"He burned down [twelve-year-old] Trina's house and shot the family dog in order to convince Trina's parents to allow her to marry him."

Dale Clements died of liver failure, presumably from everybody in that town volunteering to buy him a drink

As a child of the vigilantes' growing up in Skidmore I had the safest and quietest childhood growing up. These members of our community knew the only way to keep us the children safe was to get rid of the one threat that kept hurting everyone around them. People fail to mention he literally sat outside the school playground during school hours trying to give rides home to very young girls. The towns people are not scary or threatening. They are extremely open people who rally around each other in support. If someone passed you should expect an over abundance of food to show up. Outside chores to mysteriously be done for you. This town has blood smears but no more than any other town across America or any other city in any other country.

It’s really incredible that the community let him live so long. The sheriff and courts ought to be ashamed of themselves for continually releasing him. Such cowardice.

I do think that sheriff read the room: "Hey, everyone, just so you know, WE are not going to do anything, so whatever you do, 'DO NOT' go to the bar right now [gives address of bar] and ABSOLUTELY 'DO NOT' take justice into your own hands. Byeeeeeeeeeeee"

"He burned down Trina's house and shot the family dog to convince her parents to allow her to marry him." Anybody else have to listen to that twice?

They put down a rabid dog the authorities kept releasing from his cage. I’d call it self defence if I was on the jury.

Had a similar situation in Wisconsin back in the early 70's. A local scum bag got out of jail, moved back in with his scum bag father, and was stealing farm equipment, tools, log splitters etc. he was seen selling the stuff at a swap meet several counties away. He talked his way out of it by saying he had just bought the stuff from another vendor on that day. A week later, a group of men snuck up on the farm house one night and fired 55 rounds from deer rifles through the front of his house. No one got hurt, miraculously, but he got the message, and left.

Ken:

I heard about this case years ago. This guy was as vile as they come, and the people he hurt were denied justice. I feel no sympathy for him.

That’s really sad that Trina fought for Rex after he died. I can’t imagine how messed up she must’ve been after years of abuse and chaos.

My cousin lived in Skidmore for a period of time while working as a farmhand. He said a number of people told law enforcement that when the shooting started, they dove under the pool table in the bar. Law enforcement concluded it must be the biggest pool table in the world.

I've researched this case quite a bit in the last few years. They tried their best to get justice through the legal system. But in my honest opinion after exhausting every legal avenue they were left with no choice.

" McElroy's murder ... was the gift that keeps on giving and the townspeople were in a generous mood." 🤣🤣🤣 This one is an uber-Grande!

One detail you didn't include or missed is that at the town meeting before McElroy was killed, the Sheriff made a point to tell the people of the town that he would be unreachable in the time between leaving the town and getting to his office. It was obviously a wink wink nudge nudge telling the people that although he could not take any official action as Sheriff against McElroy, if something were to happen to him before the Sheriff got back to his office, it would be very hard to find enough evidence to prove who had killed him. That was the entire basis for naming the Sheriff specifically in the wrongful death lawsuit.

My dad came from a family of 15 kids. Not only did all of those kids grow up to be excellent parents, but every single one of them had good jobs, we're hard-working, some put themselves through college, they are all good people, none with any criminal history.. My point is that even though there was 15 kids in the family, it was a very close knit family, no they didn't get all the one-on-one attention they needed from each of their parents, but they all had each other, and not a single one ever got any trouble with the law, or become killers because of mommy or daddy issues..

Dr. Grande, Missouri girl here, I can tell you one thing- That sheriff left town because he knew very well what was going to happen. He all as much gave his blessing. He was whistling on his way down the road.

Why? Because they had no other choice. This is a matter of a town standing their ground against the town's relentless, psycho bully. If this town collectively committed a crime in this case, it is for once one that I approve of. They murdered the human equivalent of the bubonic plague.

Rex taught the town a valuable lesson:

Dr. Grande, I’m from a rural town near Skidmore,Missouri and was a young adult when this happened. I know people who knew McElroy personally and one guy who hunted with him. Believe me, he got what he deserved. When the law failed to protect the community, the community did what needed to be done. Small towns take care of their own. Thank you for your analysis of this case.