Speaker 1: He's bad.
Speaker 2: Whoa we did?
Speaker 3: It was a great.
Speaker 2: Proud of us.
Speaker 3: I think that was an amazing really appreciate that. I
Speaker 3: did laugh at that you made. But that's okay.
Speaker 2: But it's okay, okay, it's okay. It doesn't leave you
Speaker 2: say it's okay. It actually doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. Now. When we sat down for you
Speaker 1: to tell us this story, you said to me, are
Speaker 1: you okay? With a really gnarly murder?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I did, and that is a good for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, all right? Should I crack straight into all right?
Speaker 3: On July the tenth, nineteen eighty one, Ken McElroy and
Speaker 3: his wife Trina walked out of the DNG barring downtown
Speaker 3: Skid Moore, Missouri. They climbed in on.
Speaker 2: Ski was skid, wrote to sound Glass. Yeah, thanks, you've
Speaker 2: a weird elder, said the actual.
Speaker 3: They climbed into King's truck and he placed the six
Speaker 3: pack of beer he had purchased on the seat between them.
Speaker 3: Ken pulled a cigarette out of his pack, leaned forward
Speaker 3: to engage the truck cigarette lighter. As he sat back up,
Speaker 3: his wife screened in horror, he has a gun. Suddenly,
Speaker 3: shots rang out in the small town main street. Ken's
Speaker 3: truck was struck around fifty nine times from bullets firing
Speaker 3: for several directions. Ken was struck with bullets in the neck,
Speaker 3: the back of the arm, the head, the lung, and
Speaker 3: the temple, as well as several shots in his back.
Speaker 3: He died instantly. Remarkably, none of the bullets hit Trina.
Speaker 3: She was pulled from the truck, covered in her husband's
Speaker 3: blood and dragged to safety by local women. Trina was
Speaker 3: taken to a bank where the doors were locked behind
Speaker 3: her and she was kept safe until the police arrived.
Speaker 2: She was at all.
Speaker 3: This is the story of the murder of Ken McElroy.
Speaker 3: It feels I want to warn you about two things.
Speaker 1: Don't yell at me.
Speaker 4: I'm not yelling at your Stop and listen to It's
Speaker 4: what's lovely story he's brought today.
Speaker 2: It's lovely.
Speaker 3: The thing about this story, this is the first thing
Speaker 3: I'll warn you out. The thing about this story. You're
Speaker 3: going to feel a lot more conflicted about this murder
Speaker 3: than you do now. No. And the second thing is
Speaker 3: I do actually think of the first for the first
Speaker 3: time as the third wheel of the podcast that we
Speaker 3: need to give a trigger warning this story. This story
Speaker 3: is full of violence, okay, and seafoods me.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, seafood. Not see, I'm fine with violence.
Speaker 3: But if you had.
Speaker 1: Offered me five million dollars to pick.
Speaker 4: Your next that's a trigger warning, seafood.
Speaker 3: So we will be mentioning what can only be called
Speaker 3: statutory rape, violence against women. And so if that is
Speaker 3: concerning for you, you actually might want to skip this
Speaker 3: episode on. Certainly not have it on with the kids
Speaker 3: in the car.
Speaker 2: Sure, and seafood as well.
Speaker 3: And seafood. In nineteen seventy two, Tony and Mabel McElroy
Speaker 3: lived in a small town in Kansas. Mabel had married
Speaker 3: Tony when she was fourteen years old, pregnant, and.
Speaker 2: He was told, oh gross, yack.
Speaker 3: Tony had trouble finding and keeping work because of his
Speaker 3: drinking and it's in explosive temper. However, Mabel was frugal
Speaker 3: and just before the start of the Great Depression, they
Speaker 3: were able to lease a large parcel of land just
Speaker 3: outside of Skidmore, Missouri. It was around two hundred acres
Speaker 3: with a four bedroom home included Wow. Tom planted corn crops.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately for the young couple, the season in Missouri was
Speaker 3: one of the driest on record, and the rainless season
Speaker 3: meant they lost the entire crop.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Tony had to go back to menial jobs, working on
Speaker 3: other people's farms and taking on construction jobs to make
Speaker 3: ends meet. Despite their poverty, they continued having children, and
Speaker 3: Ken McElroy was born on June sixteen nine and thirty four.
Speaker 3: He was the fifteenth of the sixteen children.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's so many.
Speaker 3: Who lived in a four bedroom house.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, sixteen children children.
Speaker 3: Both his parents worked more than twelve hours a day
Speaker 3: in several jobs, and their children basically ranged as free
Speaker 3: as they liked.
Speaker 2: You'd have to work some new jobs for sixteen children,
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Being the youngest child, very few of the family paid
Speaker 3: any attention to Ken. He did not take to school,
Speaker 3: and he never learned to read well. One of his
Speaker 3: teachers remembered that when he did come to school, he
Speaker 3: would smell so badly that the teacher would have to
Speaker 3: take him to the washroom and show him how to
Speaker 3: clean himself so that the other children could stand having
Speaker 3: him in the same way.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Ken decided to leave school part way through grade five,
Speaker 3: and no one in the family really noticed that he
Speaker 3: was no longer attending school.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Ken was a bored child and would cause trouble in
Speaker 3: the town. In one incident, when he was a child,
Speaker 3: Ken was accused by a local store owner of stealing.
