Opie Ann Hughes, a 39-year-old woman from Kilgore, Texas, tragically lost her life on September 23, 1983. She was one of five victims in a horrific crime known as the Kentucky Fried Chicken murders. On the evening of the incident, armed robbers held up the KFC restaurant in Kilgore, abducting Hughes and four others: Mary Tyler , Joey Johnson , David Maxwell , and Monty Landers . The victims were taken to a remote oil field road, where they were executed execution-style with a shot to the back of the head. Hughes was found a short distance from the others, and evidence indicated she had been sexually assaulted before being shot.
The case remained unsolved for over two decades, with several arrests and investigations that led nowhere. In 1995, James Earl Mankins Jr. was arrested and charged with the murders based on a shaky case involving a ripped fingernail found on one of the victims. However, DNA analysis later cleared him of the charges. It wasn't until 2001, when DNA testing linked the crime to Darnell Hartsfield and his cousin Romeo Pinkerton, that significant progress was made. Both men were already in prison for other crimes at the time of their arrest.
In 2007, Romeo Pinkerton pleaded guilty to five counts of murder and received five concurrent life sentences as part of a plea deal. Darnell Hartsfield was convicted at trial in 2008 and also received five consecutive life sentences. Despite their convictions, Hartsfield maintained that there was a third, unidentified killer involved in the crime. The search for this possible third perpetrator continues to this day.
The Kilgore KFC murders remain a dark chapter in the town's history, with the victims' families and the community still seeking closure and justice for Opie Ann Hughes and her fellow victims.
