No One Saw a Thing

History 3 Minutes

Today is the anniversary of a gruesome murder in a small town in Missouri.  “Despite there being dozens of witnesses, no one has ever been arrested or charged…”  This story was written in 2021 and I do not believe anything has or will change since.

True Crime

Bully’s murder remains a secret in Missouri town for 40 years

by: Kevin S. Held

Posted: Jul 13, 2021 / 12:35 PM CDT

Updated: Jul 13, 2021 / 01:31 PM CDT

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SKIDMORE, Mo. – Tucked away in the northwest corner of Missouri is a small, dusty town 46 miles north of St. Joseph with a decades-old secret.

This past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of the killing of Ken Rex McElroy of Skidmore. And despite there being dozens of witnesses, no one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with McElroy’s murder.

In short: no one saw anything.

Ken McElroy died in a hail of gunfire on the morning of July 10, 1981, while sitting in his truck outside a local tavern. He was known as the town bully, but they may be putting it mildly.

In the decades preceding his murder, McElroy terrorized the denizens of Skidmore. He was accused or suspected of dozens of crimes, including theft, livestock rustling, burglary, arson, assault, rape, and child molestation. He was charged 21 times in theft cases but was said to have avoided conviction through witness intimidation, either by direct confrontation or by parking his truck outside their home.

McElroy raped a 12-year-old girl and, to avoid statutory rape charges, he divorced his wife at the time and married the child when she was 14 – and pregnant with their baby. McElroy burned down the girl’s home and shot her family’s dog to force her parents to agree to the marriage. He torched the home and shot the dog—again—after the girl went into hiding with her and McElroy’s baby.

In July 1976, McElroy pulled a shotgun on farmer Romaine Henry and shot the man in the stomach. Henry survived and McElroy was charged with assault with intent to kill. However, when the matter came to trial, McElroy’s attorney produced a pair of witnesses who testified they were hunting with McElroy that day and he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. McElroy was found not guilty.

In 1980, McElroy shot the 70-year-old town grocer in the neck following a months-old dispute over an accusation about a piece of stolen candy. The grocer lived and McElroy was again arrested and charged with attempted murder. McElroy was convicted of assault but let out of jail awaiting appeal. He went about making public threats against the grocer while armed with a rifle.

On the morning of July 10, 1981, several townspeople met with the Nodaway County sheriff at a local hall to discuss what could be done about McElroy. The sheriff suggested they form a neighborhood watch and advised the group not to confront the man. Meanwhile, McElroy and his wife arrived at the D&G Tavern for a morning drink.

After the sheriff left town, the group walked from the hall and went down the street to the tavern. McElroy eventually left the tavern and got into his pickup truck with his wife, but the mob of people followed the pair outside. According to reports, some 50 people were outside the tavern when the shooting started.

McElory was struck by two different firearms and died behind the wheel of his truck. McElroy’s wife was not injured and escaped the vehicle. According to a report, no one called an ambulance.

Local authorities, including a coroner’s jury and a local grand jury, and even the FBI, investigated the killing but to no avail. McElroy’s wife named one person as a possible gunman, but no one could—or would—identify who fired the shots. She eventually filed a wrongful death against the town, the county, and some citizens but the matter was settled out of court.

McElroy’s wife—whom he victimized as a child—remarried and moved to Lebanon, Missouri. She died of cancer on Jan. 24, 2012; it was her 55th birthday.

The case inspired a book, In Broad Daylight by Harry McLean, and a 1991 TV movie of the same name starring Brian Dennehy. A&E, Rolling Stone, Playboy, 60 Minutes, and other media outlets covered the story in print or television. In 2019, the McElroy killing was the subject of a docuseries on SundanceTV. Buzzfeed’s Unsolved Network produced a 24-minute true crime documentary on the shooting.

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Published by pat frederick

Published

143 thoughts on “No One Saw a Thing”

  1. The phrase ‘just desserts’ comes to mind.

    Street or vigilante justice – was a last resort.

