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🎙 Episode 103: Sharon Kinne — “Trials, Mistrials, and Mexico”
Part 3 of a multi-part series

January 1962. A packed courtroom in Independence, Missouri. The state charges Sharon with the first-degree murder of her husband, James Kinne. The trial hinges on the testimony of a teenager who says she offered him a thousand dollars to “get rid of” James. The jury believes him. Sharon is convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

But that verdict doesn’t hold.

Over the next two years, Missouri’s legal system fractures under the weight of its own procedures. The conviction is overturned on a jury selection technicality. A second trial collapses into mistrial. A third ends in a hung jury. And while the state prepares for a fourth attempt at justice, Sharon leaves the country.

Mexico City. September 1964. A hotel room. A gunshot. A man named Francisco Ordoñez dead, a hotel clerk wounded, and Sharon once again claiming self-defense — only this time, the court doesn’t buy it. She is convicted and sent to Iztapalapa Prison.

But in December 1969, during a sudden nighttime blackout, Sharon simply disappears.
No alarms.
No chase.
No recapture.

From Missouri defendant to Mexican inmate to international fugitive — this is the chapter where Sharon stops being a case file and becomes a rumor.

📍 Locations: Independence, Missouri & Mexico City, Mexico
📅 Key Dates: 1962 conviction → 1963 reversal → 1964 mistrial + hung jury → 1964 Mexico shooting → 1969 prison escape
👥 Central Figures: Sharon Kinne, John Boldizs, Francis Pugliese, Francisco Ordoñez
🧠 Themes: Legal collapse, charm as gravity, the cracks in procedural justice, identity as performance, disappearance as survival

📖 Next Episode Preview: A new name. A new life. Whispers in border towns. And decades later — a fingerprint that should not have existed anymore.

🎧 Murderess Podcast is written and hosted by Sidney Smith
🎙 Produced in partnership with Sidney Smith Cre8tiv, LLC and the You Hear Good Things podcast network
📅 New episodes every Thursday

🔗 Find BONUS CONTENT, past episodes, merch, and tour dates:
https://www.sidneysmithcre8tiv.com

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Official Sources Used:

– State v. Sharon Kinne, Supreme Court of Missouri, 372 S.W.2d 62 (1963) — appellate reversal & procedural grounds
– Missouri District Court trial records (1962–1964): testimony, voir dire disputes, mistrial documentation
– Murderpedia: Sharon Kinne comprehensive case timeline
– James Hays, I’m Just an Ordinary Girl: The Sharon Kinne Story (biographical narrative)
– The Mammoth Book of True Crime (1978) — case summary & cultural context
– Contemporary Reporting: Kansas City Star, Associated Press, Mexico City press (1962–1970)
– Mexico judicial archives: Iztapalapa conviction records & sentencing modification notes
– Candice DeLong & forensic commentary on female-presenting violent offenders (Deadly Women / ID Network)
– Susan Hatters Friedman & Michael H. Friedman, Just as Deadly (2020) — criminological framing