He Needed Killing:Ken McElroy·Ken Rex McElroy

For more than twenty years, Ken Rex McElroy frightened the small farming town of Skidmore, Missouri. He was accused of livestock theft, arson, assault and more, and was indicted 21 times, but witnesses kept backing out and he kept avoiding conviction. He began a relationship with Trena McCloud when she was twelve. When she became pregnant at fourteen he married her, and the statutory rape case against him fell apart because she was the only witness.

In July 1980, after one of his children was accused of shoplifting, McElroy shot 70-year-old grocer Ernest “Bo” Bowenkamp in the neck with a shotgun. Bowenkamp survived. In June 1981 a jury convicted McElroy of second-degree assault, and he was sentenced to two years but released on bond while he appealed. He soon appeared at the D&G Tavern with a rifle and threatened the grocer again.

On the morning of July 10, 1981, townspeople met at the Legion Hall to talk about protecting themselves. When McElroy and Trena arrived at the tavern, a crowd formed outside. As he sat in his pickup, he was shot several times with at least two different guns. Dozens of people were there, yet none would name a shooter. A county grand jury adjourned that September without charges, a federal grand jury returned no indictments, and Trena’s wrongful death lawsuit was settled in 1985 for $17,600.