Skidmore, Missouri

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Bobbie Jo Stinnett Memorial
This is a memorial to Bobbie Jo Stinnett in downtown Skidmore. The photo was taken in March 2006.

Skidmore is a city in Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 342 at the 2000 census.

1 Notable events
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] Notable events

Two sensational murders that made front page headlines around the world occurred here.

In 1981 Ken McElroy was shot while sitting in his truck in front of the pool hall in town. Though dozens of people saw the event, all denied seeing anything that would help identify the shooters.[1] McElroy had a reputation as the "town bully" was alleged to have committed several area thefts and violence. Town residents had been upset over the inability of the courts to deal with him. The story of the murder was described in the book In Broad Daylight by Harry M. Maclean (ISBN 0-440-20509-3). In 1991 it was made into a made-for-TV movie starring Brian Dennehy and Cloris Leachman (although filmed in Texas).[2]

The Ken McElroy shooting was also the focus of the A&E program City Confidential, season two, episode twenty-two entitled, "Skidmore: Frontier Justice".

In December of 2004, Skidmore was once again the focus of national attention when Bobbie Jo Stinnett was murdered and had her unborn baby cut from her womb.[3] The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett was found two days later in Topeka, KS.

[edit] Geography

Skidmore is located at 40°17′19″N, 95°4′44″W (40.288488, -95.078955)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.8 km² (0.3 mi²), all land.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 342 people, 148 households, and 96 families residing in the city. The population density was 412.6/km² (1,058.8/mi²). There were 173 housing units at an average density of 208.7/km² (535.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 99.42% White, 0.29% African American, and 0.29% from two or more races.

There were 148 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.0% were married couples living together, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.89.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.7% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 25.7% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 102.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,500, and the median income for a family was $36,250. Males had a median income of $27,500 versus $20,156 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,881. About 14.7% of families and 22.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.8% of those under age 18 and 10.9% of those age 65 or over.