More than twenty years ago (1981) Ken Rex McElroy, the town bully and thief, was shot down in full view of dozens of town residents - including the Baptist Preacher. It was rumoured that 3 or 4 of the towns leading citizens stepped up and each shot McElroy. What is known is that he was shot with several different firearms and no one, not one town citizen standing in full view of the crime scene, admitted to seeing anything.
I know about this because I worked with a former deputy for Nodaway County who was on duty that day. She said that the Sheriff had been in Skidmore attending a town meeting about the "McElroy" problem and that the Sheriff had not gotten back to the county seat before the shooting call came in. When he, and other deputies, got to Skidmore they found McElroy's truck, engine burnt up from his foot pushing the gas pedal by reflex, with McElroy stone dead behind the wheel. The truck had run wide-open for twenty-forty minutes until it blew up and no one came to turn it off.
That's Skidmore. That's Nodaway County. Can you say "death penalty" for this child stealing butcher? I sure can see it coming.
IIRC, the sheriff's hands were tied and there wasn't much he could do about the guy and remain within the law. And the guy knew it, too, which made his depredations even more threatening to the community.