All language subtitles for no.one.saw.a.thing.s01e06.1080p.web.h264-flx.EN

The story in Skidmore

was more like the Old West.

There was a culture of violence
in the area.

That's
the history of our country.

You get enough people riled up

and they're gonna go
do vigilante stuff.

People were afraid

of Ken Rex.

There's an old saying:

"He needed killin'."

When he got killed,

and they got away with it,
at that point,

they felt protected.

The people
who were involved in this,

and the people
who covered it up,

they didn't realize
that their children

are gonna be negatively effected
by this.

It perpetuates itself.

They still think
that it's okay what took place.

The mentality is still there.

It's exactly the same.

Since Ken's death,

we've had a lot of tragedies
in the town

that is unusual
for a rural American town.

Wendy Gillenwater,

who was brutally murdered,

Branson Perry disappeared
and is presumed dead?

And then you have
the most horrific case--

Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

A bizarre case of murder

and fetal abduction.

Nobody here could ever perceive

this ever taking place.

Multiple tips led investigators

to suspected murderer
Lisa Montgomery.

Everything was closing in.

This child is in danger.

If you believe in karma,

you believe that

some of Skidmore's struggles

are a legacy from the murder
of Ken Rex McElroy.

What's done can't be undone,

and there is
a price to pay for it.

Is Skidmore guilty

of murdering Ken Rex McElroy?

Absolutely, they are.

They've stayed silent now
for decades.

But silence has a cost.

Sometimes, that cost is

that other horrific things
happen in your town.

Lisa Montgomery desperately

wanted another child.

Well, she pretended
to be pregnant.

And she found Bobbie Jo,

another breeder of rat terriers.

She drove from her home
in Melvern, Kansas...

out to Skidmore, Missouri...

not a short drive...

pulled up in front
of the little bungalow

where Bobbie Jo Stinnett lived,

and knocked on the front door.

Bobbie Jo let her in,

brought her into the room
where she kept

all her puppies and dogs...

and Lisa throttled
that poor woman

to unconsciousness...

knelt beside her

and cut her stomach open...

pulled out that little child,

who was eight months
in the womb,

wrapped that baby up,

took it out and got
into her little red car

and sped off down the road.

Less than a day after
Bobbie Jo Stinnett

was found strangled,
her unborn baby kidnapped,

law enforcement had a suspect--

Lisa Montgomery
of Melvern, Kansas.

Here's what we have learned.
Lots of little bits

of information from
this latest press conference.

We're told it will be
the last press conference

from the sheriff department--
they're turning things over

- to the feds right now.
- We anticipate, in a short time,

that we'll have some information
that may be related to charges

being filed in the case.
If we can have your indulgence

until those charges are filed,
then you might have

a lot more information
at that point in time.

They had Lisa Montgomery

identified within a day.

There was an urgency to this.

That's when I sent
Randy Strong and Don Fritz--

two of my people,
investigators--

to Melvern, Kansas

to try to find Lisa Montgomery,

in hope that
the baby would survive.

It's the first time
I had ever heard of

a baby being
cut out of her mother

for someone to steal a baby.

I mean, wouldn't it have been
a lot easier

to go to a hospital
or to go to someone's house

and steal a baby
that was two or three days old.

Lisa Montgomery,

she had this obsession.

She wanted that baby

to look at her

and for her face
to be the first one

that baby ever saw.

The fact that the mother
would probably die

in the process
did not trouble Lisa at all.

It's usually women that murder

a pregnant woman
and steal the child.

Sometimes the child lives,

but sometimes the child
does not live.

Detective Strong turned down

that highway in Kansas.

The road started out paved

and then it turned to dirt.

And they're going down there,
raising a cloud of dust...

...as they turn
into this farmhouse.

Don and I are walking up

to the driveway
of Lisa Montgomery's house.

I look down and I had
rat terrier dogs

running around my feet.

Yeah, I knew that was the place.

We were at the monster's house,

and it just sent chills
down my spine.

They knock on the door,

and when the door opens,
they see

the TV is tuned to a story

about this abducted baby.

I quickly did
a scan around the room.

To my right, sat a sofa,

and Lisa Montgomery is sitting
there holding a newborn baby.

