Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland NOTICE & NOTE News Article by C.M. Frankie As you read, use the side margins to make notes about the text. What are the consequences when someone is cruel to everyone he meets?
wrongdoing. Silverado pickup truck outside the local bar. The larger-than-life bully who menaced the farming community of Skidmore died in seconds. MAKE INFERENCES Witnessing the murder were McElroy’s wife, Trena, screaming in the Annotate: Mark the main idea in passenger seat and dozens of local residents. paragraph 3. 2 Yet the identity of McElroy’s killer is a public secret Skidmore has Infer: Based on details in the first kept for 38 years. three paragraphs, why do you 3 Despite the efforts of police, prosecutors and McElroy’s family, no think no one has been charged one has been charged in the murder. And it’s likely to stay that way. with McElroy’s murder? 4 “Nobody wanted to talk to us,” retired Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Boyer tells A&E Real Crime. Boyer was among the first responders to arrive outside the D&G tavern where McElroy was ambushed. 5 A reported crowd of up to 60 men had largely dispersed, taciturn but some onlookers remained, staring at the pickup. Those who (t√s´î-tûrn) adj. untalkative; spoke out were taciturn. “‘I didn’t see anything. I don’t know what reserved. happened,’” Boyer recalls witnesses saying.
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Hog rustler, sweet talker 6 Ken McElroy was born in 1934, one of 16 children, author Harry MacLean explains in his book In Broad Daylight, an account of the case. His father was a tenant farmer,1 his mother a housewife swamped with feeding and caring for the sprawling family. VOCABULARY 7 There wasn’t much parental supervision, but McElroy had a Words from Greek and knack for taking care of himself. He never finished high school but Latin The word charismatic is knew how to hunt, drive fast and navigate the back roads of Nodaway derived from the Greek word kharisma, which means “grace County by his early teens. He put those skills to work rustling hogs or divine favor.” Knowing its and cattle,2 MacLean recounts. Greek derivation helps readers 8 Charismatic, with jet-black hair and piercing eyes, McElroy could understand that someone who sweet-talk his way around women and had been married three times is charismatic has rare or special by his early 40s. qualities. 9 Police had charged him with various alleged crimes from Analyze: The word charismatic is stealing hogs to assault, but nothing stuck. One reason was McElroy’s often used to describe someone lawyer Richard “Gene” McFadin, a skilled defense attorney who ran who is “magnetic, captivating, rings around inexperienced prosecutors. Another was McElroy’s and charming.” Why do you think the author used charismatic to intimidation tactics, MacLean writes. Once, a farmer who caught Ken describe Ken McElroy? red-handed stealing two horses filed charges but “withdrew them after McElroy smashed him across the face with a rifle.”
was ready. Stratton knew McElroy from a previous stop when he
threatened the trooper with a shotgun. Anticipating McElroy’s typical moves, Stratton waited on a back road near the Kansas border. His hunch paid off, and McElroy found himself handcuffed and charged with assault. 14 Shortly after, Stratton’s wife Margaret was headed to church when she saw a strange truck in the driveway.
1 tenant farmer: a person who rents the land they farm; they often have to give the landlord a share of what they grow. 2 rustling hogs and cattle: stealing pigs and cows.
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15 A man who turned out to be McElroy “pointed a shotgun at me,” Don’t forget to Margaret tells A&E Real Crime. “I didn’t know what to do. I got in the Notice & Note as you read the text. car and was shaking so bad.” 16 She gathered her strength and put the car in reverse. McElroy began backing out too, then tailed Margaret until she radioed Richard and squad cars showed up. COMPARE ACCOUNTS OF A 17 “I think he treated the whole town of Skidmore that way,” the SUBJECT 78-year-old said, adding she “didn’t feel brave.” But “it got to the point Annotate: In paragraphs 15–17, it made me mad.” mark what Margaret Stratton tells A&E Real Crime.
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Breaking point includes recorded comments from witnesses and others. What is the 18 Tensions in Skidmore soared as McElroy’s trial neared. McElroy effect of hearing individuals’ taped mounted a daily vigil outside Bowenkamp’s house, his daughter voices as opposed to reading their Cheryl Brown recounts in In Broad Daylight: words in a print article? 19 “The town emptied out every time he came to town. Everyone was so uncomfortable and scared.” 20 In court, Bowenkamp testified about how McElroy confronted him in the loading dock of the grocery while he was cutting up boxes and shot him in the neck. Then McElroy, described by veteran journalist Phil Conger as “a big brute of a guy with slicked-back hair like Elvis,” took the stand. He testified that Bowenkamp attacked him with a knife and he acted in self-defense, MacLean writes. 21 The verdict was second-degree assault and two years. 22 The “final straw for Skidmore was when he was let out on bond. He went back home and was shot within a couple of days,” explains Conger, editor of the Bethany Republican-Clipper.
25 Trena McElroy fingered a local rancher as one of the gunmen, but ghastly. he denied the claim. 26 Local police, state investigators and FBI agents tried to break the town’s silence, without success. Meanwhile, major media outlets descended onto Skidmore and reports of its “vigilantes” became vigilante water-cooler talk across the U.S. (v∆j-∂-l√n´t∏) n. a person who is not a law officer, but who pursues and punishes people suspected of wrongdoing.
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“You know what he was like” 27 For some residents, resentment against McElroy was projected onto the police. 28 Boyer was taking trajectory measurements3 at the crime scene NOTICE & NOTE when a town official chided him. QUOTED WORDS 29 The man asked, “what are you doing here?” Boyer remembers. When an author has quoted the “Why are you doing this? You know what he was like. You know how opinion of a witness to an event, he oppressed and threatened us. I don’t believe you’re coming now— you’ve found a Quoted Words after we needed your help all this time.” signpost. 30 Trena McElroy accused Skidmore residents of turning her Notice & Note: Mark the husband into a scapegoat. words of the official quoted in 31 “He was a goodhearted person. He’d help anyone that needed to paragraph 29. be helped,” she said in an interview recounted in In Broad Daylight. Analyze: Why was this person 32 As of 2019, many of the main players in McElroy’s story have quoted? What did his comment died, including McFadin, Trena McElroy, Bowenkamp and the add to the story? rancher accused of pulling the trigger, MacLean writes in his blog. 33 “Theoretically, [the murder] could be re-investigated,” veteran Kansas City criminal defense attorney J.R. Hobbs tells A&E Real Crime. “But unless a very credible witness came forward, it’s not likely to happen.”
3 trajectory measurements: the path and distance a bullet or other projectile traveled.
