Speaker 1: He's bad.
Speaker 2: Whoa, we did it. It was a great that was
Speaker 2: a really good, really proud of us.
Speaker 3: I think that was an amazing really appreciate that. I'm
Speaker 3: laugh at that. But that's okay.
Speaker 2: But it's okay, okay, it's okay.
Speaker 3: It doesn't leave you.
Speaker 2: If you say it's okay, it actually doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: When we sat down for you to tell us this story,
Speaker 1: you said to me, are you okay? With a really
Speaker 1: gnarly murder?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 3: And that is a good Yeah, okay, all right? Should
Speaker 3: I crack straight in? All right? On July the tenth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty one, Ken McElroy and his wife Trina walked
Speaker 3: out of the DNG barring downtown Skid Moore, Missouri.
Speaker 2: They climbed in on ski was skid, wrote to pretty close. Yeah, thanks,
Speaker 2: you've a weird older and said the actual.
Speaker 3: They climbed into Ken'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 direction. 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 3: She wasn't at all. This is the story of the
Speaker 3: murder of Ken McElroy. It feels I want to warn
Speaker 3: you about two things.
Speaker 1: Don't yell at me.
Speaker 4: I'm not yelling at your saying stop and listen to
Speaker 4: It's Whatt's lovely stories 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 is
Speaker 3: you're going to feel a lot more conflicted about this
Speaker 3: murder than you do now. No. And the second thing
Speaker 3: is I do actually think of the first for the
Speaker 3: first time as the third wheel of the podcast that
Speaker 3: we need to give a trigger warning. Okay, sorry, this
Speaker 3: story is full of violence. Okay, and seafoods me.
Speaker 2: Oh no, not seafood. Not see, I'm fine with violence, but.
Speaker 1: If you had offered me five million dollars to pick.
Speaker 4: Your next has 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 he
Speaker 3: was told gross Tony had trouble finding and keeping work
Speaker 3: because of his drinking and it's in explosive temper. However,
Speaker 3: Mabel was frugal and just before the start of the
Speaker 3: Great Depression, they were able to lease a large parcel
Speaker 3: of land just outside of Skidmore, Missouri. It was around
Speaker 3: two hundred acres with a four bedroom home included Wow
Speaker 3: Tom planted corn crops. Unfortunately for the young couple. The
Speaker 3: season in Missouri was one of the driest on record,
Speaker 3: and the rainless season meant they lost the entire crop.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Sony had to go back to menial jobs,
Speaker 3: working on other people's farms and taking on construction jobs
Speaker 3: to make ends meet. Despite their poverty, they continued having children,
Speaker 3: and Ken McElroy was born on June sixteen, nine and
Speaker 3: thirty four. 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 1: 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 so many jobs with 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: in the same Wow. Ken decided to leave school part
Speaker 3: way through grade five. And no one in the family
Speaker 3: really noticed that he 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.
Speaker 2: Out, Oh god sound.
Speaker 3: Ken started stealing in the area, mostly small stock animals.
Speaker 3: When he was around fifteen, he bought an old car.
Speaker 3: He pulled the back seat out replaced it with a
Speaker 3: wooden floor. He would drive around at night and steal pigs,
Speaker 3: which would then sell to people in surrounding towns or
Speaker 3: to the local abatur.
Speaker 2: This is Diggs's dream right now, driving around town still pigs.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't sell them.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't sell me. Bring him in here.
Speaker 3: And when I wrote that, I just wanted to foot
Speaker 3: la la lah love la.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Please watch Sammy's stand up special if you did not get.
Speaker 3: That reference At eighteen, Ken married for the first time
Speaker 3: to sixteen year old Aleta Holland. They moved to Denver
Speaker 3: and for a short time, Ken was doing well. Then
Speaker 3: one day, while working on a construction site, a large
Speaker 3: beam fell around thirty feet, striking King directly on the head.
Speaker 3: He was wearing a helmet, which split in two. He survived.
Speaker 2: 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 leader moved back to Skidmore to live with
Speaker 3: his parents. At twenty years old, while still married to
Speaker 3: a Leader, he allegedly raped and impregnated a local sixteen
Speaker 3: 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 the twins did also not survive.
Speaker 2: Oh no go.
Speaker 3: A former classmate tells.
