UNSOLVED: Ken McElroy 1, The Bully of Skidmore with Tyler Allen (Minds of Madness)

Hey, it's Carter. If you're enjoying murder true crime stories, there's a new

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This is Crime House.

What happens when someone is hurting us, but nobody does anything to stop it?

Do we grid our teeth and bear it? Or do we take matters into our own hands?

Starting in 1960, the people of Skidmore, Missouri were faced with this very

question. For decades, a local bully named Ken McAroy tear us their town.

He stole from farmers, abused little girls, and treated everyone and came across

like dirt. If someone tried to stand up to him,

Ken used a mixture of legal maneuvering and witness intimidation to get away

clean, but everyone has their limit. And in 1981 the people of Skidmore

reached theirs. After years of living by Ken's rules,

they decided to teach him a lesson that he would never forget.

People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end,

but you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter

arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending.

I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by PAVE

Studios. And for the next two episodes, I'll be joined by Tyler Allen, the host of the

Minds of Madness podcast. Thanks so much for having me, Carter. I can't wait to dive into this

case with you. Same here, this case is insane and incredible. And for everyone listening,

if you're not following Minds of Madness, make sure to do it right now. Every episode tackles

a shocking crime. And just like on this show, focuses on how it impacted the people affected by it.

Tyler will introduce the next two episodes and then stick around at the end of part two

as I sit down with him for an extended conversation about the case.

I appreciate the kind words. This is the first of two episodes. On the 1981 murder of 47-year-old

Ken McElroy in Skidmore, Missouri. It's actually a case I got a connection to. Back in 2017,

one of our very first episodes was this case. We were just learning how to podcast,

kind of getting our feet wet, doing some cases that we're familiar with. We had Emily Thompson

from Morbidology, and she presented this case to us and broke the first outline for the script.

And my wife was like, why don't we reach out to Harry McLean? He wrote the book in broad daylight,

and he actually said yes, and he was the first writer we ever worked with. So to us, it was

a monumental moment for us, because we're probably only doing the podcast for a couple months before

we started working on it. Yeah, foundational episode and moment for you guys, then it was.

So today Carter will tell you about Ken's childhood and the decisions that led him to a life of crime.

Ken spent years using threats, violence, and intimidation to wreak havoc wherever he went.

He was so terrifying, even the police were afraid to cross him. But eventually,

the people of Skidmore reached the breaking point. And silence Ken once and for all.

And next time, Carter will discuss the vigilante justice that finally ended Ken's reign of terror.

Although there were plenty of witnesses, none of them were willing to throw the neighbors

under the bus, and 45 years later, it seemed like Mo'neverno pulled the trigger. All that and more coming up.

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Growing up in a big family can be complicated. For many, it's a blessing. Having lots of siblings

means there's always something to play with or confide in. But for others, love becomes a

competition where the only way to win is to stand out. Kenneth Rex McElroy took this second approach.

The 15th of 16th children, he was born on June 16th, 1934, in the tiny town of Quitman, Missouri,

with so many mouths to feed in the middle of the Great Depression, his parents struggled to make ends

meat. Ken's dad, Tony, was a tenant farmer who did odd jobs on the side while his mom Mabel kept

the house running. Both had their work cut out for them, with his dad always working, and his

mom looking after his siblings, Ken often felt neglected. And to get his parents attention,

he started to act out. By 1947, Tony and Mabel had already run out of patience. When Ken was 13,

his dad decided to stop yelling at his son, not because he wanted to take a different approach,

but because he'd given up. From that moment on, Ken could do whatever he wanted. He could attend school,

go to bed on time, do his chores, or not. Neither Tony nor Mabel cared anymore.

Unsurprisingly, a rebellious teenager like Ken decided not to live up to his responsibilities,

he skipped classes, mostly kept to himself, spending his time hunting or shooting cool alone,

on the rare occasion that a kid his own age actually tried to strike up a friendship,

Ken ruined it in record time. He was an insecure bully who escalated every possible conflict

around him, and innocent argument quickly turned into a life or death knife fight. Ken couldn't

get along with anyone unless he was pushing them around. The one exception was a boy named John.

