Unfortunately, at times, the legal system does not supply anything approaching "justice". In the case of Ken McElroy, in order for "justice" to be served, the people had to go outside of the legal system. And justice was served.
We had a town bully where I grew up. When I was a freshman in HS, the wife paid some black kid on our HS Soccer team to drive to his work where he was a security guard and cap him... He did, got caught, served time, took the blame, was out in a year.
John 3 1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
I lived in Maitland and I know for a fact that people there know exactly who did this. I never met Ken Sr. But my Uncle had dealings with him. None, hear tell, were good. I had a chance encounter with Juarez and Mouse that ended with me getting sucker punched.
Mrs. Bowenkamp almost lost her husband over a few pieces of candy....even if the kids did steal them. Hardly seems worth it. It set in motion a series of events that ultimately let to McElroy's murder....not saying it wasn't justified given McElroy's violent past. The townspeople got justice the only way they knew how.
Great job Danny! Where did you get the info about Del clement drinking all morning. I remember this story when I was a boy but just started researching as of late. Fascinating.
Thanks for the tour. I grew up in Plattsburg during the early 90’s and remember people were still talking about this like it was fresh and it was always asserted that McElroy got what he had coming. 100% consensus. Skidmore Lore was told like a cautionary tale about what happens to bullies like McElroy in the country. The culture in rural Missouri used to be a lot harsher and more violent than people assume. I remember my best friends dad complaining one time that he missed the days when you could kill a man that needed killed. Statements like that were as normal as using the N word was. He was a farmer/criminal who was one of the sweetest, generous most violent old guys I’ve ever known. He was 20 years older than his second and last wife (my bf’s mom). His first wife drank herself to death. He’d have stolen mo dot equipment in his barn on his huge corn farm so it could cool off for transport wherever it was going. He always had side hustles that were dangerous and completely illegal. Insurance fraud, road equipment theft, all stuff that requires a group. I don’t even know how to describe him he was so complicated. He was a cool guy with beautiful manners, charisma and he was scary af. He was a 100% farmer/gangster and 100% Missouri boy born and raised in pure Bushwacker country culture. He wasn’t unique among his peers. They were all sorta the same way. Makes my head spin thinking about all the secrets that man must’ve died with. I’m glad I knew him and I loved spending weekends at that farm and feel lucky I got to be at so many weird dinners at that farm listening to what was probably completely inappropriate convo’s for a middle schooler but it was never ever boring there! Anyway, what happened in Skidmore ALWAYS reminds me of my best friend’s step dad, his crew and what they were like.
Karen You described this in detail better than I ever could have, about 5 different names come to mind off the top of my head and I'm almost sure one of them is who you're describing, lol. People that didn't grow up in rural areas where farming and logging were common have no idea the underworld that exists and mafia types involved, the one's that do, after a few beers might discuss it and then deny it or play dumb the next day.
4R Farms, there is literally TONS of secrets buried in Missouri by old dead farmers who all had those lamb chop beards!!! Dying to know...was Knox on that list that came to mind?
Atteberry? Picket? Kennedy? Newby? Maybe don’t answer if you still live around there. Don’t know if they’ve all died off yet or if their spawn grew up to have their fingers and toes into everything too including public utilities like their grandparents. I’m safe in Northern Cali and don’t have ta care. 🤣 I had to go peak at the City govern board meeting minutes. I recognized the guy that owns the local lumber yard and my old elementary school gym teacher and none of the old guard names. 👍👍👍
I just watched all six parts of Nobody saw a thing, what a tragedy and all the other unrelated stuff after. Sadly when justice fails and I mean the judicial system then it comes back to primordial flight or fight. Even if they had put Mcelroy away for shooting Ernest Bowenkamp it would not of ended as when he got out he would go back and seek vengeance. I believe Del Clement did shoot him and it ruined his life, he drank himself to death. Whilst the town 4eally never had a choice, nobody won. Who would want to live with that secret. Even the Sherriff Danny Estes is now dead, did he know or did he leave town knowing what was on the cards and thought if I don't know then that is better. Fro. A law point of view he failed his duty as he should have stayed in town. It had to happen that day, Mcelroy had once again temporarily escaped prison and the town would be living in abject FEAR. what I don't understand is anyone person could have played Ken's game, shoot his house op, then ambush him and kill the SOB,the body could disappear without trace. Surely better than risking someone knowing and telling the police. Why didn't they just call 0800DIRTYHARRY.
