REOPENED: Friday Night Ghosts

Summary

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Cold Case Files: REOPENED – Friday Night Ghosts

Original Air Date: March 12, 2026
Host: Marisa Pinson (Narrator)

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode of "Cold Case Files" investigates one of East Texas’ most haunting unsolved mass murders: the 1983 Kilgore KFC massacre. Initially baffling investigators, the case took decades—thanks to the perseverance of victims’ families and advances in forensic science—before some justice was finally achieved. The episode explores the profound impact on the community, the complexity of the investigation, the heartbreak of false leads, and the bittersweet resolution, all while highlighting the persistent search for the truth—and one suspect who remains at large.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Night of the Crime (00:00–10:00)

• Victims introduced:
  On September 23, 1983, five people connected to the Kilgore KFC restaurant—employees Mary Tyler, Joey Johnson, Opie Hughes, David Maxwell, and Monty Landers—disappear after work.
• Discovery:
  The next morning, four bodies were discovered in a rural oil field; all had been executed. (09:29)
• Crime scene details:
  All but one victim (Opie Hughes) were together, lying face down, executed in the same manner, signifying a calculated, cold-blooded crime (10:01).

Notable Quote

“They were all lying on their stomachs with their heads on their hands. They were shot in the back of the head or in the back multiple times. This was an execution.”
—Investigator, 10:01

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Community Impact and Initial Investigation (10:59–17:35)

• Community Shock:
  The murders shattered the close-knit Kilgore community, leading to widespread fear and grief among families and friends.
• Early leads:
  Law enforcement investigates individuals with criminal backgrounds, focusing early suspicion on Jim Earl Mankins Jr., a local troublemaker and drug dealer with a torn fingernail matching one recovered from a victim (17:35–19:07).
• Rumors and Theories:
  Various rumors—including possible drug activity at the restaurant—complicate the early investigation (20:10).

Notable Quote

“When I found out what had taken place, I don't even know how I absorbed it. It was like my world just fell apart.”
—Friend/Co-worker of Victims, 13:31

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Red Herrings and Forensic Frustrations (17:58–31:12)

• Forensic Limitations:
  Initial forensic science (fingerprint and fingernail striation comparison) is not conclusive. DNA testing, still in its infancy, fails to connect Mankins to the crime conclusively (19:07, 28:38).
• False Hope:
  Grand jury indicts Mankins in 1995 based on partial DNA similarities, but advanced testing later eliminates him as a suspect—devastating the families and setting the investigation back to square one (29:46–30:17).

Memorable Moment

“And the DNA analyst got on the phone and she said, okay, I have results. And we were all looking at the speakerphone and she said, yeah, it's not his nail. You could just hear a pin drop.”
—Narrator/Investigator, 29:46

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Perseverance and the Breakthrough (31:12–35:48)

• New Eyes, New Science:
  By 2000, now-Sheriff James Stroud teams up with retired FBI agent George Keeney. Using newer DNA analysis, they resubmit old evidence from the crime scene. (32:02–32:53)
• The Big Break:
  DNA found on a box and a napkin at the crime scene conclusively matches Darnell Hartsfield and Romeo Pinkerton, two past suspects with criminal records and documented proximity to the KFC on the night of the murders (32:53–33:45).
• Sexual Assault Revealed:
  Investigators also discover semen on Opie Hughes’ clothing, indicating she was sexually assaulted—evidence that points to a still-unidentified third suspect (34:10–35:05).

Notable Quote

“Finding out that Opie had been raped was like getting hit by a train. I never saw that coming and my heart just broke.”
—Friend/Co-worker of Victims, 34:33

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Justice and Lingering Mystery (35:48–37:17)

• Prosecution and Conviction:
  In 2005—over 22 years after the murders—a grand jury indicts both Hartsfield and Pinkerton. Pinkerton pleads guilty to avoid the death penalty. Hartsfield is found guilty by jury and sentenced to life in prison (35:48–36:55).
• Unidentified Third Perpetrator:
  DNA evidence links neither convicted nor previously suspected individuals to the sexual assault, indicating a third perpetrator who has never been found.