He and Ken met in the first grade and were inseparable from then on.

Like Ken, John had a chip on his shoulder and was more interested in breaking the rules than

playing by them. As teenagers, they spent their nights cruising around town, stealing food and

mechanical parts or siphoning gas to make a quick buck. Despite their prickly tempers,

Ken and John had a bad boy vibe the girls in town couldn't resist.

For Ken, it was all fun and games until 1952, and that year, the 18-year-old started dating a

16-year-old girl named Olette. She was able to see past Ken's tough exterior and with her help,

Ken let go of some of the resentment he felt towards society. He must have taken it as a sign

that Olette was special. Later that year, the two of them moved to Denver, Colorado,

and eloped. Olette got pregnant soon after. To support his new family, Ken took a construction

job not long after he started. Some scaffolding collapsed above him. The debris hit him so hard,

it cut clean through his heart hat and sliced his head open. The doctors had no choice but to put

a steel plate under his scalp. The accident also pinched some nerves in Ken's neck,

which caused him extreme pain for the rest of his life and sometimes led him to black out.

And unfortunately, things didn't get better from there. Around the time of his accidents,

Olette had a miscarriage. The dual traumas of losing his child and his health

hardened Ken forever. He decided that working a normal job was for suckers. Gone was the soft,

insecure boy who stole Olette's heart. From then on, Ken would take what he wanted.

Around 1955, the 21-year-old moved back to Missouri with his wife and began stealing livestock

to pay the bills. They settled down near the town of Skidmore. By day, Ken drove on the outskirts of

town, looking for cows and pigs that were left unattended. Once night fell, he returned to the

spots he'd scouted and hustled the animals into the back of his pickup. Then he'd haul them over

to a farm in a neighboring county and sell them for cheap. Over time, Ken got pretty good at stealing.

And that might have been because he only targeted the poorest farmers,

knowing they'd have more trouble fighting back in court. It was a dirty move,

and it wasn't long before Ken had a city reputation around town. But it wasn't just because he was a

thief. Everywhere Ken McElroy went, trouble followed. In the beginning, most of the rumors about him

described in disgusting sex crimes, he allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old and got her pregnant

because she couldn't afford to go to a hospital. She died while giving birth at home. A year later,

Ken prayed on her older sister too. Whether or not that specific story was true, Ken was definitely

a predator who targeted young girls. If Oletta tried to bring up his behavior,

he just turned on her instead. And without anyone else looking over his shoulder, Ken was

free to continue praying on the most vulnerable people around him. Ken shamelessly hung around the

local high schoolers, buying their friendship with beer and free rides. Around them, he acted like

a big shot, especially when he was drinking. He made sure to pretend to be especially nice to the

girls, sometimes grooming them for years before pressuring them into sex. That was how he got into

an argument with an old man at a local tavern to impress the high school boys he hung out with.

Ken teased the man about having sex with his 13-year-old granddaughter. Eventually, the other

guy had enough and threatened to call the police. Ken stormed out of the bar, vowing to burn the old

man's farmhouse to the ground. Ken and his gang of teenagers raced over and even broke in,

but just before they lit a match, they realized someone was sleeping upstairs. Ken decided

committing murder wasn't worth it, so he ended up just stealing some food and leaving.

Ken, that kind of petty confrontation happens pretty much every day, and he quickly realized that

the tactics he'd used on the school playground were surprisingly effective in the adult world too.

Anyone who insulted him accidentally or on purpose was met with extreme force.

It got to a point where no one would stand up to Ken in public. They knew that even mild pushback

could get them or their families killed. Ken felt invincible, which only made his behavior

worse. In 1958 at age 24, he began praying on a 15-year-old girl named Sharon. At some point,

the two of them got into an argument, and Ken shoved a sawdoth shotgun in her face,

threatening to kill her, unless she shut up. She did, as she was told, but the weapon accidentally

went off anyway. Sharon miraculously survived the incident with just a shattered chin,

somehow Ken worked out a deal with the girl's parents. If he married her, they agreed not to press

charges for assault with a deadly weapon. When he told his current wife, 22-year-old Aleta,

she was more than happy to grant him a divorce. After six years of dealing with his abuse and

manipulation, she was relieved to get away from him. Aleta's nightmare was over, but sadly,

