Sharon Kinne murders her husband, her boyfriend’s wife, and a man she met in Mexico.

Sharon Kinne as a young woman

Sharon Kinne

Suspect:

Gender: Female
DOB: 11/30/39
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Gray
Hair: Blonde
Defining Characteristics: She has a skin pigmentation disease, has a red port wine scar on the left side of her face

CASE DETAILS

On March 19, 1960, a sheriff’s deputy in Independence, Missouri, was summoned by a distraught Sharon Kinne, then 20-years-old. Sharon’s husband, James, had been shot once in the back of the head. A .22-caliber target pistol was in plain sight. There was no sign of a struggle. 25-year-old James Kinne died on the way to the hospital.

A smiling James Kinne

Kinne’s husband was fatally shot

The next day, Kinne was interviewed by detectives. She said James was in the bedroom cleaning his pistol while she was in the bathroom putting on makeup. James laid down for a nap. Danna, their 2-year-old daughter, wandered into the bedroom and picked up the gun, fired one shot, and killed her father. At the time, James R. Browning was the chief of police of Merriam, Kansas:

“I thought she was credible, and she was very distraught, and it was very genuine. And then, for me, it became the problem of, if the little girl did it, what a shame, what a terrible tragedy.”

Even though Kinne herself seemed credible, Browning says police did have trouble believing a 2-year-old had fired the fatal shot:

“We were skeptical about the little girl. But unfortunately, they were the only witnesses there. There was no one else to talk to except Sharon Kinne.”

James Hays is the author of the book, “The Sharon Kinne Story.” He says Kinne was a master confabulator:

“All they could do was just buy into whatever it was Sharon was telling them. And she was very convincing. And that’s not to their discredit. When Sharon told you something, you were just expected to believe it.   She was that good.”

A quizzical Sharon with her hand in a fist over her mouth

Kinne charmed the jury and was acquitted

The insurance company bought into Sharon Kinne’s story as well, to the tune of $200,000. Kinne used the money to pay cash for a new convertible, and allegedly had an affair with the married man she bought it from. James Hays says it was just business as usual:

“She wanted the salesman to leave his wife and his children and take care of her. She wanted him. In her mind, whatever Sharon wanted, Sharon got.”

But the salesman apparently had no intention of leaving his family, even though Kinne told him she was pregnant.   So Kinne called the salesman’s wife, Patricia Jones, and said she was the sister of a woman who was having an affair with her husband. Patricia agreed to meet Kinne, but then never made it home the night they met.

A man stumbling across a body in a ditch

Kinne’s boyfriend found the body

The next day, Kinne herself volunteered to help in the search. She got some help from yet another lover, a man named John Boldisz. They drove around looking for Patricia Jones.   According to John, Kinne suggested that they end that evening at a popular lover’s lane. While there, Kinne noticed something in the grass and asked John to investigate. James Hays:

“She makes this young man get out and look, and it scares the living bejesus out of him because there is the salesman’s wife laying shot and dead in the grass.”

Kinne asked John not to tell the police that she was with him when he found the body. But according to James Hays:

“Straightaway, he told them, ‘Well, I wasn’t out here by myself. I was out with Mrs. Sharon Kinne.’ And the name just set off all kinds of bells and whistles in the investigator’s head, because they remembered her story from just a couple months before that.”

Pistol laying across a pillow

The murder weapon was found in Mexico

Prosecutors wasted no time. Kinne was charged with the murder of Patricia Jones, and also of her husband, James. Across Missouri, Sharon Kinne became a household name.   The Patricia Jones murder trial was first. James Hays says Kinne easily charmed the all-male jury:

“Sharon had control of that courtroom. She had control of the jury. She had control of the spectators. Everybody’s attention was focused on Sharon Kinne, even to the point where on the second day after the trial started, Sharon came moseying in late, fashionably late probably in her mind. The trial went on for about 10 days. The jury came back after deliberating only an hour and a half with a verdict of not guilty. The courtroom erupted in cheers.   Jurors came out of the juror box and went over and got Sharon’s autograph. People in the audience came and got Sharon’s autograph.”

