Doomed to Fail - Ep 19 - Part 2: You're the worst - Ken McElroy

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

Picture it - the worst person you know is finally in a corner. Everyone you know agrees that this person needs to go - what do you do?This week's re-release we are accusing an entire town of murder and also letting them go with a warning.  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life! patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPodWe would love to hear from you! Please follow along! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod  Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod Email: [e-mail] 

Hello, Taylor from Doom to Fail. Today we're releasing episode 19, part two on Ken McRoy. McCarroy. He was the town bully, all around jerk to humans and animals alike. And one day they had enough and someone shot him, but the whole town won't tell who. So, yeah, don't be a jerk. I mean, don't kill people, but also don't be a jerk. Lots of lessons in this one.

So if you have any questions or ideas, we're at Doom DeFillopod at gmail.com. We're on spring break, so we are re-releasing. some of our past episodes. Hope you enjoy. Thanks. In the matter of the people of the state of California versus Horthall James Simpson, case number B-A-019. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.

side of the equation so we're going to we're going to discuss AI again in this so i thought i do today's episode on a topic kind of similar to last week which touched on a true crime theme that seems kind of rare which is crimes and people that were glad things have bad things happened to kind of like last week yeah okay that makes with march yeah so i kind of discuss this too like we're a lot you know where people have a tendency to aggrandize the dead and say that there are people are amazing once they die when we all know that that's just not always true and there are some cases where people are just like tickled pink that somebody was killed and thinking that they got their just desserts so i will say that these stories are kind of

tough to find because very few people are eager to celebrate publicly the death of other people right it's just not considered like it's considered uncouth i would say yeah so i scoured the internet and kept trying to find these stories and i had a hard time so i went to our ai friend chat gbt and i asked the question quote what are some situations where people were glad someone was murdered and here's what the i replied with quote as an ai language model it is not appropriate or ethical to provide a examples of situations where people were glad someone was murdered, celebrating or justifying the taking of a human life goes against fundamental principles of respect for human dignity and the value of human life.

Murder is a serious crime that should never be condoned or celebrated, regardless of the circumstances. It is important to promote peace, justice, and nonviolent solutions to conflict. I felt like I was getting lectured. Sheesh. Yeah, it's judging you. You're on a list. I'm definitely on a list now. how elaborate is that it's really it's so funny but it's also like it's kind of gross because it's like this weird response of like the dignity of human it's like are we really that sad that bin laden's dead like do we really think that all human life is really equally valuable no of course

it's not yeah it's just like this weird response that i don't know it's tone deaf at the very least but i definitely definitely i'm on a list now so so anyway finding info on people of the world is glad it's dead it was kind of hard to do but i did find two stories i thought were basically that and they all had they both had one centralized red flag which was don't be a dick and if you are consistently a dick to enough people expect people to kill you so i'm not going to do both stories today i'm going to do one of them and i'm putting the other one in the back pocket to use another time uh but i'm going to start with a story of a man named ken Rex McElroy. Have you heard that name before? I know a story about this topic. I don't know if

it's the one that you're going to do, but I don't want to say anything, so you just go. Okay, it probably is. Okay. It's a very famous story. Okay. So Ken was murdered in 1981 at the age of 47, and to say people were thrilled to see him go would be an understatement. So Ken lived in Skidmore, Missouri, which is a small farming town that is only known for Ken's murder and for what's called. And for what's called a punkin show not pumpkin punkin show which i mean i researched this a little bit it's kind of like a festival there's like tractor pools it's like it's like a county fair but even like smaller and more isolated than that are there are there pumpkins can you bring one there's there's no pictures of pumpkins it looked like it was a it looks like a thing where you just go there

and eat funnel cake and watch like tractor pulls which i don't even know what a tractor pole is I don't either, but I know what funnel cake is And I like funnel cake Funnel cake's great What? Don't they call them elephant ears too? Yeah, I think I'm like New Jersey They call him that Yeah

So going back to Ken, sorry Sidetrack Ken's childhood is basically what you would expect He had 15 siblings And so his parents did what they could Yeah These people hated protection Oh my God

