On June 13, 1934, Special Agent Carl Kennedy was shot in the heart in Excelsior Springs, Missouri when he interrupted several men breaking into a boxcar parked on a siding near the railroad depot. An employee reported the sound of gunfire and Agent Kennedy's body was discovered in the railway yards where he had been shot through the heart. Agent Kennedy's shotgun with both barrels fired, was discovered near his body.

Two men and a woman were arrested and charged with his murder.

Special Agent Kennedy was a U.S. Army veteran of WWI. Following his discharge after the war Agent Kennedy served as a city policeman before being appointed as a special agent for the railroad. He was survived by his wife, two children and his mother. Interred: Weathermon Cemetery, Guilford, Nodaway County, MO.