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Kidnapping of Mary McElroy
Mary McElroy
(November 25, 1907 – January 21, 1940) was an American kidnapping victim. She
was the daughter of Henry F. 'Judge' McElroy, City Manager of Kansas City,
Missouri.
Kidnapping
Twenty-five-year-old McElroy was kidnapped while taking a
bubble bath in her father's home on the evening of May 27, 1933. Her abductors
were brothers George and Walter McGee, Clarence Click, and Clarence Stevens.
Walter McGee, a divorced ex-con from Oregon, was the gang leader. McGee and
Stevens donned masks, forced their way into the house with a sawed-off shotgun,
and allowed McElroy time to dry herself and get dressed. She apparently did not
take them very seriously; when told that $60,000 was going to be demanded in
exchange for her release, she joked "I'm
worth more than that!"
McElroy was taken to a farmhouse in Shawnee, Kansas owned by
Click, where she was chained to a wall in the basement. After demanding the
original sum of $60,000, the kidnappers settled for $30,000, which Judge
McElroy paid on May 29. Mary McElroy was released unharmed near the Millburn
Golf Course after twenty-nine hours in captivity. George McGee and Clarence
Click were apprehended some time before June 21. Walter McGee was arrested in
Amarillo, Texas on June 2 after attempting to purchase a car with some of the
ransom money. Of the original sum, about $9,000 was recovered from McGee's
person.[ About $16,000 of the original ransom was recovered.
Trial
The kidnapping and subsequent trial was a media sensation.
The trial took place in Jefferson City. According to reports, McElroy evinced
crippling shame and embarrassment when questioned. She related that Walter
McGee had ordered her to strip naked before releasing her so that they could be
sure she was not smuggling evidence; she refused and they did not force her.
She also displayed difficulty in identifying her abductors in court when called
to do so. She insisted that she had been well treated and had even been given
flowers by Walter before her release. During the trial, McElroy met with
relatives of her kidnappers and publicly expressed sympathy for them.
Suffering a nervous breakdown on February 10, she
disappeared from her father's home, surfacing a day later in Illinois after
sending her father a telegram from Springfield which read: "Sorry but I am so frightened. I don't know what I'm doing." She
was found in Normal and brought back to Missouri where she explained her irrational
departure to the authorities: "I
felt like a murderer... I wanted to getaway. I couldn't stand sitting
still." Because he had masterminded the kidnapping, Walter McGee was
given the harshest sentence. On March 30, 1935, his sentence, death by hanging,
was announced; had it occurred, McGee would have been the first person to be
executed for kidnapping in the United States.
After an execution date was set for May 10, Mary McElroy
shocked everyone by contesting the penalty. In April 1935, she wrote to
Governor Guy Brasfield Park: "Walter
McGee's sentence has hung as heavily over me as over him. Through punishing a
guilty man, his victim will be made to suffer equally... In pleading for Walter
McGee's life I am pleading for my own peace of mind." McGee was
granted a stay of execution by Park on May 7; McElroy's father publicly backed
her plea for this stay of execution. His sentence was eventually commuted to
life in prison.
Life after the
kidnapping
The abduction and the subsequent fallout proved to be
extremely traumatic for Mary McElroy, and she suffered several 'nervous collapses' in her years after
the case. She lived with her father, Judge McElroy for most of her adult life.
His death in 1939 devastated her, and she became increasingly reclusive.
On January 21, 1940, her maid discovered McElroy's body in
her bedroom; she had committed suicide, shooting herself in the head with a
small pistol. She left a suicide note which read: "My four kidnappers are probably the four people on earth who
don't consider me an utter fool. You have your death penalty now - so - please
- give them a chance. Mary." McElroy was 32. At the time of her death,
Walter and George McGee (34 and 29 respectively) were still in prison, Clarence
Click had been released in 1938, and Clarence Stevens was still at large.
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