They really really hated protection That's hilarious But like obviously When you have 16 children total because Ken's one of them and he had 15 siblings he kind of just raised himself yeah totally and and by virtue of raising yourself you become kind of a small-time criminal yeah ken would have 21 charges brought up against him for basically just various stealing of various things and all 21 times the charges were dropped because the main witness would be intimidated to not showing up for court

and testifying against ken so those his tactic he would just do terrible things and then intimidate the people they could actually put him in jail for doing those terrible things. Amazing. How many people are in the town? I don't know. I should look that up. I'm going to look that up right now. Population of Skidmore. So as of 2020, it was 1400. So back then, probably 1,000, give or take. Oh, yeah, that's real small. And like most of them are his siblings. Yeah, most of. Yeah, he's related to most of them. Yeah. So it's like 10% of the city. It's the siblings. So, and also his progeny. So his

Ken grew up, he was kind of a womanizer, which I don't even know how that works when you're this scummy. So Ken had 10 kids with various women. Yeah, all he does is steal shit. And he's having, like, he wouldn't want to have his kids. It's the weirdest thing. He ended up marrying a woman named Trina or Trenna, I think it's Trina, who she'll become important later on in the story.

I read the following and decided to just quickly. quote it directly because I literally had no other way to paraphrase this description. This is describing Trina, okay? Quote, they met when she was 12 years old. He raped Trina repeatedly. Her parents initially opposed the relationship, but after Ken burn their house down and shot the family dog, they begrudgingly agreed to the marriage, end quote. I think it's more begrudging.

That just throws me. Luke like what are you talking about like oh my gosh who are these people it says i'm not i'm not it literally says they begrudgingly agreed to the marriage after he raped her burned down their house and shot the family dog which will be a theme by the way oh my god yeah grudging i can see i can see them being begrudged by that yeah oh that that's a little a little inconvenient yes yes it's a it's like the equivalent of like a traffic jam is basically how they're describing it anyways okay so trina gets pregnant at 14 years old oh my god and at this time mind you ken is already married to a woman named alice and then trina comes and lives with ken and

alice and ken marries trina at this time because she's pregnant and it is the only way he can avoid statutory rape charges so he tells his wife honey I'm sorry. We got to bring this child into the marriage, and I need to divorce you and marry her so I don't go to jail for statutory raping this 14th. Like, who are these people? I doubt he said, I'm sorry. Yeah, he definitely not saying I'm sorry. I'm just like, who are these people?

Oh, my God, awful. So at one point, the two girls, Alice and Trina, have to flee Ken's house. This is like right after she gives birth. It was like a week after she gives birth their kid because he turns to like a violent, raging alcoholic asshole. And Trina's like, let's leave Alice. Let's run to my parents' house. So they leave Ken's house to go to Trina's parents' house.

Not joking. Once again, Ken goes over there, burns the house down and shoots the new family dog. Oh, no. Oh, my God. This town sounds like everybody in it shared like a tooth. oh my god um so there are various other stories here that if i were to go through them it would literally take a lifetime basically this guy was a total piece of shit he he he treated shooting people shooting people's dogs and burning houses down like it was a game of ding dong ditch like it was

nothing to him like he walked around they were they were constantly talking about how he would just drive around town and he had his arms slung out of the the side of his truck holding a gun like just waiting for a reason to shoot people like it was crazy and nobody you never go to jail because you just shoot you if you if you just fight against them oh my god people shouldn't have guns i'm gonna say that again keep going i wrote that i wrote down his prank like his his act his way of prank people would basically just like shoot you in the knees like it was the craziest thing so there's these countless stories of people in town who had the exact same experience that trina and her parents had but it all kind of escalates in 1980 when

One of Ken's kids, like a young kid, like an adult, right? Like, he was still a child. Got into an argument was someone at a grocery store in town owned by a 70-year-old man named Ernest Boe Camp. Bowen Camp. Apparently, this kid stole something because, of course, he did because he's his progeny. Yeah, he's not going to be a good kid.

No. Yeah. Like, so like I said, like, these kids, like, they're not doing Dennis the Menace type things. They're doing like Damien from the Omen type things. Yeah. And because his kid was also a piece of shit, Ken gets pissed off at this owner of this market, Ernest and his wife Lois. This is a 70-year-old couple.

