Kinnie Wagner's life included many women

"The girls and women, single or settled, just couldn't keep their hands off him — so there was either born or forced upon him, a way with women."— December 1959 article by Hiram J. Herbert titled "The Kinnie Wagner Saga: Booze, Babes and Breakouts" in For Men Only magazineOutlaw Kinnie Wagner never had extended time available for romance and courtship after he became a fugitive sought by law enforcement in his early 20s.He was busy looking over his shoulder for authorities or sitting in a prison that often kept a girlfriend from visiting. However, he was also sought after by women, and the feeling apparently was mutual.The Scott County native and "desperado," as described by the FBI and newspapers, spent most of his adult life in jail or prison, escaping, living on the run, and being recaptured. However, he apparently had some time for women during his 55 years. He killed at least five men.FBI files obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request include one memo that simply said he liked women.WOMEN OF HIS AFFECTIONOne early romance was with an unnamed woman while he was still living at home in Scott County. "The Guns of Kinnie Wagner," a book by Claude Gentry, says Wagner stepped aside so another suitor in law school could court her.Wagner's other relationships, according to the FBI, included "consorting" with a Scott County woman while on the run in this area from 1940 to 1943, a possible romance with a female sheriff in Arkansas in the 1920s, an FBI-described "high-class prostitute" he saw in Mississippi and the Tri-Cities in the 1940s, and a woman from Missouri with whom he exchanged letters over decades since 1926 and who saw him from time to time. The latter was interviewed by Gentry.Other possible love interests might have included a girlfriend of a sheriff's deputy and a woman who might have led to his final capture in 1956 thanks to a tip by a romantic rival.'WIVES' CAME TO CALLWhile Wagner was awaiting a return to the Parchman Prison in Mississippi in 1943, the FBI reported in an April 24, 1943, memorandum from the Richmond field office that numerous "wives" came to the jail in Bristol, Virginia, in an attempt to see him. Ironically, he was on his way to see a woman he pondered marrying when he was taken into custody on April 16, 1943, by the FBI, the Gentry book says.In the early 1940s, the FBI was hot on the trail of Wagner in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. The FBI records obtained through the FOIA request include 827 pages, although some are duplicates. The majority of them focused on 1940-43, when he was on the run and in and around the Tri-Cities."In spite of the fact that several 'wives' curious to interview the trigger-man had contacted police headquarters, Wagner declared he had never been married," according to an April 24, 1943 memorandum from the Richmond field office quoting a Bristol Herald Courier article from April 18 of that year."They locked me up too soon and didn't give me a chance to do any courting," Wagner was quoted as saying in the paper. "I have never been lonesome because I like my own company too well," he said in response to a query concerning his life as a recluse since 1940, "and as for hobbies, what I like best is to be by myself and think."'CONSORTING' WOMANThe Scott County with whom Wagner was "consorting" was Marie Oaks, according to a March 24, 1943, memo from Special Agent J.A. Bernard. No further information about her was in the records.FEMALE SHERIFFThe female sheriff was Lillie Barber of Miller County, Arkansas, who was filling out her late husband's term. Gentry's book said Wagner turned himself in to her in Texarkana in the middle of the night after shooting siblings Sam and Will Carper to death during a card game and drinking party gone wrong.A third brother, Bob, was injured but survived. An Aug. 20, 1926, Associated Press report quoted Wagner as saying: "I would have gotten Bob, but it was so dark I couldn't see to shoot straight."Being attacked and nearly passing out also might have hurt Wagner's aim, Jim Necessary said in a presentation on Wagner to the Survivors Club of Kingsport on Sept. 8, 2003.Arkansas declined to prosecute Wagner for the brothers' deaths and instead turned him back over to Mississippi. The FBI records later said the Carper siblings were "notorious." Gentry's book claims Wagner was told by an FBI agent that he did Arkansas a favor.Necessary's presentation to the Survivors Club, renamed the Kingsport Historical Society, said Sullivan County Sheriff Joe Thomas traveled to Arkansas to try to bring Wagner back to