Sharon's was just beginning. By 1961, she was 19 and had two kids with Ken. That year,

she told the sheriff just how bad it was living with Ken. Not only did he beat her constantly,

but recently, he'd invited a 14-year-old girl named Sally to live with them. He regularly sexually

assaulted both of them. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Sharon told the sheriff that two

days earlier, Ken locked her and the babies in the house then disappeared. She was terrified he

would kill her when he found out she escaped. The authorities took Sharon and her children to a

foster home where they stayed for about six weeks, and they planned on arresting Ken for abusing

his wife. But just before Sharon signed the official papers, Ken somehow found her. He promised

Sharon that he was going to turn his life around and convinced her to drop the charges.

That was a lie. Over the next few years, Ken continued to torment Sharon and Sally,

and they each had multiple children. With more mouths to feed, Ken needed to steal more to

get by, so to take his operation to the next level. He turned to the army of young people that looked

up to him and the kids he'd been hanging around for the past few years. Under his direction,

Bay became a tiny band of thieves stealing livestock and other supplies from general stores all

over the country. The goods were then flipped at auctions by the girls Ken had been grooming.

The craziest part about it all was that the police knew what he was doing. They were fully aware

that Ken was stealing animals and merchandise all over the state. The problem was his operation

function like a well-oiled machine. By the time the cops found out about one theft, Ken had already

sold the property along with any evidence. It didn't help that every middleman he used was

to terrified to ever snitch. Ken McElroy had practically become Missouri's very own ma boss,

and because no one was willing to stand up to him, he only got greedier.

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By 1964, 29-year-old Ken McElroy had earned a reputation for treating the people of Southern Missouri

like his personal punching bags. If anyone stood up to him, he attacked them or their families.

He wasn't afraid to use arson, assaults, and sexual violence as weapons.

No one was happy about the situation, especially not Ken's wife, 22-year-old Sharon.

So she must have been at least a little relieved when Ken announced that he was leaving her and

their kids. Of course, Ken only left because he had a new victim. 18-year-old Alice would.

Ken had been grooming Alice for the past three years, and she was 15. At first, she was thrilled to learn.

He was abandoning his family to move in with her in the small town of St. Joe.

And like many of the girls can prey on, Alice had grown up in an abuse of household.

In her mind, Ken couldn't be much worse than her stepdad. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

Ken ruled over the house with an iron fist. He expected her to stay home all the time.

Even if he was gone for days at a time, Alice, like everyone else, knew he was cheating on her when

he was gone. When she confronted him about it, Ken did what he always did. He beat her mercilessly

and psychologically abused her. And if Alice ever tried to leave, he made sure to drag her back

home and make her suffer for it. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Sally and Ken's ex-wife Sharon were still

living at his farmhouse. He would leave them there whenever he visited Alice. All three women

lived like this until 1965. That year, Sharon gave birth to her and Ken's fourth child.

After that, he kicked Sally and her kids out. That left Alice and Sharon to deal with him on their own.

By then, it seemed like Ken's reign of terror would never end.

Until finally, in 1969, the local authorities decided to take a stand.

In February, a farmer's warehouse was burglarized twice in three nights.

The police suspected Ken was behind it, but as always, they lacked hard evidence.

Knowing the thefts weren't going to end anytime soon, they hired a security guard to watch the place.

Sure enough, five nights later, someone broke into the warehouse again.

The watchman fired a shotgun as the thieves ran away, then called the police.

The sheriff got into a high-speed chase with a bright yellow Cadillac.

But it was the middle of winter, and the roads were glazed with ice, no matter how hard he tried.

The sheriff couldn't close the gap between the two vehicles without risking an accident.

In the end, the yellow car vanished into the night.

That wasn't the end of the investigation, though.

An officer heard that Ken showed up at a local hospital on the night of the robbery.

He needed to have some shotgun palettes surgically removed from his rear end.

They matched the size of the palettes in the security guard's gun.