Speaker 3: He went home and complained to his father. Rather than
Speaker 3: reprimand the boy, his father, Toney charged into the store
Speaker 3: with a curved hunting knife in his hands and slammed
Speaker 3: the owner up against the wall. He allegedly said to
Speaker 3: the owner, if you ever touched my boy again, or
Speaker 3: cut your fucking heart out. Ken started stealing in the area,
Speaker 3: mostly small stock animals. When he was around FI fifteen,
Speaker 3: he bought an old car. He pulled the back seat
Speaker 3: out and replaced it with a wooden floor. He would
Speaker 3: drive around at night and steal pigs, which would then
Speaker 3: sell to people in surrounding towns or to the local abatur.
Speaker 2: This is Diggs's dream right now, driving town pigs.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't sell them.
Speaker 2: Bring him in here.
Speaker 3: And when I wrote that, I just wanted to foot
Speaker 3: la la lah lovey.
Speaker 1: Please watch Sammy's stand up special if you did not
Speaker 1: get that reference.
Speaker 3: At eighteen, Ken married for the first time to sixteen
Speaker 3: year old Aleta Holland. They moved to Denver, and for
Speaker 3: a short time, Ken was doing well. Then one day,
Speaker 3: while working on a construction site, a large beam fell
Speaker 3: around thirty feet, striking King directly on the head. He
Speaker 3: was wearing a helmet, which split in two.
Speaker 2: He survived. Wow, Wow, that's so lucky.
Speaker 3: Ken took this as a sign that the straight life
Speaker 3: was not for him, and he left his job. He
Speaker 3: and a lader moved back to Skidmore to live with
Speaker 3: his parents. At twenty years old, while still married to Alie,
Speaker 3: he allegedly raped and impregnated a local sixteen year old girl.
Speaker 2: Oh god.
Speaker 3: The girl took the pregnancy to term, and she died
Speaker 3: while giving birth to twins. The twins did also not survive.
Speaker 1: No God.
Speaker 3: A former classmate tells us that the pigs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go back to the happy pigs.
Speaker 3: What was it that I said?
Speaker 2: I agree?
Speaker 3: Sorry, you think that's gnarly. A former classmate told the
Speaker 3: story that the girl's family began to raise concerns about
Speaker 3: what Ken had done. He broke into their house one
Speaker 3: night raped their other daughter to show them that they
Speaker 3: were vulnerable.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I think I'm going to have.
Speaker 3: To leave the family stopped talking about their younger daughter's death,
Speaker 3: and they never raised charges with the police.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that is disgusting.
Speaker 3: While this was happening, Ken had met and started dating
Speaker 3: a fifteen year old girl named Sharon. They had a
Speaker 3: complicated relationship, and during an argument when afternoon, while sitting
Speaker 3: in his truck, Ken pulled our shotgun and held it
Speaker 3: against Sharon's face. He told her if she didn't stop
Speaker 3: bloody talking, he would shoot. Later, Sharon said that the
Speaker 3: gun accidentally discharged, what ripping into her face and neck
Speaker 3: and causing huge wound wear. Section of her skilled skin
Speaker 3: pulled loose from her ear to her she refused certain
Speaker 3: aid charges and she surplied.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: As soon as she was released from the hospital, Ken
Speaker 3: convinced her that they should get married. Ah. He divorced
Speaker 3: a letter and married Sharon, which ensured that Sharon could
Speaker 3: not testify against him for the shooting.
Speaker 2: My god, I was.
Speaker 1: Just going to say, Sammy has kindly invited you into
Speaker 1: his home.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 1: He's given you a glass of Shandon.
Speaker 5: Thank you, and you thank you, and you have abused
Speaker 5: the open invite by coming in here and telling us
Speaker 5: g like that.
Speaker 1: Telling us these stories.
Speaker 3: G look, don't flick through your.
Speaker 2: Pages at me on that clipboard.
Speaker 3: We're at the start of this story. Sharon.
Speaker 1: You if you're not watching on the YouTube, I was
Speaker 1: so creepy. You just read ahead and gave a creepiest
Speaker 1: little girl.
Speaker 3: Oh no, just call me buttons. They had two children,
Speaker 3: Sharon and Ken. Then, around nineteen sixty one, twenty seven
Speaker 3: year old McElroy started dating a thirteen year old girl
Speaker 3: named Sally, who he had met while she was waiting
Speaker 3: at a local bus stop.
Speaker 1: I was going to sit here and quietly disassociated.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: He and Sharon were living with his parents, and McElroy
Speaker 3: decided to move Sally in with his wife, Sharon and
Speaker 3: their children. Sally had three children to Ken, and Sharon
Speaker 3: had two more.
