Sharon Kinne- La Pistolera Pt.2 | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is morbid it's morbid I always have to
repeat it I don't know why it's a weird routine that I do it's entirely possible
that I do that too but I don't know I think we both do it sometimes I'm a self-aware queen and other times I'm I'm
a dulu queen dulu Queen live in a a grand dulu yeah I'm usually I I'm pretty self-aware of my annoying
traits I think I'm not going to change them but I'm aware of them that's the most Capricorn [ __ ] you've ever said I
know I'm annoying but [ __ ] you yeah that's straight I know I'm annoying but deal with it that's straight up how I
feel apologetic I love it yeah I'm very self-aware but like there no way I'm changing so good for you I'll grow but I
won't change good that's but like in growth in growth there is change nah not in my
growth no she's she's something everybody she's a girly she's a girly she's gir out here wild I am out here
she's out here in these streets not changing but growing question mark we don't understand it I don't but you know
what I don't claim her the girl who get it get it you know what I do claan you my fellow Capricorns get it we grow we
do not change I honestly I really feel as though you're we were just talking about this I feel like you're becoming
more and more of a Virgo with each passing day I can I definitely have Virgo I mean it's in my big three isn't
it well that's what I'm saying because you're a Virgo rising and I heard um that like the older you get like the
more you go through life you kind of morph more into your rising sign mine is Sagittarius I feel that and I like
saggies so like I'm into a saggy yeah saggies I feel like maybe they like don't give as much as of a [ __ ] about
things as Geminis do I hope maybe it's just a hope I think of mine it's just a hope maybe they hope not to maybe I
don't know well that was astrology with Ash it was you were just like but you're
becoming a Virgo yeah you are I just I feel it because Dave is a Virgo and I'm noticing a lot of attributes of Dave
that you are yeah Dave and I are very have found each other realizing that we're very alike you are yeah there's
moments where we're just like huh well and Drew is a Capricorn and like he he definitely possesses like some Capricorn
qualities for sure he's a January Capricorn he's a January Capricorn which is different but he's also a Taurus
rising and I was saying to him that lately I feel like he comes off way more Taurus but they also say that you come
off to other people like like your rising sign is what you present to other people I'm pretty sure oh so I present a
Virgo yeah and that makes sense I feel like Virgos are misunderstood and sometimes I feel like you're
misunderstood yeah yeah Capricorns are too yeah definitely we're both in this yeah and then you got cancer in there
which just like [ __ ] it all up which is really wild yeah your big signs are chaotic they're very they're scary mine
are super [ __ ] chaotic too mine are just scary yeah it's interesting that we both have water moons I just realized
that cuz I'm a Pisces Moon which I don't like to claim out loud but here we are you know I have actually never mind
I'm not going to say that anyways let's get into the story let's stop now that we've all discussed our
risings and big threes yeah I hope you guys yelled yours out at us dude yeah I hope you did that's what I hope for us
God I said when we go through these little weird like uh intros that we just start talking about [ __ ] that you guys
are just yelling stuff back I hope so it feels that way yeah I feel like my friends are out there in their in their
cars they're not too long so I feel like you can hang in and like yell back at us
for a minute and then we're like all right yeah right getting back on track so yeah let's get back on track let's
get back on track this is Sharon Kenny AKA La pist I can't say it in American accent I just have to say it
iny um but that's the case that we're covering we're in part two of that and in part one we covered you know Sharon's
I would call it failed marriage her first husband I would also call that a failed marriage yeah his untimely and
wild wildly wildly suspicious death yes we covered her affair with married man named Walter and then we found out that
Walter's wife Patricia had been murdered and Sharon had not only been the one to
find her but was also the last person to be seen with her the very day that she went missing mhm and then finally at the
end of part one Sharon was arrested right after Patricia's funeral so there's that I've said it like 42 times
but I am just going to say it one more time trial heavy in the beginning of this one stick with me I'm I'm sticking
I'm here I'm glad you are I'm not going anywhere re by contract to be here so while that means a lot to me that you're
not going anywhere it's also just the law yeah I mean but if you're not contractually obligated to be here I
appreciate you and I love you I love that yeah we're all in this together that's good we're just not all under the
same contracts no but the next morning June 1st after you know she was arrested Sharon appeared before magistrate JJ
Brady in an independence courtroom where she was formally arraigned with the first-degree murder of Patricia Jones
and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 16th in the meantime she was held on $20,000 bond which friends in
relatives actually wasted no time pulling together and she was released that very
afternoon what I feel like even that speaks to like the manipulation she was able to conjure yeah like friends and
relatives were like yeah I know that two people have been mysteriously shot or murdered around you lately in a span of
2 months but like I don't think you have anything to do with it wow yeah wow yeah
yeah she's a she's a high level manipulator what we've been discovering but then after the arraignment for
Patricia's murder the sheriff's department actually asked district attorney William Colette to file charges
against Sharon for the murder of her husband there you go I was waiting for that he did that later that afternoon
but the biggest issue for the prosecutor office was the lack of forensic evidence
connecting Sharon to both murders there was not a lot of forensic evidence and remember it's the 60s so they didn't
have like a [ __ ] ton that they could do like there wasn't any DNA there was DNA
to test but there weren't any tests yet to figure it out very true so they knew she was the last person to be seen with
P Patricia Jones and she had been uncooperative from the start of the investigation but with the fourth bullet
or the 20 or excuse me without the fourth bullet or the 20 2 caliber pistol used in the shooting prosecutors knew
that getting a conviction would be an uphill battle but they were ready to climb uphill investigators citizen
volunteers and even a troop of Boy Scouts had scoured the crime scene with metal detectors like I mentioned in part
one but still they hadn't found any evidence but then finally on June 2nd a sergeant with the Sheriff's Office
located the fourth slug lodged about 6 in into the ground directly under where Patricia's body had been found so it was
lodged in there it was lodged into the Earth so then you wonder I mean I don't know if I'm being like super no you go
for it you theorize cuz we were saying how we like they believed initially that she was brought there and probably
dumped because of the lack of blood and then they found that Barn so my thought process here is cuz that Barn kind of