Speaker 1: That the pigs go back to the happy pigs.
Speaker 3: What was it that I said before?
Speaker 2: It is nar? I agree?
Speaker 3: Sorry, I think that's Nari. 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 god, I think I'm going to.
Speaker 1: Have to leave.
Speaker 3: The family stopped talking about the younger daughter's death, and
Speaker 3: 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 one afternoon, while sitting
Speaker 3: in his truck, Ken pulled out shotgun and held it
Speaker 3: against sharon 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 no, no, she refused
Speaker 3: to certain 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. Oh. 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.
Speaker 1: Was 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, thank you, thank you, And you have abused
Speaker 5: the open invite by coming in here and telling us
Speaker 5: upsetting g like this, telling us the stories.
Speaker 1: Look, don't flick through your pages at me on that clipboard.
Speaker 3: We're at the start of this story, Sharon.
Speaker 1: If you're not watching on the YouTube, was cep You
Speaker 1: just read ahead and gave a creepier Oh no, just.
Speaker 3: Call me buttons. They had two children, Sharon and Ken.
Speaker 3: Then around nineteen sixty one, twenty seven year old McElroy
Speaker 3: started dating a thirteen year old girl named Sally, who
Speaker 3: he had met while she was waiting at a local
Speaker 3: bus stop.
Speaker 1: I was just going to sit here and quietly disassociated.
Speaker 2: Yeah. 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 a disturbing story of
Speaker 1: horrible thanks.
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 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 head.
Speaker 2: Oh might out of his head the rest of his head.
Speaker 2: Horrendous correct use of the word horrenders.
Speaker 3: Horrenders. Now, I'm going to keep saying allegedly occasionally in
Speaker 3: this because Ken has never been convicted of me all
Speaker 3: 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 3: And 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 charges, 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. One local was
Speaker 3: quoted as saying, to the men in this town need
Speaker 3: to take the law in her own hands and resolve
Speaker 3: this situation, or can be allowed to continue living in
Speaker 3: this community and committing crimes.
Speaker 2: Harmonized as well?
Speaker 3: You to good staff. In nineteen sixty four, now thirty
Speaker 3: year old Ken McElroy met Alice outside the corner store.
Speaker 3: She asked him to buy her cigarettes and he agreed
Speaker 3: on the condition that she would smoke them in his truck.
Speaker 3: Ils was twelve. Oh my god, when Ken first seduced her. 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 McGann,
Speaker 3: who became very who became very fond of Ken very quickly.
Speaker 3: Trina would get other twelve year olds students to sign
Speaker 3: her mother's name on absentee notes so she could sneak
Speaker 3: out of school and man, can they commenced a sexual relationship? Well,
Speaker 3: they didn't, and Ken quickly convinced Trina to leave her parents' house,
Speaker 3: drop out of school and moving with him.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: At fourteen years old, Trina had her first child.
Speaker 1: Wow to what he's like thirty six, thirty.
Speaker 3: Four, thirty four on thirty six now that she's full.
Speaker 4: Your math was amazing then, because it's usually not.
Speaker 1: Something's happening today. You've rewired my brain incredible disturbance, so
Speaker 1: much I can now do.
Speaker 3: Ad to like nobody.
Speaker 2: Thank you. You became math.
Speaker 3: That was amazing. There was no room for Trina at
Speaker 3: his parents' house, so Ken kicked Sally out and Trina
Speaker 3: moved in with Ken. Sharon, Sharon's kids, and Ken's parents and.
Speaker 1: Ken's parents are still around through all of this.
Speaker 3: Yep, oh, I have some words. But the happy home
Speaker 3: did not last long. Just after Trina gave birth, Sharon
Speaker 3: convinced her that they had to get out of the
Speaker 3: house and they ran off and went to Trina's parents
Speaker 3: home for refuge.
Speaker 1: So Trena's parents were on board with this as well well.
Speaker 3: Trina's parents were around around exactly on board they were around.
Speaker 3: Ken came to Trina'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 my, what the fuck?
Speaker 1: What the fuck?
Speaker 3: A few days later, Trina attended the 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, the
Speaker 3: Big three. Yep. The doctor contacted social welfare, who took
Speaker 3: Trina and her child to a foster care. Remember she
Speaker 3: was fourteen years old.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, who's to foster care too? Because she.