It didn't look right.

Does she possess a firearm?

Am I gonna have
to take a shot at her?

Detective Strong lifts that baby

from Lisa's arms

and he walks outside

of the Montgomery home.

I get a phone call and says,

"We have a little female baby
in our hands."

There was probably
17 investigators

that had been working
through the night on this case.

There wasn't a dry eye in there

and it was dead silence.

I want to thank the people
that helped me on this.

I mean, this department
couldn't have done it alone.

The major case squad,

these people are very well
trained and they were very good.

They helped us out
at the crime scene

over in Skidmore.

And so with that,

we're very happy the fact that

we're gonna be able
to get this baby back

to the family.

Her mother had her name
before she was born.

Victoria.

Little Victoria Jo.

And it was victory from God

that helped us find
that little baby.

Lisa Montgomery faces

federal charges of kidnapping

resulting in death.

And that gal
was just plum deranged.

I don't know that she acted
like she was pregnant,

and told everybody she was,
and then come up here.

I don't know
that she had any help

or whether
she acted alone, but...

They had met before,
they had even gone

to the same dog shows,

according to some new witnesses.

Handcuffed and dressed
in a prison jumpsuit,

Lisa Montgomery
testified in federal court

in connection
with the brutal murder

of mother-to-be
Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

This is a case where its
going to be almost impossible

to try to come up
with any defense,

other than some form
of mental disease...

- Right.
- ...some species of insanity.

People do not want to believe

that another human being

is capable
of this kind of violence.

There are questions
about why Montgomery's husband

accepted her story,
that she had suddenly

given birth last Thursday

and was ready
to be picked up with the baby

not at a hospital,
but outside a restaurant.

How did Kevin Montgomery

believe
that his wife was pregnant

and that that possibly
could be his child?

She took that baby

and showed him off
at the local diner,

the preacher's house.

Everybody believed it.

Pastor Wheatley says for months

Lisa had everyone,
including her own husband,

convinced she was pregnant.

She was pretty small, and
I commented to her about it.

I asked her if...

if she was due,
when she was due,

and she said
she was due in December.

And I said, "Well, you're
kind of small to be having

a baby that soon,"

and she said,
"I always had small babies."

And so I just let it go at that.

But the fact of the matter is,

it was all a scam for her

to get what she wanted.

She is a sociopath,

not an insane person.

Good evening, everyone.
Montgomery will die

for killing a pregnant woman
and kidnapping her baby.

Lisa Montgomery becomes
just the third woman

scheduled for execution
in the federal system.

This case is closed.

The case was solved
by a couple of things,

which didn't happen

in Ken Rex
and Branson Perry's case:

Quick, decisive action

by law enforcement,

information from townspeople,

and in this case,

there wasn't a conspiracy
of silence in the town.

This was different
in its nature.

Unfortunately,

it's not different
in its effects,

because it was still Skidmore,

it was still horrific,

and it added another chapter

to that town's legacy.

A funeral's being held today

for Bobbie Jo Stinnett,

the pregnant woman
who was strangled

in her Skidmore home
before her unborn infant

was kidnapped.

The people of Skidmore poured

into this tiny funeral home,

many still struggling
to come to terms

with their friend's
sudden and brutal death.

I've known her since
she was a little baby.

She grew into
a beautiful swan and...

She didn't deserve this.
Yeah, it's just unbelievable.

This case
has finally come to a close,

but we will never stop
missing Bobbie Jo.

She was a sweet...

...and loving wife,
daughter and sister

and would have been
a wonderful mother.

Bobbie Jo Stinnett was buried

in the same town she grew up in,

the same town

where she will
always be remembered.

When you have
one bad thing happen,

and another year or two,

something else
really bad happens,

that town develops a reputation.

It is very, very bizarre

that in a town of
three hundred and some people,

within five years,

there's three brutal murders.

It just can't be coincidence.

To me,

there's a higher power

than any of us,

and I wouldn't be
sittin' here tellin' you,

if I didn't know
it was the truth.

Did it all connect or something?

I don't know,
but I've thought about that.

I have thought about that.

'Cause this town
was so full of sin.