like disappeared you said it does feel like it like it kind of does disappear because they they theorized that maybe
she was shot there because there was some evidence that like some something was shot there yeah or somebody shot
there but the cause of death was the shot to the Head yes so I'm wondering if all that happened somewhere else she was
dumped there and they did one more shot to the stomach to try to confuse the whole thing maybe and that's why there's
no blood because she had already died from the blood from the shot to the head so it's not
flowing brilliant that's on some investigator type [ __ ] that's just that's just me
over here being an investigator yeah you know that makes a lot of sense what are
you writing like a novel about murderers something no no no never yeah that I didn't even think of that could have
been it that definitely could have been it pretty it's pretty shady because they
never really account for the lack of blood at the scene yeah so maybe that's it could be why yeah it's just like an
Overkill kind of thing to confuse things or just like an angry Overkill yeah like
one more you know one more mhm you're right but anyway finding that missing slug was huge that was a huge win
regardless but it was immediately followed followed by a pretty big blow once they realized that the coroner had
sent Patricia's body to the mortuary with the two remaining slugs still in the body which had then been buried
everybody so not so yeah they he sent her body off to the mortuary and she had already been buried with those slugs
still in her great a spokesperson for the sheriff's office told reporters we feel there was a negligence at the time
of the autopsy you feel that they did feel that I also feel that I feel that from you know decades after me still
feel that I still feel it in my bones and according to the sheriff investigators had made the explicit
request for the coroner to hold the body for additional testing and removal of the remaining Club but the coroner
disregarded the request sent Patricia's body to the mortuary where she was prepared for B for burial destroying
what could have been vital evidence in this case why the [ __ ] she's a murder victim why are you sending her off with
evidence inside of her body it gets worse the more investigators dug into Patricia's case the worse things looked
for Pro for the prosecution not only had legit evidence been buried with the body
but the embalming process actually occurred before the coroner performed the autopsy shut the [ __ ] up they emomed
the body first before he did the autopsy what Colette told the Press it's just all botched up how badly this
series series of mistakes will hurt us we'll have to be determined later this is not the first case they messed up for
us and it probably won't be the last like how do you even how and also if this is not the
first case that they've messed up for you and you're pretty confident it's not going to be the last uh we think it's
time to hire a new coroner yeah I'm going to go on on a limb here and say that coroner is not good at their job
like what also I wonder if this where where did this take place Independence Missouri I wonder if this this is a this
is one of those cases against coroners like that against like a voted in coroners cuz it's like this could be a
case where this guy had no [ __ ] business doing any of this [ __ ] it kind of sounds sounds like I'm G to look this
[ __ ] up go for it cuz it does sound like it according to the prosecutor's office
the coroner even tried to cover up his mistakes at multiple points in the investigation what the [ __ ] he told
detectives this is wild you're going to you're going to I don't even know what you're going to do but you're going to
lose your mind at this oh no he told detectives finding the slugs in the body would be like looking for a needle and a
hay stack literally shut the [ __ ] up what like you have literal entrance wounds that's the thing like slugs don't
appear in a body there's a [ __ ] exit wound that you can follow pretty quickly looking for a needle and a Hast stack
looking for a needle in a Hast stack are you kidding me like what are you saying
is this guy all right who is this man no because I'm not done yet this is what's
really going to send you he also told them that he did not want to conduct tests on the stomach contents because it
would be and I quote too messy this guy had to have been voted it he's not a real [ __ ] medical there's
no way too messy like that's your that's your whole your whole entire job is messy and Wily and crazy and smelly and
what like literally that's the field you went into brother you walk into that room and it's just your mess smells
everything of course what are you doing have you ever open honey coroner dear coroner from 1950 whatever or 1960
whatever have you performed an autopsy before because I don't think you have there's no way you have if you're like
that would be messy messy he had because he also he had [ __ ] up cases for them
in the past I'm I think you're right I didn't I I forgot about that whole thing where like they were
I'm looking it up because this is not too messy he this is not no yeah but fortunately for the prosecution moving
away from that for a second fortunately for the prosecution Patricia's husband Walter Jones did actually allow them to
exume Patricia's body so that a proper autopsy could be conducted oh thank goodness and realistically you can't
even call it a proper autopsy at that point because she's already been [ __ ] embalmed but they could do way better
than this guy did yeah now in addition to retrieving the remaining bullets the new pathologist like a legit one Dr
Charles Charles wheeler he was able to determine that what Patricia ate before the murder she had pickles and salami
which that's a girl dinner that is that truly is and I would eat that and I want
that right now but he also confirmed that she had not been sexually assaulted and he was able to confirm the sequence
in which the bullets had entered the body so this guy is legit yeah now the new autopsy results were encouraging to
the prosecution because they not only retrieved those remaining slugs but they also concluded that the murder was not
motivated by sexual deviance or robbery leaving the most likely explanation to be a personal Grudge why else would this
woman have been Mur of course yeah now for Sharon the investigation into both petricia and James's deaths were
immediately a big inconvenience with the murder case reopened or opened and James's death the insurance company
stopped any payments on her claims which left her with little money for her expensive defense attorneys or her
expensive or her excessive spending and basic needs yeah so she was like in a bad place now in response she ended up
putting her house on the market she sold her car and she hoped that the money from those two things would keep her
afloat until her payments resumed because she believed they would yeah of course now as detectives and the
prosecution kept building the case against her or the cases the introduction of Sharon's defense team
slowed things down considerably because at every step of the way they challenged
almost everything the prosecution said or did or tried to admit or of course anything and because of that actually a
full year passed before either case finally went to trial and when they did finally go to trial things did not look
as good as the prosecution had hoped uh oh yeah Sharon's trial for the murder of
