William Kenneth (Kinnie) Wagner (February 18, 1903 – March 9, 1958) commonly known as Kinnie Wagner (although Kennie and Kenny were also used) was a bootlegger in

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, who murdered five people, including three lawmen. He escaped from custody numerous times, but ultimately died in prison.

Biography

Wagner left home at the age of fourteen and joined a circus. He became known as a trickshot artist. At the onset of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

he made and sold

moonshine Moonshine is alcohol proof, high-proof liquor, traditionally made or distributed alcohol law, illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of distilling the alcohol (drug), alcohol at night to avoid detection. In the first decades of the ...

. He was an imposing man, six feet three inches tall, weighing 260 pounds. His troubles with the law began in 1925 when he was arrested in

Lucedale, Mississippi Lucedale () is a city in George County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,923 at the 2010 census, up from 2,458 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of ...

, for stealing a watch. Awaiting trial, he overpowered the jailer and stole a horse. A posse tracked him to a shack in the woods, but he shot his way out, killing a deputy. He fled to his native mountains. Meeting his sister and friends on the banks of Holston River, near

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It lies along the Holston River and had a population of 55,442 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, ...

, he engaged in a shootout with five local lawmen, killing two and wounding a third. Wagner fled first on horseback, then on foot. He surrendered to a storekeeper in Waycross, Virginia. Following a trial in Sullivan County ending with a

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

verdict (including a temporary escape from the county jail), Wagner staged a successful escape from state prison. He fled to Mexico and became notorious for bank and

train robbery Since the invention of locomotives in the early 19th century, trains have often been the target of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables. Train robbery was especially common during the 19th century and is commonly asso ...

but returned to the United States. He killed two men in barroom brawls and subsequently surrendered to a female sheriff in Arkansas. The two men whom he killed were Will Carper, and his brother, Sam Carper, and they were at Sam's home, not in a bar, and they were unarmed. The sheriff was Lillie Barber, widow of a slain sheriff. She refused to try Wagner, because in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, murder in cold blood was a capital offense, and she fell in love with him. Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas wanted him for murder. Since his first killing was in Mississippi, he was tried there and in 1926 was sentenced to life to be served at Parchman Farm. His first escape attempt was foiled by an informant. However, he was allowed to become an armed trustee and head trainer of the prison's

bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar, rabbits, and since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is ...

s. He tracked escapees alone, armed on horseback. In 1940, he escaped but was located three years later near his old Virginia home. Returned to Parchman, he was again a model prisoner until 1948 when he walked off.David M. Oshinsky, ''Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice'', Free Press, 1997, , Chapter 7: "The Other Parchman: White Men, Black Women", pages 166-168. His most notable escape was his last attempt and involved a clever trick that was not discovered until Wagner was outside the prison walls. He had been made a trustee whose job it was to tend the

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers ...

at the prison. He quickly realized the dogs were the means by which the prison guards would track him if he were to escape again. He therefore trained the dogs not to track him by whipping them if they followed his scent. Wagner remained at large in

Wahalak, Mississippi Wahalak is a small unincorporated area, unincorporated community in central Kemper County, Mississippi, Kemper County, Mississippi, United States. History The community is named for Wahalak Creek. Wahalak likely comes from a Choctaw language, Cho ...

, for several years afterward under the alias "Big Jim," and was subsequently placed on the

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William ...

list. In 1956, he was recaptured after a jealous rival informed law enforcement officials of his residence at the house of a female friend. Seriously ill, he stated "I am very happy to be going back to Parchman." He died there in 1958.

Folklore and legacy

There are several folksongs and

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

s about Wagner's escapades. There are several books written about the Mississippi outlaw. And he has also been covered in comics and

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...

s. The East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia stories about Kinnie Wagner propose a far different picture of the gunslinger. Even the local newspaper '' The Kingsport Times News'' in

maps out the events that led to Wagner's initial crime, intended arrest, and eventual capture very differently from their Mississippi counterparts.

Folklorists Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

have explained that Wagner had been cast into the stereotype of the Southern or Western outlaw: chivalrous to women, generous to the poor, a free desperado.

References

External links

Information on Wagner's earlier life
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Kenny 1903 births 1958 deaths 20th-century American criminals American bootleggers American people convicted of murdering police officers American people who died in prison custody American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment American prisoners sentenced to death FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives People convicted of murder by Tennessee People convicted of murder by Mississippi Prisoners sentenced to death by Tennessee Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Mississippi People from Scott County, Virginia Prisoners who died in Mississippi detention

Biography

Folklore and legacy

References

Further reading

External links