Notable Quotes

“So many people over the years have made a commitment that until they leave this world, they will keep searching for the truth and for that final person.”
—Investigator/Texas Ranger, 37:17

“Yes, they've gotten two. Okay. But there's still a part of us that's not able to move forward because there's no closure.”
—Family Member of Victims, 37:25

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Grisly discovery in oil field: 09:29–10:28
• Investigative dead ends and family grief: 13:22–14:32
• First suspect: Jim Earl Mankins Jr.: 17:35–20:10
• Rumors and drug angles: 20:10–21:05
• Alternate suspects: Hartsfield and Pinkerton: 22:01–23:31
• Years without answers, family persistence: 26:44–27:55
• Grand jury indictment and collapse: 28:38–30:17
• Case re-examined with new forensic science: 32:02–33:45
• Discovery of sexual assault; third perpetrator: 34:10–35:25
• Conviction of Hartsfield and Pinkerton: 35:48–36:55
• Ongoing search for the final suspect: 37:17–38:05

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Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “These people were still out there. It could happen to someone else's family.” —Family Member of Victims, 27:17
• “When you're dealing with evidence, it has to be conclusive, it has to be tangible. And DNA at that time was becoming such a big word.” —Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff, 28:28
• “We had a meeting with all five families shortly after the hits came in. And once I pulled the wanted poster out and showed them, several members of the family started to cry...” —Narrator/Investigator, 33:45

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Conclusion & Tone

"Friday Night Ghosts" is both a meticulous procedural and a poignant chronicle of loss and justice deferred. The stoic, reflective tone underscores a community’s enduring pain and the unyielding dedication of those who refused to let the case be forgotten. The episode emphasizes how advances in forensics, combined with relentless determination, can eventually crack even the most confounding mysteries. It ends with hope—but also with the ache of unfinished business, as one perpetrator still evades the reach of justice.

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Transcript

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[Narrator/Investigator]

asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end.

[Narrator/Host]

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[Family Member of Victims]

I remember my stepmother stating that she had to run to the restaurant. I remember pulling the curtain out just a little bit and I just kind of watched her drive off. I don't ever remember doing that before. I have over the years thought about Mary and David and Opie and Monty and Joey out there in that oil field and there were just so many unanswered questions of who, why, what kind of monster it could have been to do that to them.

[Narrator/Host]

There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America. Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's shortly before 12am on September 23, 1983, and Leanne Raspberry, the manager at a local KFC restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, is unwinding at home after her shift.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

Kilgore was, you know, an oil town, a very nice area, wholesome families. Everybody kind of knew everybody and football was a big thing, you know, being in Texas. At Kilgore KFC restaurant, our biggest day of the week would be Friday because before the Football games. Mothers didn't have time to cook. The whole town was busy, busy, busy. Everybody was just gearing up for the big football night.

[Narrator/Host]

Her moment of relaxation is disturbed when her phone begins to ring. It's the Kilgore Police Department. They tell Leanne that they're over at the restaurant and something isn't right. Leann climbs into her car and drives the short distance to the restaurant to meet with the police. She's informed by officers that something happened after she'd punched out of work following her shift. The assistant manager, Mary Tyler, was preparing to close up for the night when her daughter, Kim Miller, stopped by for a visit. Lisa Foster, Mary Tyler's stepdaughter, recalls what happened next.

[Family Member of Victims]

When Kim got there, she had noticed the front door being locked, so she went around to the back. The back door was wide open. Then nobody's there.

[Narrator/Host]

Kim slowly approached the back door and peered inside the restaurant. Kim's stepsister, Denise Maynard, describes what she found.

[Family Member of Victims]

My stepsister found the place disarray. She immediately called my dad to see if Mary was at home.

[Narrator/Host]

At the end of each shift, it was Mary's duty to deposit the day's cash at the bank. Kim's heart sinks to the bank pit of her stomach as she's informed by her father that Mary isn't at home. Kim and her father proceed to call local hospitals and emergency rooms to make sure that Mary hadn't been in some kind of accident.

[Family Member of Victims]

Once they found out Mary wasn't in the er, that's when he said, okay, let's call the police department.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

Mary was a dear friend. We shared a lot of time together at work and we talked a lot on the phone. She was a single mom for several years, and she would talk about working extra hours just to have enough to maybe buy something one of the kids needed for school. And she struggled. She struggled, I'm sure, because I was a single mom myself. And then Mary married Billy Tyler. And it was so sweet to see them together because she was about 5 foot 2 and he was probably 6 foot 2. She just loved it when he came in the restaurant and he was pretty crazy about her.

[Family Member of Victims]

I don't know what drew my dad and Mary together, but he says that she was the love of his life. We were from divorced parents, didn't have a mom around for a while. And then Mary came in the picture and she just.

[Narrator/Investigator]

It was.

[Family Member of Victims]

It was a family.

[Narrator/Host]

At the time, Mary already had three children of her own, Tony, Kim and Bubba. But still, Mary made no qualms about Taking on two more.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

Mary was as proud of them as if they were her biological children. She would just brag on them and say what neat things they had done. And her son was probably 7 at the time. He was handicapped, he had some disabilities. And she just. Oh Lord, she loved that boy. And he loved his mother.

[Narrator/Host]

Mary worked long hours at kfc. But as soon as she came home, she always made sure to fix her family up something nutritious for dinner. And then they all sat down together at the kitchen table to chat about their day.

[Family Member of Victims]

She took us underneath her wings just like we were her own.

We were hers.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

An officer walked with me through the restaurant. I guess you know too, so get a picture of what may have happened. All the money had been taken out of the registers and there was a good bit of blood kind of spattered and things were scattered like there had been a struggle. Well, the police were curious to know who should be there. So we went and looked at the time cards.

[Narrator/Host]

When police check Mary's time card, they find she hadn't punched out of work for the the night. Neither had her Co Workers, 20 year old Joey Johnson and 39 year old mother of three Opie Hughes.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

We didn't have titles but unless you were a cook and she wasn't a cook. Lord, she was too short to be a cook. Opie was a packer. You fill the orders and it was funny because the boxes were way too. We had to put the boxes down lower when Mary was on duty so she could get to them. And it was kindly a joke about Opie being so short. But she was as big a person as you could know. She was a treasure. She had two daughters in high school and they're fixing to be seniors and the expense gets pretty good. And I think she just wanted her kids to have every opportunity that she could afford them. Joey was attending college at Kilgore College. He had a black belt in karate. He was very athletic and intellectual and just really a super guy.

[Narrator/Host]

A search of the restaurant parking lot reveals the three missing co workers vehicles.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

I just, my gut just you hear people say my heart failed. That's what it was. It was fear.

[Narrator/Host]

Police are just about to start searching for the missing women when a frantic woman arrives at the restaurant. She tells police her husband David Maxwell is missing. Former Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner recalls the scenario.

[Narrator/Investigator]

David Maxwell was also an employee of the Kentucky Fried Chicken and was a frat brother with Joey Johnson. Lana informed law enforcement that David had gone up to the KFC to meet up with Joey when he got off work along with another frat brother, Monty Landers. David and Monty had been hanging out in the restaurant waiting for Joey to get off.

[Narrator/Host]

Police learned that Monte Landers and David Maxwell are also missing.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

I was in disbelief. It was a void and a hollowness and a fear for their safety. We waited for them all night at the police station thinking they're okay and they're going to get to a phone and you know they're going to be found.

