City Marshal J. Donald McElrath was shot and killed near Arcola by the leader of a gang of horse thieves he attempted to arrest.

The suspect, Taylor Underwood, was in White's saloon at the southeast corner of the city square in Greenfield when he was approached by Marshal McElrath who announced that he had a warrant for the suspect. The suspect was the leader of the group and his associates were known to be part of a gang of horse thieves plaguing Dade and Cedar Counties. He was captured six weeks later in Carthage and on August 10th and placed in the Greene County jail by the sheriff of Dade County to avoid the possibility of a lynching by a Dade County vigilance committee if held in Greenfield as several of the suspects accomplices had suffered such a fate. The suspect told reporters that he had been friendly with Marshal McElrath but was determined not to be arrested. The facts of the case showed that after Marshal McElrath told the suspect he was being arrested, the suspect shot Marshal McElrath in the right side between his 7th and 8th ribs and exiting on the other side. As the Marshal fell to the floor the suspect shot him again, this time in the hip with the ball exiting in the groin. As Deputy Long entered the room, the suspect made his escape on foot to Hembree's Mill on the southeast side of town where he stole a horse and escaped. The suspect who, eventually returned to his brother's home in Great Bend, Kansas. He accompanied his brother to see his brother's son who was in jail in Carthage, Missouri. The suspect's brother gave information on the suspect to authorities who arrested the suspect in a Carthage barber shop. The suspect was tried and sentenced to hang in December 1881. The suspect won a second trial and entered into an agreed plea of guilty to 2nd degree murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison at hard labor on May 20, 1882. But, at 63 years of age and having served 14 years and 7 months in prison with his health greatly broken, he was given a provisional pardon by the governor in 1896. Governor Stone, after receiving complaints from citizens in Dade County issued the pardon on the condition that the suspect never returned to the state of Missouri. The aged suspect was sighted soon after by his barber in Greenfield enroute to his brothers home in Kansas and apparently had forgotten his threats of revenge on those who had jailed him.

The suspect, a leader of a gang of outlaws and horse thieves that had plagued the region for years, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to be hanged, but appealed and was granted a new trial. On May 30, 1882, he pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 99 years in the Missouri Penitentiary. On December 25, 1896, he was pardoned by Governor William J. Stone with the condition that he leave Missouri and never return.