At some point in time,

they were a thriving
little community, full of pride.

And then
Ken Rex McElroy was shot.

The last murder there

was a freak deal.

That had nothing to do
with Ken Rex McElroy.

That had nothing to do
with any of the Skidmore people.

That was just--
Bobbie Jo Stinnett was

on a website that
somebody in Kansas saw.

I know
a lot of people in Skidmore,

and they're
not at all proud of the fact

that this got blown up so big.

And it keeps makin' stories.

All these things are

little black marks

because it happened
in our community.

Our community didn't cause it.

I don't believe all that shit.

The things that happen

to the people in Skidmore...

I won't use
the word coincidence.

I'm just gonna say they happened
because they happened.

Since we've had these violent

situations in Skidmore,

you don't see
many people on the street.

You don't see
a lot of cars on the street.

There's very little activity.

The older people
started dyin' off,

and the younger people started
moving away.

There's nothing
to keep people in Skidmore,

unless you just love it here
like I do.

Skidmore is slowly
but surely dying.

When that happens,
all the resources in a town

start disappearing.

And that's when the town
collapses on itself.

Someday, we'll just be
a spot on the map.

It's already tough enough

to be a small town
in the middle of the country

where there's nothing
noteworthy in--

your town doesn't have
a lot going for it.

That's tough

to have these things happen,

and to be tagged
with that legacy,

that makes it even tougher.

Some might say, impossible.

Life hasn't been
fair to the town of Skidmore.

I mean, there's just been
so many negative things happen

in that area.

How much can a town take,
heh, you know?

Can they ever
get past their history?

At that time,
this was a D&G Tavern.

There used to be an X
chiseled in this sidewalk

right here where McElroy's
pick-up was sittin'.

I don't know why people
latch onto something.

I don't know why
they keep onto it.

Right through here.

There used to be an X
carved in there,

I guess that's 40 years ago.

I don't do much on websites,

'cause I'm-- well, I just don't
know how to run a computer,

for the most part.

But I do know when something,
and you punch up "Skidmore,"

the first thing that comes up
about Skidmore

is the McElroy thing,
Bobby Jo Stinnett,

and then the Brandon Perry.

People are still comin'.

People are still
askin' questions.

Everybody wants to know

why it happened?

But in another 10 years,
you know, the McElroy thing

will be 50 years old,
there will be nobody living

that can actually say,
"I was there."

We'll be hearing people say,
"Well, you know,

my grandpa talked about that,
or maybe my dad."

But there will be
nobody left alive

that can say, "I was there."

There's one truth
in what happened,

and only the people that
were there know what it was.

Some of the people
were really glad

he got shot.

Some of the people
didn't process it

for weeks or months
or years later.

But all of 'em kept quiet.

I think a lot
of the people in town

want to come clean
on who did it, who done it.

To come clean,

clean the town,
clean the memory,

clean your hearts,

make peace with the Lord...

That would be a wonderful thing
for this community,

that we knew the actual truth.

But it's not gonna happen.

And people
that are still living today

that know what happened,

they probably made peace
with their god,

and that's all they need.

And every day, every week,
every month,

we lose more of those people.

If you want to see
the history of Skidmore,

all you go to do
is go though the cemetery,

south of town,
'cause that's pretty much

where everybody is.

The Bowenkamps, he died.

Roman Henry, he died.

Benny Estes,
he's dead too, you know.

Trina moved somewhere down south

and she passed away...

four of five years ago.

I guarantee you,
the men who did the shooting--

there's more than one--

they're all dead.

It is a great testament

to the strength of the community

to protect the identity
of those men

until their death.

And they're all dead.

I've been tellin' ya--
dead, dead, dead, dead.

They've got their revenge.

Del Clement...

after the shooting,
he drank himself to death.

He was a mess after that.

I never talked to him about it.

I talked to him-- I never
talked to him about it.

I didn't care to know.

Maybe that's God's way of...

allowing things to happen

because of what they did,
I don't know.

I know it is a spiritual battle.

I know that.

I don't know how Ken's murder

affected everything.

I can't see into that realm.

Bobbie Jo's husband, they moved

up to a small town here
south of town.

Him and the little girls,
probably,

10, 12 years old,
out doin' good.