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 mcorory, again, saying that he
Speaker 3: was his favorite client because he always comes back and
Speaker 3: he always pays cash. Jesus cursed. The attorney's tactic each
Speaker 3: time was to delay the case until he and Ken
Speaker 3: could work out a solution. Guess what Ken's solution was
Speaker 3: on this occasion, intimidation. He found the foster home where
Speaker 3: Trina was house and started making threatening phone calls. He
Speaker 3: would sit outside the house for hours with his headlights on,
Speaker 3: shining through the windows of the home, and occasionally he
Speaker 3: would fire a shotgun into the air. At one stage,
Speaker 3: she called the foster family and he said he would
Speaker 3: exchange the safety of one child for the safety he
Speaker 3: was implying that he knew where the foster family is,
Speaker 3: child went to school, what bus she caught, and he
Speaker 3: would kidnap her to get Trina. The delay, tactics and
Speaker 3: intimidation lasted around two months, and then Trina decided she
Speaker 3: was concerned for the safety of the Foster family and
Speaker 3: she found life there a little bit boring, so she
Speaker 3: left and returned to liv God. Ken then convinced Trina
Speaker 3: they should go out of state and get married, despite
Speaker 3: the fact that he was still married to Sharon because Trina,
Speaker 3: and I've written this in capital letters, because Trina was
Speaker 3: still a fucking child. Ken required the permission of a
Speaker 3: parent or guardian to marry her, 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 her throat and politely asked her light what
Speaker 2: 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 2: Bird shot.
Speaker 3: Bird shot is like not shotgun pellets. It's like a salt.
Speaker 3: I think it's salt based. Scares the birds.
Speaker 2: Off, it doesn't kill him, okay.
Speaker 3: He would drive past the farmer's house, shin 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 parked out his
Speaker 3: home at least one hundred times. Ken also went to
Speaker 3: the judge's property and burned down his bar, 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 for coming.
Speaker 2: Thanks you for that.
Speaker 1: And I have never I don't think ever in my
Speaker 1: life thought before that taking someone else's life would be
Speaker 1: a good thing. But right now I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: why no one seeing everyone's and farmers and everything, everyone's
Speaker 1: got guns. Why did no one even perhaps accidentally maybe
Speaker 1: go out hunting?
Speaker 3: And what happened at the start of the story?
Speaker 1: Gee, but this is later before now I know.
Speaker 3: Yep. So even though there were witnesses to the shooting,
Speaker 3: two of Ken's hunting buddies testified that he'd been with
Speaker 3: them 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 staugh 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 3: Lois and Earnest as they were leaving, Yeah, as they
Speaker 3: were leaving, the five year old picked up two pieces
Speaker 3: of candy and put them in her pocket. Seventy two
Speaker 3: year old Ernest saw her do this, grabbed her arm
Speaker 3: and told her to put them back or pay for them.
Speaker 3: The girl wriggled free and ran home to complain about
Speaker 3: her treatment to her mother, Trina. Shortly after, Trina and
Speaker 3: Ken entered the store and confronted the older couple who
Speaker 3: owned the store about how they had treated Trena's daughter,
Speaker 3: very similar.
Speaker 2: To what his dad, Yeah Yeah.
Speaker 3: Ernest chastised Traina for her daughter's behavior and told them
Speaker 3: that they and their whole family were now banned from
Speaker 3: the store for life. Obviously, Ken took this well. He
Speaker 3: began a can pain of intimidation against Lois and Ernest
Speaker 3: bowen Camp.
Speaker 1: But their names are Lewis and Scott.
Speaker 3: Changed the story.
Speaker 2: Change the story.
