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The Kilgore KFC Murder Massacre: A Cold Case Revisited · The Infographics Show Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Beyond Infographics, where in the show that peels
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: back the layers, you know, goes way beyond the headlines
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to really dig into the complex stories and pull out
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the insights that matter for you. Today, we're not just
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: touching on a crime. We're diving deep, really deep into
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a case that's haunted a community for well for decades now,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that Kilgore, Texas KFC murders back in nineteen eighty three.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: And this isn't just some grim statistic or a quick
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: infographic summary. It's this sprawling story, just filled with bildering twists,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: incredibly frustrating false leads, and questions that just linger. You
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: have to wonder, how does a robbery seemingly straightforward spiral
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: into such extreme, almost unimaginable violence. What was really going
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: on beneath the surface in that small East Texas town.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We're going to explore it all, every turn, every dead end,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and every question that still honestly doesn't have a full answer.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened in Kilgore that night? It wasn't just
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a horrific crime. It really ripped apart the fabric of
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: that small town. I mean, can you imagine the shock,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: the sheer horror that goes through a community. When five people,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: just ordinary people, are gunned down execution style, their bodies
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: left in some isolated oil field. It left this deep
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: traumatic mark on Kilgore's collective memory. It echoed for generations.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: And the search for justice. It stretched out over two decades, too,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: agonizing decades.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: It consumed investigators, and even after they finally got convictions,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: there were arguably more questions left than answers.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: This case is, you'll see.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: It's a perfect example of how easily first impressions can
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: be wrong, how things like cognitive bias tunnel vision can
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: just derail an investigation for years. And it shows how
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the hunt for truth can become this lifelong obsession for
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the people involved. It forces you really to look beyond
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: the basic facts and see the profound human cost.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into the details then. To really understand
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the horror, we need to go back to that night
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: September twenty third, nineteen eighty three, Ire Texas. Picture it.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: It's a typical Friday night at the Kentucky Fried Chicken
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: on Highway two fifty nine. Busy shift ending maybe around
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: ten forty pm. Last customers are leaving. Inside. You know,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the usual sounds and smells of a fast food place
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: winding down, the staff, mostly young folks, probably laughing, making
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: plans for afterwork cleaning up. They had counted the day's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: earning somewhere between two and three thousand dollars. The assistant
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: manager had even made the routine nightly call to HQ
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to report the total. Everything seemed totally normal, mundane.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Even exactly it started so ordinarily, which just makes the
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: horror that followed feel even starker more unbelievable. And that
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: phone call you mentioned, the one to headquarters, there's a
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: chilling detail that came out later. Apparently some voices could
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: be heard in the background, maybe the killers already inside
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: or just outside waiting. We don't know for sure, but
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that call, that seemingly routine call, was the last time
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: anyone besides the murderers heard those employees speak. Then the
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: main door opens, the assistant manager, Mary Tyler, calls out,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you know, were closed. But that was it, That was
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the point of no return. Tragically, none of the five
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: people inside that KFC made it home that night.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: And these five individuals who were they their lives just
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: cut short, tangled up in this decade long mystery.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Right. The victims were Opie Hughes, he was thirty nine,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a valued employee, Mary Tyler thirty seven, the assistant manager,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: a single mom with a teenage daughter. Then there were
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the younger ones, David Maxwell just twenty, Joey Johnson, also twenty,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and Monty Landers the youngest at only nineteen. David and
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Joey were good friends, worked together there, Opie Hughes worked
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: with them too, and Monty Landers. This is just heartbreaking.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: He wasn't even supposed to be working. He'd just stopped