For the first time in his life, 37-year-old Ken McElroy was dragged into a police station

for questioning. Although he denied the charges, on October 27, 1971, he was indicted for five counts

of burglary and theft. The judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

But for some reason, the authorities never followed through.

And that wasn't the only time Ken got off scot-free, not even close.

In the late 60s and early 70s, he was charged with 19 different felonies.

Every single time he wiggled his way out of jail time,

Ken had been stealing for years by that point.

And he had a pretty solid stash of money hidden away.

And while he cheaped out on caring for his children and wives,

he never skimmed on his legal costs.

He paid upfront in cash for a high-powered attorney every time no questions asked.

In each case, Ken's lawyer used every trick in the book to delay his court date.

And in the meantime, Ken hunted down the key witnesses and intimidated them into silence.

A man named Otha Emory was one of many victims.

He was the stepfather of Ken's third wife, Alice.

Otha had abused Alice when she was a child,

and she hated him for it.

He was the main reason she alloped with Ken in the first place.

But by 1972, she was 26 and so sick of living with Ken that she was willing to go to her

stepdad for help. On April 10, Alice took her three-year-old son and ran away to Otha's house.

A few hours later, 38-year-old Ken showed up with a rifle,

shot Otha through the window, then fled the scene.

And the bullet hit Otha in the leg and he survived the attack.

Three months later, prosecutors filed charges against Ken McElroy.

Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, Ken went on the offensive once again.

He called Otha every single day.

He threatened to shoot him on the way to work.

To murder his wife if he left her alone, or to stab his child at school.

Unlike most of Ken's victims, Otha refused to back down.

He was going to testify against Ken in court no matter what.

But that was easier said than done.

Ken's lawyers managed to delay the trial for months.

Each and every day until then, Ken continued to break Otha down.

And everyone has their limits.

On January 10, 1973, 10 months after shooting Otha through the window,

Ken confronted him in a tavern.

As the old man drank at the bar, Ken approached him with a knife and threatened to kill him

unless he promised not to testify.

Otha stubbornly told him no.

Ken left the bar, only to return 10 minutes later with a shotgun.

He barged into the tavern, locked the door behind him and held the entire place hostage,

vowing to shoot anyone who moved.

The crowd watched as Ken shoved the gun into Otha's face and asked him to swear

he wouldn't testify.

When the old man didn't say a word, Ken fired into the floor, splintering the wooden panels

beneath their feet. Still, Otha kept his mouth shut.

Ken reluctantly left again, vowing to kill anyone who ratted him out.

When the police showed up soon afterward, almost every one of the customers had already

disappeared. No one except Otha would tell the cops a thing.

Still, his testimony should have been enough.

The state of Missouri planned to get Ken for felony assault with the intent of deterring a witness.

Instead, on March 2, they charged him with a misdemeanor of attempting to bribe a witness.

Although it was disappointing, at least Ken got convicted, and on April 27, he was sentenced to

six months in jail. It should have been a moment of relief.

But just a few days later, the records in the case were sealed for an unknown reason.

Ken was never incarcerated and he never went to trial for shooting Otha through a window either.

After two years, no solid court date, even Otha had given up.

He told the prosecutor to just drop the charges.

Going head to head with Ken McAroy wasn't worth it, and even the police knew that.

In one instance, Ken was pulled over on suspicion of stealing livestock.

When the officer walked over to the driver's side window, Ken pointed a gun at his face.

The officer had no choice but to back down and let him drive away like nothing had happened.

No charges were ever filed, and by 1973, things had somehow gotten even worse.

Although he was still officially married to Alice,

Ken sexually assaulted and impregnated a 15-year-old girl named Trina McCloud.

After she gave birth in late May, he took Trina to live with him and his wife.

It only took two weeks for the girl to reach her breaking point.

On June 11, she and Alice tried to escape with their children.

They fled to a house owned by Trina's aunt, but Ken found them almost immediately.

He showed up outside with a shotgun, screaming and threatening to kill everyone

unless they came back home with him. Eventually, Alice and Trina did what he wanted.