And to this day,
Lisa Montgomery is not dead.

She's still in prison.

We hope that
answers will come up

with Branson Perry's case.

I hope and pray to God
that they come up soon,

so we can see justice
for Branson and the family,

so we can put 'em to rest
the right way,

next to his mother.

This has gone on too long.

It's been 18 years.

That town will never grow

into absolutely anything,

till someday...

There's nothing there
but empty buildings,

if they haven't
all been burnt down.

I think the town
is kind of cursed,

so in its own way,
they're punishing themselves.

The ones who pulled
the triggers, killed my dad.

Whether they go
to prison or not,

at this point in time,
it really doesn't matter.

It's just closure to the case.

And in a way,
maybe free that town

from the curse that its under.

Murder's wrong,
vigilantism is...

most cases, wrong.

Not always, but most cases.

Hopefully, we won't be put

in any of
those situations again.

But should it happen,

people are gonna
make a decision,

it's gonna be a split decision,

and it's gonna be
an instant decision:

I'm gonna grab a gun and shoot

or I'm gonna run.

As a society, we've gotten soft.

There's several countries where,
you know, everybody is trained,

everybody spends
their time in the military,

and everybody is expected
to defend their home

and their country.

And ending McElroy's life
was one of those things.

The men that
took it upon themselves

to protect their town

did their job.

And in turn,
the town did its job

by protecting those men.

Nobody saw a thing.

In the old days,
that's just how it was.

And as Americans, if we don't have
people that are willing to do that,

well, who's gonna defend
their community?

You have to have those people.

It took courage to shoot at all.

I'd have done it.

You can call it violence
if you want to.

What are you gonna do?

You gonna walk away?

Give me a break.

Do we need violence?

You bet your sweet ass we do.

In Skidmore,
when McElroy was killed,

that wasn't the first
incident of violence

in this community.

All these little communities,
all these little towns,

have had killings and shootings

from when
they were first founded.

There was no law

out past a certain point
in this country,

at one time in our history.

Everybody had to be vigilantes

to make society function

without being destroyed.

We live
on the edge of the prairie...

which has so much romanticism

of the wagon trains
and cowboys and Indians,

and train robberies.

And we're in the heart
of Jesse James area.

This is the house
where Jesse James

was killed on April 3rd, 1882,

by Bob Ford and Charlie Ford.

Since 1882,
the house has been on display,

and I don't understand
why people,

quite frankly, want to pay $4
to come and see Jesse James,

where he died.

We have the jail exhibit

with a lot
of different murder weapons

that were used
over the last century

to kill people.

I don't know why people
like those kinds of things.

Keep in mind
that in northwest Missouri,

outlaws are...
they're kind of admired.

Jesse James was an outlaw,
but he was kind of a hero.

Every farmer, every rancher

in about four states

let Jesse James and his gang

sleep in their barns.

He was a regular cowboy killer.

He was good to my grandparents--

great-great-great,
I think it would be.

It's down the line.

That's how they got
the first money

to buy a little farm.

They handed 'em out
and he left money in there

underneath the mattress for 'em.

Jesse James gave money
to poor farmers

in northern Missouri,
central Missouri.

But on the other hand,

Jesse James also rode around
terrorizing people.

In the next room,
you'll learn about

the 1995 exhumation
of Jesse James.

So we in this area,

we kind of have a legacy

of admiring outlaws
and outlaw actions.

What is one of our biggest
superheroes in this country?

Batman, right?

Batman. What's he do?
What's his superpower?

He's rich, right?

But what does he do?

He goes out
and crushes criminals

and does what
law enforcement can't do.

Well, that's what
vigilantism is.

Well, look at all of our movies.

Ah, the bad guy
gets it in the end

from the good guy.

But it's not through
the legal system.

It's through a street brawl.

But that's the history
of our country.

I was in school. It was
eighth grade history class.

We were having a discussion

over Jesse James
and the vigilantes,

and things like that,

and my teacher, he had
brought up Skidmore, Missouri,

and then he said
Ken Rex McElroy,

and wait a minute, I was like,

"You're talking
about my grandpa."

You know, that's my family.