Speaker 1: And they were just still living together.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: The name of the slave that Thomas Jefferson repeatedly raped
Speaker 1: and I think she fathered children to him was also
Speaker 1: called Sally.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: Really just thought I'd tell you were disturbing stories, horrible things.
Speaker 3: Ken would spend his days hanging out with his hunting buddies,
Speaker 3: and at night he would steal horses, hogs, and cattle.
Speaker 3: By this time, he had an old truck and a
Speaker 3: horse trailer that made stealing easier. In one incident, a
Speaker 3: local farmer, Glenn Graham, caught Ken and two of his
Speaker 3: friends stealing two horses. Allegedly, the farmer went out to
Speaker 3: the paddock to check his horses and was brutally attacked
Speaker 3: by Ken and his friends. This is where we get
Speaker 3: a little bit gnarly.
Speaker 1: This is this is where gannali.
Speaker 3: They allegedly used brass knuckles and clubs to beat Glenn.
Speaker 3: When he dropped to the ground, they continued beating him,
Speaker 3: and according to the sheriff's report, his left eye appeared
Speaker 3: to have been kicked out of his.
Speaker 2: Head, out of his head, justut of his head. Horrendous
Speaker 2: correct use of the word horrenders horrendous.
Speaker 3: Now I'm going to keep saying allegedly occasionally in this
Speaker 3: because Ken has never been convicted of men these crimes.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Ken was charged with this assault and this is when
Speaker 3: he met attorney Richard McFadden on this occasion. He didn't
Speaker 3: need the attorney, however, because something other than stealing that
Speaker 3: Ken was great at was intimidation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so surprised by that, saying he talked all
Speaker 1: these young women into marrying him.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 3: All these young women so far.
Speaker 1: Also no not young women, children children.
Speaker 3: The day after he was charged, McElroy visited the farmer
Speaker 3: asked him to drop the chargers, and when the farmer refused,
Speaker 3: McElroy returned to his truck, got a gun, entered the
Speaker 3: farmer's home and hit him in the face with the gun,
Speaker 3: breaking his nose and fracturing his other eye socket. The farmer,
Speaker 3: Glenn Graham, dropped all charges. The fact that the charges
Speaker 3: were dropped called outrage in the town. Call is quoted
Speaker 3: as saying to the men in this town need to
Speaker 3: take the law into their own hands and resolve this situation,
Speaker 3: or can be allowed to continue living in this community
Speaker 3: and committing crimes for.
Speaker 2: Sha harmonized as value to good staff.
Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty four, now thirty year old Ken McElroy
Speaker 3: met Alice outside the corner store. She asked him to
Speaker 3: buy her cigarettes, and he agreed on the condition that
Speaker 3: she would smoke them in his truck. Ils was twelve.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, when Ken first seduced her.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 3: And please note I use the word seduced because that's
Speaker 3: how Ken's wife described it. But it's actually not the
Speaker 3: right word. It's statutory rape. In fact, it's not that.
Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty nine, thirty four year old Ken was
Speaker 3: introduced by Alice to her eighth grade friend, Trina McGinn,
Speaker 3: who became very who became very fond of Ken very quickly.
Speaker 3: Trina would get other twelve year old students to sign
Speaker 3: her mother's name on absentee notes so she could sneak
Speaker 3: out of school and met Ken. They commenced a sexual relationship,
Speaker 3: well they didn't, and Ken quickly convinced Trina to leave
Speaker 3: her parents' house, drop out of school and moving with him.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: At fourteen years old, Trina had her first child.
Speaker 1: To what He's like thirty six, thirty.
Speaker 3: Four, thirty four on thirty six. Now that she's w.
Speaker 2: Your math is amazing then, because it's usually not.
Speaker 1: Something's happening today. You've rewired my brain incredibly disturbing, so
Speaker 1: much I can now do add to like nobody. Thank you.
Speaker 2: He became math. That was amazing.
Speaker 3: There was no room for Trina at his parents' house,
Speaker 3: so Ken kick Sally out and Trina moved in with Ken. Sharon,
Speaker 3: Sharon's kids and Ken's parents and.
Speaker 1: Ken's parents are still around through all of this. Yep, oh,
Speaker 1: I have some words.
Speaker 3: But the happy home did not last long. Just after
Speaker 3: Trina gave birth, Sharon convinced her that they had to
Speaker 3: get out of the house, and they ran off and
Speaker 3: went to Trina's parents home for refuge.
Speaker 1: So Trena's parents were on board with this as well.
Speaker 3: Well. Trina's parents were around, ran exactly on board.
Speaker 2: They were around.
Speaker 3: Ken came to Trena's parents home with a gun and
Speaker 3: forced the girls to come back home with him. When
Speaker 3: he got them home, he beat them each He beat
Speaker 3: each of them and then made each of them have
Speaker 3: sex with him.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I hate this.
