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Ken McElroy: The Bully Who Met His Match · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:40
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty one, a rural and sleepy American town
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: gathered together, a community united under one banner. The car
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: park rings with the unmistakably deep clink of a shotgun
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: shell loading before all hell breaks loose. This was the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: town of Skidmore, a town dead set on ridding themselves
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of a pestilence that had brought them to their knees.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: On the other side of the coin was Ken McElroy,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a man who'd been born into abject poverty. He was fifteen,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: thin line of sixteen children born to Tony and Maybell McElroy,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: but by the end of things, he would become the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: most infamous McElroy to walk the streets of America. He
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: dropped out of school when he was only fifteen years old,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: not to work or help support his family, but to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: learn a trade, a very specific trade. Ken was a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: burgeoning criminal, testing the waters and dipping his toes into
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the world of robbery and cattle rustling. By the time
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Ken was a grown man, he was six ' two,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: had thick, burly hair and sideburns, and was known locally
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to be a heavyweight criminal with a womanizing mean streak.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Quote he didn't have a bank account, didn't have a
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  Speaker 1: social Security number, he didn't read. Author Harry McLain later
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: wrote in a book about Ken, how did this uneducated person,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: how is he able to outwit the criminal justice system
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: for twenty years? And that question has a complicated answer,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the first part of which comes pretty easy. His name
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: is Richard gen McFadden, a boisterous and quick witted defense
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: lawyer who would represent Ken on the rare occasion that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: he did see the inside of a courtroom. Best client
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I ever had, Richard later spoke to the press. He
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: was punctual, he always said he didn't do it, paid
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  Speaker 1: in cash, and kept coming back. He told me he
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: would pay me whatever I needed to keep him out
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of jail. I mean, at least he's honest. For twenty years,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Kin stole grain, gasoline, alcohol, antiques, and livestock from the
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  Speaker 1: community around him. A total of twenty one charges were
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: brought against him, but Ken's lawyer could only protect him
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: so far, and there were times when Kin had to
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: look out for himself. Ken had a way of being persuasive.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: When his reputation wasn't enough to keep people from filing
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: charges against him, Kin would pay them a visit often repeatedly.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: He was known to sit outside people's houses in a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: car for hours at a time. He would make threats
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: to family members and friends. He would more often than
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: not bring a gun. The prosecution had a hard time
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: of making anything stick on Ken, especially when their witnesses
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: would suddenly either drop the charges or completely change their stories.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: It looked like Ken had the town of Skidmore in
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: an ironclad grip. That was especially true when it came
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to the women and young girls of the community. kN
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: had a total of ten children with a slew of
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: different mothers, but very few of those mothers were actually
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: willing participants. His last wife, Trina McLeod, was only twelve
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: years old and still in the eighth grade when Kin
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: barged his way into her life. He was thirty five
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: years old when he began sexually assaulting her, and there
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: was nothing the young girl could do to stop it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: When she felt pregnant at the age of fourteen, however,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Kin realized that he was potentially about to get into
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: legal trouble. To avoid the statutory rape charges headed his way,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Ken demanded that she marry him, but that plan had
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: a big snag along the way. Trina was still a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: minor and needed permission from her parents in order to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: get married. Needless to say that, when Trina's parents found
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: out that it was Ken McElroy that wanted to marry
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: their daughter, they were completely against it. They refused to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: give permission and hoped that this would be the last
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: time that they would ever see Ken McElroy ever again.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: But Ken had a way of getting what he wanted,
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  Speaker 1: and it always came at the cost of those around him.
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  Speaker 1: Ken snuck his way over to the McLeod household and
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: set a fire. The blaze completely demolished the home, but
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: to make sure that he was getting his point across,
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  Speaker 1: Ken shot the family dog for good measure. This was
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: their warning and a promise of much more to come
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: if they didn't hand over their daughter to Ken. The
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Mclouds reluctantly signed the papers and Trina and Ken were married.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: After that, Trina dropped out of school and went to
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: live with Ken and his second wife, Alice, who he
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: had to divorce in order to marry Trina. The three
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  Speaker 1: of them shared a house while they waited for her
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  Speaker 1: to give birth, and then the women made a daring escape.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Desperate to get rid of Ken, Alice, and Trina, wrapped
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  Speaker 1: the newborn baby up and ran away to Trina's family. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: it didn't take long for Ken to track them down
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  Speaker 1: and bring them back to his house. After that, he
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  Speaker 1: waited until Trina's parents were away to go burn their
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  Speaker 1: house down again and shoot their new dog so they
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: wouldn't get any more ideas about helping out their daughter.
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  Speaker 1: Trina then went to the police and told them what
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Kin had done to her and to her family. He
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: was charged with arson assault and statutory rape, but then
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: was released on a twenty five hundred dollars bail. Instead
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of focusing on his defense, Ki n left that bit
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to his lawyer and set his sights on tracking down
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  Speaker 1: Trina and her baby, who had been placed into foster
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: care in an attempt to protect them from Ken, and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: somehow Ken managed to track them down again. He began
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: sitting outside the foster home that had taken Trina in
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: for hours at a time, and at least one occasion
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  Speaker 1: approached the home to speak with her foster parents. He
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  Speaker 1: told them that he was willing to make a trade.
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  Speaker 1: Girl for girl were the words that he used, and
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  Speaker 1: then he went on to explain that he knew who
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  Speaker 1: their daughter was and what way she came home from school.
