In the quiet of Christmas Eve 1924, a deadly encounter in Greene County, Mississippi, claimed the life of Deputy Sheriff Murdock McIntosh, a dedicated lawman attempting to apprehend a fugitive. His killer was William Kenneth Wagner, a man who would become known as the notorious outlaw "Kinnie" Wagner or "The Texas Kid," and whose violent path would ultimately mark him as a serial killer responsible for at least five deaths.
The chain of events leading to the fatal confrontation began
months earlier. Wagner, a Virginia native with a reputation as a sharpshooter from his time in a traveling circus, had been arrested in George County, Mississippi, for stealing a watch. He was being held in the adjacent Greene County jail in Leakesville but escaped on November 11, 1924, by overpowering a guard. For weeks, he remained at large, a known fugitive in the region.
On December 24, Deputy McIntosh, along with Sheriff W.J. Turner and other officers, located Wagner hiding in a cabin near a swamp in the Leakesville area. As the lawmen approached and called for him to surrender, Wagner refused to give himself up. Instead, he fired a shotgun through the cabin door, striking and killing Deputy McIntosh. In the ensuing chaos, Wagner managed to escape once again, fleeing Mississippi and heading back toward his familiar home territory in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Deputy McIntosh was buried on Christmas Day.
Wagner's flight from justice was just the beginning of a multi-state crime spree. In April 1925, in Kingsport, Tennessee, he was cornered by law enforcement, leading to another shootout where he killed two more officers—Kingsport Policeman John Smith and Sullivan County Deputy Hubert Webb—and wounded a third. Despite his efforts to evade capture, Wagner's time as a free man was running out. He eventually surrendered in Virginia and was tried in Tennessee for the Kingsport murders, receiving a death sentence. However, in a turn of events that became a hallmark of his criminal career, he appealed the sentence and, before a new trial could be held, escaped from jail yet again in July 1925.
His freedom was short-lived. After traveling southwest and allegedly committing other crimes, Wagner was apprehended in Arkansas. Authorities there agreed to turn him over to Mississippi to first face justice for the murder of Deputy McIntosh. His trial began in Leakesville in September 1926. The prosecution presented evidence that Wagner had fired without provocation. Wagner claimed self-defense, but the jury found him guilty of murder. On October 30, 1926, a judge sentenced him to life in prison.
Wagner was sent to the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, known as Parchman Farm. True to his reputation, his story did not end there. He managed to escape from Parchman on at least two separate occasions, in 1927 and 1940, spending years on the run before being recaptured each time. Despite his record as a multiple murderer and escape artist, he was at one point made an armed trusty at the prison.
William "Kinnie" Wagner's life of violence finally came to an end on March 9, 1958, when he died of a heart attack within the walls of Parchman Prison. He was never brought to justice for all the killings he was suspected of committing. For the family of Deputy Sheriff Murdock McIntosh, the conviction for his murder brought a legal conclusion, but it could not erase the tragic loss of a lawman killed in the line of duty on a day meant for peace and celebration.
