John Kinney (outlaw)
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John Kinney (1847 - August 25th, 1919) was an outlaw of the Old West, who formed the John Kinney Gang.
Kinney was born in Hampshire, Massachusetts. His family later moved to Iowa, and in 1865, after the Civil War ended, Kinney enlisted in the US Army. At the rank of sergeant, Kinney was mustered out of the army in 1873. He settled in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, and for reasons unknown organized a gang, which began committing acts of robbery and cattle rustling. Jessie Evans was one of the early members. On December 31st, 1875, Kinney, Evans, Jim McDaniels and Pony Diehl entered a saloon in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they became involved in a brawl with Cavalry soldiers from Fort Seldon. The outlaws were beaten badly, and thrown out of the saloon. They returned shortly thereafter and opened fire, killing two soldiers and wounding one civilian, and wounding two other soldiers and one civilian.
Not long afterward, Evans broke away from the gang to form the Jessie Evans Gang. John Kinney enlisted his gang in the El Paso Salt War. Then, both gangs were later enlisted by the "Murphy-Dolan Faction" at the outset of the Lincoln County War, and it would be Jessie Evans and members of his gang who killed John Tunstal, which spurred Billy the Kid and his "Regulators" into action. During the battle and siege of the McSween house, Billy the Kid fired a shot into the face of Kinney, but Kinney survived. In 1878, Kinney was arrested for the murder of Ysabel Barela, but was acquitted.
In 1883 Kinney was arrested for cattle rustling, and sentenced to prison. Released in 1886, he did not return to his outlaw life. By that time all the members of his former gang were either dead, in prison, or had disappeared. He served in the US Army during the Spanish American War, and was successful as a miner in Chapparral Gulch, Arizona before retiring to Prescott, Arizona. He died there on August 25, 1919.
