Kentucky Fried Chicken Murders /// Part 2 /// 858 | Forensic Files

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Apple Podcast subscription. And Colonel, that's enough of the business. >> All right, everybody, gather around,
grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. [Music] Terry Pequard, president of Fast Stop
Foods and chairman of the Kilgore Chamber of Commerce Retail Merchants Committee, posted a $500 reward for
information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people who killed five people after a robbery.
He had this to say to the Kilgore News Herald. Kilgore has been shocked and horrified by the horrible, senseless,
cruel, terrible, terrible deaths of some of our friends and loved ones. The merciless massacre and slaughter of the
five people at Kentucky Fried Chicken has left our town in the families of Mary Tyler, David Maxwell, Joey Johnson,
Opie Hughes, and Monty Landers terrorstricken, completely deflated and emotionally drained. I am calling the
merchants and citizens of our town to band together and get mad. It's all right and it's normal for us to be sick
right now, but we must absolutely do our part to prevent anything similar from ever striking our town.
[Music] Five bodies, five victims, all taken from the Kilgore KFC the night before
were discovered in a Rusk County oil field about 14 miles south of Kilgore. All had been shot in the back of the
head with a large caliber weapon. Four of the bodies, the men and Mary Tyler were found together, lined up as if they
had been executed one by one. They were laying face down on the ground, side by side with their heads resting on their
hands in a somewhat relaxed position, although some were found with their hands covering their eyes. It is not too
difficult to imagine the abject terror the last one must have faced once he or she realized the asalants were going
down the line, shooting the victims one after the other. Opie, as we had said in
part one, was found apart from the rest about 20 to 50 yards away. Sources say both distances and in some sources
saying distances between 20 to 50 yards. I've seen reports of 20, 30, 40, 50 yards. It sounds like at minimum it's 20
yards. At maximum probably closer to 50 yards away from the other victims. This was leading authorities to believe that
she found the opportunity to try to escape. She was clutching clumps of dirt and grass in her hand and was still in
her KFC uniform with her name tag on the lapel. All the victims were robbed, their pockets turned inside out, and
each victim had been shot at least once. Reports revealed that the five victims had been shot a total of 11 times.
David, Monty, and Opie were shot twice in the back of the head. Mary was shot in the head and the back, and Joey
suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and lower side. Slugs taken from each victim were sent to ballistics for
analysis. Authorities did not intentionally reveal the type of caliber of weapon at the time, only saying the
victims had been shot with both large and small calibers. Although about $2,000 had been taken from the KFC
restaurant, the nature of the killing suggested overkill and a motive far beyond simple robbery. And that's kind
of where we left things hanging at the end of part one. This is an incredibly complicated case and I think a lot of
this has to do with the complications faced by the time period. It's 1983 and I feel as as much as this investigation
has been criticized over the decades, I personally feel that the investigation was hampered mostly by the lack of
technology to conclusively analyze and give hardcore evidence to the physical evidence that they had at the time.
Evidence that would lead to an arrest and conviction. >> Yeah, I I agree. being in 1983, lack of
technology, but also multiple victims, multiple crime scenes, little to no eyewitness accounts. When we take a look
at this on its surface, and even once you get into the details of this case, it's it's often thought that shares
similarities to some other cases and some that we have covered here in the garage. Some people point out to the
Lane Bryant shooting case. Some point out the yogurt shop case that also took place in Texas. To me, this one most
mirrors the Burger Chef case from Indiana in the greater Indianapolis area. That case to this day is still
unsolved. And the reason why I think this one is very similar, right? Most people say, "Oh, the Browns chicken
massacre from Illinois would be similar." Well, great. They both serve chicken. But here, a big part of this
case and one of the major details here is that the victims were removed from the restaurant. Five victims abducted,
moved, and killed at another location, which is actually the same thing that happened unfortunately at the Burg Chef
case, which still sits unsolved all of these years later. Texas Ranger Stuart Dao
said that at least one of the murder weapons was probably a 38 caliber pistol, but that two guns were used,
implying that there were two, perhaps even three persons, perpetrators involved, three potential murderers.
