The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 2

The Boston Globe The World MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2004 Quid pro quo Israel says it will free 1 70 jailed Palestinians in response to Egypt's release two weeks ago of an Israeli Arab imprisoned for spying. A10. Tito Naffin i r. 5 i Grisly killing adds to town's notoriety iii i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 the NATION TODAY Mr. I I i i i iff i On Friday, sheriff's tape blocked the Skidmore, home where Bobbi Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, was found slain the previous day.

Residents concede that the town has a reputation for violence. Theft of fetus is latest violence in Mo. community By Scott Canon and Rick Montgomery KNIGHT RIDDER SKIDMORE, Mo. How, wonder the people still left in this small town getting smaller, could such horrible things happen in a place they treasure for its friendly rural charms? First came the notorious "Skidmore bully," Ken Rex McElroy, whose death made national headlines. He had so terrorized the town that when somebody gunned him down in broad daylight in 1981, nobody would admit to seeing a thing.

Then on Oct. 16, 2000, Wendy Gillen-water was stomped to death by her boyfriend. Locals take comfort in knowing me killer is serving life in prison. The next year, a 20-year-old resident vanished. Many thinkhe was murdered.

And now the police cars and media crews are back. On Thursday, somebody killed 23-year-old Bobbi Jo Stinnett, butchering her body to pull out the little girl who was due next month to be Stinnett's firstborn. Lisa M. Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan, has been charged. "Why do they all come to Skidmore to do this?" decadelong resident Pauline Dragoo asked on Friday, her 91st birthday.

"I'm going to move out of this town." Other residents see the violent history as random and inexplicable. "It's just a freak thing," said Roland Langford, who works as a custodian in nearby Maryville. "It's a real nice town. People get along. That's what you like about it here the people." Skidmore's crime rates are enviably low most years, but residents concede that the town's reputation is a grisly one.

Travel somewhere and mention that you live in Skidmore and faces usually show a blank. But mention the McElroy case the basis for books, movies, and TV documentaries that still run on cable and there is a light of recognition. "People look at you funny," said M. C. Derr, the town's postmaster.

Skidmore is a collection of small houses and mostly shuttered businesses at the junction of Missouri 113 and Route DD. Its Little People's Park has four working swings, one small bench, and a basket- ball backboard with no rim. With only about 330 residents estimated in 2003 for the census (the postmaster and others think the total is closer to 250) Skidmore has lost more than a quarter of its population since July 10, 1981, when the killing of McElroy, 47, drew nationwide fascination. Dozens of witnesses are thought to have kept quiet all these years after someone settled an old siore with McElroy, who had a history of threatening his neighbors, chasing girls, and pilfering livestock. Burly and hard-drinking, McElroy was free on bond after a second-degree assault conviction when he was shot in his truck outside Skidmore's only bank.

The townspeople clammed up. The national media streamed in to report on the town's "vigilantes," which many locals considered a slur, citing a legal system that kept a belligerent McElroy on the streets. Even sightseers drove through. A TV movie followed. Just months ago, an independent filmmaker from Connecticut released "Without Mercy," a graphic dramatization of the McElroy story that won a top prize at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

"What's happened now is going to be shock for them all over again," said Harry Mac-Lean, a Colorado author. His book "In Broad Daylight," an account of the McElroy case, reached number two on the New York Times bestseller list The domestic violence that claimed Gillenwater in 2000 drew little media attention. But a year later the town was tied to another macabre mystery that remains unsolved. Violence Missouri attracted media in the town has national attention. s4T' XV I 1 4 KRT PHOTO That was about the time the bank branch closed, as did Mom's Cafe the place outside of which McElroy died.

The cafe was converted to the Newton Hall Community Building. This fall marked the first time anyone can remember that the fall Pumpkin Show was canceled. Not enough people were interested. But the town still puffs up its chest about its Freedom Festival a tribute to veterans and patriotism that draws people from 20 states every year the weekend after Labor Day. Heather French Henry, Miss America 2000, showed up in 2002.

Light-heavyweight prizefighter Rob Calloway of St. Joseph came this year. "This is a really great little town," said Carta Wetzel, a chief organizer of the Freedom Festival and the mother of school-age girls who plans to lock her doors more often. "We moved back here because it was a safe place. And it is a safe place." Wetzel got calls on Friday from Freedom Festival visitors from Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Florida, all sending condolences to the town.