Right. He's mad at them because his son saw something. This is a type of person that he hates. Yes. Awful. Yes. So he starts constantly threatening them. That's his type.

Again, the guy doesn't have a job, right? All he does is shoot people on the knees. so at one point he actually shoots Ernest in his store in the neck oh my god the 70 year old man somehow he survives he survives in this case he actually was arrested and then released on bail and being the person that he is he immediately goes to local tavern with his gun and starts openly threatening earnest that i'm going to kill this guy like you know he just really really talking about this yeah i wrote down it was it's like he's pissed that he shot earnest in the neck got arrested for it and he's upset at earnest about this tournament right crazy how there's no i can't make any logic

out of that that makes no sense yeah yeah so the people at the tavern really didn't like this because a ken has done this to a lot of people in town he's just a horrible people piece of shit and then there's a sweet 70 year old couple who owns a local market and they basically decide one morning that the town is just going to come together at i forgot what it was it was like some meeting spot and the goal was let's just figure out what we're going to do about ken apparently the sheriff is there too and he's just like trying to like a piece people was like guys don't get involved in this like just whatever so he's the sheriff's trying to chill people out saying like Link, wink.

I'm going to go to jail. Yeah, exactly. But he also doesn't do anything to stop anyone. He, like, drives out of town after this meeting. During the meeting that the town folks are having somewhere, Ken and his wife, Trina, go to the local tavern for some drinks. People at the meeting find out that Ken was there, and the citizens decide, let's all go to the tavern.

For what I could gather, it wasn't obvious that Ken understood what was going on. Like, it seemed like he was just kind of drinking. and then the bar just filled with people, but, like, nobody was, like, surrounding him or anything. It was just like, let's all just be there, you know? Right. So Ken leaves the bar. He gets in his truck, and it is there that he has shot twice.

Well, there's a lot of bullets flying, but he actually shot twice by two different caliber weapons. In total, 46 people witnessed the shooting, including Trina, who was in the truck with Ken when the firing started or the shooting started. And Trina identifies a gunman, but was countered by 46 other people who said they didn't do it or they didn't see anybody who did. It is kind of now agreed upon that the person Trina identified is probably the person who started the shooting. It's assumed it's a guy named Del Clement and probably his brother who killed him. But it doesn't seem like they did it because Ken's a jerk.

it kind of seems like they did it because it was a business move for them. So Del and his brother owned that tavern, that bar in town, the only bar in town. And apparently any time Ken came into that bar, which he came in a lot, people left because nobody wanted to be around it because he's a jerk off. I bet. And so it wasn't thought of as like, oh, this was in retaliation for being the biggest jerk in town. It was like, no, I got to kill this guy because he's driving away my customers. i got like yeah because he's the biggest jerk in town well yeah okay yeah expo expo facto yeah i think i said that right so what was interesting is a lot of these people like these town folks i mean this

happened like 81 right yeah a lot of these people like are dead nobody said anything like on that like on their deathbed so it was it was presumed del's gonna like confess this like obvious obviously all people died of psorosis of the liver so like it was a slow death so nobody was like being killed in car accident but nobody said anything it was all assumed like dell on his death but it's like yeah whatever it was me sue me nothing nothing nobody's talking about this i did read in one um in one it was like a forum where this guy who said he was like 12 years old at the time commented saying I was there my mom took me down there

and we all know who did it and I know who did it and I'm also not like I don't know it's like it's like the claim to fame this town is killing of this one guy so nobody wants to talk about it yeah because the DA wouldn't press charges yeah the FBI actually investigate because the FBI was like guys we can't have

vigilante justice like somebody should do something about this and still nobody went to jail for it because it just seems like in general the entire town was happy this guy was dead it's funny i read this part this is so human ken ken was buried obviously and his tombstone reads this is incredible quote beloved ken brave fearless compassionate end quote and they left off the fucking child rapist and elder abuser part where he shot a 70-year-old man in the neck and raped a 12 yearling it's just like why he was he was none of those things Why would you rate that?

