You know it’s not just lovey-dovey romance stories that make it to the big screens, right? Even movies about town bullies have made it to our screen with different titles and a few tweaks here and there.
A good example is the story of Ken Rex McElroy who terrorized the people of Skidmore, a small town in Missouri, United States of America. His crimes ranged from theft, cattle rustling, arson, stalking, r*pe, and child molestation, amongst others. His offenses numbered in the dozens.
Despite being guilty of all the crimes labeled against him, Ken Rex McElroy walked a free man and the reason was because he was a bully.
He met his Waterloo on July 10, 1981, when town members decided they had had enough and took matters into their own hands. His death remains a mystery to date as no one saw who was responsible.
Meet Skidmore’s Town Bully of Decades, Ken Rex McElroy
Ken Rex McElroy was born on June 1, 1934, in Overland Park, Kansas, United States of America. He was born as the 15th child of the 16 children Tony and Mabel (Lister) McElroy had. Tony and Mabel were described as ‘migrant tenant-farmers’ who had moved from Kansas to Ozark before settling in Skidmore's outskirts.
Growing up wasn’t a walk in the park for the McElroy family and even Ken Rex had to drop out of school at the age of 15 while he was still in the Eighth grade.
This birthed the Skidmore bully and town’s terror for over 2 decades and he was unstoppable.
McElroy soon became the town’s most talked about and dreaded burglar, livestock rustler, womanizer, bully, and petty thief. For many years, members of the town suspected and even caught him carrying out crimes that bordered around stealing cattle, grains, gasoline, antiques, alcohol, and anything he fancied and laid his eyes on.
With his big build, weighing over 250 pounds and standing over 6 feet tall, it was almost impossible for anyone to contend with him.
McElroy Forcefully Married a 14-year-old Ninth-Grader
Soon, Ken's lifestyle turned him into a serial r*pist, child molester, and arsonist. This was evident in how his second marriage to Trena McCloud came to be.
Ken Rex fathered more than 10 children with different women but only had records of marrying 3 women. His second wife’s name was Alice and his last wife was Trena whom he met when she was 12 years old. No information was mentioned about his first wife.
McElroy repeatedly r*ped Trena for some time and even got her pregnant. The young girl’s parents were initially against the relationship Ken Rex forced on their daughter but when he burnt down their house and shot their dog in protest, they unwillingly gave in to his demands.
Trena dropped out of school at the age of 14 because she was pregnant then and went to live with McElroy and his second wife, Alice. Ken soon divorced his second wife to marry Trena so he could avoid being accused of statutory rape.
Soon after Trena gave birth, she followed McElroy’s second wife to her parent’s house in a bid to escape from their husband. Ken Rex found out and went to the house to take them back. He again, burned down the McCloud house and shot their new dog after taking Trena, Alice, and the baby. Luckily, Trena’s parents were not in the house at the time.
In 1973, Ken Rex was indicted for arson assault, and statutory r*pe but was later released on bail. At the time, Trena and her baby were sent to a foster home but when he was released, Ken stalked the foster home where Trena and his baby stayed and even offered the family a batter – his baby for their biological child. He claimed he knew where the family’s biological child was and could bring her back to them in exchange for his child.
Trena eventually returned to him with their baby and, continued to live with Ken Rex as his wife.
Why He Was Never Sent To Jail
As already mentioned, McElroy was accused of many crimes against the people of Skidmore. The crimes that involved stealing, attempted murder, arson, child molestation, r*pe, and many more, were brought to the court of law but with a great lawyer on his side, McElroy never went to jail for any.
In more than 20 years and with a lot of accusations and court cases against him, he only did as much as pay bail a few times. Other times, he just walked away freely.
One of the reasons Ken Rex was never convicted is that his accusers would drop the cases halfway. The serial r*apist was also known to stalk his accusers, intimidate, and bully them to the point where they decided to let the case die natural deaths and not follow up on court proceedings.
Also, McElroy could get people to act as an alibi for him during court cases and the testimonies from those alibi justify his release. His lawyer was also very good that he could buy his client enough time or get a way around getting an indictment from the authorities.
Also, it seemed like McElroy also intimidated the law enforcement officers including judges and court officials.
The one time he was almost sent to prison for a crime, he managed to delay the court hearing for a year.
Ken Rex stalked the owner of the Skidmore local grocery store and even threatened to kill the man identified as then 70-year-old Mr. Ernest ‘Bo’ Bowenkamp. This happened after one of McElroy’s children was accused of trying to steal candy at the store and got into an argument with the store clerk.
In the heat of an altercation when McElroy confronted and threatened to kill Bo, he shot him in the neck at the back of the store. Mr. Ernest survived the shot and filed an attempted murder case against Ken.
The town bully was arrested and convicted of assault but was let free on bail pending his appeal. He then tracked Mr. Bo again to a local tavern, brandishing an M1 Garand rifle with a bayonet attached to it, threatening the grocery store owner.
Ken Rex McElroy Was Shot At Severally But Hit Just Twice
Ken Rex McElroy was killed in his truck on July 10, 1981. He was 47 years old, then. Before his murder, the tired people of Skidmore met at a place called the ‘Legion Hall’ where they were to come up with a legal end to McElroy’s constant bullying.
The county sheriff had to implore the assembly not to get into any form of confrontation with McElroy. He instead suggested that they form a neighborhood watch to combat Ken Rex’s activities.
While this meeting was active, Ken Rex McElroy and his wife went to the D&G Tavern to have drinks.
After the meeting, the sheriff drove out of town and the assembly decided to go to the tavern and filled the entire place. McElroy finished his drink, bought a six-pack of beer, left the bar with his wife, and got into his truck.
While inside the truck, the assembly that had left the Legion Hall followed and severally shot at him.
Two of the bullets hit McElroy and that was how he died, relieving the people of Skidmore of their town bully of many years.
To date, nobody knows the people who pulled the trigger, in the crowd of almost 50 people. The bullets found in him were revealed to have been from two different weapons; one centerfire rifle and another .22 rimfire rifle.
McElroy’s wife at the time, Trena, claimed to have seen the murderer and even accused a man named Del Clement of being the one behind the trigger that killed her husband. She filed a lawsuit against the man, the entire town of Skidmore, the county of Nodaway, the county’s sheriffs, and the mayor of Skidmore. She wanted compensation of $5 million for ‘wrongful death’ but the case was settled out of court and she was compensated with $17,600.
No other charge was pressed and the case died off naturally.
Trena McElroy later remarried and moved out of Skidmore to Lebanon and on her 55th birthday, on January 24, 2012, she died of cancer.
Movies about Ken Rex McElroy
In pop culture, the story of the life and death of Ken Rex McElroy has inspired several publications and movies. Here are some of them:
For one, there was a program created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard on CBS that ran a segment on the story back in 1982.
In 1988, Harry N. MacLean wrote a book titled ‘In Broad Daylight’ which was later adapted into a made-for-TV movie of the same title in 1991.
In 2018, the Web series BuzzFeed Unsolved covered the murder of Ken Rex McElroy.
No One Saw a Thing is a 2019 television documentary mini-series that aired on Sundance TV. This also covered the murder of McElroy.
In the action movie, the Road House, the villain, Ben Gazzara who played the role of the villain, Brad Wesley, loosely represented Ken Rex McElroy’s criminal activities.
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