Speaker 3: Yes. He then took Trina in his truck back to
Speaker 3: her parents' house, shot the family dog, poured petrol around
Speaker 3: the outside of the house, and burned it down so
Speaker 3: Trina's family would know never to protect her again.
Speaker 2: Oh what the fuck?
Speaker 1: What the fuck?
Speaker 3: A few days later, Trina attended a doctor because the
Speaker 3: wounds from her beating and sexual assult were severe. The
Speaker 3: doctor was able to convince Trina to tell him the
Speaker 3: truth about the beating, the shooting, and the arson.
Speaker 1: The Big three.
Speaker 3: Yep. The doctor contacted social wa who took Trina and
Speaker 3: her child to a foster care. Remember she was fourteen
Speaker 3: years old.
Speaker 1: Oh, I got to hurt to foster care too, because she's.
Speaker 3: Because she's still a fucking toil. That's why. On the
Speaker 3: basis of her testimony, Ken was indicted for arson, statutory rape,
Speaker 3: and assault. Richard McFadden represented mcaorory, again, saying that he
Speaker 3: was his favorite client because he always comes back and
Speaker 3: he always pays cash.
Speaker 1: Jesus cursed.
Speaker 3: The attorney's tactic each time was to delay the case
Speaker 3: until he and Kean could work out a solution. Guess
Speaker 3: what Ken's solution was on this occasion, intimidation. He found
Speaker 3: the foster home where Trina was house and started making
Speaker 3: threatening phone calls. He would sit outside the house for
Speaker 3: hours with his headlights on, shining through the windows of
Speaker 3: the home, and occasionally he would fire a shotgun into
Speaker 3: the egg. At one stage, she called the foster family
Speaker 3: and he said he would exchange the safety of one
Speaker 3: child for the safety he was, implying that he knew
Speaker 3: where the foster family's child went to school, what bus
Speaker 3: she caught, and he would kidnap her to get Trina.
Speaker 3: The delay tactics and intimidation lasted around two months, and
Speaker 3: then Trina decided she was concerned for the safety of
Speaker 3: the Foster family and she found life there a little
Speaker 3: bit boring, so she left and returned to liv My god.
Speaker 3: Ken then convinced Trina they should go out of state
Speaker 3: and get married, despite the fact that he was still
Speaker 3: married to Sharon because Trina, and I've written this in
Speaker 3: capital letters, because Trina was still a fucking child. Ken
Speaker 3: required the permission of a parent or guardian to marry her,
Speaker 3: and Trina's parents refused.
Speaker 1: Oh I wonder lie.
Speaker 3: To get Trina's mother to agree to the marriage, Ken
Speaker 3: went to the house where they now lived, because remember
Speaker 3: he'd burned out, he killed their new dog, and he
Speaker 3: holed a knife to Trina's mother's throat, and, according to
Speaker 3: Trina's mother, politely asked her to reconsider how.
Speaker 2: Did to throat? And politely? After plight what a psycho?
Speaker 3: Trina's mother signed the paperwork allowing Trina to marry Ken.
Speaker 3: Marrying Trina meant that she could not be compelled to
Speaker 3: testify against him. She also signed a statement to say
Speaker 3: she'd made up the beating of rape charges and the
Speaker 3: arson story just because she was mad at Ken, and
Speaker 3: McElroy was beat the charges. In nineteen seventy six, he
Speaker 3: shot his neighbor, another farmer, with a shotgun filled with
Speaker 3: bird shot, injuring him in the face and stomach. Again,
Speaker 3: he was defended by McFadden, who delayed the case while
Speaker 3: McElroy intimidated not only with the farmer but the judge.
Speaker 3: Bird shot bird shot is like not shotgun pellets. It's
Speaker 3: like a salt. I think it's so base. Oh right,
Speaker 3: scares the birds off.
Speaker 2: It doesn't kill him, okay.
Speaker 3: He would drive past the farmer's house, shine a spotlight
Speaker 3: through his windows at night, destroy his tractors, and he
Speaker 3: stood out on the property boundary firing guns into the
Speaker 3: neighbor's crops. The farmer said McElroy was packed out his
Speaker 3: home at least one hundred times. Ken also went to
Speaker 3: the judge's property and burned down his barn, leaving a
Speaker 3: poorly written note which said your cattle and children next
Speaker 3: to the judge.
Speaker 1: To the judge, Okay, I'm going to just say here.
Speaker 2: Doing the story very much, I do not come.
Speaker 1: He thanks you for that, condone, And I have never
Speaker 1: I don't think ever in my life thought before that
Speaker 1: taking someone else's life would be a good thing. But
Speaker 1: right now I want to ask you, why no one
Speaker 1: seeing everyone's and farmers and everyone in the land, and
Speaker 1: everyone's got guns. Why did no one even perhaps accidentally
Speaker 1: maybe go out hunting?