[Narrator/Host]

The families of the missing people return home for a sleepless night of tossing and turning as police begin their search. At 9:30 the next morning, an employee at an oil field in rural Russ county, about 12 miles or so away from the KFC restaurant is driving to the wells when he spots something unfamiliar in the weeds in the near distance. As he gets closer, he can see that it's four people lying down next to one another alongside the road. District Attorney Michael Jimerson describes what happened

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

next and so he yells at him to get up, thinking maybe there's just been some sort of park and these people have fallen asleep. He walks up there and realizes that they're dead.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators working on the KFC disappearance determined fairly quickly that the four bodies found match the description of some of the missing people. A couple of them are clad in their KFC uniforms, but there are only four bodies.

[Narrator/Investigator]

They were in a row from left to right. They are identified as Joey, Mary, David and Monty. They were all lying on their stomachs with their heads on their hands. They were shot in the back of the head or in the back multiple times. This was an execution.

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[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

so they called upon the assistance of the Texas Rangers. They are essentially Texas version of the Bureau of Investigations.

[Narrator/Investigator]

There was very little evidence at the scene, their bodies and the bullets, and that was it.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators are both baffled and horrified by the scene before them. Five people had been brought to a remote oil field 12 miles away from where they were abducted, lined up and then shot dead under the cloak of darkness. It shocked even the most seasoned investigators.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

Mass murder on that scale in 83 was just unthinkable. It was just beyond the pale of anything that they had ever envisioned.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

When I found out what had taken place, I don't even know how I absorbed it. It was like my world just fell apart. At kfc, we were kind of like family. That was our social life outside of our home. And we had watched each other's children grow up and were involved in each other's lives. And I couldn't help but feel just awful that Mary's children wouldn't ever see her again. And Opie's children. It was just hard to imagine that.

[Family Member of Victims]

I remember my dad getting a phone call and I remember him going outside and just kind of breaking down on his truck. And then the next thing I remember is Kim, my stepsister, pulling into the driveway and she was in hysterics. She couldn't stop her car. So I remember someone like kind of slipping into the driver's side window and like pulling the emergency brake,

[Narrator/Host]

the investigation into the gruesome case begins at the last place all five victims were seen.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

KFC Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott is looking at things and notices a box lid with a distinctive blood spatter pattern. Blood spatter signs is just starting to take off. And he believes that it's high velocity and that somebody's been hit and that blood's moved that way and hit that box lid. And in the back room there's a napkin. And he forms the opinion that was cast off blood, just like somebody had had a bloody nose or something. And so that did interest that ranger, but it didn't necessarily interest most officers at the time. Fingerprint was the science of the day in 1983. And so they were really going heavy with fingerprint dust and trying to lift prints from cash register, from the counter, from everywhere.

[Narrator/Host]

The next day, all five of the victims are transported to the medical examiner's office for their autopsy. The medical examiner determines that at least two different weapons were used, a.38 and a.300 and.57. He speculates that there could have been a third weapon because there are several kinds of bullets. Investigators now know that they are searching for two killers, possibly even three. During Joey's autopsy, a fingernail fell from the waistband of his jeans. But further examination reveals that he had no torn fingernails.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

And the ranger was convinced that this must belong to the killer. And so they're immediately looking for this person who may be missing a fingernail.

[Narrator/Host]

The investigation is already in full swing by the time the funerals begin. Five days later.

[Family Member of Victims]

The day that it actually set in with Denise and I was the day of her funeral. Then we realized Mary is not coming home.

[Narrator/Host]

James Stroud, David Maxwell's friend, remembers his funeral well.

[Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff]

I remember David's funeral carrying his casket, and there's still this disbelief. This hadn't happened. I first met David. I can't remember exactly if it was 8th or 9th grade. David was a new guy in school and he was just a laid back guy. He laughed a lot.

[Narrator/Host]

David was known as a kind and considerate man. He had been married for less than a year and had just recently learned that he and his wife were expecting their first child together. David was over the moon and couldn't wait to be a father. He was working at KFC so that he could put himself through college and then support his blossoming family.

[Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff]

I remember the funeral ending. It was back to this, you know, why aren't they doing something? Why hadn't there been an arrest made? The events that happened Are almost like an anchor that drew me in the direction of law enforcement. Made a decision to go to the academy to become a police officer.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators are trying to find a suspect in the murders. They turn their attention to nefarious characters that are well known to law enforcement.

[Narrator/Investigator]

Law enforcement were talking to all of the ne' er do wells. Jim Earl Mankins Jr. Was just generally kind of known as one of the local troublemakers. His father was a former state legislator who was very well respected. General MacKenz Sr. But Jr. Had problems with the law for a number of years. He was a known drug dealer.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

They bring Jimmy MacKenz Jr. In to be questioned. He willingly comes in, does a non custodial interview, and they end up examining his hands because they already have the lead of the fingernail.

[Narrator/Investigator]

And that's when they notice that the middle finger on his right hand, the fingernail was torn all the way down to the quick.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

That KFC restaurant reopened. And I was scared. You know, you were jumpy and nervous and several employees quit. I would think about all of them all the time. Often something would trigger a memory. Sometimes somebody will say something funny that makes you think about Joey. He was a prankster and people saying, oh, Joey, you know, and it was extremely hard.

[Narrator/Host]

As loved ones say their final goodbyes, investigators get their first solid lead. A missing fingernail on the hand of 30 year old Jim Earl Mankins Jr. Investigators take a number of photographs of his finger, and then when the fingernail grows back, they take clippings.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

In 1983, the prevailing view in the forensic scientific community was that fingernails were distinctive, just like fingerprints, and they'd be able to look on the underside of the fingernail and see what they refer to as striations through a microscope.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators send the fingernail clippings to a laboratory in Dallas where techs compare them to the fingernail found during Joey's autopsy. They also dig deeper into Mankins. They quickly learn that on the day of the murders, Mankins had just gotten out of jail for unlawfully being in possession of a weapon.

[Narrator/Investigator]

The weapon was confiscated and he borrowed another weapon, a.38, as I recall from one of his friends. And there was a.38 that was believed to be one of the murder weapons. And the ballistics guys told him, I can't say this. 38 is any more the gun that killed these people than any other.38 on Earth. But I mean, him having a.38 definitely moved him up in the category of people that law enforcement was interested in

[Family Member of Victims]

when this all occurred. There was lots of rumors that drugs were being sold out of, like the drive through window at the Kentucky fried chicken and that someone at the restaurant had a drug recipe.

[Narrator/Host]

Rumors had been circulating for a while that someone who worked at this establishment had owned a recipe for a high grade methamphetamine drug.

[Family Member of Victims]

I had heard that mankins wanted the recipe, and that was why it had happened.

[Narrator/Investigator]

The FBI joined into this investigation fairly early on because there were thoughts of drug involvement. The agent who worked the case for the FBI was George kinney.

[Narrator/Host]

The rumors about mankins are further compounded when the fingernail comparisons come back to investigators.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

They make a confirmation. Yes, this fingernail clipping that we've discovered Matches this known individual.

[Narrator/Host]

While investigators build their case against mankins, A tipster offers Texas ranger Glenn elliott solid information that kickstarts a parallel investigation.

[Narrator/Investigator]

Starr powers was her name. And on the night of the murders, Starr came in to the KFC Just a few minutes before closing time. She saw an employee on the phone right by the counter, and she heard her say, somebody didn't make the deposit today. There's $2,000 in here. And Starr remembered thinking to herself, oh, she shouldn't say that out loud. And she noticed that there were two men immediately behind her, and she thought that they heard the same thing.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

There's an unusually large amount of money in the restaurant, and it certainly would have looked like a quick, easy score. Maybe this is a target of opportunity.

