True Crime

Without Justice, There is Silence — The Case of Ken McElroy

Just Desserts or Deserted by the Law?

In the middle of the day, a crowd looked on as the town bully was shot to death.

Who did the deed? The residents of Skidmore, Missouri made sure no one would know.

Ken McElroy was the tyrant of the small farming community, growing up in a poor household with fifteen other siblings and unable to complete high school. According to Brynley Louise in an article from Film Daily, he was born in 1934 and had a lengthy record ranging from charges of statutory rape to child molestation. Over the years, McElroy built up an infamous reputation which also included fathering over ten children with different women.

(Credit: Family Photo from Find a Grave [Edit by Author])

Starting off with shoplifting and the pilfering of lunch money, author Harry MacLean described the man as illiterate but capable, striking fear into the hearts of many. MacLean later wrote the book In Broad Daylight about the case, which was adapted into a 1991 movie on the life of McElroy. As a child, his most dangerous endeavor was hunting raccoons. That altered when sometime later in his life, a heavy steel beam was dropped onto him, a fact reported in the Youtube series Unsolved by the popular channel Buzzfeed. The brain damage he experienced then may have fueled…