On KMBZ radio in Kansas City, drive-time talk-show host Russ Johnson wondered aloud, "Maybe there's something in the water there in Skidmore." But residents rejected the idea that anything more than coincidence explained Skidmore's violent history. "It's not a matter of where they lived," said JoAnn Stinnett, Branson Perry's grandmother and a distant relative of Bobbi Jo Stinnett. "All this just happened to hit here. It could have happened anywhere." fended the decision to keep selling Celebrex. "For many patients, Celebrex is the best option or, in some cases, the last option to live a normal life with the pain and inflammation of arthritis," he said.

McKinnell said that although one large and well-controlled study had found a significant cardiovascular risk with Celebrex, another large one in progress did not find the risk, and nor have about 50 other clinical studies of the drug. "So I'm not sure we really understand yet the relevance of this new data," he said. A company official said yesterday, that direct-to-consumer advertising for Celebrex will be ended. Graham, who also appeared on "This Week," said he would not prescribe Celebrex "to my mother-in-law." "The FDA wasn't concerned about Vioxx, and would not have removed it from the market if Merck hadn't, yet 100,000 patients had heart attacks because of Vioxx," Graham said. The fact that the FDA now says that it's concerned about Celebrex to me is a very serious signal." The FDA has lacked a permanent commissioner since March and has had an acting leader for about two-thirds of President Bush's first term.

Yesterday, Kennedy called for the quick nomination of a reform-minded commissioner while Card said acting commissioner Crawford "is doing a very good job." Congress has shown growing concern over the FDA's safety monitoring, and committees in both chambers are in-. vorved in investigating the withdrawal of Vioxx and the potential risks from Celebrex. On Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked Pfizer for scores of documents on Celebrex. MICHIGAN Woman, 2 children, teen found skin in car DETROIT chil-" dren, and her niece were found slain in the woman's car yesterday. At a vacant lot littered with trash, tires, and rust--" ed-out cars, police found a red 1991 Jeep Cherokee containing the bodies of Alicia Jackson, 24; her 7-year-old son, Jamon Wilmer; her 4-year-old daugh- ter, AUanneya Jackson; and Gloria Pitts, her 17-year-old niece who had been living with the family.

Pitts's J1 25-year old boyfriend confessed to the slayings and has been arrested, Detroit police said. While the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office did not yet have the exact causes of death, police 'i sources said the two women had been shot and the children's throats slashed. (AP) t- TEXAS 1 Schools' test scores 't inflated, paper says DALLAS Dozens of Texas schools appear to have cheated on the state's redesigned academic achievement test, casting doubt on whether the accountability system can reliably measure how schools are performing, a newspaper found. An analysis uncovered strong evidence of organized, educator-led cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills at schools in Houston and Dallas, along with suspicious scores in hundreds of other schools, The Dallas Morning News reported. Texas education policies on student accountability became the model for the federal No Child Left Behind law enacted after President i Bush's election in 2000.

The newspa- per searched for schools with unusual gaps in performance between grades or subjects, saying research has shown that schools that are weak in one sub-" ject or grade are typically weak in others. (AP) FLORIDA Three tourists killed i when car, truck collide DAVENPORT -A British tourist visiting central Florida with his family drove a minivan into the path of a gas tanker truck as he headed to a grocery store, killing himself and two other passengers, authorities said. Four -r children in the minivan also were injured. The driver, Ayodeji Babson, 40, and his 41-year-old wife, Dawn, both of London, died at the scene early Saturday. The children were in "worse than critical condition," state highway patrol spokesman Larry Coggins said.

Their ages ranged from 5 to 9. Another passenger, Simeon Cole, 41, died later Saturday after being taken to an do hospital, Coggins said. (AP) MARYLAND Race, revenge eyed i as motives in arson INDIAN HEAD -Racial animosity and revenge are among the possible motives in the fires that caused $10 million in damage in Maryland's larg- est residential arson case, a spokesman for federal investigators said yesterday. Four men have been charged with arson at the Hunters Brooke develop-; ment in Indian Head, where fires on Dec. 6 destroyed 10 houses and dam- aged 16 others.