Speaker 3: And what happened at the start of the story? G
Speaker 3: But this is later before now I know.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: So, even though there were witnesses to the shooting, two
Speaker 3: of Ken's hunting buddies testified that he'd been with them
Speaker 3: the whole day and the witnesses must be mistaken. Remarkably,
Speaker 3: the judge accepted that testimony. The judge so judge, and
Speaker 3: Ken was not convicted. In nineteen eighty two of Ken
Speaker 3: and Trina's daughters went to the local store to buy
Speaker 3: some household groceries. The store was run by Lois and
Speaker 3: Ernest bowen Camp, a couple who were beloved in the town.
Speaker 1: Lois and Earnest as they were.
Speaker 3: Leaving, Yeah, as they were leaving, the five year old
Speaker 3: picked up two pieces of candy and put them in
Speaker 3: her pocket. Seventy two year old Ernest saw her do this,
Speaker 3: grabbed her arm and told her to put them back
Speaker 3: or pay for them. The girl wriggled free and ran
Speaker 3: home to complain about her treatment to her mother, Trina.
Speaker 3: Shortly after, Trina and Ken entered the store and confronted
Speaker 3: the old couple who owned the store about how they
Speaker 3: had treated Trena's daughter, very similar to what his dad
Speaker 3: Yeah Yeah. Ernest chastised Trainer for her daughter's behavior and
Speaker 3: told them that they and their whole family were now
Speaker 3: banned from the store for life. Obviously, Ken took this well.
Speaker 3: He began a camp campaign of intimidation against Lois and
Speaker 3: Ernest Bowen Camp.
Speaker 1: But their names are Lewis and Ernest.
Speaker 3: Scott changed the story.
Speaker 2: Change the story, Scott rewrite.
Speaker 3: It back to Disneyland. He would Ken would sit outside
Speaker 3: the store on the front of his truck with a
Speaker 3: knife or a gun, or a gun with a bayonet attached.
Speaker 3: Around a month after around a month of harassment, McElroy
Speaker 3: pulled up behind the store one afternoon, waited for Ernest
Speaker 3: Bowen Camp to come out the back door, and shot him,
Speaker 3: hitting him in the face and neck with the shotgun.
Speaker 3: The store owner lived and Ken was arrested and charged
Speaker 3: for this shooting. Oh His response was to continue to
Speaker 3: harass the store owners. He would go every day to
Speaker 3: the D and G, which was the local bar, and
Speaker 3: tell anyone there how he would kill the store owner.
Speaker 2: My god.
Speaker 3: When he found out that the town's minister had visited
Speaker 3: the store owner in hospital, he ran the minister's car
Speaker 3: off the road.
Speaker 2: What the fuck.
Speaker 3: Got out and threatened Ernest bowen Camp sorry, and threatened
Speaker 3: that he ever visited Ernest bowen Camp in hospital again,
Speaker 3: he would car straight the minister and then kill and
Speaker 3: dismember the minister's son in front of him.
Speaker 2: What is this? What is this story?
Speaker 3: McFadden was Ken's lawyer again, and guess what. He tried
Speaker 3: to delay the trial, but this time it did not work.
Speaker 3: Ken was tried and convicted to second degree assault and
Speaker 3: sentenced to two years imprisonment.
Speaker 1: Second degree assault. He shot him in the face.
Speaker 3: But he didn't intend to kill him.
Speaker 1: But that would be mansorter. That's a sault brother, that's
Speaker 1: a salt brother.
Speaker 3: But as was the lawyer at the time, Ken was
Speaker 3: allowed to turn home on bail appeared.
Speaker 1: Oh god.
Speaker 3: The day after the trial, Ken was back at the bar,
Speaker 3: drinking heavily and telling everyone in the bar he was
Speaker 3: going to kill the store owner and the minister around
Speaker 3: three pm, Trina arrived at the bar with a loaded shotgun,
Speaker 3: which she gave to Ken. He continued to drink with
Speaker 3: the gun sitting in his lap. However, possessing a gun
Speaker 3: was a breach of his parole and this was reported
Speaker 3: to the sheriff.
Speaker 4: Yay.
Speaker 3: Ken was arrested and arraigned to appear in the local
Speaker 3: court for the parole breach, and this time he was
Speaker 3: held in the town lock.
Speaker 1: Yay, things are looking up so far.
Speaker 3: On the day of the hearing, around one hundred towns
Speaker 3: people turned up to the court to watch Ken be
Speaker 3: taken into custody.
Speaker 5: Yay.
Speaker 3: What they did know was that McFadden had had the
Speaker 3: case delayed and moved from Skidmore. Because of this, Ken
Speaker 3: was released from the Skidmore lockup and llowed to remain
Speaker 3: free until the date of the new arraignment.
Speaker 2: I would like to retract all of my all.
Speaker 1: The ones I've ever done. This story is ruined, memory.
Speaker 3: Ruined Christmas. Furious, the town people arranged to meet the
Speaker 3: next day, July the tenth, at the American Legion Hall.