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: by to see his friends David and Joey before heading
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: out for his own Friday night, just visiting, purely random,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: tragic timing that put him right in the path of
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: this evil. These weren't people mixed up in crime. They
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: were working folks, young people starting out, a mother providing
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: for her family. Their normalcy just amplified the shock in
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the community.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Disappear from the KFC. How did anyone find out what happened?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: What was the immediate reaction when the order discovered missing.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Well Later that same night, around eleven PM, Mary Tyler's daughter, Kim,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: she was seventeen, she shows up at the restaurant She
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: was expecting to meet her mom, maybe get a ride,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: but instead she finds this, this eerie silence.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Immediately felt wrong.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Lights were on, doors unlocked, but the place was empty,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: totally empty. She's calling out for her mom, getting more
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and more anxious.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: No answer.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Then near the counter, towards the kitchen, she looks down
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: and she sees fresh blood on the floor. That site
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: just sent her into a panic. Understandably, she ran to
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a nearby gas station and called the police right away.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Wow. Finding blood like that, yeah, late at night in
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: an empty restaurant, I must have been absolutely terrifying for
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a teenager.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely terrifying. The police got there fast, responding to
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Kim's call, but they couldn't find any staff inside or
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: anywhere nearby, and their first thought wasn't you know, massacre.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Not immediately, they figured maybe it was some kind of
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: prank gone wrong, or maybe a fight an accident. They
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: thought the staff might just be somewhere else, maybe shaken up,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: So they did a preliminary search, but they just weren't
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: prepared for the scale of what had actually happened. The
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: idea of that kind of extreme, calculated violence, It just
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: didn't seem possible.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: In their town.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: You know, they kept searching the area into the early morning, but.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: The reality was much much worse and disturbingly methodical.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: It sounds like the awful truth came out the next day,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Saturday morning, about fifteen miles away from the KFC, in
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: this remote, really secluded field near an oil well, a
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: spot that seemed deliberately chosen for its isolation, they found
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: all five victims. The first officers there described a scene
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: of just cold blooded execution, like something from a war
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: crime photo. All five were faced down in the grass
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: and dirt, arms tucked under them, heads all pointing north.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Four were close together, suggesting they were lined up, but
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Opie Hughes's body was a little ways off separate. All
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: shot in the back of the head, execution style. No
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: question at least one had also been shot in the back.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Later it came out that Opi Hughes had also been
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: sexually assaulted before he was shot. That added another horrifying layer,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: maybe even a separate motive for his specific death.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It sounds less like a robbery gone chaotic and more
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: like a plan to hit calculated exactly.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Danny Pertle, who later became a lead investigator, he said
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: in court, it was plainly obvious how they had died,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: even before the autopsy results came back. He knew right away,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: He knew he was looking at something incredibly brutal, premeditated,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: deeply disturbing. He just couldn't have known then that this
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: nightmare would remain one of the worst unsolved crimes in
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: modern US history for more than twenty years. And like
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: you said, with parts still technically open, it's still partly
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: unsolved today. A shadow that hasn't fully lifted will definitely
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: get into that.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: And that core puzzle was there right from the start.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Wasn't it a robbery nets maybe what two or three
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars but results in five execution style murders. The
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: violence seems so wildly out of proportion to the take.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: What made the motive so baffling?