No one was hurt; many of the homes were still under construc-Z tion. A federal law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonym-r ity said two of the four suspects in custody allegedly made racial state- ments to investigators during ques- tioning. The suspects are white, and many of the families moving into the development are black. The federal official said that one of the suspects was turned down when he tried to get a job with Lennar Corp, the company "2 building the houses. Another suspect told investigators he was upset his employer did not show enough sympa- thy after his infant son died this year, according to court documents.

(AP) ItlllllMIIIIIIMIIIIIMIItlMMIIIllMIMIIMIIIHIIIIIIMIII Reporting corrections The Globe welcomes information about errors that call for corrections. Informa- tion may be e-mailed to comments glo- be.com, faxed to 617-929-8230, or left in a message at 617-929-8230. A listing of further Globe contacts can be found on PageB2. Branson Perry, 20, disappeared in 2001, never to be seen again. Authorities investigated Jack Wayne Rogers, of Fulton, Mo, on suspicion of abduction and murder in the case.

No charges were filed, but authorities found a claw necklace belonging to Perry in Rogers's possession. Earlier this year prosecutors told a federal judge that they discovered the transcript of a computer chat in which Rogers purportedly discussed Perry's abduction and mutilation. In April, Rogers received a 30-year prison sentence in a I 1 I '4 jiri child pornography and obscenity case. Still, overall, crime is perennially low in Skidmore and surrounding Nodaway County. The county's crime rate in 2003 was less than half the statewide average, according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety.

Authorities recorded only 23 violent offenses, mostly for aggravated assault, in the county of nearly 22,000 people. "They're quiet people mostly farm ers who all knew each other since kindergarten," said Mac-Lean, who while doing research for his book in the mid-1980s lived with a family outside Skidmore. "Even then, they had sort of an 'us vs. the world' approach" to outsiders, he said. "As in any rural town, I think a lot of people there feel isolated," said Horton, Police Chief Dick Luzier, who as a Nodaway County sheriff's deputy investigated McElroy's killing.

"When bad stuff happens, some don't feel they have anybody they can turn to not even to authorities because they may feel threatened by retaliation," as many felt when McElroy stalked the streets. A place typical of the rural terrain of northwest Missouri, Skidmore is a town few people would move to, even though a home sells there for about $30,000, according to US Census data. The nearest hospital is 15 miles away. Skidmore children are bused to school in either Maitland or Graham. The townls elementary school closed three years ago.

Card responded that "I don't know that we need a commission" and that "I've got great confidence in the FDA." He said news coming out about previously un addressed safety risks associated with popular drugs on the market is "a testament to the FDA in how they do their job." In the cases of Vioxx and Celebrex, the agency had little to do with the studies that identified the additional heart attack and stroke risks. David Graham, FDA drug-safety officer and whistle-blower, said the agency suppressed his research showing apparent dangers in Vioxx. Speaking lata on the same news show, Pfizer chief executive Hank McKinneD de 3 a Ji i It1 -dt IIS. (') FDA doing 'spectacular White House chief says if zjh But Kennedy cites 'catastrophic failure' By Marc Kaufman THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON The Bush administration and some of its critics squared off yesterday over whether the Food and Drug Administration is doing an adequate job overseeing drug safety and whether the agency needs major reforms. In a preview of the debate to come, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H.

Card Jr. said the agency is doing a "spectacular" job and should "continue to do the job they do." But Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, shot back that the FDAIs "record on protecting us from harmful prescription drugs is a catastrophic failure." "Early action on bipartisan FDA reforms is possible in Congress, and I hope that the White House and congressional leadership will not stand in the way Kennedy said. The agency has come under intense scrutiny for its handling of drug-safety questions involving the arthritis drug Vioxx, antidepressants for children, and last week for the painkiller Celebrex. Vioxx was taken off the market by manufacturer Merck Co.

in September, the agency toughened guidelines on pediatric use of antidepressants in October after public and congressional criticism, and the fate of Celebrex remains uncertain. The maker of Celebrex, Pfizer Inc. re- White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card seen yesterday outside ABC studios in Washington, defended the Food and Drug Administration. iterated yesterday that it would not take the drug off the market after a clinical trial showed increased risk of heart attacks and strokes among users.

Lester Crawford, the FDAs acting commissioner, said Friday the agency was concerned about the finding and left open all possible regulatory responses. Card made his comments about the FDA during ABCs This Week," when he was asked whether he supported last weeks call by Senator Charles E. Grass ey, Republican of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, for an investigation of the federal drug agency similar in scale to the 91 1 commission..