Here, a piece of broken fingernail was found on the belt loop or waistband. Again, sources vary on that detail. A
victim, Joey Johnson. This is going to play a big role in this investigation and this
story here. Authorities also agreed that the offenders were likely familiar with
the area, perhaps even somewhat local or lo very local since they appear to be obviously familiar with the winding
rugged roads leading to the remote Royal Oral Field, which of course was the eventual dump site or the kill location
for this particular heinous crime. They theorized, they being law enforcement, that the victims may have even known at
least one of their capttors well and heartbreakingly may have assumed that they would be released after having been
robbed, scared, and roughed up a little. Police felt the relaxed position of the
heads on their hands may have indicated at least some measure of trust. I don't know that. I I I I think that yes, we
can speculate on that and that's all you're left to do when you're law enforcement in this case looking at what
is presented to you. I don't know. I I to me and I guess we said this yesterday. To me, the only reason for
removing these individuals from the location is either one of them identified you or one of the persons
involved in the robbery or you were met with resistance that you did not anticipate. The victims were laid to
rest the following week. We talked about some of the evidence. Let's get into some other findings and maybe some
potential leads here, Captain. So immediately after the discovery of the bodies, searchers on foot and horseback
comb through the murder site at that oil field. They're fanning out for four miles in every direction looking for
clues. All they find was a rag and a shirt, but could not confirm a tie to any of the victims for either of these
items. likely this is probably just debris that one would have found out in this field whether there was a murder
that had taken place or not. As the days wore on, authorities grew frustrated at
the lack of leads in the case when they were at the crime scene. Here's the deal, man. They're they're hoping to
find fingerprints. And I know that sounds like a no duh statement here, but it's
>> you got to factor in that it's 1983. >> Yeah. And the the a fingerprint here is
your DNA essentially, right? What we we would hold that to the same degree as what we would consider DNA evidence to
this day, to current day. A lot of this is you're left with no survivors and no eyewitnesses. So, you are basing the
entirety of your investigation off of physical evidence and what evidence and clues you can find at both of these
scenes. >> In layman's terms, today if you find DNA, you go, "Got him." But back in
1983, you find a fingerprint. Got him. As far as analysis and fingerprints and blood and all that goes with some of the
different information that we've reviewed as the days wore on, the best they could get here is remember we have
that pool of blood that was found inside the restaurant. They did confirm that that blood was human blood. Police
frustrated by the lack of leads in the case called for psychics for their assistance. They even brought physically
brought two psychics out to the oil field to the field where the bodies were found. They were hoping to maybe get
some information, maybe some out of the box thinking or ideas here. They say that that really led to nothing. They
learned nothing new. We know that they were hoping to find fingerprints at the KFC, suspect prints, but the place is
going to be littered with prints, employee prints, customer prints, vendor prints. They're going to be all over the
place. The whole restaurant is one big Where's Waldo? And you're looking for a thumbnailsized piece of barely visible
evidence. >> But we have this blood. Does the blood match one of the victims or is this
blood from one of the killers? >> Well, at the time you're simply going to do blood typing, and what your analysis
will find is that it's type O blood. That's really all they're working with then and there in 1983. But this this
blood is going to play a pivotal role in this case and investigation as it drags
on through the years. And again, we have that van theory to pursue. Remember the
potential that this white van was possibly involved in the robbery abduction homicides. #ban the van. So
early on, one thing that investigators learned was that a white 1981 Ford van had been stolen that Friday night in
nearby Long View, Texas. So, this potentially matches or at least aligns with the description of the van that had
been seen parked at the back of the restaurant. This is going to spark the interest of the detectives for obvious
reasons because police suspected that the five vehic v victims had likely been transported to the field where they met
their fate by a van or maybe a similar large vehicle, large-siz vehicle. However, authorities quickly dismissed
this stolen van as being linked to the actual crime because they learned that the theft happened somewhere between
10:15 and 10:30 p.m., thus ruling it out because it does not allow enough time for the vehicle to make its way from
where it was stolen from to the abduction site. So, you're still looking for a van, just not this one.
Interestingly, yet another van had also reportedly been seen at and near the field where the bodies were discovered.
And I've read a few different reports on this other van that was spotted. Some of
them say white van, some of them say light colored van, and at least one report says that they spotted somebody
had seen a blue van. Forget what color it is. Here's what I find incredibly interesting and probably very helpful to
your investigation. It's a van. A van was spotted at the abduction scene and now you have sources telling you that a
van was spotted regardless of what color at the murder scene. >> Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think because
of the eyewitness, you would lean towards Van, but because the the because of the shell casing and because of the
the different caliber of guns, it's it is possible that, hey, meet me at the KFC and we're going to go rob this place
together and you have more than one vehicle. >> Absolutely. It's also possible that uh
yeah, that that a different type of vehicle was used. I but where I don't move on from is when I have multiple
sources telling me that a that a vehicle very similar in description is spotted at two of the crime scenes. Right. So I
I have three crime scenes. I know what two of those crime scenes are. >> The third one I don't know what it is.
That third crime scene could have been a freaking van for all I know. >> Right. So, the Kilgore police, they set
up a tip line to collect information from people who claim to have information about the robbery or
murders. Officially, Rusk County authorities were assigned to investigate the murders since they occurred in their
county. And then, remember, we have Kilgore Police Department officers were charged with investigating the robbery.
Look, this is how [ __ ] worked back then. And I hate this. It seems so damn dumb.
