Third suspect is named in Kilgore KFC murders

RUSK COUNTY — Investigators on Friday identified a third suspect in the 1983 Kilgore KFC killings, marking a major development in a case that has spanned more than four decades. According to our news partner KETK, Rusk County officials revealed Devan Riggs being the third suspect. The lead prosecutor in the case, said that Riggs, died on Oct. 9, 2010, at 57 from natural causes.

The killings occurred on Sept. 23, 1983, when five people, Mary Tyler, Opie Hughes, Joey Johnson, David Maxwell and Monty Landers were abducted from the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore. The victims were taken several miles away to a remote oilfield in Rusk County and fatally shot. For years, only two men, Romeo Pinkerton and Darnell Hartsfield, were charged in the case. Both were indicted in 2005 and later given life sentences. Pinkerton continues to serve five life sentences after being denied parole in 2019, while Hartsfield died in prison in 2022.

According to District Attorney Michael Jimerson, Devan Riggs had been arrested several times in the 70s, with charges of murder and robbery in California. He was paroled in 1977 and just two months after the murders in Kilgore took place, he was arrested on a separate charge of attempted murder and burglary in Shelby County. Riggs was paroled yet again in 1985 and reportedly fled to California, where he spent the rest of his life until he died there.