Patricia Jones began June 12th 1961 with opening statements being given on the afternoon of June 14th in his
statement for the prosecution Jay arnet Hill presented the state's case they believed Sharon Kenny had been having an
affair with Walter Jones and after he refused to divorce his wife she lured Patricia to this meeting place and shot
her to death once she killed Patricia Sharon dumped her body in an area known to be frequented by young people and
staged the scene to quote give indications that a crime of sexual passion had occurred yeah fully yeah
like to me I'm like yeah yeah but also we have the background knowledge of everything else that has gone on in her
life absolutely unfortunately the jury did not yeah did you get anywhere yet by the way I did so I did see the you were
because this is called a coroner at this point Y they do now in Jackson County have an they have a medical examiner
okay and she's a woman she looks like a badass I don't know I'm just saying she's the chief medical examiner but
she's a medical examiner she is a doctor she is a forensic pathologist like she is there but it says in the state of
Missouri a larger Urban counties operate under medical examiner jurisdiction while smaller counties by Statute
operate under coroner jurisdiction and it says coroners from several rural Missouri counties uh contract with the
Jackson County medical examiner's office for autopsy Services when needed but I'm
assuming back in 1960 they just had an elected coroner because that's the difference between an
Emmy and a coroner right as a coroner is usually an elected lay person that has no [ __ ]
businessing that's like still something that happens yeah so I think that's probably what happened here is that was
an elected official who had no business doing this I mean if it's not the if that's not the case I'm appalled and if
it is I'm still appalled I would be willing to bet a lot was an elected off official that is not a a medical doctor
I would think so because the fact that he said it was going to be too messy and also just like looking for needles in a
Hast stock it's like doing an autopsy after they had been inbombed like what what the [ __ ] are you doing my guy when
he said it would be too messy that immediately I was like you're you're elected like that's this is not like
what wild absolutely wild damn but going back to the prosecution's case their case was pretty straightforward it
relied on a string of witnesses who told the jury they saw Patricia with Sharon Kenny just before she disappeared they
also relied on Expert testimony from investigators and Dr Wheeler the actual medical like coroner here and he explain
explained the results of the second autopsy however the prosecution still had several hurdles before them
particularly the initial botched autopsy that was going to really play a big part
in this case and [ __ ] it all up and the fact that they still had again almost no
physical evidence tying Sharon to this murder yeah now the lack of uh forensic evidence became apparent on
cross-examination when Lieutenant Harry Nesbit from the sheriff's department was
asked about the guns collected during the search of the Kenny home when defense attorney James Quinn asked which
guns were collected nesbet explained that they had confiscated a 22 rifle an automatic pistol that had belonged to
Sharon's father and a quote blank pistol excuse me blank pistol which won't shoot however nesbet testified none of
the guns were a match for those used in the murder of Patricia Jones and remember somebody that Sharon had worked
with had come forward and said like she made me buy her this gun Y and she said she left it with family in Washington
but but it sounds like they were never able to locate that gun so that's why none of these are that's still hanging
out there and it's like yeah exactly makes sense now the conflicting autopsy reports like I said made things even
worse for the prosecution during his examination of the original coroner Dr Hugh Owens the prosecutor could barely
hide his contempt for this guy he believed and actually publicly accused him of compromising their case yeah
during questioning Owens was described as having quote smiled frostily evidently recalling that the handling of
the body at the time resulted in a dispute between his office and law enforcement authorities who charged that
an inadequate postmortem examination had limited the collection of vital evidence
yeah which also that answers our question he's a doctor so he is a legit it sounds like
he is legit yeah CU what his name is uh Dr H Owens what the [ __ ] yeah now the results
of the conflicting reports meant that the prosecution now couldn't be precise about a lot of the important details the
time of death the presence of any chemicals or any drugs in Patricia system and the presence of any hairs or
fibers on the body during the autopsy so this the fact that they had to perform a
second autopsy you would think originally like oh wow that's great like thank goodness they got to do that but
it actually [ __ ] everything up because now those two reports were directly conflicting with each other and it makes
it look like you don't have any idea what's on here it's true so while the conflicting medical reports were
undoubtedly the biggest hurdle for the prosecution to clear their additional Witnesses didn't do much to help the day
after Hill's frustrating examination of Dr Owens Walter Jones took the stand and
told the jury about his relationship with Sharon Kenny his attempt to end their relationship and the enraged
threats that he made to her when he found out that she'd been seen with Patricia right before she
disappeared uh the admissions didn't exactly endear him to the jury but what was more problematic was that
he described Sharon as being very willing to allow him to search her and her belongings for weapons and he told
the jury that she offered to Aid in the search for Patricia oh damn I mean after
he forcibly held a knife to her throat but I mean yeah there was that there was the whole out of it there was that but
they were like okay well she was like willing to help you so like who does that when they've actually killed the
person now that same day the defense offered the additional slugs into evidence the ones that had been fired
from the gun that Sharon had her cooworker buy a few weeks before the murder the gun had been purchased in a
private sale but the investigators had actually managed to track down the previous owner who led them to a
location that he used for Target PR uh practice and ballistics technicians were able to pull several slugs from a tree
so while they couldn't locate that particular gun they located the man who had owned it and they got his slugs from
that gun which like that was pretty good police I was going to say that was good
police were but unfortunately for the prosecution the slug admitted into the evidence was a match for the caliber of
the gun but could not be confirmed as the same model used in Patricia's death because they didn't have it right there
now given the amount of circumstantial evidence versus the lack of forensic evidence in the prosecution's case the
defense really didn't have to work that hard on Sharon's behalf they said it was
true that she'd been seen with Patricia just before her death you know she'd been thoroughly uncooperative with in
the investigation and actually she'd been overheard at one point by law enforcement officials boasting that
