Kinnie Wagner would spend the remainder of his life running, or in jail. He would spend countless nights sleeping outside in all sorts of weather. And he would eat whenever he could and whatever he could get his hands on. He would change his name and do anything else it took to elude the law
On Christmas Eve, 1924 Kinnie lay sleeping at a friend’s house in McLain. Kinnie’s story is that he was awakened by the voice of a deputy sheriff demanding that he come out and give himself up. He was not going to jail on what he swore was a bum rap. Surender was not an option for Kinnie Wagner
As Kinnie attempted to make his escape, he was shot by Deputy Murdock McIntosh. His revolver which he had tucked inside his pants, and his belt buckle deflected the deputy’s bullet, but the buckle cut deep gash in his abdomen. Kinnie lay wounded in a pool of blood when another bullet struck him in his back. When he realized that his pistol had been damaged by the first bullet, he found a SINGLE BARREL 12 gauge shotgun. He told his friend to follow him as he made his second run at the back door where Deputy McIntosh was waiting. Kinnie shot and killed the deputy. He claimed that Deputy McIntosh was about to shoot him, and he shot in self-defense. When he saw the deputy on the ground wounded, but still alive, Kinnie said he started to shoot him again but felt sorry for him and did not. The shotgun Wagner used was a single-shot. It is questionable that Wagner took the time to look for more shells as he was desperate to make his escape during the gunfight.
Barefooted, half-dressed, and with a gaping wound, he outran the deputies through the swamps and thickets of south Mississippi. That in itself is quite a feat. But to accomplish such a feat with a bullet in his back would seem to require superhuman strength.
With his feet bloody and bruised, and the skin on his face and body shredded from briars, and bleeding, Wagner eventually found the home of another friend. He stayed there until his wounds had healed enough to where he could travel.
It is not known for certain that Wagner received a bullet to the back. The shot in the back is his version of the shootout. Nor is there any record that this writer could find of Wagner ever having visited a doctor for treatment of the wound. Chances are; the deputies would have been carrying either a .38 or a .45 caliber revolver in those days. It is also very likely that lawmen attempting to arrest an escapee would have been carrying either a shotgun loaded with buckshot or a high-powered rifle. Any one of those weapons would have been capable of causing immediate death or inflicting a severe and debilitating wound, depending on where the bullet might have struck the back, and the trajectory of the projectile.
Scared, broke, and with few friends, Kinnie had to get out of Mississippi if he were to avoid the wrath of the Greene County lawmen. His desire to visit his family in Virginia overwhelmed him. With a thousand-dollar dead or alive reward on his head, he headed home to Virginia. He walked the back trails of Mississippi and Alabama to Birmingham where he bought a horse, which he rode the rest of the way home to Gate City. He often changed the color of the horse by coating the horse’s hair with axel grease in order to confuse those who were looking for him.
Kinnie was probably unaware that his flight to Virginia changed his status as a fugitive. He had crossed a state line which put his case into the jurisdiction of the FBI. He was now wanted for interstate flight to avoid prosecution.
Back home in Virginia, Kinnie lived in the mountains, where he knew every cave and cliff. He seldom saw his family. When his sister graduated from high school, he wanted to see her and congratulate her. They arranged a meeting in the town park. Somehow the police learned of the meeting. Five officers showed up along with an undertaker and a hearse to carry Kinnie’s body to the funeral home. It appeared that the officers intended to ambush Kinnie and shoot him down. His reputation as an expert marksman might have influenced their decision, if, in fact, that was their plan. According to Kinnie, without warning, or provocation on his part, the officers arrived at the park and opened fire, but not before he was able to move away from his sister. Lead flew in every direction. One of the officers’ bullets came dangerously close to his sister, knocking her hat off. Another splattered mud on her dress and face.