Speaker 3: Scott read, write it back to Disneyland. He would Ken
Speaker 3: to sit outside the store on the front of his
Speaker 3: truck with a knife or a gun, or a gun
Speaker 3: with a bayonet attached. Around a month after around a
Speaker 3: month of harassment, McElroy pulled up behind the store one afternoon,
Speaker 3: waited for Ernest bowen Camp to come out the back door,
Speaker 3: and shot him, hitting him in the face and neck
Speaker 3: with the shotgun. The store owner lived and Ken was
Speaker 3: arrested and charged for this shooting. Oh His response was
Speaker 3: to continue to harass the store owners. He would go
Speaker 3: every day to the D and G, which was the
Speaker 3: local bar, and tell anyone there how he would kill
Speaker 3: 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. What the fuck got out and threatened
Speaker 3: Ernest bowen Camp sorry, and threatened that he ever visited
Speaker 3: Ernest bowen Camp in hospital again, he would cars straight
Speaker 3: the minister and then kill and dismember the minister's son
Speaker 3: 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 Matt Sorter. That's a Sault brother.
Speaker 3: That's a Salt brother. But as was the lawyer at
Speaker 3: the time, Ken was allowed to return home on bail
Speaker 3: prior to.
Speaker 1: His appealed O 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, Trena 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. Yay. Ken was arrested and arraigned to
Speaker 3: appear in the local court for the parole breach, and
Speaker 3: this time he was held in the town lockup.
Speaker 2: Yay.
Speaker 1: Things are looking up.
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. Yay.
Speaker 1: What they did know.
Speaker 3: Was that McFadden had had the case delayed and moved
Speaker 3: from Skidmore. Because of this, Ken was released from the
Speaker 3: Skidmore lockup and allowed to remain free until the date
Speaker 3: of the new arraignment.
Speaker 1: I would like to retract all of my yall the
Speaker 1: ones I've ever done. This story is ruined, memory, ruined.
Speaker 3: Christmas. Furious, the town people arranged to meet the next day,
Speaker 3: July the tenth, at the American Legion Hall. For decades,
Speaker 3: Ken McElroy had bullied and victimized the count of Sigamore.
Speaker 3: Most of the men of Skidmore Town attended the meeting.
Speaker 3: No one has ever spoken about exactly what was discussed,
Speaker 3: but the local sheriff has concerned that he was confirmed
Speaker 3: that he was there, and he told the town to
Speaker 3: leave McElroy alone and if they were concerned, perhaps they
Speaker 3: could start a neighborhood watch program.
Speaker 1: That feels like that. I feel like that was said
Speaker 1: with a fair amount of win Kingdom. Yeah, I'm here
Speaker 1: as the official representative. Definitely, don't do anything, don't.
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 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Also so like, oh my god, almost fifty years old.
Speaker 1: He's never been oh.
Speaker 3: Once the meeting at the legion 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, a 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. He
Speaker 3: finished his bier, and he walked calmly up to the
Speaker 3: bar and bought a six pack. He and Trina left
Speaker 3: the bar and climbed into his truck. All the town
Speaker 3: people who were in the bar walked out into the street,
Speaker 3: following Ken and Trena. 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.
Speaker 2: The view 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 you yeah or not? Yeah yeah, got to wait
Speaker 2: for it, wait 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 d Dell 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 Trina to come with her or they will
Speaker 3: kill you.
Speaker 2: Two Wow.
Speaker 3: Trina was taken to the bank and kept safe until
Speaker 3: a phone call was to a very surprised sheriff. Oh. Yes,
Speaker 3: he was sitting outside the 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 of.
Speaker 3: By the time he returned to the main street, the truck,
Speaker 3: with Ken dead at the wheel, was sitting abandoned in
Speaker 3: the street outside the bar. There was no one on
Speaker 3: the street and very few faces anywhere in 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: Oh my god, I cleaned it all up.
Speaker 2: Wait could we get a clean wait? Go 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 conflicting. Countdown to the yate.
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.
Speaker 2: If you will, your honor, 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 thing.
Speaker 2: What the heck?
Speaker 3: The only person treatment Trainer could name was del Clement,
Speaker 3: a local farmer and council member who was well thought
Speaker 3: of in the community. NOMAS focused. The NOMAS focused their
Speaker 3: investigation on Trina's eyewitness testimony and tried to build a
Speaker 3: case against Dell and the town of Skidmore. NOMAS presented
Speaker 3: the case to the district attorney, who, due to its
Speaker 3: circumstantial nature and lack of witnesses, declined to press charges.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: Frustrated Nomas referred the case to the FBI.
Speaker 1: This is a case for the FB.
Speaker 3: I I love that you just joined me.
Speaker 2: In that I refuse.
Speaker 3: I am more of a musical girl than you imagine.