Speaker 3: For decades, Ken McElroy had bullied and victimized the count
Speaker 3: of Sycamore, most of the men of Skidmore Town attended
Speaker 3: the meeting. No one has ever spoken about exactly what
Speaker 3: was discussed, but the local sheriff has concerned that he
Speaker 3: was confirmed that he was there, and he told the
Speaker 3: town to leave McElroy alone and if they were concerned,
Speaker 3: perhaps they could start a neighborhood watch program.
Speaker 4: That feels like that.
Speaker 1: I feel like that was said with a fair amount
Speaker 1: of win Kingdom. Yeah, I'm here as the official representative.
Speaker 1: Definitely don't do anything.
Speaker 3: It's funny you say that, because immediately after he said this,
Speaker 3: the police officer left the meeting, got in his police
Speaker 3: cruiser and drove until he was outside the town limits,
Speaker 3: where he.
Speaker 2: Stopped city limits.
Speaker 3: While the townsfolk were meeting, Ken and Trina were drinking
Speaker 3: in the DNG. Bartender remembers hearing Ken say, I have
Speaker 3: been fighting the law since I was fourteen years old.
Speaker 3: I'm forty seven now, damn near fifty, and this is
Speaker 3: the closest I've ever come to losing.
Speaker 4: Oh yea also so like, oh my god, almost fifty
Speaker 4: years old.
Speaker 1: He's never been.
Speaker 3: Once. The meeting at the legiond Hall ended. Approximately forty
Speaker 3: five people walked from the hall into the bar, an
Speaker 3: argument occurred between Ken and some of the townspeople. Trina
Speaker 3: has been quoted as saying that she found the atmosphere
Speaker 3: in the bar that day intimidating, hostile, little bit hostile.
Speaker 3: Ken listened to the anger of the man whilst his
Speaker 3: rifle with a bayonet attached rested on his lap, finished
Speaker 3: his bier, and he walked calmly up to the bar
Speaker 3: and bought a six pack. He and Trina left the
Speaker 3: bar and climbed into his truck. All the town people
Speaker 3: who were in the bar walked out into the street,
Speaker 3: following Ken and Trainer. They surrounded the truck. Allegedly, many
Speaker 3: of the other people from the meeting joined them in
Speaker 3: the main street, and it was reported by Trena that
Speaker 3: between fifty and sixty people surrounded the bar.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Suddenly, out of nowhere, gunshots rang out, one shot after another.
Speaker 3: When the shooting stopped, Ken was shot in the neck, back,
Speaker 3: back of the head, h and temple God. Several of
Speaker 3: the bullets were of different calibers, suggesting that they came
Speaker 3: from different gars, and the wounds suggested that shots had
Speaker 3: come from many directions.
Speaker 2: Ah yeah or not? Yeah yeah, wait for it, Wait
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 3: Trina later said she knew one of the men who
Speaker 3: was holding a rifle and identified him as Dell Clement,
Speaker 3: but she couldn't tell if dan Dal had fired. In total,
Speaker 3: Ken's truck was riddled with more than fifty bullets.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: A woman reached into the passenger side of the truck
Speaker 3: and urged Trena to come with her or they will
Speaker 3: kill you too. Treny was taken to the bank and
Speaker 3: kept safe until a phone call was made to a
Speaker 3: very surprised sheriff. Oh. Yes, he was sitting outside the
Speaker 3: town limits when the murder occurred.
Speaker 1: He couldn't have just sitting there. It is a shame
Speaker 1: that he was outside.
Speaker 3: Of By the time he returned to the main street,
Speaker 3: the truck, with Ken dead at the wheel, was sitting
Speaker 3: abandoned in the street outside the bar. There was no
Speaker 3: one in the street and very few faces anywhere in
Speaker 3: the town.
Speaker 1: He couldn't possibly identify who would have have done it.
Speaker 3: An ambulance had not been called.
Speaker 2: Again, my god.
Speaker 3: The police report later stated the incredible fact that there
Speaker 3: was not a single casing from a bullet left or
Speaker 3: any shotgun cartridges remaining.
Speaker 1: Cleaned it all up.
Speaker 2: Wait, wait, Wait, could we get a clean wait, go
Speaker 2: for it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now, if you remember at the start of the story,
Speaker 3: I said to you, you are going to feel more
Speaker 3: conflicted about this murder.
Speaker 1: I sound very conflicted. Countdown to the gay.
Speaker 3: Under the circumstances, the local sheriff made the decision that
Speaker 3: it might not be right for him to investigate Ken's death.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: He handed the case over to the north West Missouri
Speaker 3: Investigative Squad. If you will, You're on it.
Speaker 2: I will.
Speaker 3: Despite interviewing over one hundred locals, Nomas found that no
Speaker 3: one was in the town on July tenth, and no
Speaker 3: one saw a.
Speaker 2: Thing what the.
Speaker 3: The only person Treatment Traina could name was Dell Clement,
Speaker 3: a local farmer and council member who was well thought
Speaker 3: of in the community. No MIS focused the no MIS
Speaker 3: focused their investigation on Trina's eyewitness testimony and tried to
Speaker 3: build a case against Dell and the town of Skidmore.