Yeah. You're totally right. Chad GBT's sitting there lecturing me on like the dignity of human life. It's like, come on. So ridiculous. Trina in her defense, she sued the city. I don't get this woman. It sounds like Ken was the worst thing that ever happened to her, but she like still

wanted to like make something out of this. She sued the city and the sheriff for $5 million. Again, the town, wait, no, this is Skidmore, Texas. I looked up as 1400. What's Skidmore, Missouri? oh my god taylor what does it less how many people are in skidmore missouri as of 2021 500 225 oh no dude that means ken and his family probably back then were legitimately 10 to 20% of the town that's crazy let's zillow it yeah you could probably be the richest person in skidmore

missouri yeah i mean is it impossible they have zillo there skidmore there's one house for sale for $49,000, two bedrooms, one bath, 681 square feet. Oh, God. It's broken. It's broken? Yeah, this house is broken. It is, windows are broken. It needs to be torn down. Oh, my God. Wait, let's see if they have condos and townhomes there. Yeah, that's a tear down. Wow. There's nothing for rent. You can't move there. Yeah, it's like two, it's like one big street and like a bunch of small streets. It's very small. Wait, I'm going to yelp and see if they have a diner there. I bet their diner's got to be really good.

Is that bar still open? Let's find out. Skidmore, Missouri. Google along with us, friends. Oh, wow. They have a place. It's called Good Time Charlie's. Nice.

Let's look at the... It is 97 stars. I'm on their Facebook. Oh, it's close. Great service. Waitress was so friendly and accommodating. Clean restaurant. Awesome tenderloins.

Definitely going back. Tina loves it. Oh, but she was... Oh, no, it's, it's sold. It's sold. Yeah, everything was just purchased in the restaurant. There's nothing left. The building is for sale.

You can buy the building for $59,000. Wow. Well, so, okay, so factor all this, that in when I tell you this, that Trina sued the city for $5 million. Oh, my God, they don't have $5 million. Like, what on earth are you thinking? Yeah. And eventually, they settled at $17,000. So, yeah, she ended up moving away.

She ended up getting remarried and dying at the age of 55, probably of like lung cancer because, of course, I don't mean to be like this, but we get the kind of people we're talking about here. Are they, how are the children? Ken's 12 children, or 10. I don't know. Let's find out what happened to Ken's children. Ken Rex McElroyd children.

They all have to be on death row probably. right i mean i can't imagine that there aren't a bunch of them in jail gosh with good time charlie's being closed like what else do they have there nothing you just go there to die i'm sure there's other places you can go i mean my town's very small but it's still oh one place called the pub jeffrey panns locate one person is talking about jeff who is one of ken's kids i worked with him at uh school for behavioral problems for children because of Good, of course. He is an absolutely amazing man. He is smart, attractive, sweet, caring, and has a bigger heart that anyone I've ever met. He is patient, kind, and very... I mean... All right, maybe. Maybe some of them turn out okay. I mean, there's a lot of them. Someone's got turned out kind of okay.

He taught me a lot about life. I mean, Janetta, are you a real person? Geneta Petal-Linsky, are you like, for real? That sounds a little fake. You're not wrong. Yeah, I feel like you're like... Is it... Is it Jeff who's writing this? Funraiser by Jeanette. Oh my God. Who the fuck is it? My 30-year-old cousin was found dead today.

His father passed away and his mother is in a nursing home. She can't afford to have a funeral queen of the body. He's an only child. Please help if you can. Okay. Man. Now I'm just getting sad. How do these people all know each other?

It's weird how they just like combine forces and like, God Lord. Anyways, that's, um... Ken looks awful. There's a picture of Ken with a dog, please. Yeah. I mean, he probably took that dog out and summarily killed it right after the picture was taken. Wow. That's all. So far as the story, he killed two family dogs and burned down two family homes. So like, he's not doing good. Well, so there's been other bad things in Skidmore. There's a boy in two, I don't.

2001, a 20-year-old, that disappeared, and they can't, they couldn't find him. There was something weird in, like, a, but possibly he was connected to a pedophile Boy Scout leader who was, like, being someone on the internet that he wasn't. So that guy's gone. And then the third thing happened in, oh, I think someone, this is my recent, someone cut a baby out of someone's womb and tried to steal it in Skidmore. yeah wait there's a website called the curse of skidmore that's wild yeah skidmore's like a haunted place it sounds like

it is it doesn't seem good i kind of want to go there now i know we can buy the whole town did you see the new texas chainsaw massacre where they try to buy the town yes like that you would absolutely there would absolutely be to make confederate flags and you would get murdered i would get you would be fine i would be fine i would be Maybe be fine, but I'd have to, like, hide my personality. Wow. Hold on. On October 16, 2000, Greg Dragoo beat and strangled his girlfriend, Wendy Gillenwater. On the day of her death, he beat her brutally, tied her to his truck, and dragged her up and down the road in Skidmore.

