Kenny Wagner

William Kenneth (Kinnie) Wagner (February 18, 1903 in Scott County, Virginia – March 9, 1958) commonly known as Kinnie Wagner (although Kennie and Kenny were also used) was a bootlegger in Mississippi, who murdered five people, including three lawmen. He escaped from custody numerous times, but ultimately died in prison.

Wagner left home at the age of fourteen and joined a circus. He became known as a trickshot artist. At the onset of Prohibition he made and sold moonshine. 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, 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, 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 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 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 that he killed were my Grandfather, Will Carper, and his brother, Sam Carper, and they were at Sam's home, not in a bar, and they were unarmed. [citation needed] The sheriff was Lillie Barber, widow of a slain sheriff. She refused to try Wagner, because in Arkansas, 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 trusty and head trainer of the prison's bloodhounds. 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.

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