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‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

thedailybeast.com

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Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#71

Post by whenanother »

dwheeler wrote: post #10

> frontier justice came for McElroy courtesy of the residents of Skidmore (population 440 at the time of the crime). Shaken by the man’s ability to evade jail even after being convicted of a near-fatal attack on a grocery store owner... Belkin also details Skidmore’s plague of subsequent violence ... the series persuasively contends that these crimes indicate that the McElroy episode taught younger Skidmore generatio…

this is promoting a logical fallacy in the belief that there exist a perfect system. this is the same argument that many who are trying to deregulate the government have with the ultimate intention of privatizing everything.

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#72

Post by commandlinefan »

There was a case not too long ago in India where a serial rapist kept evading conviction, so the women in the town gathered together, stabbed him to death, and then all confessed to the crime together. None of them ended up being convicted.

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#73

Post by epx »

stallmanite wrote: post #43
epx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of guy has no no problem passing genes on. There are many more single mothers than single fathers for this reason.

Barring rape it makes one wonder wtf is up with mate choice

It is managed by the reptilian brain, not the neocortex. Unfortunately is the neocortex that pays bills :D

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#74

Post by tomc1985 »

dwheeler wrote: post #10

> frontier justice came for McElroy courtesy of the residents of Skidmore (population 440 at the time of the crime). Shaken by the man’s ability to evade jail even after being convicted of a near-fatal attack on a grocery store owner... Belkin also details Skidmore’s plague of subsequent violence ... the series persuasively contends that these crimes indicate that the McElroy episode taught younger Skidmore generatio…

I'm with the mob on this one. As another comment put it, he was tried by a jury of his peers... if the justice system cannot help you then you have to take things into your own hands.

Might be hard for all us city slickers on HN to fathom, particularly when these sorts of country towns are frequently mocked or derided by people like us.

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#75

Post by PhasmaFelis »

vkou wrote: post #12
leetcrew wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it seems like a more extreme version of jury nullification. if it became widespread, it would essentially be the end of rule-of-law. but in isolated and rare situations, perhaps it's a beneficial escape valve? easy to suggest from my comfy office in a quiet suburb of course.

It's not a 'beneficial escape valve' when the community decides to, say, kill the n_______ who had the audacity to sleep with a white woman. Which is a far more common application of lynching. We should not be glorifying this.

"Beneficial" is probably too gentle a word. Vigilante justice is always bad. In this specific case, it was arguably less bad than the alternative, but that doesn't mean it's a good principle in general.

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#77

Post by MFLoon »

AndrewBissell wrote: post #55
jgwil2 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the kind of logic used to justify lynchings. We have a legal system that enforces a certain burden of proof, that takes place in a courtroom where strict procedure is enforced by an ostensibly impartial judge, and evidence is weighed by an impartial jury. The system is carefully set up to balance the rights of the accused against the interests of the community. It may not work all the time, but it exists for a…

When the legal system is perverted by local corruption and nepotism, allowing bad actors to run roughshod over their victims, are they supposed to just lie down and take it out of dedication to an abstract principle which has been wholly betrayed in practice?

I mean, they should not just lie down, but I think the more lawful and orderly approach would be to appeal to a higher tier of authority that's supposed to be available within the legal system. Of course, easier said than done, but still I think that's what the "right thing" would have been.

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#78

Post by mixmastamyk »

futureastronaut wrote: post #28

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy#1981_killing for a more to-the-point account.

Thanks, was going to write that this article was rather disappointing. It is more concerned with metadata about the miniseries and economic consequences rather than the story at the center.

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#79

Post by tlb »

logfromblammo wrote: post #70

Midwesterner here: Skidmore, MO, is not in The Midwest. It is on The Prairie. Which is the easternmost part of The West. The Midwest starts west of the the line between Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh to the southwest corner of New York. It is north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. St. Paul is Midwest. Minneapolis is Prairie. St. Louis is "the Gateway to the West", not "the Gateway to More of the Mid…

The term is famously ill-defined. FWIW, the US Census bureau includes the entire state of Missouri. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States#Defin...

Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully

#80

Post by raspie »

scarejunba wrote: post #76

If the man were innocent and the town’s people ganged up on him, Salem style, would the evidence look different?

> For more than two decades, McElroy was suspected of being involved in theft of grain, gasoline, alcohol, antiques, and livestock, but he avoided conviction when charges were brought against him 21 times—often after witnesses refused to testify because he allegedly intimidated them, frequently by following his targets or parking outside their homes and watching them.

> McElroy began stalking the Bowenkamp family, and eventually threatened Bo Bowenkamp in the back of his store with a shotgun in hand. In the ensuing confrontation, McElroy shot Bowenkamp in the neck; Bowenkamp survived, and McElroy was arrested and charged with attempted murder. McElroy was convicted at trial of assault, but freed on bail pending his appeal. Immediately after being released at a post-trial hearing, McElroy went to the D&G Tavern, a local bar, with an M1 Garand rifle with a bayonet attached, and made graphic threats about what he would do to Mr. Bowenkamp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy

Does an innocent person look like this? You tell me.

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