quote as long as we didn't have the gun we couldn't prove it was her wow but they said none of that conclusively
linked her to Patricia's murder in fact their case was even more simple than the
states they said Sharon might be guilty of having an extra marital Affair that doesn't make her a
killer [ __ ] they went like pretty simple they went really simplistic with it so
rather than even try to prove her innocent all they did was undermine the flimsy evidence that had been put forth
by the prosecution now among those called to testify by the defense was Donald Fitzpatrick a man who claimed he
was at the lovers's lane area with his quote married woman companion he testified that they hadn't seen any body
or evidence of a murder when they were at the scene a short time before Patricia's body was discovered and given
that the prosecution claimed Patricia had been killed at that location Fitzpatrick's testimony actually under
mind The credibility of their case oh damn because how did she get there if she if she was killed there he would
have seen her they saying oh yeah this is getting a little Wy it is Wy this this is brought to you
by the word Wy Wy yes very true so the defense took less than two days to present their case and on June 23rd 1961
the jury went into deliberation after just an hour and a half they returned with a verdict of not guilty what what
and they cited the prosecution's heavy Reliance on conjecture as the reason for the verdict so basically they're saying
like you're just saying that because she had an affair with This Woman's husband
that you're like jumping to conclusions here it's just Reasonable Doubt exactly like you're just putting Reasonable
Doubt in there exactly now when asked for a comment Sharon simply smiled and told reporters I feel as good as I can
yeah I bet you do so her lead defense attorney James Quinn this is so stupid on the other hand he had more to say on
the matter he told the Press actually there was a power outside this courtroom affecting this verdict the hand of
Providence which is like a religious thing yeah yeah uh he went on to address questions about the reason for the
verdict saying you cannot speculate you cannot base your judgment on speculation
conjecture it's like okay we get it you I already did though everybody did I did
we're all speculating I know she didn't stay speculating stay speculating on this one so Shar Kenny had managed to
get away with one murder because she did murder Patricia Jones as we all know yeah and don't worry we'll find out for
sure later that she very much did and in the wake of the acquittal she entered into her next murder trial confident
that a similar lack of evidence would lead to a similar verdict oh no I don't know so with the first trial behind them
the prosecution and the defense started preparing for the second one scheduled to begin January 8th
1962 coincidentally it was actually to take place before the same judge judge Tom stubs who presided over that first
trial which also makes you nervous because she just got acquitted yeah exactly now defense attorney Quinn and
the rest of Sharon's def Sharon's defense team felt pretty confident they could get their second acquittal the
case against Sharon in the death of James seemed even weaker than the prosecution's case against her and
Patricia Jones's death and on top of that they were barred from admitting any new evidence
Jesus and with the initial determination of accidental death that would be pretty
hard for the for the prosec ution to get around so after one day of jury selection opening statements began
January 9th and again Jay arnet Hill laid out the state's case according to him just weeks before her husband's
death both Sharon and James had confided to others that their marriage had essentially come to an end and they had
both expressed interest in getting a divorce the problem though was that neither of them seemed willing to agree
to the others terms which made that divorce seem unlikely so when Sharon came to the realization that she was not
going to get out of her marriage as easily as she hoped and she wasn't going to come out of it with as big of a
payout as she had hoped she quote called a man named Donald Boone telling him she
had something dirty for him to do what and offered him $1,000 to kill her husband where the [ __ ] did this come
from Left Field baby what so Hill ends up calling John Bal to the stand intending to have him confirm a previous
statement that he had given to invest instigators about Sharon having offered him ,000 to kill her H sh Fu up I knew
it I knew this little 2-year-old did not kill a man no he didn't come on she's even worse she blamed her 2-year-old
daughter yeah for the murder of her own father she suck holy [ __ ] but in his deposition John Bal there given before
the trial he told the prosecutor about how Sharon had offered him the money to kill James and implied that they could
be together with James out of the way he said all of that in his deposition but on the stand Bal insisted Sharon wasn't
serious and the offer was quote unquote in a joking fashion no one jokes about hiring you as a Hitman to kill their
husband who they hate and have been trying to get away from for a long time and if you no one jokes about that if
you are around someone who is joking about hiring a Hitman get as far away from that human as humanly possible
because again they're not joking even if you think they are they're not they're serious why does this happen all the
time in these cases where someone's like I don't know they were just joking about
killing their dad and it's like [ __ ] joking about it never in my life have I been like what if I gave you like about
specific amount of money to murder my loved one I've never had a fully fleshed out joke about murdering anyone that I
love L it is just not real all I can picture in my head is Tes going funny laugh haa like this is just not real
like this guy sitting on this stand saying like she was always joking she was always so funny she's just kidding
she was always a silly haha she was always just making these crazy jokes she's doing a tight 10 about
me killing her husband if I give if she gives me $1,000 no idiot especially when
someone's offering you a monetary reward for killing this person and then they're like just kidding like
when are you going to learn when are you going to learn guys it CS worse I'm so annoyed by this thing this this is
brought to you by the word the word Wy in the phrase it gets worse it gets worse he also insisted that there was a
quote unquote typo in his deposition testimony in the section where he quoted Sharon as saying quote I got my husband
taken care of and I thought we could be together he said it should have read business not husband I got my business
taken care of that's quite a [ __ ] typo that's a real typo I love when people claim typos and it's like a whole
ass word it's like that's not a typo you just type the word you to type in oops a
typo would be if they spelled husband wrong if they wrote like hubsand exactly that's a typo husband in business not so
much what you meant was you said something that was pretty [ __ ] uh damning and you're like oops I didn't
mean to say that damning thing so I actually meant to say this not super damning thing but still kind of damning
it's also like damn [ __ ] you were really scared of her huh like what you're you're sitting there safe in your
deposition in the hands of police being like Oh my gosh she said all of this and