It's like I I don't get it. It's like, oh, the murders. And this is the other problem. We started off at the top of
show one purposely pointing out that one thing that is unique about this city. Most cities aren't this way, at least
where I live anyway, >> but this city resides in two different counties. A portion of it is in Greg
County, a portion of it is in Russ County. The abductions took place in Greg County. The murders took place in
Rusk County. And here you have Kilgore Police Department responding to the abduction site and robbery at the KFC
because it is city of Kilgore and that's who got the call. But you have the murder scene where the bodies are found
where the victims were unfortunately killed in Rusk County and when that was phoned into law enforcement that call
was received by Rusk County Sheriff's Department. >> Right. So you have investigating
agencies. Now the good of that here, Captain, is you have more people power, more man power, more woman power,
whatever you want to call it. Multiple law enforcement agencies and resources available to investigate what is
ultimately an extension of the same crime, >> right? Double the resources. >> But now you're also hoping that the
communication is seamless. And we've seen in many cases that the communication becomes very
muddy. >> [ __ ] I can tell you from life experience, it's difficult to have uh seamless communication with from one
person to another, let alone agency to agency, outfit to outfit when we're talking about multiple people and what
is a complicated investigation. You know, I used to lead teams of people and in one of the companies I worked for it
there was a lot of growth opportunity. They they were quick to promote people which would come with a raise and a
better title, maybe an an office with a window in it, what have you. What I constantly saw because there was so much
opportunity for growth was people squabbbling over credit over oh, you know, I did this, I did that, I made
this achievement, I made that achievement. And what I used to always remind every one of the people that that
work for me on my teams, I go, "That's nice and good, but keep in mind when you're seeking all the credit, you can
also catch all of the blame." >> Right? >> Again, I think they conducted a pretty
good investigation here. But today, this would have been handled differently. You
would have had multiple agencies working hand in hand. They can say they were working handinand in this case. I can
see things obvious signs where things weren't working so great hand to hand. Well, I think what makes it complicated
in 1983 would have made it easier today because you'd have multiple crime scenes that
you could then process and maybe get touch DNA or actual DNA from the killers because you have more locations to be
able to collect that information from. And I know you probably have a hard time communicating with me, but in my
defense, I have what they call a relaxed brain. >> One thing that is of particular interest
to me here is that we never anywhere hear any mention of tire tracks. I would have that would have been huge at the on
my list. that would have been at the top of my list of priorities. Tire tracks regarding the murder scene because we we
get this great description and all of this hypothesis, right? We get this educated guess and evidence indicators
of well, these victims were made to lie down. This victim, we can see evidence that she was attempting to flee. We can
tell by the way that she fell and what the scene is telling us that she had momentum when she went down. The rest of
them didn't. So if you have indicators telling you that off of the weight of a person, you I would expect to find tire
tracks from the weight of a vehicle and or vehicles that transported seven to eight or more people to this
location. But also, didn't you say that there was footprints found at the KFC >> in flour inside the restaurant?
>> So, does that tell us anything? Does that tell is it one set of footprints? Is it multiple footprints? Is it
footprints from the victims? Or is it footprints from suspects? >> That's going to So, and this is So, this
is where I'm going. Same thought with the tire tracks because if the pumper if if Arthur Warlick who arrives on the
scene just a man out there doing his job on a Saturday morning if he pulls in and
goes over top of those tire tracks especially if it's just a single vehicle that made those tire tracks
and tire tracks would be very important to me as an investigator for forget all the obvious reasons why they would be
important like the there's dozens of reasons why they'd be important. But to me, the number one would be to check
that box. There will be certain tires that will be used on a vehicle of that size that will not be used on vehicles
of other sizes. So, that could confirm if you should be looking for a van or not. But if the pumper drives over top
of those tracks, those are gone. And then when you talk about flower, I mean that if you sneeze, you mess up that
portion of the crime scene, right? that if you open a door, if there's any kind of breeze, it's flour. It's It's not
prints into dirt or mud. It's almost like a plaster caster uh sorry, a plaster cast of those tire tracks. This
is sneeze and and the flowers completely disrupted. So, we have to believe that when Kim arrived shortly after 10:30
p.m. to find the back door open and the flower having been spilled near the back
door of the KFC that that she and then the responding officer very likely completely disrupted the flower evidence
that that might tell you the shoe size of persons that tracked through that flower.
