The stalking and harassment of the Bowenkamp family took a tragic turn for the worse on a pleasant summerвЂ™s night in July of 1980. My neighbor and I took turns sleeping at night.вЂќ 4 вЂњOh, he was intimidating,вЂќ Lois Bowenkamp said. McElroy took to sitting outside the Bowenkamp residence in his truck and every so often, shooting his gun into the air as a warning sign. However, with McElroy being the hot-headed aggressor that he was, he refused to let it slide and unleashed a barrage of terror on the elderly couple.ДЇirst of all, McElroy offered the elderly Lois cash to engage in a fist fight with his much younger and stronger wife before turning to the intimidation tactics that he knew so well. The Kansas City Star reported that Lois called the theft a вЂњmisunderstandingвЂќ and tried to make peace with the McElroy family. This grocery store was owned by 70-year-old Bo Bowenkamp and his elderly wife, Lois Bowenkamp. McElroyвЂ™s ultimate downfall commenced in 1980, when one of his children вЂ“ a daughter he had with Trena вЂ“ was caught stealing a candy bar from a local grocery store. It almost seemed as though he was exempt from the lawвЂ¦ at least until that fateful day when his reign of terror came to an abrupt halt when vigilante justice took over. His lawyer, Richard McFadin, would later say that he defended McElroy in at least three or four felonies per year. The whole town knew how violent and unpredictable he was. However, the citizens of Skidmore were so petrified of his brutality and the revenge that he could potentially exact on them that everybody refused to testify against him. Throughout McElroyвЂ™s tempestuous life, he had been indicted on a range of crimes including child molestation, rape, attempted murder and burglary. They reluctantly complied and the unlikely couple were married. McElroy was granted permission to marry Trena by her panic-stricken parents after he threatened that if they didnвЂ™t grant permission, he would burn their new home to the ground. He knew all too well that TrenaвЂ™s testimony against him was very damning. Facing molestation charges due to TrenaвЂ™s young age when he began a sexual relationship with her, McElroy discovered that if he were to marry Trena then she would be exempt from testifying. Trena revealed the arson and abuse to a local doctor who in turn called a social welfare agency and put her into a foster home. McElroy refused to let her get away that easily he followed Trena to her parentsвЂ™ house and once there, he shot their dog and set their house on fire before bringing Trena back home where he physically abused her for her apparent misconduct. Unsurprisingly, McElroy mistreated Trena, who eventually attempted to escape his evil clutches by fleeing to her parentsвЂ™ house with their new born son. Not one to care about the law (or quite clearly morals), he met his youngest and last wife, Trena, in 1971 when she was just 12-years-old. He fathered a total of fifteen children with a hoard of different women, many of them being just teenagers. His criminal career started off with petty crimes such as stealing livestock but this soon escalated, predominately in violence.В Over the years, McElroy, who was a raging alcoholic and notorious womaniser, was married multiple times. Many question if this was the catalyst that caused him to become the abominable character that he eventually morphed into. When McElroy was a young boy, he fell from a hay wagon on his family farm and as a result, a steel plate was implanted into his head. Illiterate due to quitting school after just the fifth grade, trouble seemed to follow McElroy wherever he went. Born in 1934, he was the 15 th out of 16 children born to poor sharecroppers, Tony and Mabel McElroy.

Thief 1981 inspired drive