Just watched an old short documentary on RU-vid about this. Glad to see some of the places are still standing because i couldn't find any on streetview.
The general consensus from the plethora of people shot and/or threatened with guns and violence by McElroy is that he was one giant piece of shit, and would kill again. Piss on him. (SOrry for his family, however, they are/were innocents, paying still to this day for their father's reputation..
That slick mouth old woman started this it was a small kid wanting candy Penny candy some people won't b disrespected let it go problem solved but she had run her mouth 2 ken and got her man shot down
1:58 Actually, it was a shotgun (Ken's favorite type of weapon, it appears; I wonder if that was because either he just loved the booming intimidatingly-commanding satisfyingly-"full" sound of the shotgun's blast as opposed to just the sharp crack of a rifle, or that --- horrors! Oh, the incredible sacrilege of my even suggesting it! --- Ken was simply such a lousy marksman that he had trouble hitting anything unless he was shooting grape-shot?), and so it's even more miraculous and incredible that Mr. Bowenkamp even survived, since it would have been a huge damaging cloud of lead pellets whistling his way instead of just a single projectile.
@@chry1956 Yeah, Man, I did --- I am one of those obsessive-compulsive "I'd like to have the complete set" types of guys (if I shop at a thrift store or yard sale and happen to find an incomplete set of tapes or discs that I really like, I then go rushing to eBay and/or Amazon to see if I can find separate singles of the missing recordings as replacements [sometimes a private seller will offer individual tapes/discs from a broken/incomplete set of his own], or if none are either available or being offered for a reasonable price, I instead look for a "used but still good" offering of either a complete set or an also-incomplete boxed set that contains the recordings missing from my set; I then order this other set, use a pair of high-quality players/recorders to make tape/disc copies of all the ones missing from either set, and then I have two completed sets; I then choose the best recordings from either set to assemble a good set for myself, and then donate the other "pieced and duplicated" set to either a local library or a fellow-low-income friend who also likes that type of media), so I always binge-watch the whole thing at once if there are several episodes. :D
The first time I heard about this story i when I came across the Brian Dennehy film; I'm into those true lifetime stories and I watch a lot of ID as of Bobbi Jo Stinnett case that I didn't it was the same town so yeah.
I just visited Skidmore recently for the first time. I didn’t know where the store was originally located. This is interesting to see. Nice video. I walked around town and spent some time around the building that used to be the D&G Tavern. Skidmore is a sleepy little town (and a bit spooky as well).
Jaysen , The house caught fire and no insurance claim was filed on it so no investigation was ever done, last I heard. There was a mobile home there for awhile, it may still be? But it was empty. Road has since been renamed to Delta Trail
I don't know that we ever met, but your name is familiar. Back in the 80s, I worked for Terry Reynolds at the old House of Heartburn in Maryville, just across the way from the old Shady Lady. One of the first bits of instruction I got was: don't bother Skidmore folks about McElroy. If they want to talk about it, they will. That was sage advice and I followed both at work and in private. Watching the new doc Sundance released brought back a lot of memories for me. I knew Kirby Gosslee. Not well, I knew his brothers much better, but Kirby came into the cafe more than once and we were acquainted. One of the few men I ever envied purely on the basis of character. Always felt that if I could be as good a man as he was, I'd be something. Don't believe I ever made it. The one thing that really puzzles me about the actual story is the fact that so many armed men in one place, and no one ever figured out that Ken Rex was defeated. No way was he going to stand up to that many people. Once the town came together, it was over. Says a great deal about the fear that Ken inspired that the idea he might be beatable any other way never crossed their minds. The truth is not knowable for me, but if that is the case, the shooting was not an act of courage, but rather, a consequence of not having enough of it.