[Music] [Music] All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Cheers to you, Colonel. Uh, can I just
tell you a little something about me, Colonel, that you might not know? >> Sure. Back in the 70s when I used to go
disco dancing, my nickname was the pumper. >> The plumper. >> I was known to plump and pump on the
dance floor. >> Pump and dump. Shout out to the people in the back. Sorry you had to hear that. Now, look,
I'm I'm thankful that they did get a bunch of other agencies involved. And to let's read through this roster real
quick here before we move on. Captain, >> the who's whos of the crime world. >> Yeah, we already mentioned the Kilgore
Police Department and the Rusk County authorities as well, but we also had Long View who was involved, which which
makes sense. Remember, we have the reported stolen vehicle, stolen van from a dealership in Long View, Texas. We
also have Henderson Police Departments, which Henderson is is quite nearby where
this all went down. Greg County obviously was involved because that's where the abduction and robbery took
place. We have the Texas Attorney General's Office, the Department of Public Safety, Department of Wildlife,
and the Texas Rangers aided in the investigation. Later on, the Tyler Police Department. That's going to
become very obvious very soon why and how they got involved. Plus, you're going to have FBI
with joint efforts in on this as well. And a lot of it has to do with just not only the uh sheer brutality and
heinousness of these crimes, but also the types of crimes committed, robbery, abduction, going across county lines,
things of that nature. Now, less than a week after the murders, the Department of Public Safety asked Texas Ranger
Captain GW Burks to oversee the investigation into the abduction and murders of the five victims. The
coordination between Rusk and Greg County law enforcement officials had it had started to break down quickly,
right? And that's something that I was alluding to earlier when I was talking about my dissatisfaction of divvying up
investigating portions of the overall spectrum of this entire crime and the crimes committed. Burks though went on
record very early on saying that he was confident the case was solvable. A few days later, this is early October, we
get Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott, who interviewed potential eyewitness Star Spao, the
customer who had been at the KFC on the night of the crime. Star reported that while standing in line for her food, she
overheard two of the staff openly discussing the fact that the bank deposit had not been made earlier that
day, leaving $2,000 in cash in the till. She recalled her surprised reaction to overhearing the conversation, adding
that two African-American males, young African-American males, men were in line behind her and also an earshot of this
interesting exchange discussing money inside the restaurant. After interviewing this woman about the men
present at the KFC on the night of the murders, the Rangers reached out to local jurisdictions.
the Smith County Sheriff. This is another city and another county, Smith County at this point. So, the Smith
County Sheriff gets a gets a reach out from the Rangers here on with this bit of information. They soon develop a
lead. This is cousins Darnell Hartzfield and Romeo Pinkerton. So, authorities learned that there was a warrant out for
the arrest of Hartzfeld in connection with a robbery of a Tyler grocery store, Tyler, Texas grocery store. The crime
had occurred just 3 days after the KFC murders, and Tyler was only about 30 miles away from Kilgore. Even today, if
you pop into your map app, your favorite map app, you're going to see depending on route, it's 27 to 33 miles from
Kilgore to Tyler, Texas. >> Right. Wasn't one of these individuals just recently released from prison.
>> Yes, that's how the story goes. Now in this grocery store robbery, thankfully
no one lost their lives, but the crimes were very similar in nature, >> right? >> Both had occurred near closing time or
at closing time. Multiple perpetrators, multiple weapons were used to subdue the
patrons. In both robberies, the register was emptied and the petty cash box cleaned out. But the most chilling
similarity was that before the robbers left the store, the grocery store, they made the women lie on the floor with
their heads on their hands until they had safely gotten away. >> Were they all made to lay in the same
direction? >> That detail, as far as I know, has not been discussed. >> Right. According to an article for the
my imagine I would imagine that unless they were trying to conceal some kind of vehicle, if it was necessary to conceal
some kind of vehicle, you're probably just having them lay wherever they stand. >> Right?
>> If you think about the nature of the oil field murders, you're marching them in
there and you're like, "All right, we've gone far enough. lie down with your put
your put your hands on the ground and lay down. According to an article in the Long View Journal two weeks after the
abduction and homicides, police announced on October 7th that they had developed persons of interest in the
case. They informed the media that they were seeking three, two, three Tyler men
in their 20s for questioning and that one of them was believed to have driven a white van or be driving a white van at
the time. All three of the men wanted for questioning had a history of armed robbery and there was an arrest warrant
out for one of them in relation to the September 26th Tyler convenience store that grocery store robbery that we just
discussed. So they're they're looking for Hartzfeld and Pinkerton for questioning about this grocery store
robbery, but of course they're going to want to question him regarding KFC as well that happened just 3 days prior.
The third man that they're looking for is Elton Winston is his name. I've not been able to confirm this, but I believe
that Winston was a roommate of one of the other individuals. So, keep in mind Hartzfeld and Pinkerton are cousins.
Winston, I believe, is the roommate of one of these individuals. And I've seen several reports that say that the
roommate of one of these individuals owned a white van. So, authorities put together a wanted poster featuring these
characters, announcing that the two, at least Hartzfeld and Pinkerton, were being sought for questioning in
connection with the KFC robbery abduction homicides. Despite their efforts, Hartsfeld was in the wind,
could not be located. They did however catch up with Pinkerton. He, this goes along with what you were saying here,
Captain, seemed to have an airtight alibi for the night of the KFC murders. He said he was in prison on the day of
the crime and had only been released days after the murders. So, he's out in time to,
I guess, potentially be involved in this grocery store robbery. Yeah. I think they even looked into this, too, right?
