Ken McElroy: Killed in Broad Daylight

Lori Johnston
6 min readJul 31, 2020
Ken McElroy, town bully and victim (photo: thelineup.com)

From the beginning of his life, on June 1, 1934, Ken Rex McElroy seemed destined for a trouble and cruelty. He was the fifteenth of sixteen children born to a poor, migrant tenant farming family that moved between Kansas and the Ozarks before settling outside of Skidmore, Missouri. His formal education ended when he was fifteen and in the eighth grade when Ken dropped out, at which time he already had a reputation as a raccoon hunter, castle rustler, thief, and a womanizer.

Over the next two decades, McElroy was suspected of theft (grain, gasoline, alcohol, antiques and livestock), arson, assault, child molestation, and statutory rape, resulting in charges being brought against him 21 times. Amazingly, he was never convicted — mostly because the witnesses were afraid. McElroy was known to have intimidated witnesses, mainly by parking outside their homes and stalking them.

In between his many felonies and intimidation tactics, McElroy fathered ten children with different women and married four times. He met his fourth wife, Trena, when she was twelve years old. By the age of fourteen, Trena was pregnant and had dropped out of school. McElroy divorced wife number three and married Trena in order to escape statutory rape charges. Before the divorce and marriage, he moved the pregnant teenager into his marital home with wife number three. Ken McElroy…

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Lori Johnston
Lori Johnston

Written by Lori Johnston

Writer, reader, margarita drinker. Currently looking for a “dare to be great” situation.