They didn't know that
that was one of his grandkids

that was sitting in there.

As part of their curriculum,

they was gonna use the movie

that was made about my dad
gettin' killed.

He had to sit there
and watch it.

He didn't know if
he should say something, or...

You know, it kind of put him
in a bad spot.

It was-- It hurts,

'cause, I mean, I don't look
at my grandpa like that.

It's something that bothers me

that people say
that had to be done,

and not have anything said
or done about it afterwards.

Burn in hell!

Vigilantism has been idealized

in this country,

and people make heroes

out of those who do that,

and that really perpetuates
the vicious cycle of violence.

I look at some
of the pictures of my dad

that's been out there,
and one day, I looked

at myself in the mirror
and I was thinkin',

"Wow, I look just like him."

My name's Tony Surritte.

My father was Ken McElroy.

I didn't get harassed

as maybe my, my siblings,
you know, did.

Because they carried
the McElroy name,

and I didn't--
my mother hid me from that.

And I think that was due
to the fact she didn't want me

to have to have that stigma
of a McElroy.

Carrying the McElroy name,

whether it be, you know,
your teachers,

or law enforcement,
whatever it was,

anything you got into,
or we got into as kids,

that's the first thing that
they brought up, was our name.

My brothers
got it worse than me.

you know, they got told,
"You're no different than him,"

they started fighting,
and someone saying something

to get them riled up,
and then fighting.

So there was quite a few

different violent altercations

that caused a lot of problems

in their life later.

Do you ever think
about revenging

your father's death?

- Yes. -I've thought
about it a lot of times.

Mm-hmm.

You feel that hurt and pain

and understand,
at that point, that

that it's over,
it's-- it's-- he's dead.

There's nothing
you're ever gonna do

that's gonna bring him back.

And at that point,
there's that sense

of just overwhelming loss.

You're just, you're lost.

That was my introduction
to violence.

If I'd have never,
ever experienced it,

I would've never, ever known

what that type of violence
was like.

So I got caught up in it.

And the next thing you know,
you fall on that roll again.

And I went from using
to selling,

to you name it, I was doing it.

Eventually, something gives.

Back in '89, a friend of mine

was in the Hickory Tavern,

and he got in a fight
in there with somebody

and I went
to get the guy off of him...

It was a pretty brutal fight.

The guy ended up
gettin' stabbed in there.

They arrested me,
took me to jail.

The boys didn't have
their dad anymore,

and the family kind of
got ripped apart.

I mean, I've been in
my share of violence--

you know, violent stuff,
you know, getting caught

in different situations,
and then life just,

you know, got out of control.

The boys, a good chunk
of their life was struggle.

And a lot of that had to do
with the stigma

from Dad's death.

My philosophy
to how I coped with it was,

you know, I kinda viewed
going to prison

as goin' in the military,

and I'm gonna have
to experience things

that I probably
never wanted to experience,

but I got to learn how
to deal with those.

And during that process,

I chose, at that time,
for me to...

refocus what is it
I'm doing with my life.

- Good morning.
- Morning. How you doing?

- All right. Yourself?
- Ah, not bad.

- Morning, Pastor John.
- Hey, how's it going?

Over half of our congregation

are ex-convicts--

from our ministry,
to the prisons.

That's how Juarez came in.

I said, "I've got 13 years
in the penitentiary,

I've got tattoos all over me,"
and I said, "I probably won't be

the most likely guy
to be in your church,"

and you just looked at me
and laughed, you said,

"You might be surprised."

I was like, "All right then!"

I said, "Don't be surprised
if I don't show up."

Two weeks later, I show up,

now three years later,
I'm still here.

Early on, I carried
so much anger and so much hate.

I wanted my father's death
to be vindicated.

Today, I put
that past behind me.

I don't carry
that burden no more.

- All right, little ones...
- That's good.

-Grandpa's leavin'.

When I was younger,
I used to think about revenge.

Yes. Yeah, I did.

Now I don't, I don't think
about it so much no more.

When I look at my own kids now,

that's my life now.

I try to be forgiving.

As far as us, I mean,

are our lives perfect?

No. I mean, we're not rich
or anything like that,

but we're okay.

