Let’s talk a little bit about crime and punishment.
PART 1.
Earlier this week I read a book that documents the intriguing but gruesome story of how a town bully was gunned down on the main street of Skidmore, Mo. No one has been charged, 35 years later.
Ken McElroy was by all accounts a thief, philanderer and quick on the trigger with people he didn’t like, who seemed to be most everyone living in Skidmore, heart of a farming enclave north of St. Joe.
On the day of his demise, McElroy stopped by the local tavern with wife Trena — their marriage is a story in itself.
Not long before 50 or so residents had gathered elsewhere to come up with a plan to discourage McElroy, who had just been convicted of second degree assault against an elderly and well-liked gent who ran a grocery. Two 00 buckshot through the edge of his neck barely missed killing the man. At the trial, with McElroy defended by a hot-shot Kansas City attorney, witnesses appeared late in the game and claimed they saw the grocer, who had been cutting cardboard, coming at McElroy with a long-bladed knife.
After the meeting most of the men adjourned to the bar. When McElroy arrived, he began agitating and, with numbers of their side, they answered just as crudely. Outnumbered and out-hooted the McElroys left and jumped in his big Silverado pickup.
He started the engine, but before he could back out a 30-30 slug shattered the rear window and slammed through his neck and mouth. Seconds later a .22 caliber bullet tumbled into his brain cavity and chewed away, it being the lethal shot, according to an autopsy.
Afterward, everyone claimed to have ducked down when they heard the first shot and had no idea who fired the 30-30 or the .22. Numerous other shots racked the truck, from the same rifles.
Officers from several jurisdiction spent weeks trying to find witnesses — other than Trena, who identified a man — and a local grand jury did not offer an indictment. The same result met a team of FBI agents, as McElroy’s attorney claimed his civil rights had been abridged — in a quite final manner. A federal grand jury also could not generate enough evidence for charges.
PART 2.
Iola has a couple of unsolved murders from years ago that had Iolans locking their doors day and night, keeping loaded guns handy and not going about much at night.
October of 1969 was when Sally Hutton, a 14-year-old junior high student, and Betty Cantrell, a waitress at a hole-in-the-wall all-night diner, were killed.