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Precisely that disconnect is huge. Usually with that level of
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: calculated violence multiple executions during robbery, you expect something bigger
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: driving it, you know, maybe a personal vendetta, a settling
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: of scores, or a much higher value target. But here
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it just didn't look like that. Initially, the staff weren't
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: deeply connected outside of work. Yeah, the young guys were friends,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: but police were pretty sure they weren't involved in like
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: organized gangs or major drug dealing. No obvious grudges, no
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: big debts. It looked like the work of a maniac maybe,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: But then the most messed up killers out there they
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: don't usually bother taking the money too, So you had
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: this weird mix brutal efficient executions, but for petty cash.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: It just didn't add up.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: It's an investigator scrambling looking for some hidden, complex motive
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: that wasn't immediately obvious. They were really grasping.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: At straws, which leads us right into that tangled miss
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: of early theories and false leads, I mean, without clear answers.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Investigators were chasing down clues that seemed promising but often
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: just led nowhere. Right. What was one of the first
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: big theories they pursued, Well, one of.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: The earliest and frankly most persistent theories they looked into
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: was a link to a meth amphetamine ring. There was
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of talk on the street back then that
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: the killers weren't really after the cash, but a special
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: recipe for making meth. Some people even called it the
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Devil's brew, suggesting it was a really potent or valuable formula,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: And this theory got some legs because, yeah, Kilgore, like
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of East Texas towns in the eighties, did
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: have a meth problem. The drug was around, and prolonged
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: meth use can definitely lead to paranoria, violence, really erratic behavior.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: So the idea was maybe the killers wanted this recipe
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: and the staff either had it or wouldn't say where
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: it was.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, but was there any actual evidence for this Did
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: they find a recipe or proof the staff were involved
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: in selling meth.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Well, when the police talked to the KFC manager, she
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: absolutely shot that down. She was adamant her staff were
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: not part of any ruthless criminal gang, not meth sellers.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: She didn't even think they used meth.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: She specifically described the young guy's David Joey Monty as good, exceptional,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: good kids, just normal kids working a job. And the
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: police confirmed definitively no meth recipe was ever found, not
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: in the manager's save, not anywhere in the restaurant during
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: their searches. But despite the official denials, that rumor persisted
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: on the street. There was this counter narrative that wouldn't die.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: One version was the recipe belonged to the restaurant owner,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: and the murders were a brutal message to him, a warning.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Another whisper was that, yeah, one employee did have it,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: but the killers didn't know which one.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: So they just eliminated everyone.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Honestly, even today you talk to people who lived there
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: back then, ran in certain circles, and many are still
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: convinced it was about a meth recipe. Shows how powerful
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: rumors can be when answers are scarce.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: That's wild. It really highlights how tough it is for
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: investigators to sort fact from local legends sometimes. But they
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: didn't only chase drug theories, did they. They even looked
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: at one of the victim's own family members.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: That's right. It shows how desperate they were. For a
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: short time.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: They looked very closely at kim Mary Tyler's seventeen year
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: old stepdaughter, the one who found the blood, had recently
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: started working there, and the police noted she had a
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: quote checkered past. She'd spent time in a Louisiana home
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: for girls due to behavioral problems, so that raised some
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: initial suspicion, maybe unfairly, but it didn't go anywhere.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: After looking into it.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Police concluded pretty quickly that Kim had absolutely no reason
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: to have anyone shot. That theory was dismissed. It just
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: underscores how they were turning over every single stone, no
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: matter how unlikely.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, so if it wasn't the meth recipe, wasn't an
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: inside job by family, what was the main idea they
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: worked with for a while? How did they try to
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: make sense of it all?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: For a good stretch, the prevailing theory was basically robbery
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: gone wrong. That was the hypothesis. The thinking went something
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: like this, maybe one or more of the staff members
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: resisted during the robbery, refused to hand over the cash,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: maybe put up a fight inside the KFC, and maybe
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: during that struggle one of the rubbers got injured. Then
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: the theory goes, the robbers panicked, They didn't want to
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: leave witnesses could identify them, especially if they were injured,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: so they made the horrific decision to abduct all five
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: and take them somewhere remote to kill them. It was
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: an attempt to explain the abduction and murders as an escalation,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: you know, something that got out of control. But the
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: autopsy findings and the crime scene details didn't quite fit
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: that narrative perfectly. Remember how they were all lined up
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: at the oil field, shot one by one except Opie
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Hughes dragged away and shot separately. That methodical execution style
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: killing it suggests a chilling level of coldness and control,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: maybe premeditation that doesn't quite match a spontaneous robbery gone
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: wrong panic scenario.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Right, the method seemed too calculated. But even without a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: clear mode of fitting the method, there were some physical
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: clues left behind. Weren't there even if they were confusing
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: at first?
