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Vigilante Justice and the Small Town Bully – A Crime That Shocked America

Khalid Elhassan December 7, 2024 13 min

McElroy - Ken Rex McElroy, as depicted in film — Ken Rex McElroy, as depicted in film. Pinterest

15. Staying Out of Jail

Richard McFadin, Ken McElroy’s lawyer. Legacy

Ken McElroy piled up a long list of indictments, ranging from burglary to child molestation to carnal assault to attempted murder. His lawyer, Richard McFadin, estimated that he defended McElroy from an average of three or four felonies each year. As he put it: “Best client I ever had … He was punctual, always said he didn’t do it, paid in cash and kept coming back“. McElroy’s lawyer went on to add: “I was the only friend he had … He told me he would pay me whatever I needed to keep him out of jail“. Whether through McFadin’s legal skills, or his client’s intimidation of witnesses, the numerous indictments produced no convictions. Scared witnesses was probably the greater factor: McElroy so terrorized Skidmore’s residents with his brutality and threats of the revenge he would exact, that none dared to testify against him.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.