Digitally age progressed photo of Sharon Kinne

Age progressed photo of Sharon Kinne

But Kinne’s trials were not over. She still faced the charge of killing her husband, James.   The star witness for that prosecution was none other than Sharon’s former boyfriend, John Boldisz. He testified that Sharon had once offered him $1,000 to kill her husband.   This time, Kinne was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But in March of 1963, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned her conviction on a legal technicality. Sharon Kinne was released on a $25,000 bond, pending retrial.

Sharon soon had a new lover, a man who listed his occupations as hairdresser and blacksmith. According to James Hays, it was love at first sight:

“They fall in love, decide that what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna go to Mexico on a pre-marriage honeymoon.”

Once in Mexico, a series of misadventures landed Sharon in a seedy hotel room with yet another man. When he turned up dead, she told police she’d acted in self-defense. Mexican authorities didn’t believe Sharon’s story. Kinne was convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After serving less than five, she escaped in December of 1969 by squeezing through an unguarded window. She hasn’t been seen since.

James Hays thinks Kinne had the smarts to really amount to something:

“She could’ve used her intelligence and used her wit. She could’ve been a pioneer woman in politics or in academia or anything, but she chose to go the other way around. She let greed, avarice, and promiscuity rule her life.”

Some say that Kinne is still alive and well. She may have stayed in Mexico, or she may have gone to Alaska, where she has relatives. Among Kinne’s belongings found in Mexico was the .22-caliber target pistol that killed Patricia Jones. But, because of double-jeopardy laws, Kinne cannot be retried for that crime.


 

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season ten with Robert Stack and in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

SUBMIT A TIP

 

36 Comments

  1. Bill Blaski

    Truly one of the unsolved mysteries. This lady has been missing since the late 60s. Where could she have been hiding? Did she reform her life and live amongst us?

    Reply

  2. Kofi

    My name is Kofi from Ghana. Reading this case and story is very sad and cruel. Sharon is/was so evil.

    Reply

  3. Alice Stine

    My family bought the house where Walter Jones was killed. No one would buy it, so we got it for cheap. Patricia Jones was killed a block or two away from the house. My father said he woke up one morning and saw Patricia standing at the end of the bed. I felt her. I never saw her. I feel she was a protector for me. I was 5 when we moved there. At 12, we played the Ouiji board. We made a point to not talk to her or Walter. We burned the board after the session.

    Reply

    • Tom Nelson

      Alice, Walter T. Jones, Jr., Patricia’s husband, is alive and well – we hope! – and living in Arizona. He was born on October 21, 1936.

      Reply

  4. Tony

    My wife and I were her age, and our friend was a police Sargent familiar with the case. We followed this case to the end. We believe she did not escape, the guards grew tired of her BS and murdered her. She could not control herself , and stay out of trouble. WE knew someone who knew her, and they agree with us.

    Reply

    • MV

      This is quite true. The Mexican authorities were made aware of her history. She was basically a serial killer. It had to be done. There’s no way she escaped that prison. She was clearly led to believe she was being smuggled out – and killed off and buried. Some people are just better off dead. A woman like that would have never stopped killing.

      Reply

  5. Johnny Diamond

    She would be in her 80s if alive so you have to wonder if she is deceased. No sightings in years..

    Reply

  6. Fritzybaby99

    My grandfather was not the chief of police of Merriam at the time of this crime. He worked for the Jackson county sheriffs department at the time of this crime. He regarded this as the most frustrating case of his career and it bothered him until the day he died that she was never brought to justice.

    Reply

  7. Janna

    So what happened to her kids? I hope they’re ok, not having a psycho for a mom around.

    Reply

  8. Regal Queen

    Unsolved Mysteries, are there any updates on this story?

    Reply

  9. Nicole Evans

    Sharon Kinne hung herself not long after. I’m a Past Life Retrieval Specialist and I found her past life, a client has very similar looks as well as she’s very afraid of the dark, which could be explained by Kinne’s Blackout Escape.

