In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean Read Free Book Online Page B

Oleta had a stillborn child.
    One day, as Ken was working on the construction crew, a cribbing form fell about thirty feet and hit him on the head, splitting his safety helmet and cutting his scalp. The accident jammed the nerves and muscles in his neck, causing him periodic episodes of severe pain and occasional blackout spells the rest of his life. (McElroy told people that this injury resulted in a steel plate being implanted in his head, and many people attributed much of his subsequent bizarre and violent behavior to the plate.)
    The Colorado job was Ken's last attempt to function in the straight world. In 1955 or 1956, he and Oleta moved back to Missouri, where he initially centered his activity in the St. Joe area, although he soon began roaming the entire six-county area of northwest Missouri. The stealing he and his buddies had done in junior high school, for which they were never punished, convinced him there were easier ways to make a living than running a jackhammer, digging ditches, or hoeing beans.
    He started off small time, stealing one hog or calf at a time. He rigged a toggle switch to shut off the running lights in his Ford and shored up the plywood lining in the back. During the day he roamed the gravel roads looking for calves or hogs that were fat and ready for market, noting the locations of the closest gates. He would return late at night, usually around 1 or 2 a.m." and park as close to the animals as possible. Dressed in dark clothes, he would isolate a fat hog and, if the gate was close by, guide it through by the tail. Otherwise, he would lift the beast, which could weigh 250 pounds, one arm under his neck and the other in back of his rear legs, >and carry it against his chest while he stepped over the barbed wire fence. With the hog in his trunk, he would drive away, rear end low, often to another farmer's house, where he would get fifty or sixty dollars for the animal. Occasionally, if the job went smoothly, he would take the hog up to his father's farm, and then return for a second and maybe a third animal.
    But even this was a meager living. His friend John had joined the Navy at age seventeen and was now out. He tracked Ken down and found him living in a squalid flat in St. Joe with a woman who wouldn't even get out of bed for the visit; Ken was obviously embarrassed by his situation. He had a long way to go if he was ever to hold his head up around the rich farmers of Nodaway County.
    Nevertheless, up north, around Skidmore, Graham, Maitland, and Quitman, the legend was growing. Children in junior high and grade school grew up hearing stories about Ken McElroy. People whispered that he had raped a fourteen-year-old Quitman girl who became pregnant and died delivering twins at home because she couldn't afford to go to the hospital. A year later, according to the rumors, he returned and raped her older sister, who later ended up marrying one of his best coon-hunting buddies. People talked about what happened whenever Ken was around-the heavy drinking, sex, and violence. Just hearing his name was enough to bring a taste of fear to a child's mouth.
    Adults shook their heads over the stories and asked each other why he never got punished for the stealing and raping. Most people just stayed away from him and places he hung out. For the better-off families that wasn't that hard to do-McElroy didn't pick on people who had money for lawyers or had influence in the community. He picked on the poorer country folks.
    When Ken was about twenty, he befriended an eleven-or twelve-year-old boy, Larry D." who came from a poor family of dedicated coon hunters in the Quitman area. Ken didn't have much then either, only his beat-up car, but he was friendly and generous to Larry. Ken bought him pop, gave him rides, and if Larry ever needed anything, Ken gave it to him and never brought it up again. Larry admired Ken's style; once he took a gun rack and strapped it to his leg, then sawed off an old shotgun and