Editor’s Note: Due to the lengthy nature of the story, this is the first part in a story on Kinnie Wagner by Ralph Gordon.
What are the chances of a man killing five men in three different gunfights in as many states…all in self-defense? Virginia born William Kenneth (Kinnie) Wagner gun-downed a deputy sheriff in Mississippi, two policemen in Virginia and two brothers in Arkansas. He swears every one of those killings was self-defense. That is not surprising. Most killers claim self-defense. It is usually their only way to escape prison, or worse. Did Wagner act in self-defense three different times, or was he a coldblooded killer? Opinions of Kinnie Wagner varied in the days when he was crisscrossing the South leaving dead bodies in his wake.
Many considered Wagner to be a murder who deserved nothing less than having his neck stretched from the tallest long-leaf pine in South Mississippi. Others considered Kinnie to be an innocent victim of an unjust world. And then, there are the hero worshipers. This group puts Kinnie Wagner in the same category as Jesse James and John Dillinger. They believed he was an outlaw, but because of his notoriety and showmanship, they admired him as a folk hero, and gave him a pass.
The six foot two inch Wagner was raised near the small mountain town of Gate City, Va., during the early part of the twentieth century. Family life was less than ideal for the mountain kid. His mother died at a young age, and his father remarried. His siblings from his father’s first marriage, the children his father’s new wife brought to the household, and the children born to his father and stepmother created a family so large that his father had a difficult time providing for them. Bread was scarce. Meat was even scarcer. Most of the meat on the Wagner dinner table was wild game, thanks to Kinnie’s expert marksman and hunting skills. Ammunition cost money, and money was hard to come by. Kinnie learned very early to make every shot from his single-shot .22 count. Although his expert marksmanship helped put meat on the table, it also proved to be to a detriment later in his life.
The first time Wagner drew a gun on a man he was only fourteen years old at a mining camp in Virginia where he had gone to visit his sister. His attempt to defend himself with his revolver turned out to be not only embarrassing for him, but also painful as well. When he stepped off the train, he encountered a man who was reputed to be the town bully. The man asked him why he was wearing such a big pistol. The cocky young Wagner surprised the man, when he told him that it was none of his business. When Kinnie saw the man reach in his back pocket, he pulled his pistol and fired—-more correctly put, he fired and then pulled his pistol. The problem was he pulled the trigger too soon and the bullet struck him in his ankle. But his blunder did not stop the crowd and the bully from scattering when the gunshot resonated in their ears.
At age 16, Kinnie left his mountain home to seek his fortune. In his rambling, he found himself in Clinchport, Virginia where a circus was in town. With two dollars in his pocket, the young and curious Wagner did what most sixteen-year-olds might have done. He decided take in the shows. The kid was enamored by the glamor and excitement of the performers and the music. He asked an old man who worked for the circus who he needed to see about a job. The old man pointed out the boss, who hired Kinnie to drive a mule team and care for the animals. The circus boss promised to pay him thirty five dollars a month plus room and food. Kinnie jumped at the job. Thirty five dollars a month seemed like a fortune to the mountain boy who had seen very little money in his life. The room and food along with the big money sounded too good to be true; and it was. His bed turned out to be a folded up tarpaulin. His room was wherever he could find a place to stretch out, which was usually under a wagon. The food was as bad as it was scarce, and at the end of the month, his pay was usually short of the thirty five dollars the man had promised. But Kinnie stayed with the job until the circus moved into Leakesville, Mississippi.
Kinnie was a natural showman. He often entertained his fellow circus workers by showing off his marksmanship. He tossed targets into the air and popped them with his .22 rifle. Later as he was being pursued by the law, the story was circulated that Kinnie was a circus trick shooter. He claimed he never performed as a trick shooter. He maintained that his marksmanship was merely for fun. Later as Kinnie became wanted by the law, his reputation as trick shooter caused lawmen to approach him with guns drawn and hammers cocked.
Kinnie learned fast in some ways, and not so fast in other ways. The circus moved across Tennessee, Alabama and into Mississippi. Kinnie learned the hard way that the people in the towns where they performed, loved the show, but they disliked and distrusted circus people. One day in a small Alabama town, Kinnie came upon a convict camp and stopped to admire the dogs. Without warning, a man struck him in the face with a pistol, knocking him to the ground, and then kicked him in the ribs. A policeman witnessed the assault, but never intervened. Kinnie did the smart thing, and let it go. Friends were hard to find in Kinnie’s new world, but he eventually became friends with the circus cowboy with the befitting name of Tex.
Tex taught Kinnie how to ride bucking broncos. The strong and athletic mountain boy learned fast, and became good at riding wild horses. While the circus was in Leakesville, a friend suggested that he leave the circus, go west and become a rodeo cowboy. Kinnie saw that as a way out of the circus which had been one disappointment after another. He traveled with a buddy to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where they planned hop a freight train to Texas, but as he was catching some much needed sleep while waiting for the train, his buddy left him high and dry. He stole everything Kinnie had, including his spurs.
Kinnie returned to Leakesville, broke and hungry where he found a job in a logging camp. Logging was rough and dangerous work, and so were the men in the camps. Kinnie was tough too. He had learned how to use his fists while working as a circus roustabout. The long armed and rugged kid was often challenged, but seldom defeated. Kinnie could hold his own with the toughest of men. One day a friend suggested a way out of the backbreaking and dangerous logging camps. He told him how he could make a lot more money than the logging camps would ever offer.
