuff went out for months, and 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.440 then one night in July, bow bow and camp by 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:42.319 the way that I mentioned, he was about sixty nine 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.400 when this happened. He was on the loading dock at 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.240 the rear of the BnB store when Kim McElroy drove 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.040 up in his pickup. He got out with a double 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.559 bailer shotgun and shot bow in the neck. Both survived. 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.120 McElroy was arrested again by a State Highway patrol officer 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.680 and taken in He posted bail and began a campaign 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.840 of harassment against the office sir in his family. Also, 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.560 the local minister fell out of favor with him. Uh. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.840 The minister went and saw bo bo and Camp in 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.880 the hospital and also want to see Lois Boone Camp 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.360 to just you know, give her a little a little support. 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.000 When mckelboy found out about this, he was upset and 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.679 so he started harassing Tim Warren. He told him at 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.280 one point on the phone that he was going to 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.440 castrate him and then cut his little boy to pieces 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.280 in front of him. So Tim Warren and then I 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.040 mentioned he was a minister. Yeah, he started carrying a gun. 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.160 Um the officer's wife, remember that patrol officer I talked about, Well, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.000 started getting threatened in calls. His daughter worked at a 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.680 store in Maryville, which is a town not too terribly 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.680 far away. Kim mccaroy got into the habit of showing 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.320 up at the store and he lit up a shopping 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.360 cart totally full of stuff, wheel it over to her 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.920 checking station, and once you'd start ringing stuff up, he 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.480 would walk out of the store. Meantime, his lawyer kept 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.280 getting the trial delayed. So mcallaroy had lots and lots 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.120 of months and threatened Bow and Tim Warren and everybody else. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.440 He would sit in the dn G tavern and talk 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.520 openly about killing Bow. He would also sit outside the 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.320 BnB store in his truck and scare away customers, and 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.640 the bnb's business did drop off by quite a bit. Eventually, 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.920 the trial finally happened on June. McElroy was convicted of 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.559 second degree assault and he was sentenced to two years 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.440 in prison, but the law allowed him to remain free 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:20.800 during the appeal process, so he was still free to 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.760 walk around. Four days after that, McIlroy was in the 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.480 DNG tavern when Trina walked in with an m Won 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.240 Durand rifle with the bayonet on it and handed it 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.920 to Ken. That's uh. At this point, Can actually was 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:34.840 not supposed to be in possession of a gun because 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.480 of the terms of his of his bail. He was 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.839 essentially out on bail during the appeal thing. Ken McElroy 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.880 chambered around and started making jabbing motions in the air 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:45.839 with the rifle and his bayonets, saying he was going 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:47.839 to shoot Bobo and Camp in the face with it. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.200 And a local farmer named Pete Ward left the tavern 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.839 with his sons at this time, and shortly after he 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.040 took up station on the road between the DNG tavern 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.760 and Bobo and Camp's house, and he had a rifle. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.200 He said his plan was to kill McElroy if he 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.319 has if he was headed over to the Bowling camp house. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.360 And luckily for Chim McElroy, he didn't head that direction 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.520 when he left the DNG, so he lived for another day. 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.160 Okay imagined imagined already that McElroy was out on bond 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.400 and he violated the terms of the bond with the rifle. 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.640 The prosecutors filed a motion to revoke that bond, and 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.080 the hearing was set for July tenth. That was, of course, 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.560 the day that Ken got shot. A bunch of locals 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.719 showed up in town that morning to drive over to 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.319 the town of Bethany, which is where the hearing was 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.360 going to take place. Their plan was to support the 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.920 witnesses um who had actually seen the rifle brandishing. When 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.959 they showed up, they found out that McElroy's lawyer had 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.199 gotten the hearing post poems for ten days. Needless to say, 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.199 that was upsetting to everybody. Everybody went over to the 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.040 American Legion meeting hall nearby, and they called the county 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.360 sheriff and asked him to come by. He showed up 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.640 about twenty minutes later and advised everybody to keep an 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.079 eye on McElroy and keep a call list so that 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.480 Ken showed up at somebody's house and then they could 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.079 summon help from others quickly. And then the sheriff got 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.280 in this car and left town. Around this time, McElroy 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.920 and Trina arrived in town and went into the DNNG. 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.240 Word got over to the guys in the meeting hall, 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.160 and somebody said, let's go have a beer. The crowd 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.240 headed over to the dn G and they found Can 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.640 and Trina drinking a beer. And I don't know if 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.280 Ken was intimidated or not, but I hear Trina was. 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:20.640 Mkelroy finished his beer, bought a six pack to go, 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.000 and left um. At about the same time, two or 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.480 three people were outside forming an action plan. Reports various 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.680 to the number. These guys got rifles out of their trucks. 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:31.800 Remember this is farm country, so people are driving around 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.400 with rifles in their pickup trucks. The crowd in the 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:38.080 dn G followed Keim McElroy out into the street. Ken 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.600 got into his truck and started it, and then a 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.239 number of shots rang out, two of which hit Kim McElroy, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.600 one in the neck and one in the head. Uh. 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.320 And he went off to that big trailer park in 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.000 the sky. His foot stomped down on the gas pedal 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.080 and stayed there. The truck basically sat there, running into 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:57.200 a full throttle for a little while until it finally 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.720 seized up and quit a man. About forty five minutes later, 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.280 somebody got around to calling an ambulance. Now here's our mystery. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.560 At least two dozen people were there on the street 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.280 in Skidmore that morning. Uh, And according to some accounts 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:11.760 that I've read, there may have been as many as 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:16.000 sixty people, but nobody saw the shooters. So this one 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.760 is a real head scratcher. How could it be that 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.640 chem mc elroy was gunned down in broad daylight by 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.480 two maybe three guys in front of dozens of people, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.240 and yet nobody happened to notice who pulled the triggers? Well, 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.080 there are some theories out there, But before we start 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.840 discussing our series, I'd like to introduce a couple of guests. Um, 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.920 I guess our Steve and Devon from another podcast. Guys, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:47.760 come on out. Hey, Hey, how you guys doing you 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:52.280 know good? Yeah? Fine, okay a cool? H. So you 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:58.480 guys are on a podcast, right, yeah, you're all right, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:03.000 let's talk about series. Okay. Well, the theoriesn't have been floated. Uh, 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.200 first theory UFOs. What do you guys think about that one? 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.240 Al the aliens pretty much? Yeah? Yeah yeah. But as 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.120 you know, and when alien abductions happened, they're always accompanied 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.880 by memory loss. Um, so I'm thinking that perhaps there 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.760 was a UFO nearby blasting the town with brain wiping 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.440 rays at the moment that shooting was taking place. Well, 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.560 I mean, here's the de leo about that. It's just 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:30.200 that's just it's silly. I mean, it's somebody would have 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.280 remembered it. Well, one person actually did claim to remember it. 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.080 Oh yeah, that was I'm sorry. I just I read 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.280 the Wikipedia page on this thing. I didn't do any 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.160 any research for them. That actually just skimmed that summary 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.080 at the top that that's pretty much all you ever do. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.680 I'm sorry. Yeah. So the one person who saw it, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.280 who witnessed it was Trina who said she saw Dell Clement, 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.520 who was co owner of the d n G tavern 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.520 pulling a rifle out of his pickup truck. She was 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.480 sitting inside Ken's truck the time. So what thinking happened 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.560 is maybe the medal in the cabro I was shielding 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.119 here from the brain wiping rays from the UFO O 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.720 that the UFOs wiped the brain waves. They didn't have 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.520 anything to do with the actual murder. Yeah, now they're 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.040 they're just that's our that's our mystery here is how 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:20.280 could there have been no witnesses? That people put on 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.680 the tinfoil hats but the roof of the truck doesn't work. 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.360 Is a tinfoil hat because it's got windows all around? 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.160 That's fair? All right, let's talk about our next theory. 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.280 All right, next theory. Squirrels. Uh, there are squirrels in 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.240 Skidmore and and a lot of people did say something 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:37.840 in the order they were looking at the squirrels and 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.280 didn't notice the two guys with rifles because they're what 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.360 obscenely cute, But they're are cute. I like squirrels. They're 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:47.920 little cupe cabrash. Now they're not. Yeah, alright, so squirrels, Devin, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:53.520 you've got any thoughts on squirrels. Um, they're cute, They're cute. Okay, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.840 let's move on our next theory. They got this grain 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.200 mold causes hallucinations and such. I've talked about this for 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.679 it's you know, it's everybody's favorite go to theory for 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.359 things like the Mary celest and everything else. Here's what 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:12.359 you have to understand. Hey, that's mine. Okay, okay, Um, 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:17.160 So did did the town share a common bread source? 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.840 And were they all eating the same bread? Well, they 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.080 were buying their bread at the BnB store, So yeah, 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:24.840 it's it's I think very likely the supply was tainted 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.240 by aircott and they were all highest kites and not 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.520 really in a position to remember their own names, much 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:34.280 less who killed who. Yeah, that's the dumbest thing I've 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.639 ever heard. Well ostensibly, I guess. I don't know. I'm 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.240 gonna go squirrels. You guys have you guys have a favorite. 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:45.360 I think that dude was just a huge and everybody 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:50.240 wanted him debt out there, don't you think a little bit? Yeah, 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.520 I think you're reaching on that one. I'm gonna I'm 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:58.600 sticking with squirrels. Yeah, and the aftermath, just about everybody 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.360 in town was interrogated by the police, and no one 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:07.520 saw a thing man, and they took a stab at Hey, 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.600 I'm talking here. This is my show, remember, all right, 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.640 let's let's get back. Oh yeah, the FBI. Yeah, the FBI, 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.639 and nobody saw a thing. Once again, various grand juries 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.480 looked into it. They declined to indict anybody, despite treating 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.600 his claim that Dell Clement was one of the gunmen. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.400 For his part, Dell Clement said, quote, boys, I wish 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.680 I could say I had done it, because he sure 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.720 had it coming. But I didn't unquote. And I'm taking 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.639 his word over Trina's. I think she must have hallucinated 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.720 that there was another local named David Dunbar told reporters 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.159 quote to be honest with you, and my only regret 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.480 about the way Ken Rex died. I said, I didn't 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.560 pull the trigger myself unquote. So so and it's the 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.040 story of Ken McElroy killed by invisible gunman. All right. 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:49.159 At this point in the show is just want to 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.320 tell you where to find me. Find my email, find 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.439 my Facebook and all that stuff. I'm not gonna go 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.480 through all that. Just google the most awesome guy in 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.240 the world. You'll find me. Now you guys, you said 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.480 something you wanted to talk about your podcast a little bit. Yeah, well, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.280 since you left us, we have to do a new one. 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:09.600 We've been working on some materials and forgot to tell 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:11.840 you that on my way out the door, I stole 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:17.240 a tape that had a lot of embarrassing moments on it. Great. Yeah, 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:27.120 your lives are over cute explosions. Oh know your buck, 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.840 my little black boys, you're a little black book. Some 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.040