And and they're like, "Oh, his story checks out. He was in prison." Well, since we're in the second half of the
second episode, I think we can go ahead and burn a bridge and give out a spoiler
alert here. You would hope that they reached out. >> Yeah. >> Because what we would learn here is that
while he says he was in jail or prison and at the time of the KFC murders, look, a couple things happened. either A
nobody checked, B they checked and again there could have been a breakdown in communication information wasn't correct
or C they checked and the information was wrong because what we're going to learn years later is no this was just a
good story that this guy told. Yes, he was in jail. He's a career criminal. He was in jail or prison at one time, but
not on the night of the KFC shootings. But here's where the investigation, I think, gets a little tangled up, right?
Because in addition to that robbery angle, we we know robbery was the motive or at least played a big part in the
motive because the money's all gone. But police were starting to hear these rumors, these local rumors about illegal
drug trafficking as a possible motive for the murder. So the rumors here, as I understand them, captain, are that there
were drugs being sold out of that store, out of the KFC restaurant. The thought was that there was some high-grade
methamphetamine recipe that was being made somewhere. Maybe it was being even made at the store. and that the the
drugs were being sold out of the store and hidden somewhere inside of the restaurant. So, this is going to drive
your investigation. Police then decide we got to round up all these known drug users and
distributors in the area. One of these individuals is a guy named Jimmy Mins Jr. This is a resident of Kilgore,
but he's like this local troublemaker, right? He's got a history of drug distribution. He's got a history of
arrest. So they find this James Earl Makins Jr. and he's questioned by the Texas Rangers regarding his potential
involvement in the KFC robbery and murders. He is the son, however, of Texas State Representative
Jimmy Mins. So Jimmy Min's super great guy, but this apple fell very far from the
tree because his son [ __ ] >> I was just going to say [ __ ] >> Yeah, absolute [ __ ]
>> You took the [ __ ] right out of my mouth. >> But can you figure out if this [ __ ]
is a murderer or not? >> So this dude, he's 30, Junior is 30 years old at the time. As said, he's got
multiple brushes with the law. mostly thanks to his habit of trafficking drugs. And this man, you couldn't the
dominoes, how they fall, right? You start looking at this Mins Jr. guy and here's what you figure out. Let's go
back to jail. You find out he was actually released from jail that Friday, the Friday of the murders. What was he
arrested for? An unlawful weapons charge. But then they figure out not only was he released in time to have
been a part of the robbery and homicides and oh he's a known drug trafficker. So
if drugs were involved and when you 1983 when you're arriving on the scene you got to think something
else is at play. Like you said you were the one that introduced the term overkill to this case and it's spot on
my friend. And so when you're when you're looking at the totality of this case and the crimes committed, you're
going 2,000 2500. This dollar amount, five murders doesn't make any sense. Just doesn't make any
sense. Why the overkill? Why the brutality, the heinousness of this particular crime? And so you're learning
that Min Jr. After you're talking to a bunch of people, you figure out, oh, he's released from prison or jail that
day and he what's one of the first thing he does on that Friday? He borrows a 38
caliber pistol from one of his friends. >> Not good. >> Well, that's the same caliber as one of
the guns used in the KFC shootings. It wouldn't be, Captain, until November 1st that authorities finally track down that
Darnell Hartsfeld. So they track him down and they charge him with the Tyler grocery store robbery. Hartzfeld is
interviewed by the Texas Rangers regarding potential involvement in the KFC murders,
>> right? >> But he passes a polygraph examination. So the investigators chose to move on
and they quit looking at Hartzfeld and now they're back looking at Mins Jr. the drug trafficker. Well, in this, like you
said, this whole area has a problem with drugs and you go the KFC, people working at the KFC would have
something to do with drugs. There's a famous series from 2008 to 2013 called Breaking Bad, and we all should remember
The Chicken Man. I wonder if that's where they they actually got that idea from is is this murder. But now if
you're law enforcement, we have these robberies. They're not that far apart, like you said, 27 to 30 mi away. But if
they're connected, then there's a there's not an escalation in the crimes. There's a deescalation, right? So, I
wonder if that's another thing that played into detective and law enforcement's mind of, well, maybe these
guys are involved in this one crime, but maybe they're not involved in this other
crime because this crime they killed all the eyewitnesses and and this other one
they didn't. >> Well, I think so. There's a lot of reasons I think why they were looking at
one guy over another, and I think this will clear a lot of that up. So remember we talked about it was November 1st that
they finally tracked down Darnell Hartzfeld. I don't have the exact date on when the polygraph examination was
took place or when they came up with the results of that test, but I do know that
6 days later during an interrogation conducted on their other guy that they liked, Jimmy Mins Jr., he con he
consents to a blood test. Remember, they found blood at the KFC. The blood test comes back as type O,
which was the same blood type as the blood found at the KFC restaurant. Also, during questioning, they noticed that
this drug dealer, Menkins Jr., his middle finger on his right hand has a torn fingernail. I get it. It's a month
and two weeks later, but this of course is going to be of interest to your investigation. They take photographs of
his fingers. They in fact take a mold and a cast of the finger that was missing the fingernails or sorry the
