High Noon In Skidmore

High Noon in SkidmoreIndian Summer--and in the café across the street from the courthouse, the flies that have been roused by the sudden heat bounce against the window, hoping for one more spin in the sunshine before winter deals its trump. The place is Savannah, Missouri, a one-elevator corn-and-bean town 75 miles upriver from Kansas City. The time is October 1981. The subject is murder; specifically, the public killing of an illiterate, unemployed drifter named Ken Rex McElroy in an even small...