    The monster could not be allowed to continue to flaunt his crimes, to continue disturb the peace, safety and sanity of the community.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Morning GA!
      how are things in your neck of the woods?
      this proves that a community will only take so much. it wasn’t right to murder this evil evil man but the law wasn’t doing anything either.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Morning All!
    it was great to sleep in our own bed last night. At mom’s we sleep in an antique brass bed (that someone PAINTED white) and I think it’s still the original mattress…lol…lumps galore!
    AND I am anticipating having a cup of hubby’s WONDERFUL coffee this morning!! mom has a keurig and I can’t stand that coffee.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Good Morning!
        i just love the way my hubby makes it!!
        and i haven’t had any coffee for 2 days…lol…I will orbiting the ceiling fan this afternoon.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Morning, Pat! Morning routine as usual – go out to fill jelly feeder, call GT (I guess that’s his name from now on); went back inside to get more jelly and he was there when I got back outside. I finished with the jelly and walked back to the door, which is right next to his dish – he didn’t skitter away quite as far this time. Bit by bit….

      Liked by 1 person

  6. this monster deserves the death penalty imo

    Liked by 2 people

        1. If he’d played his cards right, he could have had most of us on-board down the road! Screwed the pooch bigly!

          Liked by 1 person

  9. Joe Joe from San Diego
    July 10, 2023 12:30 am

    Court rejects Satanic Temple’s claim that Texas abortion ban violates ‘religious freedom’

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/court-rejects-satanic-temples-claim-that-texas-abortion-ban-violates-religious-freedom/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=usa

    Liked by 1 person

  11. WATCH: Joe Biden broadcasts to the world that the U.S. is low on 155mm shells.

    Does President Biden not care that our adversaries in communist China are listening?
    pic.twitter.com/SxaI6jHo49

    — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 9, 2023

    Liked by 2 people

  12. In February of 2022, Biden, through Jen Psaki, said that it would be a war crime if Russia used cluster bombs in Ukraine.
    Now, 17 months later, Biden is sending cluster bombs to Ukraine to use against Russia.
    Biden by his own definition is committing a war crime.
    Impeach him! pic.twitter.com/6B0h2XcXHr

    — The Sardonic Patriot (@Mayflower_21) July 8, 2023

    Liked by 2 people

  14. Citizen 817
    July 10, 2023 3:34 am

    REVEALED: Corrupt DOJ Prosecutor Caught Trying to Bribe Lawyer Redacted Every Reference to Trump Cooperating with Subpoenas

    New court documents show that DOJ prosecutor Jay Bratt, an Obamaite-Russiagate-DNC donor, redacted every reference to Trump cooperating with subpoenas.

    Recall, Jay Bratt tried to bribe Walt Naut’s lawyer Stanley Woodward in order to get his client to testify against Trump.

    New court documents show Jay Bratt purposely redacted all references to Trump cooperating with grand jury subpoenas.

    Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approved new aspects of the Trump Mar-a-Lago search warrant to be unsealed.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/revealed-corrupt-doj-prosecutor-caught-trying-bribe-lawyer/

    This Paul Sperry Twitter thread goes into details 👇

    BREAKING: In another sign the Mar-a-Lago raid was political, the DOJ prosecutor who authorized it –DNC donor and Russiagate alum Jay Bratt –blacked out every reference to Trump cooperating with subpoenas from the publicly released search warrant affidavit, new court docs reveal

    — Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) July 8, 2023

    Liked by 2 people

  17. for pete’s sake…when does the left NOT do things illegally?
    FTA
    Emails reviewed by the Free Beacon also reflect New Venture Fund’s efforts to conceal its ties to Secure Democracy. Former Secure Democracy communications director Jay Riestenberg told the head of another left-wing organization in July of 2021 that New Venture Fund’s control of the group “is not publicly advertised for strategic reasons.”

    New Venture Fund also controlled Secure Democracy’s hiring decisions. Secure Democracy launched in 2018 and operated with a small pool of no more than eight part-time employees on its payroll, all of whom were simultaneously employed by New Venture Fund.

    “I applied for a position that was listed as Voting Rights Lab. It was only later in the interview process I was told you’re going to be on the Secure Democracy side,” a former staffer said.

    Lewis and other senior New Venture Fund employees who ran Secure Democracy were compensated solely by the charity rather than by Secure Democracy.

    It’s not uncommon for charities to partner with other 501(c)4 nonprofit groups. But Secure Democracy financial records reviewed by the Free Beacon and accounts from three former New Venture Fund employees indicate that the charity had no formal cost-sharing agreement with Secure Democracy in 2020 and 2021. The lack of such an agreement, which is typical in partnerships between 501(c)3 charities and 501(c)4 groups, meant no legal guardrails were in place to prevent New Venture Fund’s charitable resources from subsidizing Secure Democracy’s political activities.

    “I think they’re sort of skating on thin ice,” said nonprofit attorney Alan Dye. “The IRS could take the position that the 501(c)4 is acting as the agent of the charity. And since that includes activity the charity could not itself engage in, that’s a problem.”

    Several legal experts said New Venture Fund may have crossed a legal red line as it directed Secure Democracy’s partisan political activities, given that charities are prohibited from engaging in partisan political activism.

    In one instance, Secure Democracy had to seek Lewis’s approval before running nearly $90,000 in political ads against five Republican senators in September 2020, emails reviewed by the Free Beacon show. But that campaign, according to Secure Democracy’s attorney David Mitrani, needed to be logged as political spending.

    Despite Mitrani’s advice, Lewis approved the ad purchase from her New Venture Fund email account. That exchange, according to former IRS Tax Law Specialist Patrick Sternal, may be evidence of unlawful activity.

    “Theoretically, the prohibition on charity intervention in political campaigns is absolute, meaning that any amount of political activity could lead to revocation,” Sternal said.

    Nonprofit tax attorneys Jason Torchinsky and Paul Kamenar urged the IRS to investigate New Venture Fund’s use of charitable resources to advance Secure Democracy’s political activity.

    “Since NVF appears to be directing the political expenditures of Secured Democracy, as a c3 they are doing indirectly what they cannot do directly. NVF is at risk of losing their tax-exempt status,” said Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group.

    “It’s something the IRS should take a serious look at since charities are expressly prohibited from engaging in partisan campaign activity,” added Torchinsky.

    https://freebeacon.com/democrats/top-democratic-operatives-were-quietly-pulling-the-strings-at-a-voting-rights-group-lawyers-say-they-may-have-broken-the-law/

    Liked by 2 people

          2. It has been posited that at the peak of the indigenous population, there were some quarter million…It has been suggested further, that the internecine conflicts amongst tribes was a factor in keeping populations down and perhaps periodically keeping many on the move, disrupting their further agrarian development.

            Liked by 2 people

  22. “Winn Dixie: Empty shelves post 4th… Except….”

    “From WDS with love…”

    “Wonder what Lindsey thinks about the cluster bombs? Do we care?”

    Liked by 2 people

  27. need some opinions please.
    my mom’s home is heated by an oil fired furnace. she has regular/ yearly inspections and maintenance on hers and has ever since they had one. (it has been replaced once after many years and the new one has been installed and maintained by the same company who’s been in business for over 50 years.)
    when she fell 2 years ago and was passed out on the floor, her face was close if not partially over the floor vent in the kitchen. she was there undetected for 23 hours. when she came to, she didn’t recognize anyone for 3 days, but then her memory came back.
    my sil has told mom that she had a stroke (first we’re hearing of this after 2 yrs) and that if she had laid there for another hour she’d be dead from the fumes from the furnace.
    first question i have is the danger from CO from the furnace? is it because her face was close to the vent? (the CO detectors were not going off in house)
    Mom herself told me after she fell, she came to at one point and was trying to find a drawer she could use to pull herself back up. the kitchen was dark because it was night and she didn’t have any lights on in the house yet. so she crawled and got disoriented and believed she fell asleep. (now that story is gone from her memory)

    I am not sure what to believe and just looking for thoughts here. The vents in the rest of the house are smaller and the kitchen vent is the only one in the floor and is a large square. there are already CO detectors in several rooms and hallways. should we have an inspection done by another company? switching to electric is not an option mom would consider even if we paid for it.

    this new story about her almost dying seems to be scaring her and that troubles me.

    anyone have any thoughts???

    Liked by 1 person

      1. thanks!
        this is pretty much what I’ve read too. this happened in December 2 yrs ago. she has a service/maintenance contract that every November they clean and inspect her system. they didn’t think there was anything out of the ordinary then or in subsequent visits.
        I’d say the vent is about 12 inches by 12 inches–it’s the largest one in the house.
        She told me she crawled to where they found her. if she had fallen on the vent, i would think there would have been facial bruising or cuts. there wasn’t.
        this was during cv, so 2 family members were the limit–and my brother and sil were the only 2 who got to see her and we got details from them. but none of this (almost dying…) was told to us at the time.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. i thought so to.
            my sil works at a rehabilitation hospital and she thinks she’s a doctor…she cleans patients’ rooms. but of course, her “medical experience” leads her to talk authoritatively on things far beyond her ken imo.

            Like

    1. Let’s not forget that Zippy lives a couple of blocks from the residential mansion & Valjar is ensconced in the basement. Weffers are setting nation killing policy.

      Liked by 2 people

  33. OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    the female turkey that likes our yard (dusts herself frequently in the dirt near the garden) has just strolled out with 4 tiny little turklets…lol
    so small I could barely see them in the grass! tried to get a photo but they were moving pretty quickly!

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Get out the cracked corn!
      We’ve got a mom mallard successfully raising 8 ducklings & she brings them over from the creek 2 – 3 times a day for corn. The littles are just large enough to have started chasing adults away from their meals even though they’re only about 3 weeks old. What a stitch!

      Liked by 3 people

      1. do you throw the corn when they’re there? or before they get there?
        i can’t leave the corn out too long ahead of time…the deer will just gobble it up…same for the raccoons.
        and i’m afraid my present will scare the mama turkey
        advise me oh mallard whisperer!

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I hear ya!
          You’ve got to familiarize them with the availability of the food so try to “salt” an area where she frequents. Scattering is best so all the other critters can’t devour in a sitting.
          We use a scoop to fling the cracked corn, a couple ounces at a time, toward those that are unaccustomed to it.. (but we’ve had so many generations that there’s daily visitors coming around knowing a meal could be forthcoming.)
          Realistically, this mother knew to bring her brood here from past experience.
          Currently there are, at times, 15 to 20 adults visiting. You wouldn’t believe how many show up in the fall. Sometimes twice those numbers!
          Ducks are very entertaining!

          Liked by 3 people

  34. Paul Sperry Profile picture
    Paul Sperry
    @paulsperry_
    Jul 8 • 10 tweets • 1 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
    BREAKING: In another sign the Mar-a-Lago raid was political, the DOJ prosecutor who authorized it –DNC donor and Russiagate alum Jay Bratt –blacked out every reference to Trump cooperating with subpoenas from the publicly released search warrant affidavit, new court docs reveal
    2/10 Here’s the newly unsealed evidence of cooperation by Trump — complying with not one, but two grand jury subpoenas — that DOJ prosecutor Jay Bratt tried to hide from the public behind several redactions in the initially released affidavit in support of his Mar-a-Lago raid:
    REDACTED:

    Page 2: ” additional documents bearing classification markings … have been produced to the government in response to a grand jury subpoena … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 18: ” … agreed to accept service of a grand jury subpoena … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 20: ” … an extension was granted for compliance with the subpoena … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 21: ” … documents … produced pursuant to the grand jury subpoena … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 22: ” … classified documents (the ones recently provided … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 23: ” … agreed to accept service of a grand jury subpoena for footage from those cameras … ”

    ” … provided a hard drive to FBI agents … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 25: ” … in response to a grand jury subpoena provided FBI agents and DOJ COUNSEL a Redweld envelope containing documents … ”
    REDACTED:

    Page 28: ” … a padlock was installed on the STORAGE ROOM door.”

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Chances are that the event is already secure due to the non-snitch mandate. A snitch could be the subject of a similar fate.

      Liked by 2 people

  36. H/T M –

    Liked by 2 people

  37. Huh…that’s interesting…watching an episode of Mysteries at the Museum about WD-40. It was created originally for an aerospace contractor to prevent rust on their rockets in 1953. It took him 40 tries to find the right mixture and was used successfully on a rocket in 1959. The employees started using it in their homes and the inventor asked NASA for permission to market it to the public – surprisingly, they agreed. He developed aerosol cans and it first appeared on store shelves in 1958; it was originally called “water displacement formula” but he needed a different name. Since it was discovered on his 40th try, he named it “WD-40.” What is really interesting is that the composition is still secret since he refused to patent the process in order to keep it a trade secret. By 1993, WD-40 could be found in 4 out of 5 US homes.

    Liked by 2 people

  40. “forcing” illegals to walk for 15 minutes in NY is cruel and unusual…give me a break!
    FTA
    Kate Smart, a spokesperson for Adams, said on Saturday the city is redirecting bus service provided by the MTA. Instead of taking migrants from Port Authority to the Roosevelt Hotel, the agency’s buses will take migrants from the Roosevelt Hotel to their final shelter placements, Smart said.

    But the change by the city means many migrants arriving in New York by bus must now walk three blocks north and four avenues east across a densely-populated island they’ve never visited before.
    A flyer distributed by National Guard members to migrants arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, showing a map with directions to a city-run intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel.

    A flyer distributed by National Guard members to migrants arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, showing a map with directions to a city-run intake center at the Roosevelt Hotel.
    Power Malu

    Families with children make up the vast majority of migrants under the city’s care, according to city data.

    “These families and individuals, many of them with disabilities and many with very young children, have already experienced trauma at home and on their long journeys here,” said Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society. “Forcing them to walk almost a mile to shelter intake facilities in the sweltering heat is shameful and cruel.”

    https://gothamist.com/news/migrants-directed-to-walk-across-manhattan-from-port-authority-as-city-cuts-free-buses

    Liked by 1 person


  41. “A family going on a summer vacation in a Fiat 500 in Italy back in 1967 – Check out the size of the wine jug.”



    Liked by 1 person

  42. The TRUMP PAGE 🇺🇸
    @MichaelDeLauzon
    So Trump summoned Ryan to The White House and showed him what he had. Pics, recordings, videos of Ryan. Trump didn’t Trust the DOJ, Congress or media because all of them were involved. But he knew he could force Ryan out as Speaker of the House. And he did. Fox News put Ryan on their Board of Directors. They must have known about Ryan, friends and such. Ryan was quiet and out of sight mostly until Biden was installed. Searching for boxes at Mar-a-Lago is connected to what Trump has on all of them. Ryan knows Biden’s FBI and DOJ won’t touch him. They will cover it up if they can find it. Backing up to October of 2017 Ryan told members of Congress that Trump had all of them. Trump let everyone know he would sign one of four executive orders starting Dec. 21, 2017 that would take assets away from participants and 48 members of Congress resigned or promised not to seek reelection. Ryan did not seek reelection.
    12:04 PM · Jul 10, 2023
    ·
    4,905
    Views

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The TRUMP PAGE 🇺🇸
      @MichaelDeLauzon
      No one will post this but I will. On May 28, 2017 a day after Trump arrived back from Europe he had lots of intel. The kind of intel that would end our government. He had child sex trafficking intel and a Classified Order by him, you will probably only see in 30 years if ever, was directing a secret military operation to clear trafficking tunnels, rescue Women and children, take no prisoners then blow up the tunnels. I was contacted by one of them, I verified it with Trump’s shadow in the WH. That’s all I’m going to say. They flooded tunnels under DC.
      Last edited
      11:15 AM · Jul 10, 2023
      ·
      3,923
      Views

      Liked by 2 people

  43. someone purchased $1 BILLION in farmland next to an Air base and no one can find out WHO exactly bought it.
    entire article
    Government officials are investigating nearly $1 billion in land purchases near Travis Air Force Base in California due to concerns of possible foreign influence that led to an Air Force Foreign Investment Risk Review Office’s probe. If you’re already thinking Bill Gates or China, you’re likely not alone.

    At the center of the probe is “Flannery Associates,” a “mysterious” investor group that has acquired nearly 52,000 acres of agricultural land in the state in the last five years to become the largest landowner in California’s Solano County, according to county officials and public records, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

    After eight months of digging, officials have been unable to uncover the investors behind the deal.

    An attorney representing Flannery insists the group is controlled by American citizens and that 97 percent of its investment capital comes from U.S. investors, with the remaining 3 percent coming from British and Irish investors. Flannery previously told Solano County the entity “is owned “by a group of families looking to diversify their portfolio from equities into real assets, including agricultural land in the western United States.”

    “Any speculation that Flannery’s purchases are motivated by the proximity to Travis Air Force Base” is unfounded, the attorney for the firm told the WSJ.

    Uh-huh— color me skeptical. For now, at least. Here’s more, via the WSJ:

    The Air Force’s Foreign Investment Risk Review Office has been investigating Flannery’s purchases of roughly 52,000 acres, including around Travis Air Force Base, according to people familiar with the matter. But the office, which has been looking into the matter for about eight months, has yet to be able to determine who is backing the group, one of the people said.

    California Democrat Rep. John Garamendi, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee’s readiness panel, is also skeptical of the massive purchases near Travis.

    We don’t know who Flannery is, and their extensive purchases do not make sense to anybody in the area. The fact that they’re buying land purposefully right up to the fence at Travis raises significant questions.

    Solano County supervisor Mitch Mashburn said if Flannery intends to develop the land, it would make sense for the group to engage with local officials, but it has yet to do so.

    The majority of the land they’re purchasing is dry farmland. I don’t see where that land can turn a profit to make it worth almost a billion dollars in investment.

    Bingo. The base commander and other officers “are aware of the multiple land purchases near the base and are actively working internally and externally with other agencies,” a spokesperson told the WSJ.

    Flannery has offered various explanations for its purchases over time. In 2019, Flannery attorney Richard Melnyk said in an email to a Solano County official that Flannery planned to work with local farmers and might explore “new types of crops or orchards,” he said, ruling out any cannabis operations.

    In its May price-fixing lawsuit, Flannery said it planned to use the land for renewable energy and related projects. The entity has allowed many sellers to continue farming or remain on the land and collect income from wind turbine leases for the remainder of the lease, according to court filings.

    Yet five years into the deal, zero crops, orchards, or windmills. Why?
    Bill Gates, China

    As I suggested at the top, it’s not unreasonable to consider China. As I reported in July 2021, nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland were owned by foreign countries as of May 28, 2019. Among those acres, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching, and forestry, according to the Agriculture Department.

    And according to Forbes, the number has since grown to roughly 384,000 acres. Of that, 195,000 acres, worth almost $2 billion when purchased, are owned by 85 Chinese investors— which could be individuals, companies, or the ChiCom government.

    So why China has continued to acquire U.S. land at a record clip raises the musical question: Why in the hell is a communist dictatorship, whose stated goal is world domination, allowed to buy anything in the U.S., let alone massive parcels of farmland? While I can’t prove China is involved in this particular deal, it’s completely reasonable to investigate whether it is.

    As for Bill Gates, who owned roughly 275,000 acres of farmland in the U.S. as of the end of 2022, according to the 2022 edition of the Land Report 100, the multibillionaire insists there’s nothing nefarious behind his ownership of the land:

    I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn’t some grand scheme involved — in fact, all these decisions are made by a professional investment team

    So why is it Gates’s full-time job? The co-founder of Microsoft wrote in 2021:

    My investment group chose to do this. It is not connected to climate.

    The agriculture sector is important. With more productive seeds we can avoid deforestation and help Africa deal with the climate difficulty they already face. It is unclear how cheap biofuels can be but if they are cheap it can solve the aviation and truck emissions.

    Fine. But to borrow from the 1984 Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” ad campaign, Where’s [sic ] the seeds?

    Where are the biofuels? I’m far from a conspiracy loon, but questions like these, and larger questions about massive land purchases near sensitive government facilities, should not only be answered; they should also be disallowed.

    Hell, maybe we’ll get a clue of who’s behind the Travis Air Base deal and why if a “harmless weather balloon” is suddenly launched from the “mysteriously purchased” land.

    https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2023/07/09/mysterious-investors-buy-1-billion-in-land-near-key-us-air-base-officials-cant-figure-out-who-they-are-n773677

    Liked by 1 person

    1. EXCERPT: “(Reuters) – A land purchaser has sued a group of California landowners, claiming they conspired to inflate the price of real estate by hundreds of millions of dollars and overcharged the company in violation of U.S. antitrust law.

      Flannery Associates LLC, an agricultural land buyer, is seeking more than $510 million in damages against defendants that include Barnes Family Ranch Associates LLC and Kirby Hill Associates LLC over the sale of properties in the Jepson Prairie and Montezuma Hills area of Solano County, California, between San Francisco and Sacramento.
      ——————
      Flannery, based in Folsom, California, said it has been purchasing rangeland property in Solano County since 2018 and had invested more than $800 million. The lawsuit said Flannery has brought or is under contract to buy about 140 properties in the area.

      The region hosts energy infrastructure, utility-scale commercial wind farms and environmental conservation projects, the complaint said. In the lawsuit, Flannery said land it has acquired is used for interstate commerce. The company said various energy and power entities had contracts or proposals to operate on Flannery-owned land in the region.

      The lawsuit alleged “the price-fixing conspiracy has resulted in the suppression and elimination of competition, leading to artificially high prices and fewer transactions.”

      https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/california-landowners-are-sued-510-million-over-inflated-real-estate-prices-2023-05-19/

      Liked by 1 person

      1. but they haven’t done anything with the acquired land since 2018 and no one can find out who is flannery.
        and butting up against an air base would be a serious red flag

        Like

    2. From Reddit 4 years ago:

      “Officials from throughout Solano County have just recently learned of the land sales from century’s old family homesteads. The buyer, listed in county files as Flannery Associates, has a Washington DC attorney who won’t divulge what the land will be used for or who his client is. Two local Realtors handle this end of the transactions and one has contacted old-time farmers and ranchers, asking them to sell. The offers are double the going price of raw Ag land along Highway 12 and, importantly, surrounding Travis AFB. $10,000 to $12,000 per raw acre.

      The cumulative 55 purchases, which began about two years ago, are almost too good to pass up for families who’ve had the land since it was homesteaded or acquired in land grants. Farmers are allowed to stay on their land, farm it, and keep any profits – until they pass. The family does not inherit the land. Even the windfarm that includes 6,800 acres alone, is now the property of Flannery Associates. Profits from the windfarms will still go to the seller, a source told me. Ranchers and farmers who’ve spent decades working the land are now millionaires. Nobody could begrudge them that. But the mystery: What exactly is the intent of the buyer? Houses? Open space? Natural gas? Or something else?

      I found out about this on Sunday and dug in. This may be one of the largest land transactions since before Solano County was a county, the township and range days or during land grants. Some of the land has been in the same families since before the formation of Solano County. Now Flannery Associates owns the land. I spoke with John Sweeney, a landowner who posted about the massive land transactions yesterday. Sweeney is a skeptic.

      I also communicated with fellow elected officials and an attorney in Washington D.C. Today, officials are meeting to discuss what they know. It isn’t much. The most important task is protecting Travis AFB. Who or what is Flannery? The Secretary of State has some insight. The Delaware LLC was formed on Jan. 29, 2018. On February 14, 2019, the corporation filed “for foreign status to do business in California.” The sole managing member is Thomas Mather and the business address is in Folsom. Mather coordinated sales with area farmers and signed deeds as manager for Flannery. I have not been able to reach Mather – yet.

      USES Agricultural land is restricted in its use in Solano County. Housing developments are not generally approved. Instead, cities annex land city services such as sewer and water are available. This is long-standing policy in Solano County. While Suisun City would like to grow and bring in businesses, nobody is outwardly talking about annexing 30,000 acres of land. Even if the city tried it, there would be a long rough road. Powerful county officials don’t like the idea, they’ve told me.

      “That won’t happen,” one said. Again, no elected official in Suisun City has even hinted at such a move, so I believe it’s highly unlikely. Houses are not in the near future there. Retail? Nah. Again, this would need annexation. What about wind farms? This isn’t going to happen either because of interference with Travis AFB’s radars and other high-tech equipment. How about natural gas? Probably not. Natural gas in the area is close to depletion. Flannery apparently isn’t interested. When the corporation bought the land, it did not include mineral rights, which is strange. What about pot farming? Possible, but not legal in the county right now.

      The mystery continues for now. Perhaps the land is just a long-term investment, as the corporation’s DC lawyer said. Perhaps.

      NOTE: If you have information, even an idea, about this massive land purchase, please email me at: Catmoy@ymail.com Thanks!!!

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          1. you mean like any investor from NE would be considered foreign? not necessarily a foreigner to the United States?

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