Speaker 2: Have to tell you.
Speaker 3: The FBI came to Skidmore, bringing the full weight of
Speaker 3: the bureau with them. FBI records show that they interviewed
Speaker 3: three hundred and twenty six of the four hundred and
Speaker 3: forty nine Skidmore residence wo. However, no one was able
Speaker 3: to confirm they were on Main Street until I tenth.
Speaker 3: No one could verify if del Clements was at the
Speaker 3: Legion Hall meeting, or even if he had been in
Speaker 3: the town that day. Not a single resident was able
Speaker 3: to state for the record that they saw anything Wow.
Speaker 3: The only person who had ever confirmed that the town
Speaker 3: meeting in the Legend Hall even took place was the sheriff,
Speaker 3: Dad Estes. He admitted he had met with a group
Speaker 3: of men at the Legion Hall until I tenth to
Speaker 3: discuss their concerns about Ken McElroy. His statement says, I
Speaker 3: distinctly recall telling the group not to go find Ken
Speaker 3: and do anything. I assumed they would respect the law
Speaker 3: and disperse, so I left the town on pressing business.
Speaker 1: I love him, hell love.
Speaker 3: Based on forensic evidence, it is believed that there was
Speaker 3: at least five shooters, one behind the truck, one on
Speaker 3: the driver's side, one a little way aright, one or
Speaker 3: two a little way from the driver's truck on the
Speaker 3: driver 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.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: The district attorney announced after a full review in ninety
Speaker 3: eighty three that they were unable to charge any person
Speaker 3: with the murder of Ken mccelroy. Wow Wow. In nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty four, Traina filed a six million dollar wrongful death
Speaker 3: suit against the Town of Skidmore, Sheriff down Estes, the mayor,
Speaker 3: Steve Peters, and Dell Clement.
Speaker 1: Nope, we've gone no, I'm back off her.
Speaker 3: The case The case was settled with no admission of
Speaker 3: guilt and a payment of seventeen thousand, six hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm bit happier 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 right.
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 birthday.
Speaker 3: Oh As of twenty twenty five, no one has ever
Speaker 3: been charged for the forty four year old crime that
Speaker 3: is the murder of Ken McElroy.
Speaker 1: That's so sad.
Speaker 3: No one is gidmore has ever spoken about who they
Speaker 3: suspect committed the crime, and it remains unsolved. And that's
Speaker 3: the true story of the murder of Ken McElroy, A
Speaker 3: bully whose violent life to a violent death in a
Speaker 3: murder where no one saw anything.
Speaker 2: Can I solve it right now, town? Did it?
Speaker 3: Hey?
Speaker 1: You have to say allegedly, Samuel, right now, Samuel, b
Speaker 1: are you making a Simpsons joke?
Speaker 3: I just speak?
Speaker 2: Okay, it felt good, felt right.
Speaker 1: I am feeling a lot better than I was for
Speaker 1: a good that.
Speaker 4: Was I promise, Yeah, she was going to do another
Speaker 4: after you came on up to the Disney one to go.
Speaker 2: You're never coming back. Get out, you know you're always
Speaker 2: walking back on my.
Speaker 3: Watch, Thanks mate, Thanks, No, No, it's all right, there
Speaker 3: won't be.
Speaker 2: That's that's that's gnarly as though it.
Speaker 3: Was there is. There's an excellent documentary oh called No
Speaker 3: One Saw a Thing.
Speaker 2: 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 love fascinating and fascinating to watch them just
Speaker 3: deadpan and go yeah, yeah, I only know about the
Speaker 3: Legend Hall meeting because it was written up in the press.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you're talking about. They just completely
Speaker 3: the whole town forty four.
Speaker 1: Years later, and wow, remembering nowhere. Such a shame.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: The only part I'm conflicted about is that I am
Speaker 1: happy about this. What I'm conflicted with is that that's that's
Speaker 1: a horrible thing to think and a way to feel.
Speaker 1: And before I knew what I mean, who had shot him?
Speaker 1: And of course they still don't because it's not solved.
Speaker 1: I had said to you, I would never ever say,
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever thought about anyone. Someone needs
Speaker 1: to go and take this guy out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you did through the story.
Speaker 1: Even then, I was like, someone needs to take him.
