Kentucky Fried Chicken murders
1983 mass murder at a Texas KFC, unsolved for 22 years.
The Kentucky Fried Chicken murders were an armed robbery and mass murder at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, in 1983. The case remained unsolved for over two decades.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Kilgore, Texas, U.S.
- Date
- 23 September 1983
- Fatalities
- 5
- Victims
- Opie Hughes
- Joey Johnson
- Monty Landers
- David Maxwell
- Mary Tyler
- Perpetrators
- Darnell Hartsfield
- Romeo Pinkerton
- Devan Riggs
Facts from the source article.
Robbery and murders
On the evening of September 23, 1983, armed robbers held up the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, just before closing. The five people present—three employees and two friends waiting for someone—were abducted to a nearby field on County Road 232. Each was executed with a shot to the back of the head and shots to the torso.
Investigation
For 22 years the case was unsolved, though several people were arrested. A torn fingernail found on a body led to the arrest of James Earl Mankins Jr., but DNA analysis cleared him. In November 2005, cousins Darnell Hartsfield and Romeo Pinkerton, already imprisoned for other crimes, were charged with capital murder. Investigators stated that DNA evidence indicated a third, then-unidentified perpetrator committed the rape. In 2023 the Texas Rangers reopened the case. In May 2025, DNA on a victim's clothing identified three brothers in East Texas; in November, Devan Riggs, who died in 2010, was positively identified as the DNA source.
Convictions
Jury selection for Romeo Pinkerton began August 6, 2007, and was completed September 27, 2007. His death penalty trial was set for October 15, 2007, in New Boston. On October 29, 2007, Pinkerton pleaded guilty to five lesser counts of murder and received five concurrent life sentences; he serves at the James V. Allred Unit in Wichita Falls. In 2008, Darnell Hartsfield was convicted at trial in Bryan, Texas, and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences; the Texas Sixth Court of Appeals upheld the conviction on February 4, 2010. Hartsfield died on May 4, 2022, from a massive hemorrhagic stroke in his jail cell at age 61.
More in Attacks on Restaurants in the United States
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced