The late Ken Rex McElroy
After 30 years, David Baird, prosecuting attorney of Nodoway County, Missouri, is retiring after being defeated 1,356 votes to 1,381 votes, a margin of 25 ballots, in the democrat party primary.
The famous town bully shooting in Skidmore which took place within months of Mr. Baird first assuming office remains unsolved to this day.
Ken Rex McElroy, 47, was a big, burly man with bushy sideburns, cold eyes and an ever-present gun. He was the Skidmore bully. On July 10, 1981, on a hot summer morning in a fed-up town, he was shot to death in plain view of 30 to 40 people who gathered around his Chevrolet pickup outside a beer joint on Main Street.
Killed instantly by rifle bullets, his foot pushed the accelerator to the floor. The engine roared. Like something in literature, no one shut it off. They just walked away.
Except for McElroy’s wife, nobody told who did it. Investigators and grand juries heard the same thing time and time again: “I heard shooting and got down. Didn’t see a thing.â€
Apparently, McElroy was mean enough to unite a town of plain, good folks to do murder. He had terrorized Skidmore for years. He allegedly stole livestock, burned houses, chased women, preyed upon young girls — and threatened a bullet or buckshot for anyone who got in his way.
Baird could never charge anyone.
Wikipedia article.
Despite being a democrat, it sounds like Mr. Baird was a responsible prosecutor. Let’s hope his successor continues to follow his example.
McElroy’s pickup truck
Guy
Skidmore should be PROUD.
WHY should someone be tried for a righteous act..??
If ever pest removal was needed it was in this case.
What DO you do when justice fails..??
What do you do when the Hun is at the gate…???
Guy
Joyce
McElroy wound up being as much of a victim as the town was. If the judges and lawyers had gotten him put behind bars and kept there, he might still be alive today.
As it was, on the flip side, Bo Bowenkamp would have probably been killed by McElroy before much longer if he himself hadn’t caught lead that day in July. McElroy was fatally killed by a .22 round to the head. Most people around Skidmore used .22’s to shoot varmits. Theres a moral in that, if you like morals.
No tears shed for McElroy that day or 31 years later by the survivors of the town.
Anxieties and fear come and go: death is a very much permanent ailment.
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