Authors: Harry N. MacLean
Ginger worked at a dry cleaner's only a few blocks away, and Trena called her there whenever Ken showed up during the day. Usually Trena was crying hysterically, screaming that Ken had driven by the house and was coming back to get her. Ginger would go home immediately. Once or twice, she found Trena in such bad shape that she thought she would have to take her to the hospital. Ginger would spend hours comforting her, assuring her that Ken was gone and she was safe in their house. Then, after the terror had subsided, Trena often said something strange, such as she was glad her baby was a boy, because Ken liked little boys, but not little girls.
Some days Ginger would see McElroy driving around the block in the white Oldsmobile. He would cruise by slowly, never quite stopping, staring at the front of the house. Ginger was afraid, not because he might have a gun and come after her, but because she might be in the way when he came for Trena. Ginger and her husband began locking all the windows and doors when they left Trena home alone.
Trena talked about her life, sometimes shocking Ginger and her two daughters. When Trena told them that she and Alice shared a bedroom together, and that Ken would come and pick one to take back to sleep with him, Ginger asked her if she didn't get jealous when Ken took Alice and she had to lie there knowing what was going on in the next room. Trena simply replied that she knew Ken really loved her, and she and Alice got along really well. Ginger's daughters sat and listened, wide-eyed.
Trena often talked about her mother and her stepfather and the house they had lived in when she was growing up. She told Ginger that Ken had burned the house down because her parents didn't want him to see her anymore. She also talked about going back there to see what was left of the house, so one Sunday the four of them-Ginger and George and Trena and Jeffy-loaded up the car and, following Trena's instructions, drove to the spot where the house had been. Only the foundation remained, but as they walked around, Trena told them stories of growing up there as a girl.
Trena talked about how Ken always had a lot of money, and how life with him was so different from the way it had been at home, where they never had anything. He had lots of vehicles and furniture and guns, always lots of guns. When Ginger asked how he got the money, Trena said, "He would steal cattle, grain, anything that wasn't nailed down and he could haul off."
Ginger's two girls spent a lot of time with Trena, and after a few months, she became almost a member of the family. The Clement girls were going to high school dances and ball games, and they were learning to put on makeup and fix their hair; they would sit in front of the mirror after school for hours and talk about boys and try on eye shadow and lipstick. Trena confided in them that she was thinking about going back to school and having a normal life-getting married and having babies. She even began fixing up her hair and wearing makeup around the house.
Sometimes, one of her daughters would bring a boy or two home after school, and afterward Trena would talk about what they were like. Once the two girls had a party for some of their school friends. Trena met a boy she liked, and the two of them talked and danced along with the other kids. He began coming over every now and then in the afternoon, and he and Trena would talk and watch television together. The visits seemed so good for Trena that Ginger asked the social worker if the two of them could go somewhere together, perhaps to a ball game. The social worker said no.
In November 1973, the court held a preliminary hearing on the charges of rape, flourishing a deadly weapon, and arson. Because the incidents had occurred in Nodaway County, and the charges had been filed there, the normal procedure would have been for the local magistrate to conduct the hearing. But in this case, as in all cases involving Ken Rex McElroy, Magistrate (later circuit judge) Montgomery Wilson disqualified himself.
Monty Wilson grew up in Skidmore, where his father worked as an officer at the bank. After obtaining his law degree, he served as city attorney of Maryville before becoming magistrate. Wilson developed a reputation as a weak and indecisive judge. According to one deputy sheriff, Wilson "had less force in his voice than an eleven-year-old girl-he had absolutely no guts at all." He seemed to be in a constant state of vacillation -should I or shouldn't I-on even the simplest matters in front of him. He agonized over basic objections, mumbling and holding his head in his hands. He seemed overly worried about being reversed on appeal. Many locals perceived him as being unable to crack down on criminals-he would hand down a stiff sentence and then suspend it, giving the defendant one more chance. Some lawyers thought Wilson was smart enough, while others thought he wasn't very bright. As one lawyer put it, "The last one to argue in front of him usually won."
Wilson's fear of Ken McElroy was well known. He admitted to one prominent citizen that "I don't want anything to do with that man, or I'll get killed."
Monty Wilson certainly didn't want anything to do with the three felony charges against Ken Rex McElroy. On November 9, he issued an order disqualifying himself from conducting the preliminary examination, and sending the matter to Magistrate Clark Gore in adjoining Atchison County.
The hearing was held in front of Gore on November 15, 1973, some five months after the crimes had occurred.
In addition to the rape and arson charges, at which Trena was the primary witness (Alice Wood denied having seen McElroy burn the house), Magistrate Gore heard evidence on the charge of flourishing a deadly weapon.
Russ Johnson, Skidmore city marshal and special deputy sheriff, and Trena's uncle, testified that on June 11, 1973, at approximately 11:30 p.m, he was with Ronald McNeely and Wayne Johnson when Ken McElroy approached them with a gun.
fraze: O.K." did the defendant have a gun with him at that time?
johnson: Yes, sir.
fraze: What did he do with the gun, did he point it at anyone?
johnson: He pointed it at me.
fraze: What did he say to you?
johnson: He told me that he was going to blow my damn brains out, that he was going to start at my feet and work up. fraze Was this done in the presence of these other people? johnson: Yes, sir.
On cross-examination, McFadin pointed out that Deputy Johnson did not immediately arrest Ken McElroy and take him into custody for threatening to kill him, but waited four days before signing a complaint.