That night, Ken beat them worse than he ever had before,

but his revenge had only just begun. The next day, he took Trina to visit her parents' house,

and no one was home except for the family dog. Trina sat in the truck while Ken walked inside

with a full canister of gasoline. When the dog barked at him, he shot it, then doused the place

and gas and set it on fire. It was too much for Trina who was now 16. In the span of three days,

she'd been beaten sexually assaulted at gunpoint and forced to watch as her dog was killed

and her family home was burnt to the ground. She went to a doctor for treatment who

recorded her story to the police. Trina spent several weeks in a mental hospital before

being sent to live with a foster family. On June 19, 1973, her testimony convinced the prosecutor

to charge Ken with rape, arson, assault and flourishing deadly weapon. Practically the entire town

held its collective breath, praying the charges would stick. They hoped this case would finally be

the one to put him behind bars. Others were more cynical. So far, Ken McElroy had shrugged off

everything the legal system had thrown at him. It seemed like the only way to beat him

was to fight fire with fire.

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By 1973, 39-year-old Ken McElroy had been terrorizing Southern Missouri as a small-time

crime boss for over a decade. He made most of his money by stealing, but his true passion was

tormenting women and girls. On June 11th, his wife, 26-year-old Alice, and Trina, the 16-year-old

girl he forced to have his child, reached their breaking point and tried to escape. It didn't

take long for Ken to find them and drag them back home. Eight days later, on June 19th, he was

charged with four separate felonies. The most severe count, rape, carried a possible death penalty.

It seemed like Ken was finally going to face real consequences for his crimes.

For Ken, there was only one way out. Three of the four charges rested on the testimony of a single

witness, Trina McLeod. He had to find her and silence her by any means necessary.

Luckily, the authorities were prepared. They stashed Trina at a foster home far away from Ken.

For months, she stayed there with her infant son refusing to leave the house.

She was terrified that the moment she set foot outside, her abuser would come to find her.

Meanwhile, Ken was pulling his hair out trying to do exactly that. He scoured the little towns

all over Missouri looking for Trina. He even offered a $2,000 reward to any friends who could locate her.

Sadly, someone eventually did. One day, a member of the foster family named Ginger came

home to find Trina curled up in the fetal position in her bedroom. She was holding her son tight,

screaming that Ken was going to come inside and kill her. Ginger looked at the window and spotted a

white old's mobile down the street. Ken McElroy was in the driver's seat, staring straight at the

foster home. Trina told her he'd been there for over four hours. Ginger called the police

who were able to convince Ken to leave, but it wasn't long before Ginger and her husband George

became Ken's newest targets. Ken would call the house nearly every day, asking to speak to Trina.

If the person who answered the phone said no, Ken would threaten them. Eventually,

he tried to bargain with Ginger and George. He told them that he knew where their daughters went to

school and said he would kidnap one of them. They'd only get her back in exchange for Trina.

George and Ginger stood firm. There was nothing the foster family could do except grit their teeth

and wait for the trial. In November, five months after Trina moved in, the court held a preliminary

hearing on Ken's major charges. Typically, the local magistrate Montgomery Wilson should have

presided over the hearing, but he excused himself from the case because he was too afraid of Ken

McElroy. A magistrate from a neighboring county Clark Gore took over instead. By the end of the

proceedings, he determined there was substantial evidence against Ken. The case had to go to trial.

The local prosecutor wasn't going to waste the opportunity to finally make Ken pay. In February 1974,

he added eight additional counts of child molestation. In all, Ken was now facing 12 separate

felony charges, but his lawyers were as savvy as ever. They delayed the trials for as long as possible,

getting the courts to issue continuances on multiple occasions that gave Ken more time to break

Trina down. In the first four charges, we're scheduled to go to court until October 24, 1974,

almost a year and a half after the crimes in question. A few months before that, Trina was showing

signs of cracking. After staying with her foster family for around a year, social workers transferred

to her grandparents' home instead. Trina, who is now 17 years old, felt more alone than ever.

After a couple months of isolation, just weeks ahead of the first trial, she called Ken and asked

him to pick her up. He brought her back home, where his current wife, Alice, was waiting.

It was the worst thing that could have happened. Trina was once again in the hands of her abuser

and Ken manipulated her the same way as always using sweet talk, lies, and violence.

