Kentucky Fried Chicken murders

The Kentucky Fried Chicken murders were an armed robbery and mass murder which took place at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, in 1983. For over two decades, it was unsolved.

Kentucky Fried Chicken murders
Location	Kilgore, Texas, U.S.
Date	September 23, 1983 (1983-09-23)
Attack type	Armed robbery, mass murder
Deaths	5
Victims	Opie Hughes Joey Johnson Monty Landers David Maxwell Mary Tyler
Perpetrators	Darnell Hartsfield Romeo Pinkerton

Robbery and murders

On the evening of September 23, 1983, just before the restaurant closed, armed robbers held up the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, US. The five people in the restaurant at the time (three of whom were restaurant employees, and two of whom were friends of one of them, and waiting for someone there), were abducted, taken to a nearby field on County Road 232, and each executed with a shot to the back of the head. One of the victims, who was found a short distance from the others, had been raped.

The victims' bodies were discovered by a local resident and were identified as: David Maxwell (20), Joey Johnson (20), Monty Landers (19), Mary Tyler (37) and Opie Hughes (39).

Investigation

For 22 years, the case remained unsolved, although several people were arrested. The discovery of a torn fingernail on one of the bodies led to the arrest and charging of James Earl Mankins Jr., a man with prior drug convictions who was also the son of state representative Jimmy Mankins. However, DNA analysis concluded that the fingernail was not his, and he was released after the beginning of pre-trial proceedings.

In November 2005, two men (already in prison for other crimes) were arrested and charged: cousins Darnell Hartsfield (44) and Romeo Pinkerton (47). At the time of arrest, Hartsfield, a Tyler resident, was serving a life sentence for aggravated perjury in connection with the case. They were both charged with capital murder and could have received the death penalty if convicted.

Convictions

Jury selection in Pinkerton's trial began August 6, 2007 in New Boston and completed on September 27, 2007. Pinkerton's death penalty trial was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on October 15, 2007, at the Bowie County Courthouse in New Boston. An April 2007 article from the Houston Chronicle details Pinkerton's denial of the crime. Despite this, on October 29, 2007, Romeo Pinkerton pleaded guilty to five lesser counts of murder and was sentenced to five concurrent life sentences as a part of a plea deal. He is currently serving his sentence at the James V. Allred Unit in Wichita Falls.

In 2008, Hartsfield was convicted at trial in Bryan (Brazos County), Texas (on a change of venue from East Texas due to pre-trial publicity) and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. On February 4, 2010, the Texas Sixth Court of Appeals upheld Hartsfield's conviction.

Possible third perpetrator

DNA evidence taken from Opie Hughes' body – found some distance away from the rest of the victims – indicated she had been sexually assaulted. However, the DNA did not match that of Hartsfield, Pinkerton, Mankins, or any other suspect. This led investigators to the possibility of a third man. Neither of the two convicted felons ever revealed the identity of any accomplice.

The murders were featured in the "Friday Night Ghosts" episode of Cold Case Files, which aired in February 2022.

Death of Darnell Hartsfield

On May 4, 2022, one of the two suspects, Darnell Hartsfield, died after suffering a massive hemorrhagic stroke in his jail cell at the French M. Robertson Unit in Abilene at age 61. At the time, Hartsfield's next parole hearing had been scheduled for January 2023.