Ken McElroy
(Small Town Story)

Ken McElroy: A Case of Vigilante Justice

Introduction

July 10, 1981 a day that will live forever in the lore of Skidmore, Missouri. It was on this day that a small town stood up for itself after years of living in terror of a man by the name of Ken McElroy. Time and time again McElroy had been brought into court but every time through various tactics including witness intimidation (a favorite tactic of McElroy’s) he managed to evade justice time after time. So after he shot an elderly store owner the town had enough. They made their own justice when Ken McElroy was gunned down “in a hail of gunfire” yet no assailants were ever convicted of the killing. To this day no one from the town will talk about who all participated in the act of vigilantism.

I’m not here to glorify this case, despite the nature of McElroy’s character I want to approach this as unbiased as possible because at the end of the day a man was killed. For better or worse is not my place to judge, nor try to convince you the audience that the cold blooded murder of someone was or was not justified. Whether we think it was right or not we do have to acknowledge that it was indeed an act of murder. 

Chapter 1 - Ken’s Background

It was on June 1, 1934 that Tony and Mabel McElroy had their 15th of 16 children, Ken. A poor migrant family, they were living in Overland Park, Kansas at the time of Ken’s birth. As a large, poor family life was particularly hard for Ken and his siblings where you had to fight for everything you got, and often underhanded tactics were resorted to in order to “win” over the “weaker” siblings. Thus Ken learned to lie, cheat and steal to survive at a young age. Though one of his favorite tactics was also born of this upbringing; the one he would resort to most often throughout his life: Intimidation.

No stranger to violence through his life as he grew up Ken was not afraid to get physical in order to get his way. As a teen once he came into possession of his first car he became very good at theft in order to keep his car mobile. If he needed gas he would often siphon gas from the other cars in town or parked at the rural farms in the area or steal to earn money for gas. If his car had broken down or was in need of a new part he would often target other people who owned the same or a similar model to his own and steal parts right off them in the night.

He also became very persuasive with women and began engaging in affairs with many of the married women in town and often employed him in one of his most lucrative ventures: livestock rustling. At night Ken would go and steal livestock from farms around the area and in the morning have one of his mistresses go to the local livestock yard and sell the animals for cash.

Chapter 2 - Trena McCloud

One of the most tragic and dark aspects of the entire Ken McElroy iceberg is his last wife Trena McCloud. Ken was already 35 and married to his second wife Alice when he met the then very age inappropriate Trena. She wasn’t even a teenager when she became a victim of Ken’s predations. When she was 14 to escape SR charges Ken divorced Alice and got married to Trena in a very shady ceremony with no witnesses besides the bride. While her parents had initially opposed the marriage Ken was able to intimidate them by burning down their home, just to make matters worse he also took the life of the family’s pet.

It was prior to her marriage she had become pregnant, and sixteen days after she gave birth, Trena, Alice and the baby fled from Ken only for him to track them down and force them to return with him. During a period where Trena’s parents were away Ken also repeated his original “punishment” he had dealt out the last time they had made him angry. And based on his known temper one can only imagine how he might have “punished” Trena and Alice in his fury.

One of the most tragic parts of Trena’s story is that eventually she became just as sadistic as her abuser. Oftentimes her and the couple’s children would use the threat of Ken’s wrath to bully, intimidate and otherwise get their way among the townspeople. They became almost as terrifying as Ken himself because one word from them could have Ken McElroy raising all manner of hell in your place of business if not your home.

Chapter 3 - The Town Bully

Throughout his life Ken was brought up on charges 21 times and every single time he managed to walk away a free man. All except the last time that is. The times Ken managed to go free were usually due to the sudden unwillingness of a witness to testify against Ken. He often intimidated them by following them, lurking around outside their homes, and just being as ominous and threatening as possible, taking people’s sense of security until they feared him more than the law.

For years Ken ruled through this fear. Even when he wasn’t around people were reluctant to speak ill of him for fear someone might rat them out in order to possibly gain a little bit of favor with the tyrant. Then one day he went too far. One day he came into town in a fit of rage and shot the elderly store owner Ernest Bowenkamp. Ken was brought up on these charges but managed to appeal his conviction and get himself released on bond. Of course the first thing Ken did was begin a campaign to terrorize Bowenkamp and those who were sympathetic to the elderly man’s plight. 

On July 9th of 1981 Ken once more came into town angrily seeking out Bowenkamp. He found his target in the local tavern and armed with his rifle Kem proceeded to threaten the old man’s life. Once Ken had left the town was abuzz with activity. Allegedly there was a kind of impromptu town meeting where it was decided that Ken’s reign of terror had to come to an end, by any means necessary. And it was decided that if the law could not or would not help them, then they would stand up for themselves and in a way that Ken McElroy wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life.

The following day Ken and Trena came into town. Ken went into one of the shops and got himself a pack of cigarettes then as the town bully got back into his truck and sat next to his wife Trena, Ken McElroy was shot dead in broad daylight. There were roughly 35-40 witnesses around but no one was willing to say a word about who the shooters were, and to this day no one ever has. It was ruled however that he was killed by bullets from two different guns. Who’s to say though that maybe one day a letter or journal or even a deathbed confession may shed light on the 44 year old mystery of just who killed Ken McElroy that day in 1981 while more than 30 people including his wife Trena watched on.

Conclusion

And that is the tale of how one man held a town in such fear that one day they hit a breaking point and fought back with lethal consequences. But when you kick a dog every time you walk past it, you don’t just make it highly likely that one day it’s going to bite you; you make it… inevitable.

Right or wrong is not my place to decide. When a life is lost it is not a thing to take lightly. If nothing else we should always try to understand what led to this outcome? Could it have been avoided? Ken McElroy was beyond evil, there were so many vile things this man did to so many people. I will not say the town should not have stood up for itself, but I will say we should take a hard look at what brought it to a point where they no longer had a choice but to take the law into their own hands; and become vigilantes.