Now that Trina was back home, Ken paid a visit to his lawyers. They told him his chances of being

acquitted were still low. Even if Trina refused to testify, she could be held in contempt

and eventually forced to get on the stand anyway. There was only one way out.

If 40-year-old Ken married 17-year-old Trina, she couldn't be legally compelled to testify against

him. Ken nodded and left his attorney's office. Two days later, Alice showed up and asked for

a divorce. With that out of the way, there was just one final obstacle. Trina was underage

and needed her parents consent to get married. It didn't take much to get them to agree

Ken had already burned their house down and killed their dog. So it wasn't hard to convince them,

he would do worse if they didn't fall in line. On October 20, four days before his first court

date, Ken McElroy officially married Trina. The same day, the prosecutor received a signed

statement from her saying she wanted all the charges against her new husband dropped.

Ken McElroy had done it again and the experience only made him bolder. Over the next few years,

his crimes pre-hit a fever pitch. He stole more than ever and even started burning buildings

on the side to help shady owners collect insurance money. He still got caught beating people up

or committing crimes every now and then, but his tried and true tactics always got him out of

trouble. The people of Southern Missouri were powerless. Ken became a terrible fact of life for them,

something more like a natural disaster than a man. The only thing the average person could do was

keep their head down and hope he never turned in their direction. But even that wasn't a guarantee.

And in 1980, a man named Bo Bowen Camp and his wife, Lois, found themselves in the line of fire.

The Bowen Camp ran a small grocery store in Skidmore, Missouri on April 25. One of Ken's teenage

children and Trina's four-year-old daughter came in to look around. The little girl tried to leave

with some candy she hadn't paid for, but the clerk stopped her before she could take off with it.

Twenty minutes later, Ken and Trina showed up to complain. They were furious that their girls had

been publicly accused of stealing. This wasn't exactly what happened, but neither Trina nor Ken

would listen when the owners tried to explain. After a tense conversation, the two of them left,

vowing never to shop at the grocery store again. The Bowen Camps thought that would be the end of it,

but they were new in town and didn't know Ken McElroy. That evening, he drove past their house

several times with a rifle clearly sitting in his lap. The Bowen Camps called the police,

who refused to help. The officers promised Ken wouldn't do anything. He was just there to harass

them a little bit. They were wrong. Four days later on April 29, 46-year-old Ken showed up outside

the store and offered lowest Bowen Camp $100 to fight Trina in the middle of the street. He thought

it would clear the air between them. After she refused, Ken left the couple alone for a full

month, then on May 29. He showed up outside their house again with a gun. They decided to ignore him,

which only made Ken angrier. As night fell, he fired a shotgun into the air three times to scare

them then sped away. Once again, the Bowen Camps went to the police and once again they did

next to nothing to help. Two days later, Ken returned at 10 o'clock at night and fired several

shots into a tree outside the Bowen Camps house. The harassment was never ending. All the Bowen

Camps could do was wait for things to blow over, but in the meantime, they were determined to

live their lives. July 8 was Bow's 70th birthday. He and Lois decided to celebrate at home.

After a light dinner, Bowen headed over to the shop to take care of a few chores.

Moments later, Ken showed up brandishing his shotgun as always. After Bow threatened to call

the police on him for trespassing, Ken drew his weapon and fired on him point blank.

The shells ripped two huge holes in Bowen's neck. He collapsed to the ground as Ken fled the scene.

A few moments later, someone came out to find him still alive, but bleeding profusely.

They called an ambulance and Bow miraculously survived.

News of the attacks spread like wildfire through Skidmore. For decades, everyone had known Ken

McAroy was a menace, but shooting an old man in the middle of town in broad daylight was a new

low, even for him. And yet, the local police still refused to hold Ken accountable. In private,

they urged the town marshal David Dunbar to sneak up on Ken and murder him if he ever got the chance.

David refused. When he pressed the police, they said there was only one man in town who refused to

bow to Ken McAroy. To end the reign of terror once and for all, David would have to get officer

Richard Dean Stratton on his side.

Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back

next time for part two as Tyler Allen and I break down the murder of Ken McAroy and all the people

it affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a crime house original powered by paved studios.

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