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 dead as he sat in his truck on the main street of Skidmore, Missouri. Forty-five townspeople 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, still no one has been charged with the murder.

In December 2006, St. Martins re-released In Broad Daylight, the story of McElroy’s incredible reign of terror in northwest Missouri, his murder, and its aftermath. The new epilogue contains initial information about the identity of McElroy’s killers and the murder itself.

In the spring of 2006, I gained unprecedented access to state police and FBI files on the murder. The files contain a handwritten statement from an eyewitness that corroborates in detail McElroy’s wife’s identification of Del Clement 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. Curiously, the eyewitness appeared at the sheriff’s office the next day in the company of Del Clement’s attorney and recanted the statement. Despite this, the statement, combined with Trena’s identification, stands as convincing evidence of the shooters’ identity.

The files also dispel a huge myth about the murder. The media seized on the idea that the entire town had killed Ken McElroy, characterizing it as a vigilante killing or an example of vigilante justice. My interviews and the numerous statements on file 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 think the murder of Ken Rex McElroy will long remain the hottest cold case on record. No one—not law enforcement, McElroy’s family or friends, or the residents of Skidmore—seems to care that his killers are still at large. The men in the street that day are submerged in a silence immune to the passage of time or the glare of the spotlights. In his opinion, while murder may be a sin, what Ken McElroy did to the city and its residents, to the girls and the old, was unspeakably wrong. It would be a far greater sin to turn the men who ended the nightmare over to the very justice system that had failed the community for so many years.

I lived in the city for three years while doing research for the book. When I first arrived, doors were slammed in my face, a shotgun was pointed at me, and a dog bit me. When I left, she 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 quite attached to the town 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. I doubt, however, that anything good would come of the prosecution of the men. It would be hard for a prosecutor to find a jury of twelve Nodaway County citizens to convict someone of McElroy’s murder. Memories remain strong and hearts unforgiving, and even the youth of the area know the story of Ken McElroy well. Back in Skidmore for the first anniversary of the murder of Bobbi Joe Stinnett, the pregnant young housewife who was strangled and her baby torn 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.

“He was shot here in the city,” the younger joined in. “Just there.” He pointed to the tavern.

“He deserved it,” said the older one.

Ken Rex was much more than a city thug. He had all of northwestern Missouri terrified. Even the policemen and judges were afraid of him. Perhaps, as the townspeople say, he needed to kill him; the main regret seems to be the way he was finished.

“The guys who did it deserve a medal,” a local told me. “But they should be hanged for the way they did it.” That is, I suppose, in broad daylight.