November 30, 1939 in Independence, Missouri…

Sharon Elizabeth Hall was born. She was raised by her mother, who was an alcoholic.

She met James Kinne at a church function when she was just 16 years old.

The couple, despite James’s strong religious background, became physical very early on in their relationship.

The summer romance got serious when it was time for James to go back to school. Sharon didn’t want him to leave, so she told him that she was pregnant. She lied.

The couple married in 1956. Sharon couldn’t hide the fact that she wasn’t really pregnant for long after the marriage, so she faked a miscarriage.

Shortly after this, Sharon became pregnant, for real, and gave birth to a daughter in 1957. The couple named her Danna.

By 1960, the couple also had a son, Troy, but the marriage was on the rocks. Sharon was unhappy with the couple’s middle class lifestyle and wanted more. It was also rumored that she was having an affair.

Sharon told James that she wanted a divorce. She also wanted the house, $1000 and custody of their daughter only. After talking to his parents about it, James was determined to give his marriage another try.

On March 19, 1960, James laid down for a nap. He was shot while he slept. Sharon told police that he had been cleaning his .22 semi-automatic pistol before his nap and must have left it where Danna could reach it.

Sharon said that she heard her daughter say, “Daddy, show me this.” Then she heard a shot.

The police ruled the death an accident and Sharon was awarded her husband’s life insurance.

She decided to use a portion of the money to purchase a new car. At the car dealership, she met a salesman named Walter Jones who sold her a Ford Thunderbird. The two began an affair, despite the fact that James had been dead less than a month and Walter was married.

Almost immediately, Sharon told Walter that she was pregnant. He did not want this to break up his marriage and told Sharon to never contact him again.

Upset that she was alone and pregnant, Sharon called Walter’s wife, Patricia, and said that she would like to meet with her. Sharon told the woman that Walter had been having an affair with her sister.

Patricia was dropped off by a friend and was seen getting into Sharon’s Thunderbird. She did not return home that evening.

Walter was immediately suspicious of Sharon’s involvement in his wife’s disappearance. He admitted to threatening and assaulting Sharon in an attempt to get her to tell him where Patricia was.

Sharon held firm that she did not know and even participated in an organized search for Patricia. After the search, she met up with an old boyfriend from high school named John Boldizs.

She and John went out and then parked at a popular “make out spot.” That’s when Sharon pointed at something illuminated by the headlights. She made John get out and investigate.

He found Patricia’s body. She had been shot 4 times and dumped on the side of the road. John wanted to report this to the police immediately, but Sharon insisted that he drive her home and made him promise not to tell the police that she had been with him.

He drove her home and went immediately to the police station. He told them that he had found a body and that Sharon had been with him.

Sharon was arrested and charged with the murder of Patricia and James.

The trial for Patricia’s murder was postponed until the birth of Sharon’s third child. She was acquitted of Patricia’s murder, but she was convicted of James’s murder in 1962. She was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1963, her conviction was overturned on a technicality. Her second trial was held in March 1964, but was deemed a mistrial because it was discovered that a juror had once retained a law partner of the prosecutor.

Her third trial also resulted in a mistrial when the jury was split 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal.

In September 1964, while waiting for her fourth trial to begin, Sharon accompanied her new lover, Samuel Puglise, on a trip to Mexico. While there, the couple got into an argument and Sharon went to a bar. There she met a man named Francisco Parades Ordonez. The two went back to his hotel room.

Sharon and Francisco got into an argument and she shot him. When a hotel employee opened the door to the hotel room, she shot him too. Francisco died and the hotel employee was wounded. Sharon was arrested.

She reportedly told a representative of the US Embassy that she had “shot men before and managed to get out of it.” She was called “La Pistolera” by the Mexican newspapers.

Officials determined that the gun used to kill Francisco was also the gun used to kill Patricia, but, due to double jeopardy, she couldn’t be tried for that crime again.

Sharon was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She appealed the sentence and the Mexican court found that she had not been punished severely enough. The appeals court added an additional 3 years to her sentence.

On December 7, 1969, Sharon escaped from the Ixtapalapa Women’s prison and was never seen again.

There is some speculation as to whether she actually escaped or if she was killed by guards or possibly murdered by family members of Francisco. Others say she escaped to Guatemala.

A warrant for her arrest is still active in Missouri today.

A video summary of this week’s post can be found at