I'm she woman but he's like Sharon I would never she's the comedian of Our Generation and I'm I didn't say that at
all I would never be smirched her name like that Sharon you have to believe me he's like no she should have a Netflix
special God she's so funny jokes she does it for the laws wow so Sharon's defense attorney
James Quinn there he's seized on the inconsistencies well no he's or no oh it's defensive I you that he's seized on
the inconsistency in bal's story in his cross examination he asked it was obviously a joke wasn't it it was just
like if I'd said to you John I'd give you a th $100 to see you jump off of City Hall wasn't it he's like we're all
just Ling and laughing and having good times with each other John right we're all just comedians well just so funny
our jokes are great but despite what B had previously told the prosecutor the implication of defense attorney Quinn's
question was that you know any rational person would consider such a discussion to be a joke and Sharon obviously wasn't
serious about hiring someone to murder her husband I literally can't I can't when this is a defense like I literally
can't when it's like jokes everybody jokes it's like I no jokes are what no like jokes are jokes y I love a good
joke oh I love comedy I am for comedy same but when you joke about killing your husband and offering someone money
to do so and then your husband gets murdered it's pretty weird that's a problem for you and
that's when jokes are not F like that's a problem of course it is that's why joking about Hitman is not a great idea
not funny so in their closing arguments both sides rested their cases the prosecutor contended that Sharon had
killed James in order to get rid of him and cash in on his various life insurance policies and the defense
maintained the initial conclusion that it was an accidental shooting and Sharon was the funniest woman in all of history
and Quinn reminded the jury of the obvious lack of evidence in the case saying and then with no more evidence
than in the initial investigation the charge is changed to murder but the jury went into deliberation on the afternoon
of January 11th and they deliberated a little over an hour before court was adjourned for the day outside of the
courthouse a confident James Quinn told reporters we feel Sharon will be acquitted in this case we believe the
state's evidence failed to hit the mark and he was right the state really didn't
have the strongest case in the world which is why it came as a surprise to nearly everyone
when the jury returned the next afternoon with a guilty verdict damn said guilty what the [ __ ] is going on
where am I so the Press noted that the outcome of the case quote hinged on the testimony of John Bal And the reporter
said that his attempts to reframe his earlier testimony as nothing more than a joke actually ended up making Sharon
look way more suspicious absolutely did now Sharon appeared to give no reaction or show any real emotion when the
verdict was R but the matron who booked her into the jail house that afternoon told the Press she had little tears in
her eyes and she said she didn't feel good now the next day Sharon gave an interview to the Press saying I think
the verdict was a mistake something went wrong and when it came to why this [ __ ]
when it came to why she believed she'd been convicted she said for a while I thought it was a good idea to have a
woman on the jury now I don't think so oh [ __ ] off Sharon [ __ ] right off implying that the sole Fe female juror
had jealous or judgmental and that led to the guilty verdict no it's the fact that you're an ice cold [ __ ] killer
who blamed this on your child [ __ ] and you know what that that's the thing it's further cements the idea that you
would blame a death on your 2-year-old daughter you and also kill the woman who is married to the man you're having an
affair with who you don't even love Sharon is not a girls girl you are not a [ __ ] girls girl Sharon not and you're
honestly not even a guy's girl I don't know what you are but you're Sinister VI yeah you're Sinister VI she is Sinister
Vibe so Sharon received a life sentence for the murder of her husband and during
her first year in during her first year in jail her lawyers and supporters petitioned the
court to have her released on bail citing her children as a reason for the request I'm like y'all she blamed one of
them for this I'm sorry what like she got what she what she just got convicted of murder and you're like no she has
baby she just got convicted of murder of which she blamed her 2-year-old daughter
for and you're like but you should take care of those kids I'm like I don't think she should be anywhere [ __ ]
near those children are you kidding me no what is happening over there I don't know Missouri is not all right Missouri
Independence Missouri is out here wild in Wild okay no the answer is is there anybody out there are you all right I
mean hopefully now twice if you need help like this is this is wild I hope it's gotten better since then one would
damn I don't think Sharon's there anymore I could tell that much but the petitions were repeatedly denied but the
ongoing coverage of the now completed trial did help win Sharon's sympathy from the support in the public and while
the support was not enough to overturn the verdict who's the public Independence it did prompt a
reevaluation of the trial shut up during the reevaluation defense attorney Quinn
there argued repeatedly that Sharon was deserving of a new trial because of several administrative errors initially
the petitions were denied like I said said but when the case finally reached the state supreme court in early
1963 the justices agreed with the defense and ordered Sharon to receive a new trial I got to go so in July she was
freed on a $25,000 Bond she had literally been con Elena just smacked her microphone and banged into the wall
she is Udi 5000 she said I gotta go she said I quit I can't this is so frustrating she had
been acquitted of one murder senten to life in prison for another and all of a sudden then they're like
actually I don't think so and then they just let her walk they just let her walk
no no absolutely not even though she'd been freed on a technicality the growing wave of support for her Freedom was a
strong indicator of what was to come yeah and of course oh over the course sorry not of course over the course he
went I didn't know where I was um this is a frust this is very frustrating over the course of 1963 and
1964 the prosecutor's office would retry Sharon two more times both resulting in
a mistrial the first because of a jury members undisclosed conflict of interest come on I'm like you and Sharon [ __ ] I
was just going to say was that the reason not a doubt in my mind and the second because of a deadlock jury which
was actually leaning in favor of a quiddle oh oh my gosh now despite the jury my gosh oh my Goden his scream oh
my God so despite the jury leaning toward aquid in the third trial the prosecutor's intent to try Sharon for
her fourth time for the murder of James Kenny was untenable after years in courtrooms and jail cells the entire
process had become exhausting for Sharon she was for us too and for us and everybody in Independence she was
splitting her time between her trials her children and her part-time job now she was working at a motel so in a a
moment of impulsivity she decided to quit her job figuring that it would allow her to spend more time with her
kids evident or allegedly so she went down to the employment office to apply for benefits