It didn't break us,

you know, which is exactly

what the town wanted it to do.

But that didn't happen.
We're still here.

And we're okay.

Struggle, yes.

The town, I don't think
it'll ever be okay,

because of the secrets
that they keep keeping.

I just don't see how

60, 70 people can sit around
and watch a person

get shot and killed
and nobody says nothing?

Everybody kept that a secret.

And there's a lot of things
my dad probably got accused of

he didn't even do,
I'm imagining.

And there's stories of things
that he did

that, you know, he did.

But you know, you're...

People are not gonna
want to talk about

the good things
when you're talking about

somebody being shot and killed
in the middle of town

of a hundred people, watching.

They just swept it under the rug

because they didn't want
to face it no more.

It's over now.

The town ain't got to deal
with him no more,

the courts ain't got to deal
with him no more,

the law's not got to deal
with him no more.

He's gone, so now
let's just forget about it.

When I think about Skidmore,

I think of home.

That's where
I learned how to record.

We had a barn.

I would put microphones up,

we would hear the sound
of the wind,

and it would get this sound
of a...

The panes of tin

that would just start
to rattle a little bit,

give this little shaking sound.

I probably recorded four hours.

Whenever Festival would play,

we'd take a long trip,

we would stay in one big room...

and at night,
we would turn that tape on...

It would take us back
to Skidmore.

It didn't matter where we were,

it would take us back

to the times before Ken's murder

affected everything,

being in a small town
where you don't have to worry

about your door being locked,

you didn't have to worry about
someone stealing you car,

you didn't have to worry
about any of that.

We've gone through
a lot of things.

People still work hard,

people still struggle,

people are still people,

just like any other town.

There's just 280 of us,

instead of 280,000,

or 2.8 million.

I hope and pray that

they can work things out
here in town,

because I'd hate to see
something like that again.

It's the curse of our town.

And I have told you folks

that gospel truth
of everything that I know.

Small towns
embody the American dream.

Nice little clabbered houses
and picket fences,

where nothing horrible
would ever, ever happen.

Skidmore started out as
a kind of typical small town,

but when the McElroy thing
came down,

that is when they got infected.

They had cut themselves off
from the rest of the world.

Aren't you afraid
of vigilante law?

One person decided to take
the law into his own hands once,

someone else could again.

Aren't you concerned
that someone,

perhaps one of your friends,

has taken the law
into his own hands

and killed a man?

- No.
- No.

No.

Reverend, you got a very bitter

and almost angry look
on your face

when I mentioned
the word vigilante.

Yes. Um, in the past,

the people had
to protect people, and now

we're at that point again.

As a Christian,
and as an American,

I say, "Who so ever sheddeth
man's blood by man,

so shall his blood be shed."

Look, McElroy cast a cloud

over this town,
there's no question.

There was fear here.

But aren't you now concerned

that you've taken the law
into your own hands here?

Aren't you afraid of
a kind of vigilante law?

If it happens once,
it can happen again.

As a town, as a community,

they've paid every day since.

They paid.

They're still payin', okay,

and depending
on your religious background,

they might pay later too.

Sorry to hear
that it destroyed their town,

or this and that and the other,

but you know what, I mean,

you made a choice.

You know, you're
supposedly supposed to be

these self-righteous
goody-two-shoe people,

now you've got to go
all throughout your life

knowing that you

took the father away
from, you know,

13 children.

But I don't believe that
you got off on it Scot free.

You carry that with you
all of your life.

This incident
has cast a dark shadow

for many, many years
over the community.

You murder a guy
in broad daylight,

gotta weigh heavy
on your heart and your soul

to keep that information in,

and not tell somebody about it.

That's the one big story

within this story.

Now, it's a sad deal.

I know people
who are still bothered by it,

they think about it every day.

A man was murdered in Skidmore,

and there were young people
and children

and relatives and loved ones

on both sides of the murder.

There were long term effects.

A lot of
innocent people were hurt.

We've had our share,

over our share of tragedies.

It could've went another way.

But it didn't happen that way.

Murder was a horrible thing,

but it was necessary
at the time.

But knowing what we know now,

I just don't know.

In a situation like that...

what would you do?