Researching Sharon Kinne

On March 19, 1960, Sharon's husband, James Kinne, was found shot in the head with the couple's two-year-old daughter playing nearby. Sharon claimed that the child, who had often been allowed to play with James's guns, had accidentally shot him, and police were initially unable to disprove her story. Then, on May 27, the body of 23-year-old Patricia Jones, a local file clerk, was found by Sharon and a boyfriend in a secluded area. Investigators found that Jones had been the wife of another of Sharon's boyfriends, and that Jones's husband had tried to break off his affair with Sharon shortly before Jones went missing. When Sharon admitted to having been the last person to speak to Jones, she was charged with her murder and, upon further investigation of his death, that of James.

Sharon went to trial for Jones's murder in June 1961 and was acquitted. A January 1962 trial on charges of murdering her husband ended in conviction and a sentence of life imprisonment, but the verdict was overturned because of procedural irregularities. The case went to a second trial, which ended within days in a mistrial. A third trial ended in a hung jury in July 1964. Sharon was released on bond following the third trial and subsequently traveled to Mexico before a scheduled fourth trial could be held in October 1964.

In Mexico, Sharon, claiming to have been acting in self-defense, shot and killed a Mexican-born American citizen named Francisco Parades Ordoñez, who was shot in the back. An employee of the hotel in which the shooting occurred, responding to the sound of gunshots, was also wounded but survived. Investigation into the shootings showed that Ordoñez was shot with the same weapon that killed Jones. Sharon was convicted in October 1965 of the Ordoñez killing and sentenced to ten years in prison, later lengthened to thirteen years after judicial review. She escaped from the prison during a blackout in December 1969. Despite extensive manhunts, Sharon Kinne's whereabouts are unknown.