now this is insane it was at the employment office in August of 1964 that Sharon first laid eyes on Frank Pugi who
was ahead of her in line struggling to understand the paperwork he was being asked to filled out oh no like many of
Sharon's lovers pigi was a blue collar guy who dropped out of high school at 16 and you know had been drifting around
the Midwest for years taking random jobs where he could find them he also had a criminal history of petty crimes and had
spent short stints in jail and actually he had recently gotten out of jail that's why he was looking for work at
the employment office awesome somehow Sharon involved herself and his struggle with the paperwork and the two of them H
it off and started dating this gal what a meat cute what a meat cute she is quitting her job and applying for
benefits you know awaiting her murder trial and she meets a man who just got out of jail
honestly like damn meant to be damn damn is right this is wild she's also I'm pretty sure like 28 or 29 at this point
like she's I'm like your 20s were such a ride Sharon your 20s oh yeah I this is just outrageous so after the stress of
all of her legal wo Sharon welcomed the male attention and affection and she and
Frank dated through the rest of the summer and into the fall and just like her other relationship Sharon and Frank
fell for each other very fast and by September she convinced him to sign what she considered an informal marriage
contract wow like they didn't legally get married but she was like signed this says we're married some people just have
this this way I don't get it it's amazing yeah I don't know I don't know what Sharon possessed but I'm just like
I don't know she was she was good at something but the problem however was that her new trial was set to begin in
early October oops and despite her uncanny ability to dodge any and all responsibility there was still a chance
that she was going back to prison for the murder of her [ __ ] husband which I'm also like Frank you're really
jumping onto this ship apparently but if we know Sharon we know she's got a scheme up that we know Sharon so about
this is you're going to [ __ ] oh no about 2 weeks into September she went to her
lawyer's office and explained that she and Frank were in love and they wanted to take a vacation to Mexico before
their trial before her trial began shut the [ __ ] up now given that she was still
out of jail on a $25,000 Bond pending the outcome of the trial there was some question as to whether she could travel
or not there was some question there was lots of questions there was there was inquiries into whether she should leave
for Mexico like Mexico I don't know why I'm just losing my ability to speak her lawyer
explained her lawyer explained it that as long as she was back before the trial began it was okay with
him just come back [Music] no just come back for your murder trial after going to Mexico have you ever
watched a [ __ ] TV show God damn it hurry back now Sharon hurry back now you're here for your murder trial Jesus
[ __ ] Christ I can't we're never seeing Sharon again she that's you know what's crazy we are
we are going to see Sharon again in this case can't predict [ __ ] this case it doesn't make any sense like I said
brought to you by Wy so I'm on the afternoon of September 12th 19 12th 1964 Sharon made multiple trips to the local
Safeway grocery store as one does each time writing bad checks to get cash for her trip for his part Frank fell back on
his old ways and stole food cash and other supplies from his friends and Associates prank and Sharon and also was
able to borrow a car from a friend that he and Sharon would eventually take up to the Border my goodness or down to the
Border down to the Border later that afternoon always yes sure is later that afternoon with cash in hand and a car
load of food and supplies Sharon dropped her kids off with her I guess ex-mother-in-law and she and Frank took
off for Mexico so she just dropped her kids it was like she she abandoned her children so they drove almost non-stop
for two days until they reached Laro Texas the last stop before Crossing into Mexico but unfortunately for them
without the proper paperwork or registration proving ownership of this vehicle the Border agents refused to let
them go through Mexico or go through to Mexico in the car and they were like that's fine they ditched it at the
border and took the bus into Mexico City this man borrowed a whole last vehicle from his friend and then said at the
border it's at the border sorry got to go get it the [ __ ] now although they' made it pretty easily to their
destination neither of them spoke Spanish why the [ __ ] are you going to plan a trip to Mexico if you don't speak
Spanish like any Spanish whatsoever I have I don't know I don't know the answer is I don't know so that made
communication a pretty big problem did it yeah now on September 14th they checked into the hotel Jin which the
couple chose simply for its quote unquote coint name I'm like you chose that hotel cuz
you thought they had Jin yeah that that checks but when they arrived they found that the hotel was anything but quaint
there were roaches climbing up the walls of the bathroom and rats and mice running from one room to another before
disappearing through the the holes that were in the walls no uh it was also in a
neighborhood that Sharon had deemed unsafe so she kept a pistol and a hatchet by her bed at all times uhoh I
have to say Frank baby do you know do you like have you read the local paper when you were back in Independence
you're sleeping next to a woman who is supposed to head to trial soon for the murder of her husband and you go to
sleep next to her at night when next to her is a hatchet and a pistol oh no the wild thing it's not Frank it's not Frank
it's not Frank wow I thought it was going to be frank no so after a few days enjoying the local night life Frank and
Sharon were running very low on money and they were both really sick from an excess on local food and alcohol
probably more alcohol than food so on Friday September 18th Sharon left the hotel Jin to go in search of an
English-speaking pharmacist who could give them something for their stomachs and she brought her pistol with her for
protection now after struggling to find anyone who could accommodate her a local
man directed her to the Del uh Del pra Hotel a hotel that catered to American tourists where she could definitely find
somebody who spoke English and Spanish now the first person person that she encountered at the hotel was Francisco
Paredes um ordones a Mexican born resident of California who was in Mexico to visit his family oh now Sharon was
already fed up with with Frank and the frustrations of running low on money so she welcomed the opportunity for some
male attention oh [ __ ] Sharon and with the pistol tucked in her pocket she did not hesitate when Francisco uh
suggested that they go back to his room for a few drinks he thought she was pretty now what happened next is a
matter of debate and if you're putting any money on Sharon I don't know what I could do for you yeah but according to
Sharon after two or three drinks with uh Francisco she got tired and laid down on
the bed to go to sleep for a while take a little nap she claimed that she was woken around 3:00 a.m. when he tried to
quote sexually attack her sexually and she said believing herself to be in danger she drew the pistol from
her pocket and fired twice into his chest killing him instantly now the noise drew the
