Kinnie Wagner's shootout on the Holston River marks 90th anniversary

This column by Vince Staten was originally published in 2015Young men, young men, take warning,Oh, take my last advice:If you start the game in life wrongYou must surely pay the price.— "Kinnie Wagner's Surrender" sung by Vernon DalhartKinnie Wagner was controversial, even in his own time.Some thought he was just a cold-blooded killer. And it's true he killed five men over his 55 years.But others saw him as a sort of Robin Hood, a romantic outlaw, who was forced into a life of crime and murder by corrupt law enforcement.The most notorious day in his notorious life was 90 years ago tomorrow, and it happened in Kingsport.Kinnie was born in 1903 and grew up in Scott County. Bruce Haney always told me that he thought Kinnie was a good boy who just happened to be an ace marksman, the kind who could hit a quarter in midair, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.His shooting skills landed him a job at age 16 as a trick shot artist with the traveling Richards Brothers Circus.It was in Mississippi on Christmas Eve 1924 that Kinnie first ran afoul of the law. Accounts vary, but Kinnie always claimed that a deputy framed him on a stolen watch charge. Kinnie may have been courting the deputy's girl.Kinnie was arrested, escaped and was pinned inside a farmhouse by lawmen; he shot his way out, killing the deputy in the process.He would be a wanted man for the rest of his life.He headed back to his native Virginia and on April 13, 1925 — 90 years ago tomorrow — he had a secret rendezvous with his sister, Ollie. Ollie brought along two girlfriends. It was to be a pleasant picnic on the banks of the Holston since Kinnie hadn't seen his sister in six years.The four, along with a boy who had driven the girls from Scott County, were gathered on the riverbank almost directly across from the railroad underpass on Netherland Drive.According to Ollie's later testimony, Kinnie heard a noise in the bushes and bolted upright. "My Lord, there's an officer."A group of highway patrolmen, city policemen and sheriff's department officers had received a tip about Wagner's picnic. They also knew there was a $2,000 reward in Mississippi for him dead or alive, and they were determined to claim it. They even had a hearse waiting nearby. (Later, after Wagner was captured, there was much squabbling among lawmen over who should get the reward.)Wagner jumped up and raced toward the riverbank, leaping behind a giant sycamore tree.That's when the gunshots began, a total of perhaps 30, coming from all directions.When the smoke settled, Deputy Sheriff Hubert Webb and City Policeman John Smith were dead and Policeman George Frazier lay gravely wounded.Wagner scurried up the bank where he encountered young Dewey Nelson, who was on horseback. Years ago Bruce Haney and I talked to Dewey, who was related to Bruce's wife. He told us Kinnie said, "I need that horse. I'll pay you for it later but I need that horse."Dewey jumped down, Kinnie jumped up and rode off through the overpass.Dewey said he later got $5 in the mail in an envelope with no return address or note.This day is when the legend of Kinnie Wagner began.Over the years he would be celebrated in song — "Kinnie Wagner" recorded by Vernon Dalhart, "Kinnie Wagner's Surrender" recorded by Ernest Stoneman (also recorded by Dalhart) and "The Fate of Kinnie Wagner" recorded by Altoona Craver — and mythologized in stories and tales.He would kill two more men in a card game and surrender to a lady sheriff in Arkansas, who would tell the press the two men deserved killing.Kinnie would wind up his days in prison as a dog minder. It was in this position that he made his last prison escape in 1948. He trained the dogs not to follow him. He was on the lam for eight years.But he would be captured again.Kinnie Wagner died in Mississippi's Parchman Prison on March 10, 1958.His body was returned to Scott County and lay in state at Scott County Funeral Home. More than 15,000 filed by. The legend was that large.And it all began that day 90 years ago, on the banks of the Holston, across from the Center Street Overpass.