Speaker 3: Nomas presented the case to the district attorney, who, due
Speaker 3: to its circumstantial nature and lack of witnesses, declined to
Speaker 3: press charges.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Frustrated, Nomas referred the case to the FBI.
Speaker 1: This is a case for the FBI.
Speaker 2: I love that you just.
Speaker 3: Joined me in that Scott, I refuse, I am more
Speaker 3: of a musical girl than you imagine. The FBI came
Speaker 3: to Skidmore, bringing the full weight of the bureau with them.
Speaker 3: FBI records show that they interviewed three hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: six of the four hundred and forty nine skid Moore residence.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: However, no one was able to confirm they were on
Speaker 3: Main Street on until I tenth. No one could verify
Speaker 3: if del Clements was at the Legion Hall meeting, or
Speaker 3: even if he had been in the town that day.
Speaker 3: Not a single resident was able to state for the
Speaker 3: record that they saw anything Wow. The only person who
Speaker 3: had ever confirmed that the town meeting in the legiond
Speaker 3: Hall even took place was the sheriff, Dad Estes. He
Speaker 3: admitted he had met with a group of men at
Speaker 3: the Legion Haul until I tenths to discuss their concerns
Speaker 3: about Ken McElroy. His statement says, I distinctly recall telling
Speaker 3: the group not to go find Ken and do anything.
Speaker 3: I assumed they would respect the law and disperse, so
Speaker 3: I left the town on pressing business.
Speaker 1: I love him.
Speaker 3: I love Based on forensic evidence. It is believed that
Speaker 3: there was at least five shooters, one behind the truck,
Speaker 3: one on the driver's side, one a little way right,
Speaker 3: one or two a little way from the driver's truck
Speaker 3: on the side yep, and one potentially outside the post office.
Speaker 3: Despite the allegations that there was at least sixty people
Speaker 3: in main Street that day, investigators found it impossible to
Speaker 3: find anyone who admit they saw anything, and they had
Speaker 3: little or no forensic evidence. Ken McElroy was buried in
Speaker 3: Saint Joseph, Missouri. In nineteen eighty three. A grand jury
Speaker 3: was indicted to review the case, but no conclusion could
Speaker 3: be drawn. Wow. The District Attorney announced after a full
Speaker 3: view in ninety eighty three that they were unable to
Speaker 3: charge any person with the murder of Ken mcceldromy Wow Wow.
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty four, Trina filed a six million dollar
Speaker 3: wrongful death suit against the Town of Skidmore, Sheriff down Estes,
Speaker 3: the mayor, Steve Peters, and del.
Speaker 1: Clements Nope, we've gone, I'm back off her the case.
Speaker 3: The case was settled with no admission of guilt and
Speaker 3: a payment of seventeen thousand, six hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm bit happy with that off from what bit happy without.
Speaker 3: That this payment? In a statement against the lawyers, a
Speaker 3: statement the lawyers against Trina said the settlement was simply
Speaker 3: the approximate cost of what the legal costs would be
Speaker 3: if the case proceeded.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, okay.
Speaker 3: Ken left behind ten children and two wives, Trina and.
Speaker 1: Sharon, two current wives.
Speaker 3: Trina remarried to one of Ken's cousins, Oh Dear, and
Speaker 3: moved to Lebanon, Missouri, where she died on January twenty fourth,
Speaker 3: twenty twelve. January twenty fourth was her fifty fifth his birthday.
Speaker 3: As of twenty twenty five, no one has ever been
Speaker 3: charged for the forty four year old crime that is
Speaker 3: the murder of Ken McElroy.
Speaker 1: That's so sad.
Speaker 3: No one has ever spoken about who they suspect committed
Speaker 3: the crime, and it remains unsolved. And that's the true
Speaker 3: story of the murder of Ken McElroy, a bully whose
Speaker 3: violent life led to a violent death in a murder
Speaker 3: when no one saw anything.
Speaker 2: Can I solve it right now? Town? Did it?
Speaker 3: Hey? Hey?
Speaker 1: You have to say allegedly making are you making a
Speaker 1: Simpsons joke? Speak?
Speaker 2: That was right, okay, it's felt right.
Speaker 1: I am feeling a lot better than I was for
Speaker 1: a good That.
Speaker 3: Was good, I promise, really yeah, really mad.
Speaker 2: He's going to do another after you came on up
Speaker 2: the Disney one to go. You're never coming back, never
Speaker 2: get out, you know, you're always walking back on my watch.
Speaker 3: Oh thanks mate, thanks Jeff. No, no, it's all right,
Speaker 3: there won't be that's that's.
Speaker 2: That's gnarly as.
Speaker 3: It was there. There's an excellent documentary oh called No
Speaker 3: One Saw a.
Speaker 2: Thing, Oh great, okay.
Speaker 3: Which I watched and yeah, it's really really good and
Speaker 3: they interview quite a few of the town people that
Speaker 3: are still like fascinating, and it's fascinating to watch them
Speaker 3: just deadpan and go yeah, yeah, I only know about
Speaker 3: the Legend Hall meeting because it was written up in
Speaker 3: the press. I don't know what you're talking about. They're
Speaker 3: just completely the whole town forty four years later and.