fingernail. And authorities found a sliver of a fingernail under that waistband or belt loop of one of the
murder victims. Remember and the prevailing technology of the day. Their thought was that the fingernail
striations that they were as unique as maybe even a fingerprint. >> So that if if so, right, like if if I
ripped off a portion of my fingernail, if it was large enough that they could compare that to fingernail clippings of
mine and confirm if it belonged to me or not. That's the general thought here. And obviously this is something they'd
have to do in 1983 and not something that they would do today. They could simply just do DNA testing. Here's the
other part of this too. Mins consents to the blood test. He also consents to Sure, let's clip a bunch of my
fingernails. You can have those as well. He consents to them taking a mold and cast of his finger that's missing has
the torn nail. >> Right. They again the blood type matches. They say when they analyze this
at the Southwestern Institute, the lab that we already mentioned, they say, "Yes, this is a match. This this broken
fingernail shard that we found on victim Joey Johnson matches Mkins Jr., our suspect." But it was determined that it
wasn't quite enough to charge and convict this dude with the murder. And all the reports out there say that by
Christmas time, all the leads had pretty much dried up in this case. There was not a whole lot that that happened as
far as to advance this investigation throughout the winter, spring, and summer. And when the first anniversary
rolled around in September of 1984, the murderers were still out there. So time is ticking by. There's no new leads or
breaks in the case. >> Yeah. But if you're in law enforcement, you're you're kind of at the point where
you go, "Well, there's no new leads, but we have these guys that we really think
are involved in the crimes. We just can't prove it." Right? I mean, maybe they moved off of them to to hunt down
other leads, but if I'm law enforcement, I'm not taking these guys off my my my murder board.
>> Oh, absolutely not. I mean, you don't go, "Well, there's not enough to convict
the guy, so we we just remove him." This was I thought this was interesting because this sounded more to me like
something I would suspect to find when we were viewing older cases from the 20s, 30s, 40s,
>> right? >> But, you know, you get a whole year that goes by, no justice for these victims,
no justice for their families. Then you have multiple years that go by, no justice for the victims, no justice for
the families. As the 10th anniversary of the killings neared, there was an increased media attention and press
attention regarding the still unsolved case. On the eve, the night before the 10th anniversary, some family members
asked Russ County DA Kyle Freeman to call in the state attorney general's office in attempt to reinvigorate this
stalled investigation. A month later, he compiled inviting the state attorney general's
office to assume responsibility for the case. Now, the the part of this that I would suspect that you would find in a
much older case was the people of Kilgore. The longer that this drug on and I think because of the brutality and
how many victims were involved, they were like openly getting more and more angry. They were
bloodthirsty to find the the perpetrators and punish them. Not just Texas capital punishment style. A lot of
the locals were like, "When we find these guys, we need to bring back a public execution. They should be
beheaded in the middle of town." So, Captain, it was around this 10-year time that we see that we get uh that
fingernail shard found on victim Joey Johnson. That sample is then sent to a new laboratory. This is Jen uh sorry
Jean Screen in Dallas for testing. Meanwhile, we have the Rusk County that convened a grand jury in March of 1995.
So for this grand jury, we have 15 witnesses that were subpoenaed, some of whom claimed that they had no idea why
they were even called to testify. I think they were just freaking desperate by this point. The grand jury comprised
of seven men and five women. Among the witness list were former state representative Jimmy Mins
and his son Jimmy Mkins Jr. And so he this is all going to go back to the blood and that fingernail clipping that
was found on the on the victim. This grand jury session lasted I believe three hours. Man Jr. testified in front
of the grand jury on in April of 95. Details of his testimony are not shared with the public, but two days after he
testified in front of the grand jury, he was indicted on all five counts of capital murder for these homicides. Got
him. >> So, by this time, it had been 11 years, 7 months, and 4 days since the brutal
slangs in Russ County. They set the bail at $2.5 million, $500,000 for each of the five victims.
Texas Attorney General Dan Morales announced that if Mkins Jr. was found guilty of the crimes, his office would
seek the death penalty. His trial was moved from nearby Henderson to Bowmont in July of 1995.
The trial was supposed to start the 24th of July. It was delayed several times. I
think it was delayed several times because I think the prosecution was still trying to build their case.
>> Right. That makes sense. >> So, it actually doesn't start until November of 95.
>> Well, because it's complicated because you have a crime with so many victims and there's evidence that there's not
just one killer. So, I think it'd be hard to put just one killer because basic I mean, am I making any sense?
Because the defense team's going to go, "Yeah, well, you got the wrong guy, and by the way, there's more than one guy."
And we and we know because of the evidence, there's more than one guy. >> Well, think about the time that had
passed. We talked about it been over 11 years between the murders, and now we got somebody who is indicted,
>> right? In this case, I'm I'm thankful that that amount of time took place because technology has advanced and we
have physical evidence that we can test. And what ultimately happens is they determined that that fingernail did not
come from Mins Jr. even though the grand jury said go ahead and charge him and try him for the five murders.
