Local Inspiration

Local Inspiration  

On Sunday, October 6, 2013 the Kansas City Star reported that Alice Uden, 74 and Gerald Uden, 71 long-time residents of Chadwick, MO were arrested and charged with murders committed in decades earlier in Wyoming.  Alice allegedly shot her husband in the face with a shotgun.

Gerald allegedly drove his family to an isolated place and then shot his wife and his two adopted sons (his wife's biological children) with a .22 rifle, which he had told them he would use for bird hunting.

The article reinforced my observation that as a mystery writer who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, I don’t have to look far for inspiration. Despite the Midwest’s reputation for friendliness, and hospitality, a few people do not fit the stereotype. 

During the time known as “Bleeding Kansas” just prior to the Civil War, most guerillas, then called “border ruffians,” who made Kansas bleed were based in Missouri. Probably the most famous was William Quantrill who, with his raiders, burned Lawrence, Kansas and killed more than 150 men.

Of course, “Bloody” Bill Anderson killed nearly that number of Union soldiers in the “Centralia Massacre.” Frank and Jesse James, guerilla members before and during the civil war, continued their bloodletting ways for years after the Civil War conducting the first train robbery in American history, robbing banks and eluding the law.

The war before the Civil War was a fascinating time to me.  I set my novel

HEATLAND and several short stories during “Bleeding Kansas” days.

The senseless murders of the Clutter family in their Kansas home in 1959 eventually led to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.  I used the idea of an innocent person unexpectedly set upon by evil in a number of stories including “Locard’s Principle.”

In modern times, Ken Rex McElroy (June 1, 1934 – July 10, 1981) was a resident of Nodaway County, Missouri, near the town of Skidmore. Known as "the town bully,” his unsolved murder became the focus of international attention. Over the course of his life McElroy was accused of dozens of felonies, including assault, child molestation, rape, arson, hog and cattle rustling and burglary.  In all, he was indicted 21 times, but escaped conviction each time, except for the last. In 1981, McElroy was convicted of shooting and seriously injuring the town's 70-year-old grocer, Ernest "Bo" Bowenkamp, the previous year. McElroy successfully appealed the conviction and was released on bond, after which he engaged in an ongoing harassment campaign against Bowenkamp, the town's Church of Christ minister, and others who were sympathetic to Bowenkamp. 

He appeared in a local bar, the D&G Tavern, armed with an M1 Garand rifle and bayonet. He later swore he would kill Bowenkamp. The next day, McElroy was shot to death in broad daylight as he sat with his wife Trena in his pickup truck on Skidmore's main street.  He was struck by bullets from at least two different firearms, in front of a crowd of people estimated as between 30 and 46. To date, no one has been charged in connection with McElroy's death.  No witnesses cooperated with police. Of course they had good reason to believe legal authorities could not protect anyone from McElroy. A law official not connected with events described what happened as, “A complete failure of law enforcement.”

The idea of a community protecting its own is central to my short story,

“Deus Ex Machina.”

In 1990 Ray Copeland (December 30, 1914 – October 19, 1993) and Faye Della Copeland (August 4, 1921 – December 28, 2003) became, at the ages of 76 and 69 respectively, the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States. They were convicted of killing five drifters, who they buried on their farm near Chillicothe.  Faye denied knowing about the crimes but she had written a list of names and put an X next to the names of the five murdered men. She also put an X next to seven names of transients who disappeared and are still missing.

The idea that people may be very different than they appear is a basic part of every mystery. 

In 2004 Skidmore became newsworthy again when Bobbie Jo Stinnet was strangled by an acquaintance, Lisa Montgomery, who then cut Stinnet’s unborn child out of her body apparently because Montgomery wanted a baby of her own.  

So far I have not used these particular events in a story. 

What has happened where you live that gives you ideas for crime fiction?