Speaker 2: Out of all the horrible, horrible things that he did.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah, how did you hear about this one?
Speaker 2: Was it through watching the documentary?
Speaker 3: It was before watching the document Yeah, I heard about
Speaker 3: it and then I watched the documentary and then went
Speaker 3: and then I went, I know who I can traumatized
Speaker 3: with it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all when you say the eighties, because that
Speaker 4: to me seems so late in the in the piece
Speaker 4: for something so awful, and so you'd feel this would
Speaker 4: happen in the twenties or something.
Speaker 2: I guess it started like.
Speaker 3: I think the eighties were twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same, yeah for all of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, where and I will not hear.
Speaker 2: I won't hear another word.
Speaker 1: About I was born in the eighties, but I'm only
Speaker 1: twenty three, so.
Speaker 2: Twenty three today, had people.
Speaker 3: Nic it's a nice rade. Yeah yeah, yeah, nice about.
Speaker 4: Her birthdayt the end, had we didn't commit, there was
Speaker 4: the least committal habit.
Speaker 1: I really love so you say on my Instagram and
Speaker 1: TikTok when people say I'm going to see if my friend,
Speaker 1: my partner, my boss, whoever will match my energy, and
Speaker 1: then they just do something weird and see if the
Speaker 1: people you just started seeing happy birthday. It's not my birthday,
Speaker 1: but obviously not twenty three and all three of.
Speaker 6: Us just birthday.
Speaker 1: We 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 yeah and no.
Speaker 1: Get vaccinated, traumastizing story.
Speaker 3: And it was to protect me, to protect me from
Speaker 3: an NBA get away from me. And so most of
Speaker 3: my classes were on a Tuesday night, so I'd go
Speaker 3: to the study and right and Julian knocks on my
Speaker 3: door if the study one night and then I hear
Speaker 3: it run down the hall, one hilarious door knocking right
Speaker 3: straight up to the macgala and I opened the door
Speaker 3: and she starts sashaying down the Hall completely covered in
Speaker 3: black like Kim Kardashi.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that is incredible.
Speaker 3: On the on the and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I'm so.
Speaker 1: So I.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was laughing my head off. I filmed her. I
Speaker 3: filmed it in slow motion. It's absolutely fantastic. And then
Speaker 3: I went and searched the met gala and found a
Speaker 3: picture of someone that I could dress up as and
Speaker 3: got one of her. Like, there was a guy. He's
Speaker 3: somebody famous, so I can't remember rends. He's a very
Speaker 3: famous fashion designer, very attractive man. Anyone Renolds. He's not
Speaker 3: a fashion designer to you, idiot, I said, Roland Reynolds
Speaker 3: is also not a fashion designer. But he was wearing
Speaker 3: like these white shorts that basically want jogs and a
Speaker 3: crochet top. So I went and pinched one of her
Speaker 3: crochet tops and put on. I said, the tidy white
Speaker 3: and walked back out and talk about matching energy.
Speaker 2: That's great, love love, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Gold, and she you would do.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: She sent me a photo one day of Joe Manganello.
Speaker 3: How you say his name, the one that was married
Speaker 3: to Sophia Vagara.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the girl from Magic Mind.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the guy from Regi very he's a very very
Speaker 3: strong a picture of imposing like this on a rock.
Speaker 1: You recreated it.
Speaker 3: I went bolting out park near our house.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: We definitely have a marriage when we met.
Speaker 1: I love that so much. I oh god, you're right.
Speaker 3: Conflicted? Is the right work?
Speaker 1: Because I'm conflicted about that story because I hated it
Speaker 1: for so long, but then I kind of love.
Speaker 3: It at the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Is that fun enough that we can do it again? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're back that we're not doing the same
Speaker 2: story again. We can't do the same story every week.
Speaker 2: We can't.
Speaker 4: No, that's not how we do this podcast. But can
Speaker 4: we amend today on.
Speaker 6: Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday, Georgiagia.
Speaker 3: Happy birthday to you. Wait, who's our hip? You are by?
Speaker 3: Hit by?
Speaker 2: Your dog is so unimpressed, he's sold impressed by this
Speaker 2: whole thing. He's exhausted. Thank you so much, guys.
Speaker 1: Bye,