>> Right. So eventually they have to the charges are dismissed. the case is going
to go cold again. Man Jr. does end up going to prison. I believe it was 10 years that he gets,
but this was for something a completely separate crime. This was for a federal drug
charge. >> Well, like you said, he's a [ __ ] bag, so he's eventually going to get caught for
doing something shitty. >> But police and investigators, the FBI, the sheriff's departments, none of them
ever gave up on this case. And we have all kinds of evidence. Again, it's not just the fingernail shard, but we also
have blood evidence that was found at the robbery and abduction scene. These key pieces of evidence. So, you have
blood stain on napkin on a napkin. You also have a box that held cash register tape that contained blood on it. We had
the puddle of blood that was found in the store as well. And we also mentioned that there was a small amount of blood
on some of the file folders that was in the manager's office. It would take until 2001
that they finally turned a major corner on this case when they linked DNA from the blood evidence to Romeo
Pinkerton. >> Old Pinkerton. So, one of your original suspects that you can never really tie
100% to the point of, hey, let's take this guy to court, take him to trial, finally happens all of these years
later. And you don't have to go very far to look for this dude because his ass is
already sitting in prison for a completely other crime. He's he's an inmate of the Texas Department of
Corrections. Well, but I'm guessing law enforcement and prosecutors then threaten the death penalty because
there's five victims. Yeah, this is this is the part of the case that gets really strange for me because he's going
to swear up and down that he's innocent. He's going to face likely face the death
penalty and so then he has a change of heart. remember that it appears they had moved on from him and moved on from
Hartsfeld in part because of a past polygraph. And that's what amazes me that we're 10 years in on this garage
business, this garage thing we're doing here. And we we were talking about don't
move on on polygraph examination results. We were talking about that in the first 15 episodes that we did 10
years ago. This is a similar situation. They they moved on from him for and I think part of that too is not just the
polygraph, but I think they thought they had a better suspect, right, in Manin Jr. And I think the evidence at the time
was suggesting that Minans Jr. was a better suspect. It was just technology needed to catch up to what evidence they
had. >> Also, the narrative that they came up with makes more sense. There's some kind
of drug deal going on. there's some kind of drug operation that that means there's big money involved. Okay. Well,
so what? There's $2,000 missing from the register. But well, how many how many thousands of dollars in drugs are
missing? So, I just think the narrative makes more sense. And and then they're taken out to this o oil field and
they're executed. Like if you're law enforcement on some level, you're going, there's no way somebody's going to do
all this. Not somebody, but somebody's is going to do all this and kill these five people for for what? $1,500,
$2,000. And if you go with that narrative, you go, well, h how many of these people
that worked at the KFC were actually part of this drug operation? So they're not just innocent bystanders that are
being killed. So, I just think the narrative makes a little more sense. >> Yeah. And and to
to clear the deck here a little bit, that drug angle was just wrong. It they were just wrong about that. And I think
that that's where you have the imagination of the civilians in the area going, "But why
would they murder five people? There was hardly any money in the there's only $2,000,
>> right?" And I think, remember, it was local rumor that really started up that
whole idea that there was a big drug angle here. And it's not a far-fetched theory, but I think that that rumor
fueled a some misdirection in the investigation. There was never they were never able to
ever prove any kind of drug angle. The only drug angle that's likely involved here is that your perpetrators of the
robbery, abduction, and homicides were probably drug users. >> Yeah. Or >> and they didn't go there looking for
drugs. They went there looking for money and they found it. And if they were in fact one of the individuals or both the
individuals that were standing in line, they heard that there was a bunch of money there.
>> Well, I think the only drugs that were at that KFC were in the Colonel's secret
recipe. Pinkerton, even though he swore up and down that he was innocent, maintained his innocence even after he
plead guilty to the crimes, >> right? And you can say all day and night that he was innocent. His blood was
found at the abduction scene. Now, his believed co-conspirator, Darnell Hartzfeld, he too claims he's innocent.
>> [ __ ] number two. >> There are prisons filled with innocent people. filled and filled with all these
every nobody's done anything. They get in 2003, they get a new grand jury to um indict Darnell Hartzfeld,
>> but they have no physical evidence against him, right? >> His blood and DNA was found at the
abduction scene as well. So, his DNA evidence from a spot of blood on the cashier's tape box put him at the KFC on
the night of the murders. He was already facing other charges. He had been arrested, previously arrested in Tyler,
Texas. He was facing charges for burglarizing a Griffin elementary school as well as evading arrest in uh in in
some case. So, he continued to be a [ __ ] after the KFC murders. And blood and DNA evidence put both of these guys
at the scene at the time of the abductions. I again I think that their blood being found at the scene is also
indicative that they were faced with resistance that they didn't expect to find.
