In Broad Daylight – Who Killed Ken McElroy?

The murder of Ken Rex McElroy may well be the hottest cold case on record. On the morning of July 10, 1981, he was shot and killed while sitting in his truck on Main Street in Skidmore, Missouri. Forty-five villagers witnessed the murder. All denied seeing the shooters. After three grand juries and an eight-month FBI investigation, no one was charged. Twenty-five years later, no one has yet been charged with the murder.

In December 2006, St. Martins republished In Broad Daylight, the story of McElroy’s incredible reign of terror in northwestern Missouri, his murder, and the aftermath. The new epilogue contains startling information about the identity of McElroy’s killers and the murder itself.

In the spring of 2006, I gained unprecedented access to the FBI and state police files on the murder. The files contain a handwritten statement from a witness corroborating in detail the identification of Del Clement by McElroy’s wife as the first shooter. The statement also identified, for the first time, Gary Dowling, a local farmer, as the second shooter. The statement is detailed and compelling. Interestingly, the witness appeared at the sheriff’s office the next day in the company of Del Clement’s attorney and retracted the statement. Despite this, the statement, combined with Trena’s identification, is convincing proof of the identity of the attackers.

The archives also dispel a great myth about the massacre. The media seized on the idea that the entire city had killed Ken McElroy, and characterized it as a self-defense murder or an example of self-defense justice. My interviews and the numerous statements in the files make it clear that other than the two shooters, the men on the street that day were not part of a plan to kill Ken McElroy. They were unwitting witnesses to a murder.

I believe that the murder of Ken Rex McElroy will long remain the hottest case on record. No one – not law enforcement, not McElroy’s family or friends, and certainly the residents of Skidmore – seems to care that his killers remain at large. The men on the street that day are tied in a silence immune to the passage of time or the glare of the spotlights. In his view, while the murder might be a sin, what Ken McElroy did to the city and its residents, the girls and the elderly, was unspeakably evil. It would be a far greater sin to hand over the men who ended the nightmare to the same justice system that had failed the community for so many years.

I lived in the city for three years while researching the book. When I first arrived, the doors were slammed in my face, a shotgun was pointed at me, and a dog bit me. When I left, I was judging dance contests at the annual Punkin ‘Show and selling tickets to the Mother’s Day bazaar at the local Methodist Church. I became very fond of the city and the people, and kept in touch over the years.

Personally, my sympathy has always been with the townspeople, although it bothers me as a member of civilized society that the two murderers go unpunished for their crime. However, I doubt that anything good will come of the prosecution of the men. A prosecutor would have a hard time finding a jury of twelve Nodaway County citizens to convict anyone of McElroy’s murder. Memories remain strong and hearts relentless, and even the young people in the area know Ken McElroy’s story well. When I returned to Skidmore for the first anniversary of the murder of Bobbi Joe Stinnett, the young pregnant housewife who was strangled and her baby ripped from her body, I asked two girls what they knew about Ken McElroy.

“He was a bad guy, who intimidated a lot of people,” said the older of the two.

“They shot him here in the city,” joined the youngest. “Just there.” He pointed to the tavern.

“He expected it,” said the older one.

Ken Rex was much more than a city bully. He had terrorized all of Northwest Missouri. Even the police and judges were afraid of him. Perhaps, as the townspeople say, he needed to kill him; the main regret seems to be the way it ended.

“The guys who did it deserve a medal,” a local told me. “But they should be delighted by the way they did it.” I mean, I guess, in broad daylight.

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