35. Penny Candy: The Beginning of the End For the Town Bully
By 1980, Ken McElroy had firmly established himself as Skidmore’s reigning thug and town bully. People had been intimidated into putting up with his violent antics for so long, that his presence and depredations just became an accepted part of life in that part of Missouri. That changed in April, 1980.
McElroy’s wife and erstwhile child bride, now grown up into a nasty piece of work, told him that 70-year-old Bowenkamp and his wife Lois, owners of the local grocery store, had accused the McElroys’ four-year-old daughter of shoplifting some penny candy. Accompanied by her husband, Trena McElroy returned to the store, and subjected the elderly owners to an F-bomb-filled tirade, while her husband vowed vengeance for the affront to his family. Following through on that vow is what finally did him in.