>> Yeah. Somebody messed them up. >> Yes, they were messed up and they decided we're going to retaliate and I
if if it were me there and I'm met with any kind of resistance probably using one of the female victims
to try to control and move the herd, >> if you want to call it that. >> Yeah. But good for somebody uh trying to
stop this attack for trying to do something because if they didn't get attacked, if they didn't leave their
blood there, this this crime might never be solved because as time passed, a lot
of this evidence would have just been lost or you could argue it's contaminated and and these tests
wouldn't matter. So, they lock him up on this aggravated perjury charge. He's found guilty of aggravated perjury. This
is in 2005. He's not actually going to face trial for the actual murders until 2008.
And th this is the interesting spin and angle to this this bizarre story because what you have
here is DNA evidence tells us that these guys were both present at the abduction
and robbery, but neither of them are willing to admit that they had done it. Even though even though one plead
guilty, the one that plead guilty refused to. He didn't he wouldn't testify and he didn't tell anybody what
what had happened. He wouldn't even point the finger at his co-conspirator or his cousin.
>> Right. One thing that we would learn, this was like a big mystery that in in kind of a bomb drop was in 2002
they're reviewing they're using a black light to go over the physical evidence that was found at the at the scene and
the victim's clothing. And when they do this with one of the female victims, they find semen
and they test this the semen that was found on her clothing and they determined that she very likely was
raped before being killed. And the DNA from that does not match Pinkerton or Hartsfell. So, you have two guys that
won't talk, two guys that are sent away to prison, >> two guys claiming they're innocent,
>> and a third guy that you have no idea who he is. I'm hoping, look, we're sitting here in 2025,
and I'm hoping that they're going to use genealogy work on on this to figure out
who it is. I do know that >> they ran it through Cotus, right? And there was no match.
>> That's correct. And so my suspicion here is, and good for the state of Texas because they actually
started collecting convicted felons DNA uh well before a lot of other states. I think they started in 1996
and then it was in the early as mids that they actually started using DNA in Totus to go back and clear some of these
old cases. What you could have here though is 83 to 96. You could have that the third perpetrator who's never been
named. He may have died before any of that happened. >> Yeah, this case has many names mostly
called Kentucky Fried Chicken murders or KFC murders. But what a bizarre case. Yeah, both of the cousins,
one plead guilty, the other was found guilty. The prosecutors chose not to seek the
death penalty. Both Pinkerton and Hartzfeld received five automatic life sentences in prison.
Darnell Hartzfeld has faced and been denied multiple parole reviews since his conviction in 2008.
In 2022, with his next parole hearing on the horizon for January of 23, fate stepped in
and he passed away. So he was 61 years old. He suffered a massive stroke in his cell
while being incarcerated for these crimes. So he died at the French Albertson unit in Abalene, Texas. So, he
finally got the death sentence that he he probably deserved here. And as far as Pinkerton goes, he is still around and
his next chance at parole is scheduled for July of 2029. If there was a third person involved,
that man has never been held accountable for these unspeakable crimes. Want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. Colonel, do we
have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners? >> Yes, of course. Thank you, Captain. This
week we are recommending The KFC murders, the deadly saga of the infamous East Texas 1983 KFC massacre by Jackie
Hillbornne Simmons and Kenneth Dean. I would also recommend the Cold Case Files with Bill Curtis episode, the old Cold
Case Files episode featuring Bill Curtis on this particular case. It's titled Friday Night Ghost. I think it's one of
the better cold case file episodes that in existence. Check that out. But also check out the book, The KFC Murders, a
news account. You can find that title and many more on our website's recommended page, true crimegar.com.
And >> until next week, >> be good, be kind, don't live. Heat. Heat. [Music]

Kentucky Fried Chicken Murders /// Part 2 /// 858

Part 2 of 2

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The “Kentucky Fried Chicken Murders, Kentucky Fried Chicken Massacre, the KFC murders, the Texas KFC murders” all typically refer to the 1983 Kilgore, Texas, Kentucky Fried Chicken massacre, a brutal armed robbery and mass murder that occurred at a KFC restaurant on a football Friday night. It’s a case with many names, that lives in infamy in the great state of Texas. Five people were killed during the incident. The case remained unsolved for over two decades.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the 1983 KFC murders in Texas, detailing the investigation and eventual arrests of suspects Hartzfeld and Pinkerton.

Key points

Community Shocked by Tragedy. Terry Pequard expresses the community's horror over the senseless deaths at KFC.
Victims Found in Oil Field. Five victims were discovered in a remote oil field, executed in a chilling manner.
Investigation Complicated by Technology. The investigation faced significant challenges due to the lack of technology in 1983.
Blood Evidence Plays Pivotal Role. Type O blood found at the scene could be crucial in the investigation.
Stolen Van Leads Investigators Astray. A stolen van was initially suspected but ruled out due to timing.
The Fragility of Evidence. Discussing how minor disturbances can ruin critical evidence at a crime scene.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's all right and it's normal for us to be sick right now.

Terry Pequard addressing the community's feelings.

4:19WatchJul 23, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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