Tennessee but failed.Barber apparently had no issue with Wagner not being tried for the Carper killings. She used him as a trusty of sorts in her jail, according to the Gentry book.A potential romance between the sheriff and the outlaw seems conjecture. Another theory is Barber might have been easy on Wagner because the Carper brothers he had killed were suspects in the murder of her sheriff husband, according to Necessary, who had a keen interest in Wagner's life.PROSTITUTE GIRLFRIENDAmong other things, the records painted a picture of a very "loquacious" man who'd had one girlfriend during that time. She was variously described as a prostitute, paramour, girlfriend and friend named Lena Johnson, Lenna Johnson or Lena Johnson Barnes.She was listed in one report as living in Mississippi, in another as living between Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee, and also as seeing him at times while he was on the run. She also was listed as an informant.Jackson, Mississippi, FBI agent J.W.T. Faulkner IV in a Sept. 4, 1942 memo called Johnson a "high-class prostitute" who had done business in hotels in Corinth, Mississippi, and had been married three times.PEN PAL FROM MISSOURIThe women who came to the Bristol Jail and later Lynchburg Jail to see Wagner before he was returned to Mississippi were not identified in the FBI files, but the Gentry book identified Wagner's true love as Amelia "Emily" Hoke, a Missouri woman he met while on a ranch in Marland, Oklahoma, in 1926 after he stayed a brief time in Mexico and before he killed the Carpers in Arkansas.A July 15, 1942 FBI memo from Jackson, Mississippi, Special Agent R D. Briston references "very mushy love letters" from Wagner to Hoke in Missouri.Wagner and Hoke, who was part Native American, even talked marriage, the book says, although she married and later divorced another man. Prison authorities often made it difficult for her to visit him, and the two concocted a ruse where she cut her hair and was dressed like a boy but then abandoned it, Gentry's book says.The book also notes that Wagner was on his way to see Hoke when the FBI caught him not far from Gate City on April 16, 1943 in a car driven by a man who was charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive.Wagner eventually tried to prevent Hoke from visiting him, including turning her away from the Lynchburg Jail. The Gentry book says she didn't make it to the Bristol Jail.OTHER POTENTIAL WOMENFormer Times News columnist Vince Staten once wrote that Wagner might have been romantically involved with a girlfriend of one of the Mississippi sheriff's deputies who came for him the night he killed one on Christmas Eve 1924, the shooting for which he was sentenced to life in prison in Mississippi. The officer left behind a wife and children, according to newspaper accounts.In addition, Staten and various other sources indicated that a jealous rival for a female friend in Mississippi might have turned Wagner in to authorities in 1956, although by that time heart and other health issues had taken a toll on a man living on the run since 1948. Some sources say Wagner was living with the woman in Wahalak, Mississippi.In fact, Staten said he had been told that Wagner might have had an interest in one of the girls with him, who were cousins or friends of his sister, in Kingsport when he killed two officers on the Long Island of the Holston River on April 13, 1925.A December 1959 article called "The Kinnie Wagner Saga: Booze, Babes and Breakouts" in For Men Only magazine by Hiram J. Herbert indicates Wagner had a girlfriend named Margie while in the circus before his troubles with law enforcement began."The girls and women, single or settled, just couldn't keep their hands off him — so there was either born or forced upon him, a way with women," the article said.The same article said Wagner was living as a boarder with an unnamed widow and went by the name Ed Viner.A much earlier article in The Vagabond Gazette, from 1931, advertised as Wagner's story written by him (albeit with his birth date a year too late), recounted a woman he met in Mexico. The Gazette ceased publishing before Wagner's serialized account of his life was completed.CONCLUSIONWagner is quoted in the Gentry book as saying his downfall was helping run moonshine, but his interest in women played potentially pivotal parts in his life.That is particularly true if he was truly on his way to see Hoke when he was captured in 1943 and if in 1956 a jealous romantic rival turned him in to authorities.Try the Kingsport Times News app today. Download here from Google Play and the App Store.