“Kinnie Wagner, one of the South’s most colorful badmen, died today of a heart attack at the Mississippi State prison.” In one sentence, a man who has committed the worst of crimes and destroyed untold lives has his life of murder and crime glossed over as “colorful.”
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William Kenneth “Kinnie or Kenny” Wagner was born in Speers Ferry, Virginia, on February 18, 1903, to Charles and Nancy Wagner. Wagner left home at fourteen to join the Richard Brothers circus. He appeared as a bronco rider, then became a trick shot artist and dog trainer. The lure of big money in the days of Prohibition led Wagner to leave the circus and begin running moonshine.
There are several versions of each section of Wagner’s life. Some reports say that he was partners with a sheriff in the liquor business when he first ran afoul of the law in 1924. In Wagner’s version, a friend had asked him to take care of a watch for a brief time, but Wagner was arrested in Greene County, Mississippi, for the theft of the timepiece. Wagner always claimed that the watch incident was a setup by a corrupt sheriff.
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An imposing six foot three inches tall and weighing 260 pounds, Wagner sawed out of his cell and quickly overpowered the jailor. The sheriff emptied his pistol shooting at Wagner but never hit him. He made his escape by stealing a horse. It was Christmas Eve.
Officers soon tracked him to a remote cabin in a nearby swamp, and a gunfight ensued. Wagner prevailed and escaped, but not before killing Deputy Murdoch MacIntosh. Heavy rain made pursuit difficult. Bloodhounds from around the area were brought in, but no trace was found. The county offered a $1000 reward for Wagner’s capture, dead or alive. MacIntosh was buried on Christmas Day.
He robbed a dice game to get money for a horse. Wagner then returned to his familiar home turf of Eastern Tennessee/Virginia. He had arranged to meet some family members for a picnic near Kingsport, TN. Authorities learned of the meeting. When law enforcement showed up, a fierce gunbattle erupted, and when the smoke cleared, Kingsport Police Officer John Smith and Sullivan County Deputy Hubert Webb lay dead. Another officer, G. Frazier, was wounded. He died soon after.
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On the lam, Wagner spent the night in the barn of a widow names Rhodes, who talked with him extensively. He decided to turn himself in. The following day, Wagner showed up at a store owned by D.R. Poe and informed the crowd that he had “done enough killing” and wanted to give himself up. He surrendered his firearm to Poe and asked to be taken to law enforcement.
The trial took place in Blountville, TN, in April 1925. Wagner faced two murder charges plus felonious assault. It took five days, and Wagner was found guilty. His defense was that the officers fired first, but the jury believed the prosecution. He was sentenced to death by electrocution.
His legal team filed an appeal, and his request for a new trial was granted. Awaiting his new trial in July, Wagner and six other inmates overpowered the jailor and two guards and escaped. They took two pistols from their former captors.
In October 1925, newspapers around the country announced Wagner’s capture in Birmingham, Alabama. The sheriff from Wagner’s Mississippi shootout traveled to Birmingham and confirmed that the man in question, looking very similar to Wagner, was not him.
Rumors persisted that he had traveled to Mexico. He later stated in a newspaper interview that he had worked on a farm near Ft. Worth, TX. Then he migrated to Texarkana, AR. In August of 1926, he quarreled with the Carper brothers near Texarkana. He killed two of them and wounded a third. He convinced two friends to take him to town, where he turned himself into the local sheriff, a woman named Lily Barber. She was a widow of a lawman killed in the line of duty by bootleggers. Wagner was never charged in the Carper murders.
Wagner was extradited to Mississippi to stand trial for the MacIntosh murder. His trial there began in October. He was found guilty. The jury could not agree on his punishment, so the default sentence was life without parole. As he was being escorted by train to Parchman, where he was to serve his sentence, Wagner, who was in handcuffs, and his guard, Sam Nunnally, had to change trains in Jackson. At the station, Wagner tried to take Nunnally’s pistol. The guard knocked him down with a punch, his fist enclosed in brass knuckles.
A 1927 newspaper article described Wagner’s life in prison as mostly taken up by responding to letters from female admirers. During his incarcerations, he often professed his Christianity and desire to set an example for others to follow, but his actions supported neither claim.
Later that year, he shot a guard in an unsuccessful escape attempt. Despite his history of violence and escapes, he was made a trusty. He began working with the prison’s bloodhounds, often participating in the search for escapees.
In 1940, Wagner was assisting in the search for an escaped inmate, Luther Benton, when he kidnapped a prison sergeant named Fowler. He forced Fowler to drive him 40 miles from the prison, where he stopped, took Fowler’s clothes, and set him free, taking the car. Manhunts in Arkansas and. Mississippi were fruitless. Wagner was reported to have been around Corinth and Iuka, MS, for most of 1941. He was suspected of two murders there but was never charged.
