Deadly silence

Bobby Cannavale

The cautionary docuseries “No One Saw a Thing” is about a town in Nodaway County, Missouri that can’t get past its history. Skidmore is known as a “vigilante village hiding a dark secret.” Some true-crime aficionados even call it “the creepiest small town in America”—with good reason.

Much of that “notoriety” is the subject matter of Avi Belkin’s documentary “No One Saw a Thing,” which just wrapped up its six-episode run on SundanceTV/ABC.

It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before: While more than 60 people saw victim Ken Rex McElroy get shot in broad daylight, none of them has ever come forward to tell how he “kicked the bucket.”

Thirty-eight years after the 47-year-old, 6’2” tall McElroy was gunned down beside his wife Trena in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck, no one recalls how it happened.

No one saw a thing.

Thereafter, his wife filed an $11-M civil suit, but later settled out of court for $17,000 only.

It’s easy to understand the absence of sympathy: McElroy was far from likable. He was the town bully who terrorized Skidmore for 13 years. He had 14 children with his five wives and was what others described as a “career criminal”—he was charged with 37 felony crimes but convicted of none!

For most of the residents of Skidmore, the so-called “bully of Nodaway County” got his just deserts—a comeuppance, if you will—that resulted when the wheels of justice couldn’t turn fast enough for the people of Skidmore to feel safe in their own neighborhood.

McElroy ruled Skidmore as if everything—and everyone—was his for the taking: He assaulted people at will, stole from local businesses, harassed, stalked and shot people who got on his bad side, killed pets, and indulged in arson.
He even raped a 12-year-old, then married her so she couldn’t testify against him. In short, he was no Tom Hanks.

The polarizing question: Is McElroy’s case a justification for violence and vigilante justice?

Scene from SundanceTV’s “No One Saw a Thing”

In the docu, crime experts and residents of Skidmore, as well as members of McElroy’s family go on the record to weigh in on the issue. But, what’s hard to refute is how he brought out the worst in people.

As one historian aptly recalls, Skidmore is really no stranger to unspeakable violence: Way back in 1931, a conspiracy of silence and culture of violence had already permeated the community, especially after the “public lynching” of African-American Raymond Gunn, who was tied to the murder of a white schoolteacher. He was dragged to the rooftop on an old house and was set on fire.

The corrosive effects of vigilantism didn’t end with McElroy’s death, which proves how violence breeds hate, and vice versa: In 2000, Wendy Gillenwater was stomped to death by her boyfriend.

A year later, Branson Perry vanished into thin air as he was on his way to return some jumper cables in the garage. Theories about a drug deal gone wrong and a run-in with a child pornographer have remained uncorroborated to this day.

Then in 2004, it was Perry’s pregnant cousin Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s turn to meet a grisly death via a bizarre case of fetal abduction: Her unborn baby was cut off from her womb barely a month before her expected date of delivery. The culprit, Lisa Montgomery, was a childless wife who was desperate to have a kid to call her own.

Terrifying stories like these continue to make Skidmore’s “reclusive” residents suspicious of every outsider who sets foot in Nodaway County.
But are they really cursed by their dirty little secret?

A significant first for Julia Roberts

The 10-episode drama series “Homecoming,” which is now streaming on Amazon Prime, isn’t just significant for being Julia Roberts’ first-ever TV show. It also marks her reunion with Dermot Mulroney, who costarred with her in “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “August: Osage County.”

But the series is just as noteworthy for its thematic pertinence.

In this binge-worthy tale helmed by Sam Esmail, the 51-year-old actress shakes off the glitz and glam of her superstar persona to convincingly portray Heidi Bergman, a waitress who’s tasked to recount her ambiguous supervisory role in a “military” facility that aims to help soldiers afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) transition to civilian life.

Julia Roberts in Amazon Prime’s “Homecoming”

Heidi goes through the wringer as she pieces together fuzzy details of her past life as the head of the Homecoming program, as well as the people she crosses paths with—from Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale, terrific as always), her dismissive supervisor who doesn’t take no for an answer, to the charming ex-soldier Walter Cruz (the promising Stephan James), who brings out the deeply concealed humanity in Heidi.

Esmail concocts a story that is as hard to ignore as Julia’s stellar presence and beautifully maturing acting chops.
It’s about friendship, ambition, sin, culpability, redemption, even a subtle suggestion of romance all rolled into one.

Every compelling section is cogently mined as the series launches its runup to “Homecoming’s” inspiring denouement.