Town Mute for 30 Years About a Bully’s Killing

[groovedaddy]

SKIDMORE, Mo. — The murder of Ken Rex McElroy took place in plain view of dozens of residents of this small farm town, under the glare of the morning sun. But in a dramatic act of solidarity with the gunman, every witness, save the dead man’s wife, denied seeing who had pulled the trigger.

The killing was a shocking end for a notoriously brutal man who had terrorized the area for years with seeming impunity from the law until he was struck down in a moment of vigilante justice. It was also the first major case for a young county prosecutor, not far removed from law school and just months into the job, who said he was confident that the case would be solved soon.

But the silence of the townspeople held. Now, nearly 30 years later, that prosecutor, David A. Baird, is preparing to leave office with his first and most famous case still unsolved.

No one has ever been brought to trial in Mr. McElroy’s death, and, although there is no statute of limitations on murder, most people around here suspect that no one ever will be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/us/16bully.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a23

[T Wolf]

1. When the institutions that the people establish to serve certain functions fail that

responsibility, it is left to the people themselves to act.

It is an obligation of being a member of a society.

Vigilante "justice" certainly should not be the first choice, but it can be a valid last choice, if necessary.

[KansDem]

3. I remember this incident...

I had just started grad school at KU (Lawrence) when this happened.

When the institutions that the people establish to serve certain functions fail that responsibility, it is left to the people themselves to act. -- It's funny, though, as I read the OP and remembered what happened, I kept thinking about the "national scene" today. You don't suppose the same thing is beginning to happen on a much larger scale?

[T Wolf]

6. That, I believe, is the ONLY hope we have for significant, progressive change in the way our nation

runs our lives.

It will be painful and costly. So what. The problem today is that no one wants to take the necessary action because they are too busy protecting what little they have left to hold on to.

But when you have nothing left, you've got nothing left to lose. The pukes and wealthy do not seem to realize that. Hence, their full-throttle effort to drive anyone but the rich into the ground. Their greed has blinded them to that fact - and I hope it rises up before I die and bites their ass off, along with the rest of their entire existence.

We all will be better off even though many of us will have paid a very steep price.

[groovedaddy]

7. A list?

http://www.theyrule.net/2004/tr2.php

[T Wolf]

8. There really is a surprising small number of people who, in effect, rule the country.

But information like this is not well-known at all.

Here is my (admittedly) radical solution...

Start at the top of any company. Remove (specifics to be determined) #1 and redistribute his (it's almost always a him) assets down (specifics to be determined). Evaluate to see if enterprise is functioning (specifics to be determined). If so, ...

REPEAT.

Once you reach an evaluation that indicates the organization/company is starting to suffer (specifics to be determined), you know you have reached the proper level of top-heaviness.

Seriously - what does the asshole in the exec suite do except make decisions based on what others tell him? Those decisions can be made much further down the food chain.

[lsewpershad]

10. Wolf

I agree with you. Put another way, when people are pushed so far that their very survival is threatened they fight back with a vengance. I'm with you that we are heading in that direction very fast.

[notesdev]

11. it sure is

you're seeing it happen in response to the breakdown of institutions the world over

perhaps the institutions are not flawed, but we have made it so the only way to actually get control of one is to be corrupt

read the declaration of independence and tell me how many of their complaints could be made today... and how many more could be made.

[notesdev]

2. Where was the law

when this "shockingly brutal" man was terrorizing the area for years?

Probably in league with him.

[Ikonoklast]

4. I remember witnesses telling how they hid under the pool table when they first heard

shots being fired so they couldn't see who was doing the shooting.

I think the prosecutor said there were about twenty or so people under that pool table.

[rfranklin]

5. They were a close-knit community...

Though Ralph's lack of dental hygiene sometimes lead to bitter complaints.

[DCKit]

9. Olympic size pool table? I thought that was only for pools. n/t