McFadin called Ronnie McNeely on behalf of the defendant.
mcfadin: Now, at the time this alleged incident took place, where were you?
mcneely: Well, I'm not sure, I just can't quote, but I was back some.
mcfadin: Did you ever see him take a gun and point it at Mr. Johnson?
mcneely: I can't say I just exactly seen it, no.
mcfadin: All right. Now did you ever see him take a gun out of the car?
mcneely: No, I can't say that I actually seen him take one out.
mcfadin: Did you see him put a gun in the car?
mcneely: No, not actually.
mcfadin: Did you ever see him threaten Mr. Johnson?
mcneely: Well, no, I was standing back a ways, I can't be sure what went on.
For each of the three charges, the magistrate found substantial evidence that a crime had been committed and that Ken McElroy had committed it. He therefore bound McElroy over for trial.
Prosecuting Attorney Fraze, a somewhat laconic but intelligent man in his mid-thirties, was determined to convict Ken McElroy of something. After Trena passed a lie detector test, and after the motel attendant confirmed that a man matching McElroy's description had rented the room, Fraze filed eight additional charges of child molestation against him. Not only would each charge increase the chance of a conviction, but molestation charges would be easier to prove. Fraze was a little uneasy about the likelihood of success on the rape charge with a rural jury, mainly because the victim had been staying with the defendant and, by her own admission, had had intercourse with him previously on numerous occasions. But anyone who took indecent or improper liberties with a person under the age of eighteen was guilty of child molestation, whether the child consented to the act or not.
The new charges, filed in February 1974, alleged that on eight separate occasions during 1971,1972, and 1973, Ken McElroy "... did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously detain and divert one Trena Louise McCloud, a minor of the age of fifteen years with intent to indulge in degrading, lewd, immoral and vicious acts and practices and take indecent and improper liberties with said minor by diverting and transporting said minor from Nodaway County, Missouri, to the City of St. Joseph, Missouri, with the intent and purpose of: having sexual intercourse with said minor; exposing his private parts to said minor in an obscene and indecent manner; and by language suggesting a lewd and indecent act, to wit: sexual intercourse and fellatio, and thus and thereby did annoy and molest said minor, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided ..." '
Had the criminal justice system dealt with these twelve felony charges at all expeditiously, Trena might have held. But it didn't. First, on the motion of the defendant, the cases were transferred to other counties-the rape, arson, assault, and weapon cases to Gentry County, and the molestation charges to Platte County. There they languished. At least three different trial dates were set for the various cases, and each time the court granted continuances. Finally, the first four charges were set for trial on October 24, 1974, some seventeen months after the alleged crimes, and the molestation charges were set for November 25, 1974, some two and three years after the alleged crimes.
In 1974, when Trena had been with the Clement family for about a year, the social worker called Ginger and said that Trena would be leaving. The woman didn't say why or where, but Trena told Ginger she was going to her grandmother's house, and Ginger suspected the trial might be getting near. Trena assured Ginger that she didn't want anything more to do with Ken McElroy, but Ginger was apprehensive. Although the girl seemed to be getting stronger and was beginning to laugh and relax like a normal teenager, Ginger had a feeling that she wasn't quite ready to leave, that she really needed to stay with them a little while longer.
Trena's grandparents had come to Maryville seeking to take Trena home with them. They convinced the welfare department and the judge to allow her to return with them to Whiting, Kansas. But Trena wasn't happy in her grandparents' home. Without her mom and dad, her brothers and sisters, or her friends, Trena felt as if she had no one to turn to. After a couple of months, feeling very alone, she called Ken and asked him to come get her. He gladly complied.
Lawyer Gene McFadin was sitting behind the desk in his well-appointed law office in Kansas City one morning that summer when he felt a presence in the room. He looked up and was startled to see the bulk of Ken McElroy standing by the wall, not more than ten feet away, looking at him. He buzzed his secretary: "Ken McElroy is in my office, which is OK, but you know nobody is supposed to come in unannounced."
"But, Mr. McFadin," she protested, "we haven't seen Mr. McElroy this morning."
"How do the cases look?" McElroy asked, getting right to the point.
"They're tough cases," McFadin replied. "Going to be hard to win."
"What happens if I marry Trena?"
"Well," said McFadin, "then she can't testify against you and they would have no case." McFadin thought for a second. "But you got a problem, Ken-you're already married."
A few days later, Sharon McElroy came to see McFadin. "Ken will give me a divorce," she said, "and I want you to handle it." McFadin considered for a moment whether he had a conflict of interest, decided he didn't, and set to work.
McFadin obtained Sharon's divorce in Richmond, Missouri, freeing McElroy to marry. The question was where? First choice was a little town in Oklahoma, but the judge there refused to perform the ceremony because Trena was only fifteen. McFadin suggested Las Vegas, but McElroy said he couldn't fly because his head injury left him susceptible to serious nosebleeds. The marriage would have to be in Missouri.
"Ken," McFadin said to him, "Trena's underage in Missouri. She'll have to have her parents' consent to marry you."
On October 20, Treva McNeely showed up in McFadin's office and explained that she would consent to her daughter marrying Ken McElroy. McFadin had Treva write out and sign a notarized statement giving her consent to her daughter's marriage. Treva also signed a notarized statement that there was no coercion involved, and that she was voluntarily agreeing to the marriage.
McFadin had located an elderly judge in Plattesburg to perform the ceremony, and on the same day, October 20, Ken and Trena were married. McFadin witnessed the ceremony.
Prosecuting Attorney Fraze was sitting in his office on that day four days before the rape case was due to be tried, when he received a phone call from McFadin. Wrinkling a piece of paper close to the mouthpiece, McFadin said, "Hear that? It's a marriage license for Ken McElroy and Trena McCloud."