Jesus. Only like one road in Skidmore. That's terrible. And then in 2001, Branson Perry disappeared. He was 20 at the time of his disappearance. There were rumors that he was involved in Methamphetamine. Of course. Of course he was involved in Methampton.

then another person bobby joe was killed that's the one that's the one who got her baby ripped out of her oh oh god's so terrible yeah stole her baby because she faked a pregnancy well yeah i mean all the time in the news i feel like that's crazy look anytime you fake a pregnancy the story arc ends with you cutting a fetus out of a pregnant woman yeah it doesn't end with you I don't know, I don't know how else it could possibly end. Yeah, Jesse James was killed there. Really? Yeah.

That's crazy. We didn't go to Skidmore, Taylor. I'm afraid. What is going on there? I don't want to, like, I don't know, that's, that's too much. Too much stuff. It's like dairy. It is like dairy.

Yeah. Almost exactly. All righty. Well, that was our story. There was a lot of Googling on this show, on this episode. So we hope that you weren't driving when you were listening to it so that you could Google along. with my editing skills you're never going to even know oh nice yeah that's wild i i've heard that story before and i love that just like people

were like no this guy had to go and at least they like there's enough sane people at least a little bit in that town to be like we can't put up of this anymore and he's a piece shit celebrating or justifying the taking of a human life goes against fundamental principles of respect for human dignity and the value of human life he had no respect for human life you know keep shooting an old man yeah

don't you lecture me chat GPT what a farce anyways yeah that's my story that's crazy

well thank you I'm glad that we talked about that I definitely want to hear the other one sometime

that you found you will definitely know the other one I will I'm not going to Google I don't want to

be in the list that you're on so I'm not going to Google that so funny Yeah, super fun. I'm excited that I went a little bit further back this time. I'm trying to find stuff that's like even further back. I got some stuff in the hopper that's like also like during like Kevin the Great American Revolution time. But I want to go further back more. So let me know if you have any ideas. Anyone? Because there's so many cool stories that happened. And if you know somebody that should be killed, let us know. One of my friends, she was from Virginia in college.

and she i think her grandpa was killed like by the town and no one would ever tell them what happened was he a jerk off he must have been like she was like her like her mom was like i just want to know what happened to my dad and the town was like nope and we're like why would anyone tell you and she was like she kind of like brushed it off and we were like what like what are you talking about like that makes no sense like i need to hear more about this story but like she didn't know anymore so i wonder what that one was it does feel like a texas thing you know yeah Like, I could see that happening. And for, like, most of history, that was probably fine, you know?

Like, the half-ils-in-McCoyce killed each other all the time. You know what I mean? Like, people kill each other all the time. Like, whatever. I still think it's fine. Yeah. So, I feel like only recently they'd be like, all right, everyone. I love the sheriff leaving town.

Being like, I'm going to go to the store. I'll be back. I see nothing. I'll be back in a few hours. Hope nothing bad happens while I'm gone. Yeah. Yeah. that's one way to remove all accountability for yourself is just it to leave good for him

all righty taylor well that is our stories for today i will go ahead oh do you want to give any shoutouts or do anything uh no i just want to say thank you for everyone who's following us please continue to follow us um i'm posting snippets now on instagram they learned how to make those are fun so share those and then far as we need to talk about actual advertising I know. We will get, we will, we will, we definitely need to get to that. Talk to your business friends when you're in Ireland. Yes.

All my friends are business people. They all have briefcases. You have a lot of business friends. Talk to them. It's Jeff Dunn and Dana Sadek. In source. He has a business. Dean is a, a salesperson.

What does she know about podcast advertising? Talk to your business friends. I bet they know someone. Okay. Yes. Sweet. Well, thanks, thanks. Okay.

Bye. I'm going to stop recording. Thank you.