The Town Bully Killed in Unsolved Murder | Ken McElroy

When the justice system fails an entire town by repeatedly allowing a violent criminal onto the streets, the town finds its own justice.

Ken Rex McElroy was the fifteenth of sixteen children born to a poor farming couple named Tony and Mabel McElroy. He was born on June 1st 1934, in Skidmore, Nodaway County, Missouri, after his parents had spent a while moving around Kansas and the Ozarks.

By fifteen, McElroy’s reputation had already begun to infect the small town; he dropped out of school, began stealing from the locals, and rustled the local’s cattle. He would also become a “womanizer”, having ten children with different women over his lifetime. His alleged robberies included the theft of grain, gasoline, alcohol, antiques and livestock, but McElroy was never convicted. The charges were often dropped when witnesses refused to testify after McElroy allegedly threatened them by stalking them around town or sitting outside their homes. The cases were also defended by defence attorney Richard Gene McFadin.

McElroy’s third wife and the woman he was still with upon his murder, Trena McCloud, was just twelve when she met thirty-five-year-old McElroy. He would repeatedly rape Trena, and when he wanted to make the child his bride, her parents disapproved and wouldn’t allow it to proceed. McElroy burnt down their home and killed the family dog as an act of retaliation, scaring the McCloud parents into allowing their daughter to marry her abuser.

Trena became pregnant at fourteen and was forced to drop out of school in the ninth grade. She moved in with McElroy and his second wife, Alice Woods. McElroy had divorced Alice just so he could marry Trena. He only married Trena to escape statutory rape charges being held against him, in which Trena was the only witness.

Sixteen days after giving birth, Trena and Alice fled with the baby to Trena’s parents’ new home, but according to court records, McElroy tracked them down and forced them to come back with him. When Trena’s parents left town for a short while, he went to their home, killed their new dog and burnt down the house.

In June 1973, McElroy was indicted for arson, assault and statutory rape; he was arrested, booked, arraigned and released on bond while Trena and her baby were sent to a Maryville foster home. McElroy found out where they had been sent and would sit outside the foster home for hours on end and stare inside. It’s reported that he offered to trade “girl for girl” to get his daughter back; he claimed to know where the foster family’s daughter went to school and the bus route she would take to and from. Additional charges were filed.

On July 27th 1976, a Skidmore farmer, Romaine Henry, said McElroy shot him twice with a shotgun after Romaine challenged him for shooting weapons at his property. McElroy was charged with assault with intent to kill, but McElroy denied he did it at the scene.

The case dragged on without a court date being set; Romaine said McElroy parked outside his home at least one hundred times.

When the case finally went to trial, two racoon hunters testified that they were with McElroy the day of the shooting and they weren’t near Romaine’s property. Under the questioning of McElroy’s attorney, Richard Gene McFadin, Romaine was forced to admit to a concealed petty criminal conviction from more than thirty years previously. McElroy, like his other cases, was acquitted of his crimes.

In 1980, one of McElroy’s children got into an argument with a clerk at a local grocery store owned by seventy-year-old Ernest Bowenkamp and his wife, Lois. The argument with Evelyn Sumy was over the child attempting to steal candy. After he found out what happened, McElroy began stalking the Bowenkamp family. It all culminated with McElroy threatening Ernest in the back of his shop with a shotgun.
McElroy shot Ernest in the neck in the ensuing confrontation, which he thankfully survived. McElroy was arrested and charged with attempted murder, but at trial, he was convicted of assault and was freed on bail pending an appeal.

Immediately after his release, McElroy went to the D&G Tavern with an M1 Graran rifle with a bayonet attached. He began making graphic threats towards Ernest, which led several patrons to search for legal ways to prevent harm from coming to anyone else at the hands of McElroy.

On the morning of July 10th 1981, the townspeople gathered at the Legion Hall in the centre of town with Nodaway County Sheriff Dan Estes to discuss ways for people to protect themselves. During the meeting, McElroy and Trena arrived at the D&G Tavern, sitting at the bar drinking. Word got back to the townspeople at the meeting that he was in town; Sheriff Estes suggested the group not get into a direct confrontation with McElroy, but once he had left, that is exactly what the amassed group did.

The bar filled around McElroy while he finished off his last drink; he purchased a six-pack before leaving. When he and Trena left, the crowd followed behind them while the couple climbed into McElroy’s truck. As they sat in the truck, several shots were fired at the driver’s seat, but McElroy was only hit twice by two different guns, one a centerfire rifle and the other by a .22 rimfire rifle. Trena was left unharmed from the assault.
Of the forty-six witnesses, including Trena, no one called for help, and only Trena claimed to be able to identify the gunman. No one has been charged for the murder of Ken McElroy, and it seems that no one will be.

Thank you for reading the unsolved murder of Ken McElroy! If there are any updates, I’ll be sure to add them to the comments of this post.