attention of the hotel's night manager Enrique Rueda who ran to the room to find out what the [ __ ] was going on now
coming upon the scene of an unknown woman woman having shot one of the hotel guests he attempted to detain Sharon
while he contacted police and that's when she raised the gun and shot him in the back leaving him in critical
condition yeah but despite his gunshot wound and eventual critical condition he managed to lock her in the bathroom
while he contacted the police this man is a hero and the police arrived a short time later now having left one of the
men at the hotel alive there was no question of Sharon's involvement in the shooting but there was some question as
to who the [ __ ] she was when they arrived in Mexico Sharon and Frank checked into the hotel that they were at
as Mr and Mrs Frank Pugi but her identification said otherwise so a representative from the embassy told
reporters we were a little confused about this girl but Kenny was the name on her tourist
card and when they did confirm her identity officials learned that she was due in court just a few weeks later to
stand trial for the murder of her husband a date that now she would not be making my God so even though she
maintained that she'd only shot Francisco in self-defense Sharon also made several unexpected comments to the
authorities at the embassy including telling one man I've shot men before and managed to get out of it what the [ __ ]
she I don't think she gave a [ __ ] at this point she's just like I just I shoot men on a regular basis and I get
through it so I'm not really worried about this it's kind of my thing damn it's like gir you're in an unknown
territory right now so a few days later once they were confident that Rua would live Mexican authorities announced plans
to charge and try Sharon Kenny for the murder of Francisco ordones whom they believe she murdered in an attempted
robbery ah that makes sense I believe too she was running low on cash it's clear what she was doing yeah now while
officers from the Mexican Secret Service investigated the shooting Sharon was taken to uh lumur prison in Mexico City
where she was to be held until the trial now unlike the trials in the United States she had no support in Mexico and
her only connection was with her Embassy appointed lawyer heino La heini Lara on
September 26th 1964 both Sharon and Frank Pugi were arraigned on murder charges I don't know if it was because
like some kind like they thought a plot a conspiracy exactly uh later the charges against Frank were dropped and
he was deported back to the US but Sharon continued to be held at that prison DN and she was [ __ ] furious
that she was being denied bail for the shooting now Having learned of her arrest and imprison uh imprisonment the
Mexican press dubbed her La pisera Ah that's where it comes from which translates in uh to the holster in
English okay which I thought it would translate to the pistol but it's like the pistol holder exactly holster yeah
exactly the holder now having learned of the shooting and arrest authorities in Independence Missouri contacted Mexico
Secret Service to request that the pistol used in the shooting be sent to the US for tests Mexican authorities
declined the request citing the open case but they did agree to send spent shells to detectives in Missouri when
the shells were tested by a ballistics expert at the crime lab quote they announced the spent bullets were
identical to those found under the body of Patricia Jones in in and under the body of Patricia Jones I knew it but
unfortunately at that point Sharon had already been acquitted of Jones Double Jeopardy and [ __ ] so the prosecutor had
no choice but to publicly declare that the murder had been solved and the and the case was closed the [ __ ] Double
Jeopardy of it all so Sharon finally went on trial in a Mexican Court in the fall of 1965 where she pleaded not
guilty to a myriad of charges homicide causing bodily injuries illegal use of firearms and possession of false
documents damn in her defense heno laara or Lara told the three judge panel that
Sharon had fallen asleep in the bed and was awoken when Francisco climbed on top
of her in which she believed was an attempted sexual assault but the panel of Judges felt like the evidence didn't
support that claim and she was found guilty of simple homicide and sentenced to 10 years I was like that's all you
get for homicide um at the she was sentenced at the newly constructed women's prison in I hope I say this
right isap isap Palapa which is just outside of Mexico City now after she served the
sentence she would be deported back to the United States so news of Sharon's imprisonment of course spread around the
Midwest and the Southwest which prompted tons of news agencies to send reporters
to Mexico to interview her and each time she maintained her innocence and stuck to her story assuming that she would
soon be free on appeal and back in the the US it's unclear if she knew this or not but her sentence carried the
provision that she had to serve 2third of it before she was even eligible for any kind of appeal DN in her case that
would have meant she had to serve 6 and a half years before being eligible whoa now in an interview with a reporter from
Missouri Sharon spent most of the time talking about how much she hated the food at the prison how the quote
language barrier frightened her and how the other inmates had stolen all of her personal belongings within days of her
arrival which I think is funny sucks sucks to suck there was a ton of interest in the case just after the
conviction but the Press coverage slowly faded as the months passed and by the winter of
1966 her name was hardly appearing in the US papers the next time she would come up in the news was in an interview
with the Kansas City Star in March of 1969 by that point she'd settled into life at the prison and told the reporter
Kevin Kellan that she stopped planning for the future he said she reminded me of a waitress you'd find at a truck stop
she liked to talk and she gave you the impression she'd been around damn I was like o Kevin who Kevin Kevin such a
Kevin thing to say it truly is now despite what she told old Kevin there it turned out that she hadn't exactly given
up on her future entirely something told me that on the evening of December 7th 1969 after serving five of the 10e s
five years of the 10year sentence 29-year-old Sharon attended a movie in the prison recreation hall later that
evening when guards made their rounds to do bed checks they discovered Sharon was
missing [ __ ] you they discovered that she was missing officials searched the prison and its grounds all evening but
turned up no signs of Sharon Kenny and eventually were forced to make a public statement to alert the press and
citizens that she had escaped she had escaped prison in Mexico City shut up and Mexico City police and prison
officials had absolutely no [ __ ] clue how she managed to escape from high security modern prison saying quote or
saying only it was like newly constructed newly constructed and like a a high security prison yeah they said
she quote probably bribed several jail wardens to Let Her Go honestly I believe probably an intensive multi-agency
search was mounted for her covering a wide radius around the prison but after weeks of turning up legit zero evidence
authorities announced in mid December that they would be easing up the hunt like it was costing too much money a