Speaker 1: Wow, remembered anything. Such a shame, it is. The only
Speaker 1: part I'm conflicted about is that I am happy about this.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm That's what I'm conflicted with is that
Speaker 1: that's a that's a horrible thing to think and a
Speaker 1: way to feel and before I knew what I mean,
Speaker 1: who had shot him? And of course they still don't
Speaker 1: because it's not solved. I had said to you, I
Speaker 1: would never ever say. I don't think I've ever thought
Speaker 1: about anyone. Someone needs to go and take this guy out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you did through the story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Even then, I was like, someone needs to take him out.
Speaker 2: All the horrible, horrible things that he did. Yeah, oh
Speaker 2: my god. Yeah. How did you hear about this? Was
Speaker 2: through watching the documentary.
Speaker 3: It was before watching the documentary I heard about it,
Speaker 3: and that then I watched the documentary and then went
Speaker 3: and then I went, I know who I can traumatized
Speaker 3: with him?
Speaker 4: Yes, say the eighties, because that to me seems so
Speaker 4: late in the piece for something, so.
Speaker 2: You'd feel this would happen in the twenties or something.
Speaker 3: The part of it, I think the eighties were twenty
Speaker 3: years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, a problem.
Speaker 3: For all of us.
Speaker 2: They were.
Speaker 3: And I will not hear another word because I was born.
Speaker 1: In the eighties. But I'm only twenty three, so.
Speaker 2: Twenty three today.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's a nice way to.
Speaker 1: It was the least committal I really love, So you
Speaker 1: see on my Instagram and TikTok when people say I'm
Speaker 1: going to see if my friend, my partner, my boss,
Speaker 1: whoever will match my energy, and then they just do
Speaker 1: something weird and see if the people energy. You just
Speaker 1: started seeing Happy birthday. It's not my birthday, but obviously
Speaker 1: not twenty three and all three of us just we
Speaker 1: found our people.
Speaker 3: During COVID, I decided the smart thing to do would
Speaker 3: be to get a master's. I did an MBA and
Speaker 3: not get back toated. Yeah and nod get vaccinated.
Speaker 1: Than traumastizing story.
Speaker 2: And it was.
Speaker 3: To protect me, to protect me, I'm an MBA. Get
Speaker 3: away from me. And so most of my classes were
Speaker 3: on a Tuesday night, so I'd go to the study
Speaker 3: and right and Julian knocks on my door if the
Speaker 3: study one night and then I hear it run down
Speaker 3: the hall.
Speaker 2: One Hilaria door knocking right just straight up.
Speaker 3: To the met gala and I opened the door and
Speaker 3: she starts sasheting down the hall completely covered in black
Speaker 3: like Kim Kardashi. That is incredible on the on the
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh my god, I'm in so
Speaker 3: so I.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was laughing my head off I filmed her, I
Speaker 3: filmed in slow motion. It's absolutely fantastic. And then I
Speaker 3: went and searched the met gala and found a picture
Speaker 3: of someone that I could dress up as and got
Speaker 3: one of her, Like there was a guy. He's somebody famous,
Speaker 3: so I can't remembers. He's a very famous fashion designer,
Speaker 3: very attractive man. Anyone Renolds, He's not a fashion designer.
Speaker 3: To a you idiot, Roland Renolds is also not a
Speaker 3: fashion designer. But he was wearing like these white shorts
Speaker 3: that basically white jogs and a crochet top. So I
Speaker 3: went and pinched one of her crochet tops and put
Speaker 3: on a set of tidy white and walked back out
Speaker 3: and talk about matching energy, love, love, absolutely gold, and
Speaker 3: she would do so. She sent me a photo one
Speaker 3: day of Joe Manganello. Is that how you say his name?
Speaker 3: The one that was married to spear.
Speaker 1: Ag Oh yeah, the girl from Magic Mind, Yeah.
Speaker 3: The guy from It's a very very strong a picture
Speaker 3: of imposing like this on a rock you recreated near
Speaker 3: our house.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: We definitely haven't married when we met.
Speaker 1: I love that so much. I oh god, you're right. Conflicted,
Speaker 1: is the right work because I'm conflicted about that story
Speaker 1: because I hated it for so long, but then I
Speaker 1: kind of love it at the end.
Speaker 3: Is that fun enough that we can do it again?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah you're back.
Speaker 1: Not that we're not doing the same story again.
Speaker 2: Story every week. That's not how we do this podcast.
Speaker 2: But can we am in today.
Speaker 4: On Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday.
Speaker 2: Did me Georgiagia, Happy birthday to you?
Speaker 3: Wait, who's our HIPIP? You are?
Speaker 2: You are?
Speaker 3: Bye bye? You is so un impressed.
Speaker 2: He's so impressed by this old thing. He's exhausted. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much much by