[Narrator/Investigator]

What star powers told ranger Elliott was certainly consistent with there being an armed robbery that was maybe just a crime of opportunity.

[Narrator/Host]

Powers describes the men she'd seen at the kfc, and the rangers reach out to local police jurisdictions, Hoping one of them can identify these men.

[Narrator/Investigator]

The then Smith county sheriff had a lot of confidential informants in the Smith county jail, and he's the one that developed the lead, Took it to the rangers and said, you need to look at these guys. Darnell hartsfield and Romeo pinkerton. There was a warrant out for Darnell Hartsfield for committing an armed robbery in Tyler three days after the KFC.

[Narrator/Host]

The grocery store robbery happened just 30 miles from Kilgore, and it had striking similarities to the KFC crime.

[Narrator/Investigator]

It was close to closing time. They had weapons. They got all of the money out of the register, all the petty cash, Money everywhere. They could get money, and they made the women stay laying with their heads on their hands until they got away.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

The Texas rangers put together a wanted poster that includes Romeo Pinkerton and Darnell hartsfield, Wanted for connection and questioning with the Kentucky fried chicken robbery.

[Narrator/Investigator]

There were obviously efforts to question them. But at the time, Hartsfield had not been apprehended.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators track down Hartsfield's presumed accomplice, Roman Pinkerton. They bring him to police headquarters for an interview. Pinkerton has an alibi. He says he was still in prison at the time of the murders, so he couldn't have been involved.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

He was only released from prison a couple of days after the KFC robbery and murders.

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[Narrator/Host]

After searching for several weeks, Tyler police find Darnell Hartsfield, and they charge him with the grocery store robbery. Hartsfield is interviewed by Ranger Dowell in regards to the murders. He staunchly denies any involvement.

[Narrator/Investigator]

He polygraphed him as they did with, gosh, almost 100 people probably. And he passed the polygraph, and so he was done at that point.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

So they quit studying him. That just became a dead end.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators continue working on the Menken's drug angle, hoping that they can unearth a clue that results in charges being filed.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

There has to be some sort of justification to take the lives of five people to say that it was a robbery over such a small amount of money seems so horribly mean.

[Narrator/Investigator]

They got a ton of tips, things developed from a bunch of different sources, and they all circulated around the idea that it was Menkins. They did all kinds of things to try to develop additional evidence. I mean, there was a period of time Mankins was in prison subsequent to the crime, and they wired his cellmate up to get recordings and they never got anything meaningful.

[Narrator/Host]

The fingernail linking Mankins to the torn fingernail found on Joey is the only real evidence investigators have on him. And it's certainly not enough to bring forth a murder charge. With nothing else to go on, the case eventually begins to go cold.

[Family Member of Victims]

Nothing was being accomplished. And Denise and I did what we could. We pushed the issue. Call and push and write letters and say, hey, you know, something's gotta be done.

These people were still out there. It could happen to someone else's family.

[Narrator/Host]

The months gradually transform into years, and by 1993, it's approaching the 10th year anniversary of the murders. The family members left behind try their hardest to pick up the pieces, but their grief and heartache is amplified by the fact that the killers of their loved ones have not been brought to justice.

[Narrator/Investigator]

On the 10 year anniversary of the crime, there was a lot of press, a lot of media, and the victim's family members went to the local district attorney and asked him to call in the Attorney General's office for assistance.

[Family Member of Victims]

I called every week. I called twice a week, sometimes three times a week. And I'm sure they got tired of me calling.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

DA Kyle Freeman felt a commitment to these families to get the case solved.

[Narrator/Host]

District Attorney Kyle Freeman asks Texas Attorney General Dan Morales for help.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

Dan Morales makes a commitment to solving the case and he does devote a lot of resources.

[Narrator/Host]

In the 10 years since the murders, there have been major advances in forensic science. Investigators want to use these advances to take another look at the fingernail they found during Joey's autopsy.

[Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff]

When you're dealing with evidence, it has to be conclusive, it has to be tangible. And DNA at that time was becoming such a big word.

[Narrator/Investigator]

The fingernail was submitted to a lab in Dallas for DNA testing that was state of the art at the time. And they did get one result that was consistent with Menkins.

[Narrator/Host]

It's enough for the district attorney to convene a grand jury to weigh the evidence against Mankins. In March 1995, they were attempting to

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

reach an indictment for General Mankins. And I was called as a witness. And there was a sense of relief that finally something you know, something finally good, because there had been nothing.

[Narrator/Host]

Prosecutors take seven weeks to present their evidence to the grand jury. And finally the cold case begins to heat up. Menkins is indicted by the grand jury on the five murders after they determine there is enough evidence collected for prosecutors to convince a jury that he was involved.

[Family Member of Victims]

We were finally getting somewhere. It looked like it was a beginning to an end.

[Narrator/Host]

Menkens waits in jail for his day in court. Prosecutors hoped to strengthen their case against him with ironclad forensic evidence.

[Narrator/Investigator]

Eventually, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology was brought in. They were the top of the line, state of the art lab in the world. We were scheduled for a conference call with the lab and we were all around this big table and the DNA analyst got on the phone and she said, okay, I have results. And we were all looking at the speakerphone and she said, yeah, it's not his nail. You could just hear a pin drop.

[Narrator/Host]

The development is a massive blow to the prosecution's case. And with no other evidence to link Menken's to the murders, the charges against him are dropped.

[Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff]

I remember just being angry. You kind of lay your hope on something and you can begin some process of, of getting some healing of families moving forward.

[Narrator/Host]

After being locked up for six months, Jim Earl Menkins Jr. Is once again a free man. Some within the local community fear that Menkins father is using his connections to cover up the crime.

[Family Member of Victims]

Everybody was thinking that because of who his dad was, the state representative for the state of Texas, that his daddy was helping him out of it. His dad was keeping stuff hush, hush.

[Narrator/Host]

The case against Menken's was based mostly on the fingernail. And without it, the case goes cold once again.

[Family Member of Victims]

We just went back to pushing again, calling, writing letters and doing what we could. You know, this day and age is, you know, different from back then. Is there anything that y' all could do different now that y' all could have done?

[Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff]

When I was elected sheriff, 1996, I would think about it off and on. I guess I accepted that it was a cold case. That day I met George Kenia, who was a retired FBI agent. That completely changed. Matter of fact, everything changed. I would think about David anytime I drove through Kilgore. Every time I saw that kfc, it just. It just brought back thoughts. It just over and over and over again, I just felt a desire for justice. Somebody did this. Somebody needs to pay up.

[Narrator/Host]

It's now been 17 years since the murders. In those 17 years, David's friend James Stroud has become sheriff. He never forgot about his good friend David and the tragic KFC murders that couldn't be solved. But now he's sheriff and he thinks there's something he can do about it. He enlists the help of retired FBI agent George Keeney, who worked on the case back in the 1980s.

[Law Enforcement Official/Sheriff]

We agreed the best thing to do was just to take fresh eyes and begin looking at everything again.

[Narrator/Host]

Retired FBI agent George Keeney applies new forensic techniques to old evidence taken from the crime scene at kfc. He tests a blood stained napkin and the cashier's tape box, looking for a link to the killer or killers.

[Narrator/Investigator]

The blood on the cardboard box that had held the cash register tape came back to be consistent with a Darnell Hartsfield and the blood on the napkin with Romeo Pinkerton.

[Narrator/Host]

Both men were suspects back in 1983, but they were both cleared by investigators.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

Initially, Romeo Pinkerton claimed that he was only released from prison a couple of days after the KFC robbery and murders. And his claim was based on a hurricane, that it was not until after this hurricane had had gone through. So it made sense in hindsight. You weren't able to check things as quickly back then because there wasn't an Internet they were able to to check the records. And he was actually released from prison a couple of days before the KFC murders.