spokesperson for Mexico City police told reporters our department will continue to hold the case open until Mrs Kenny is
found but we are not any closer to finding Mrs Kenny in Mexico City than the day she escaped today more than 50
years after her escape from prison Sharon remains a fugitive in Mexico and the United States and the authorities
are not any closer to to finding her than when she did Escape what the [ __ ] now with each
passing year it's it becomes more and more unlikely that she's still alive she's like 83 at this point she' be 83
this year yeah but if she were apprehended today she would still face charges in Mexico for the escape and she
would face charges in the United States for the murder of James Kenny but she has never been
found that woman just [ __ ] barreled through life causing [ __ ] Havoc havoc and There
and Everywhere night just Terror and then she just escapes and she killed at least three people I'm sorry Sharon
killed more than three people I know she did oh yeah she killed at least three that truck driver that she was like
married to before she married James Kenny allegedly yeah that like went off a cliff oh that was the first one what's
up with that yeah what's up with that what's up with that he went off a cliff no I don't know about that if he went
off a cliff it was there was something going on something happened there but that is the story of Sharon Kenny AKA La
pistolera I don't even know what to say about that story there are not words for
This Woman's wiess I had no idea neither did I I had no idea neither did I I was just Googling like I forget
even what I typed in toly to find this case but I I started reading about it and I was like Dave I got a case that we
have to look into oh my God Dave was like who is this woman like what who is this woman who's that
girl I'm shocked and appalled shocked appalled the fact that she's just roaming around somewhere like what like
if she's alive she's an 83-year-old lady she could be your grandma she could be your grandma guys listening right there
she could be your grandma I do hope that your grandma's friend she could be she could be your just your grandma that's
crazy she could be your straight up Grandma but I hope that her kids are okay that's what makes me so sad I want
to know what I'm like sounds right I mean she left them with James Kenny's parents it sounds like hopefully James
Kenny's parents just took care of them and yeah I hope they're doing okay life yeah they had a lot of upheaval in the
early years yeah and I hope Dana knows that she didn't shoot her dad yeah that's other thing she didn't shoot her
no [ __ ] way Sharon did it and it's gross that Sharon even slightly gross isn't even the word it's like there are
not words for the fact that she implied that so gross yeah what a [ __ ] wild tale wow that's real yeah so with that
we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird as any of this because what the actual [ __ ]
Sharon I'm just like Sharon I can't put words together [Music]

On March 19, 1960, Kansas City police were called to the home James and Sharon Kinne for what they believed was an accidental shooting. According to Sharon, she had found their two-year-old daughter lying on the couple’s bed, a gun near her hand and her father’s body next to her with a large hole in his head. Unable to find evidence to the contrary, the shooting was ruled an accident and Sharon collected on her husband’s life insurance policy. It wasn’t until a few months later, when the wife of Sharon’s new boyfriend went missing and eventually turned up dead, that investigators came to believe that James Kinne’s death was no accident.

Sharon Kinne was eventually arrested and charged with the murders of her husband James and of Patricia Jones, the wife of Sharon’s boyfriend at the time of her arrest. During the course of their investigation, detectives began unraveling a lurid tale of infidelity and conspiracy that resulted in at least two murders. Ultimately, Sharon would be acquitted of her Patricia Jones’ murder, and would be tried three times for the murder of James Kinne.

Before she could be tried for a fourth time, Sharon fled to Mexico with the help of yet another boyfriend, where she killed Francisco Parades Ordoñez in what she claimed was self-defense. The Mexican authorities rejected that claim and in 1964 Sharon was tried and convicted for murder, receiving a ten-year prison sentence. However, after serving just five years of her sentence, Sharon Kinne escaped the Mexican prison and has been on the run ever since. Today, more than fifty years later, she is still considered a fugitive with active warrants out for her arrest.

Thank you to the wonderful David White, of the Bring Me the Axe pod, for research assistance

References Doyle, Patricia Janson. 1962. "Sharon thinks of trial, jury and jail." Kansas City Times, January 13: 1. Hays, James C. 1997. I'm Just an Ordinary Girl: The Sharon Kinne Story. Leawood, KS: Leathers Book Publishing. Kansas City Star. 1961. "Anxious in his hunt for wife." Kansas City Star, June 16: 1. —. 1961. "'Changed her story on gun'." Kansas City Star, June 15: 1. —. 1960. "Fin a woman slain in woods." Kansas City Star, May 28: 1. —. 1962. "'Fixed a price for his death'." Kansas City Star, January 9: 1. —. 1960. "Officers study life of families in slaying probe." Kansas City Star, May 28: 1. —. 1960. "Puzzled over a fatal shot." Kansas City Star, March 20: 1. —. 1960. "Rap coroner in slaying probe." Kansas City Star, June 2: 1. —. 1960. "Weird ties in murder probe." Kansas City Star, May 29: 1. Kansas City Times. 1962. "Boldizs views offer as jest." Kansas City Times, January 10: 1. —. 1969. "Kinne Search Widens." Kansas City Times, December 9: 1. —. 1962. "Mrs. Kinne found guilty." Kansas City Times, January 12: 1. —. 1961. "Sharon Kinne goes free." Kansas City Times, June 23: 1. —. 1962. "Somber Sharon Kinne starts jail routine." Kansas City Times, January 12: 1. Kelleghan, Kevin. 1969. "Sharon Kinne hunt eases up." Kansas City Times, December 18: 31. Maryville Daily Forum. 1961. "Testimony on death gun to KC jurors." Marysville Daily Forum, June 19: 1. Olwine, Margaret. 1974. "Sharon Kinne: Is she free forever, part II." Kansas City Star Magazine, February 17: 14. —. 1974. "Sharon Kinne: Is she free forever?" Kansas City Star Magazine, February 17: 17-19. Weber, David. 1964. "Sharon Kinne in jail." Kansas City Star, September 20: 1.

Brief Summary

Sharon Kenny, known as La Pistolera, evades justice after multiple murders and a prison escape, leaving a trail of chaos behind her.

Key points

Astrology and Identity. Ash and Elena discuss their astrological signs and how they perceive personal growth.
Sharon's Arrest and Charges. Sharon is formally charged with the first-degree murder of Patricia Jones after a suspicious death.
Botched Autopsy. The coroner's negligence leads to vital evidence being buried with Patricia's body.
Conflicting Autopsy Reports. The prosecution faces hurdles due to conflicting autopsy reports and lack of evidence.
Conflicting Medical Reports. The prosecution struggled with conflicting medical reports, complicating their case against Sharon.
Guilty Verdict. In a surprising turn, the jury returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for just over an hour.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I feel like you're becoming more and more of a Virgo with each passing day.

1:37WatchDec 11, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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