Enough of your outfit endangering the welfare of others names of people who have not been found guilty of crimes should be withheld in order to protect the legal rights and freedom of others who you have involved in dangerous welfare through your actions of of hearsay and rumors
Found guilty in a court of law what the problem was in the first place so dell the bar owner did it and Wendy gillenwater and Bobby Jo were friends to hmmm and over time they said Ken was killing people hmm was his family involved in the killing of the black man maybe so without facts who's to say so now this is racist let's see where this goes
Danny Jones I just watched 2 days ago a 6 part mini series on Skidmore. You mentioned about the women then went to the shooting of the grocery store owner. It was about 2 of his children caught stealing that made Ken angry and did the shooting. It sounded like he had trouble with women then went shooting. If I am remembering right you said there was one shooting there were 2. If I have misunderstood what you were explaining, them I apologize. You just left sooooo much out.
Danny, you're mostly correct in alot of what you said However keep in mind this town liked to talk and gossip, most had never met Ken Rex but had heard stories or rumors and that alone spread like a brush fire and anything that went wrong in Nodaway County they blamed on him. He actually wasnt as bad a guy as these stories portray, he just did not fit in and didnt try to! The gossipers couldnt get past his reputation for the young girls, which is 2019 is a heinous crime but back in the 60s and 70s wasnt all that uncommon especially in the rural communities. They shot an unarmed man in the back that they were scared of. Thing is he was just a Man ,,a mere human being that they were too afraid to confront head on. I dont have any sympathy for this town, the Bowenkamps, the Clements, or Romaine Henry,, I do however feel bad for the Mcelroy family, his children and esp his brother Tim that has had to endure this crime and still live 10 minutes away all these yrs
I want to thank you very much for commenting. When a man conducts his love life by recruiting young gils off of a Middle school bus , that makes him a pedofile, The age of concent in MO. is 17. I think Clement did this partly to play big shot, and KRMc cost him business in the bar, I just think Skidmore, as a town, has gotten a terrible deal. I will be going back out soon. I hoped you watched prt 2. Only a minute and a half. Thanks again.
@@chry1956 You're quite welcome and I agree with you about Del and I Dont agree with or condone Alot of things that Ken Rex did, however just like an onion skin there's alot of layers and one has to pull the curtain back to see behind what really happened. There was so much cover up and many accusations against him that were unfounded. Again this happened in 1981 and the years leading up to and it was sure different world then. Heck my Grandmother married at 13 and my Mother at 16. I dont Agree with that,,but that's how it was out here in rural communities.
Really? Him shooting 2 men and getting away with it is ridiculous! I dont blame the children and I do feel bad for them but not Ken! How dare you say that you dont feel for the lives that he destroyed while he was harassing them and taking away their peace of mind with his antics. I cant believe he was walking free after a conviction. That is the reason why they had to do what they did. Until you walked in someone's shoes while they are being harassed you should shut your mouth. I've lived through only a fraction of what these people have gone through and it's not easy living that way and the law does nothing
He just needs to turn his phone horizontal. Whatever happened to people doing that? I get that some people watch videos on their phones, so they may prefer videos vertically, but they can't be THAT lazy that they can't just turn their phones to watch the vids. Then, we ALL can enjoy the full-sized videos in panoramic mode.
idk i see both sides. if i lived in the town id not be ok with killing another person and ruining the families lives but at the same time if i knew who did it im not saying a damn thing. he gets what he deserves. at the same time though he should have been arrested and brought before court to face a jury of his peers. if we act like savages we will never be better than savages.
its not going to change my mind. this is america everyone gets their day in court. youd wouldnt catch me murdering a dude in broad day light for being a bully. i believe in the rule of law and the justice system but the thing is everyone else has to as well. to be ok with this behavior stands against our fundamental principles of justice. yeah maybe back in the prairie days before modern times this would be acceptable but not to me not now unless the dude was literally about to kill someone in front of me would i be ok with cold blooded murder on a street i lived on. like i said at the same time…i dont rat on my friends and i keep my mouth shut.