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  Speaker 1: Quote hand Trina and the baby over, or I'll go
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  Speaker 1: after your daughter was the warning, but the foster parents
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  Speaker 1: daringly refused and filed charges against Ken instead. This did
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  Speaker 1: not deter Ken, however, he had over two decades of
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: getting away with things behind him that bolstered his confidence
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and had taught him that he could get away with
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  Speaker 1: just about anything. He eventually managed to somehow wrangle Trina
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: out of the system and back into his home, but
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: by then he was also dealing with even more charges.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: On July twenty seventh, nineteen seventy six, local farmer Romayne
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  Speaker 1: Henry approached Ken about shooting weapons on Roman's property. Instead
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: of being apologetic, however, Kin did the unthinkable and shot
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: him twice in the stomach with a shotgun. Romayne miraculously
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: survived the attack and filed charges against Ken. Ken, of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: course denied everything and used the time in between court
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  Speaker 1: dates to sit outside Romayne's property and tried to intimidate him.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Ken was spotted there at least one hundred times. Romayne, however,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: held strong, but in an unbelievable twist in the case,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Ken's lawyer, Richard Jen McFadden, revealed Romayne's criminal history. He
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: had a petty conviction from about thirty years ago, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: somehow this piece of information was enough to ruin his
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: reputation with the jury and acquit. Kin had literally just
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: gotten away with a tempted murder and this was not
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: something he was going to forget anytime soon. Four years later,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: with the next generation of burgeoning criminals growing up fast,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: one of Kin's children got into an argument with the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: store clerk after trying to steal some candy. In retaliation,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Kin began stalking the bowen Camps, the family who owned
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the store. The tensions between the two families reached their
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: peak when Kin confronted seventy year old Ernest Bowencamp with
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  Speaker 1: a shotgun behind the store. During the struggle that followed,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Ernest was shot in the neck. By some miracle, he
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: survived the attack and was able to tell his story.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Ken was arrested and charged with the tempted murder yet again,
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  Speaker 1: But the town of Skidmore had been down this road before.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: The attempt on Ernest's life was a turning point. Almost
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  Speaker 1: every member of the community had tried to stand up
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: to Kin at some point in time, and most of
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  Speaker 1: them had filed charges against him that had gone absolutely nowhere.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: After Ken was released on bail again, he went to
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  Speaker 1: a local bar with a rifle equipped with a bayonet
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  Speaker 1: and began drinking. The more he drank, the more he
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  Speaker 1: bragged about the punishment he would dole out to Ernest Bohencamp.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: The community knew that Ken meant business. They organized a
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: meeting with the local sheriff to ask for advice on
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: what could legally be done to stop Kin's rampage. The
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: sheriff suggested that the community form a neighborhood watch and
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: advised against directly confronting Ken. The sheriff then did something
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  Speaker 1: rarely seen in cases like this one. He got in
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  Speaker 1: his police cruiser and drove straight out of town. He
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: did this knowing that the men sitting in that meeting
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that day had just received word that Ken was already
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: out drinking in the pub. Could the sheriff have known
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: what was about to happen? Was there any way that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: he possibly didn't know? And was there any one in
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  Speaker 1: the small community of Skidmore who would find him at
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  Speaker 1: fault for walking away that day after the meeting with
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the sheriff. Around fifty members of Skidmore's community made their
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: way over to the local bar. Ken was already fully
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: drunk and up to his eyeballs with liquid confidence. He
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: bought another six pack of beer before ordering Trina out
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  Speaker 1: to his pickup truck. Ken followed behind her and got
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  Speaker 1: into the driver's seat. Perhaps he'd already noticed the angry
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: glares of the townspeople that had been sent his way.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe he was still too confident in himself and his
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: lawyer to think anything would actually come of them. Several
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  Speaker 1: shots filled the air of the parking lot that day,
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  Speaker 1: only two of which actually hit Ken, but those two
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  Speaker 1: were enough to kill him. Trina remained unharmed in the
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  Speaker 1: passenger seat of the truck, and despite there being around
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: fifty witnesses there on the scene, no one had seen anything.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody called for an ambulance, and nobody tried to help Ken.
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  Speaker 1: Ken had just been killed in broad daylight, but even
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  Speaker 1: the DA didn't feel the need to press charges. He
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: was buried in the Memorial Park cemetery, and Trina settled
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: a wrongful death case against several members of the community
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  Speaker 1: out of court for seventeen thousand six hundred dollars. They
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: were fathers and grandfathers on the street and skidmore that day.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Trooper Richard Stratton later said, ordinary hardworking people. They did
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  Speaker 1: what they did because we didn't do our job. Then
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: they went home and kept their mouths shut and kept
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: them closed all these years. That is ten minute murder
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: for today, brief and bingeable true crime. My name is Joe.
• 11:48
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• 11:50
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• 12:00
  Speaker 1: a subscriber, and you'll see all the new ones when
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: they come out as well. In this case, man, I'm
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: conflicted about this one. I do not like vigilante justice.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I'm saying that from a perspective of someone that's never
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: had to entertain the thought of doing it myself, so
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I can't really speak with any type of experience on this.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: As a general rule, I don't like vigilanting justice. However,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: it feels like he got what he deserved, but also
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: that's not the way to do things. You get what
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. I mean, I get it, but I don't
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: get it, but I also get it. Hey, if you
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: want to get in touch with me, Joe at ten
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: minute murder dot com is my email address. Website is
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: ten minute murder dot com and that's going to do it.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: That's your episode for today. Thank you so much for
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: listening to ten Minute Murder.