    Reply

  10. Anonymous

    Despite all she has done, I wonder if she was born later and committed all her crimes in more recent times if she still might have gotten away with all the evils she committed?
    It also seems everyone has accepted without proof that she has changed her sex and become a man…… but I admit it does seem like something she would’ve done believing she can redo all she’s done, but as a man. And I believe she would do it all again, but this time correcting her mistakes!

    Reply

  11. Anonymous

    As a child, I met Sharon Kinne at a BBQ my folks attended. It was after she was acquitted of killing her husband. I do not remember a port-wine stain on her face, but I do remember a roughly rectangular tan birthmark, maybe 1″x3″, on her calf.

    Reply

  12. alberto perez

    I Dated that woman once before

    Reply

  13. Wondering?

  14. Trish

    What male name did Sharon Kinne take on once she began living as a man?

    Reply

  15. Sherman Kinne

    I am the former Sharon Kinne and it’s true I have had a gender transformation and now go by the name of Sherman. If the gentleman’s offer to marry me still stands I gladly accept but you must realize I now have a pecker and have grown quite fond of it so any further surgery is out of the question. I would like to know if you enjoy hunting and target practice? Guns are still a favorite hobby of mine

    Reply

  16. Jonathan

    I’m in the process of reading James Hays’ book about Sharon Kinne, and I am DISTURBED at how disgusting, sociopathic, and demented this woman was. I first saw her story on Deadly Women, a show I watch weekly, and I have to agree that Sharon Kinne was definitely born bad. Even though this monster escaped in 1969, and if she’s still alive, she’ll still have to answer to God about her crimes. The fact that she escaped just shows you the disregard she had for other human life.

    Reply

  17. Jonathan

    I’m a student studying psychology in college, and I did a report on Sharon Kinne. She was DEFINITELY born bad and had zero regard for human life. First she kills several people in cold blood, gets found not guilty by the courts, and then ESCAPES prison when she’s finally guilty? That takes someone truly evil and manipulative to outsmart the Law like that. It’s scary to know that such a deranged, deadly woman can still be among us. She can be your neighbor…

    Reply

  18. Anon

    What was Sharon Kinne name changed to. When she changed her gender? I am sorry to hear about your aunt as well that was taken by this monster!

    Reply

  19. hmmm

    Probably died in a mexican prison…or not?… either way her attention seeking ways didn’t kill anyone else

    Reply

  20. Phillip jermaine Roberts

    I would like to say first wow its so crazy you know I mean why be such beautiful and turn to a killer .but you know I feel like she can still be alive you know but now I think she realize what she have done and decided not to kill no more but who knows nobody knows but hey a woman like that I wouldn’t mine for her to be my wife.lol but she kill peoples and I don’t or should I say I couldn’t live with that

    Reply

  21. Anonymous

    What was her name when she became a man? When did this happen?

    Reply

  22. Anonymous

    look in grand haven mi

    Reply

  23. Anonymous

    What happened to Kinne’s daughter/ children?

    Reply

  24. soaringhawk44

    I’ve contacted this site before, even talked with the Detective on the case. Sharon Kinne was never found because authorities were looking for a woman. Sharon underwent surgery to become a man, married my aunt then killed her as well. Moving on, there was at least one more woman he took for everything she had, then died. Not to speak ill of the dead but I’m glad he/she is finally dead. He can’t use then kill another woman. This took place in the area of Akron Ohio.

    Reply

    • John Campa

      Wow that is both shocking and compelling makes sense that she would resort to such extreme measures to avoid capture however in the end he/she died a worthless loser good riddance.

      Reply

    • dweebisis

      you don’t have pics to prove this?

      Reply

    • LUIE

      Hello SOARINGHAWK44. Would you consider replying to me privately, @ luanneferris@yahoo.com? I am an amateur historian with an intrinsic interest in this case. You seem to be privy to a great deal of information, as evident in the various posts I have read. I would be pleased to review what ever anecdotal, and/or physical proof evidence you possess. Please know that I am disabled, & I’m asking to be patient with my typing, & response time. I hope these inquiries or not causing undue grief or stress, & please know, I am truly sorry for you & your family & hope you find some measure of justice, whom ever victimized your aunt. I look forward to hearing from you…. LUIE

      Reply

  25. briana

    Fantastic

    Reply

leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.