[Narrator/Investigator]

We had a meeting with all five families shortly after the hits came in. And once I pulled the wanted poster out and showed them, several members of the family started to cry because they. You saw the realization that these guys had been there all along and we just didn't have the science to prove it.

[Narrator/Host]

Looking for more evidence, investigators take a closer look at the victim's clothing. They use UV lights that reveal semen stains on Opie Hughes pants.

[Narrator/Investigator]

That was a huge epiphany for us. Law enforcement had early on explained away her being away from everybody else by saying, well, she's the one who tried to run.

[Friend/Co-worker of Victims]

Finding out that Opie had been raped was like getting hit by a train. I never saw that coming and my heart just broke. Opie was the kindless, gentlest person. She wouldn't hurt a flea. And it's almost like they took the most innocent. I just, I couldn't even process it for a long time.

[Narrator/Host]

Investigators submit cuttings of Opie's pants to the lab for DNA analysis.

[Narrator/Investigator]

The DNA result doesn't match Pinkerton or Hartsfield. We just all looked at each other and just thought, oh God, here we go again. There's a third person that's out there.

[Narrator/Host]

The DNA found on Opie's pants doesn't match anybody involved, including Opie's husband or the original suspect, Jim Earl Mankins Jr.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

There was no evidence to tie Mankin to it. For so many years, they believed the case is solved. This person did it. Well, they didn't do it. The striation science really didn't hold up in hindsight, and I submit that science has proven incorrect and again took this case down the wrong path for many, many years, unfortunately.

[Narrator/Host]

On November 17, 2005, over 22 years after the murders took place, a grand jury handed down 10 capital murder indictments, five each, against Darnell Hartsfield and Romeo Pinkerton to avoid the death penalty. Pinkerton accepts a deal and pleads guilty to five counts of murder. The judge hands him five life sentences. Hartsfield decides to take his chances with the jury. During the trial, prosecutors describe what they believe happened on that horrific night back in 1983.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

I believe they were there as customers in the restaurant, and they overhear that the deposit hadn't been made. They go out to make a quick, easy score by coming back when the restaurant closes up. Joey Johnson, the cook that night, is taking out the trash in the back and forcing them back into the restaurant to let them in. And somehow inside there ends up being a struggle in the restaurant, and that's where it was.

[Narrator/Investigator]

A robbery that just went bad. And I think that felt like they had no choice but to eliminate the victims.

[Narrator/Host]

Darnell Hartsfield is convicted on all five capital murders and is sentenced to life in prison. The third person involved in the murders tragically still remains unidentified to this day. But still investigators remain determined to track down this final suspect so that he, too can feel the wrath of justice.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

So many people over the years have made a commitment that until they leave this world, they will keep searching for the truth and for that final person.

[Family Member of Victims]

Yes, they've gotten two. Okay. But there's still a part of us that's not able to move forward because there's no closure.

It hurts. It's not one. Each individual victim, I think of him sort of like a family. They each had each other that night. And so when the Hughes don't have that closure, we don't have that closure. But it's coming. It may not be today, may not even be tomorrow or a week from now, but it's coming.

[Narrator/Host]

Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barros. It's produced by the Law and Crime Network and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson. Our composer is Blake Maples for A and E. Our senior producer is John Thrasher and our supervising producer is McKamey Lin. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Maite Cueva and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on AE's Emmy winning TV series Cold Case Files. For more Cold case files, visit aetv.com. Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows. If I'm lying, I'm dying.

[Investigator/Texas Ranger]

This is the mantra

[Narrator/Investigator]

mindset.

[Narrator/Host]

With movies like Interstellar, Dreamgirls and Gladiator, are you not entertained? And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the fairly odd Parents and Ghosts, Pluto TV is always free. Huzzah. Pluto TV stream now pay Never.