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, definitely.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: They found several potentially crucial pieces of physical evidence. One
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: that got a lot of attention was a torn fingernail.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: It was found snagged on one of the victim's clothes,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: likely ripped off during a strug, and on Opie Hughes's
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: body given the sexual assault.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: They collected traces.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Of another person's DNA, But maybe the most significant clue
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: initially was blood. There was blood found on the ground
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: near the bodies at the oil field, and also a
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: blood stained napkin nearby, plus some blood back inside the restaurant,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: and crucially, initial tests suggested this blood wasn't from any victims.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: That strongly pointed to one or more of the attackers
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: being injured, maybe in that supposed struggle inside the KFC.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: That felt like a huge lead. There were also some
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: vague witness accounts, people saying they saw a van, maybe
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a light colored Chevy or Ford van near the restaurant
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: that night, could have been the transport vehicle. That This
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: was nineteen eighty three, no CCTV everywhere like today, So
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: those descriptions were fuzzy, hard to confirm, hard to act on.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Definitively okay, And this is where things took a really
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: significant and ultimately tragic wrong turn for the investigation, isn't it.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: These clues, especially that torn fingernail and the van descriptions,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: led police to focus almost entirely on one man for years,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: James Earl Mankins Junior.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. This became a textbook example of how cognitive bias,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: that tendency to see what you expect to see, can
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: just wreck an investigation. Leads to what police call tunnel vision,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: and that's absolutely an investigator's worst enemy. James Earl Mankins
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Junior was a local guy. He had a colorful rap sheet, yeah,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: but mostly drug stuff, which wasn't uncommon in Kilgore. Then
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: he became the prime suspect very quickly.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Why wow.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Police zeroed in on that torn fingernail found at the scene.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: They believed it matched a piece missing from Mankin's own fingernail,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: which he'd supposedly injured recently. It seemed like a direct
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: physical link. Slam dunk right, and adding another layer of complexity,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Mankins's father was actually a state representative that brought political
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: pressure of public attention, maybe even subconsciously pushed investigators to
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: confirm their suspicions about him rather than looking elsewhere.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And wasn't there an eyewitness too, someone who seemed to
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: back up their focus on Mankins, At least initially.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: There was a man named James Rowe, who called himself
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: a drifter. Came forward a few months after the murder.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: He claimed he saw men in a light colored van
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: that night, and he saw people in uniforms in the back.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Even said he heard yelling, screaming coming from the ban
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: very chilling, and he described the driver as a white
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: guy with long hair and a beard. Police thought, boom,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that fits Mankins. But here's a critical flaw in how
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: that was handled. Rowe was never asked to testify back
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: when Mankins was first arrested or questioned. It wasn't until
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: twenty years later, when the cold case team was re
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: examining everything, that he finally gave formal testimony, and by
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: then he completely recanted his initial ID. He said he
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: actually knew Mankins from school, and the guy driving the
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: van was absolutely positively not James L.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Mankins.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: That reversal just underscored the problems with the initial investigation
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: and how dangerous it is to rely on shapey testimony
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: without solid corroboration.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: So, after years of focusing on Mankins, what finally broke
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: that fixation improved his innocence.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: It was science, specifically DNA evidence. By nineteen ninety five,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: DNA testing was becoming a powerful tool in crimin justice,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: especially for court cases. Forensic scientists retested the evidence collected
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: back in eighty three, and the DNA analysis definitively pointed
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: to mankins innocence. The case against him just collapsed and
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: he was finally freed. And the really devastating part that fingernail,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the one they'd fixated on DNA proved it actually came
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: from one of the victims, not Mankins. At all, it
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: was a terrible misidentification, classic tunnel vision.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: They saw what fit their theory.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Mankins later talked about the ordeal, and his words are powerful.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: He said the worst part was the six months in
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: jail over there thinking about being put to death for
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: something I didn't do, and more than likely if it
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: wasn't for that DNA I would have been on death row.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: It just hits home the human costs of getting it wrong.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: A detective even admitted later they spent way too much
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: time focusing on Mankins acknowledging that tunnel vision is just
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: deadly for investigation. It's a huge lesson, isn't it. In
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: these really complex cases, the first obvious suspect, the one
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: that seems to fit neatly, is often the wrong path.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Human bias is so strong.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Wow. If you're finding this deep dive into the complexities,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the wrong turns, and the hard lessons of the Kilgore
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: KFC cases compelling as we are, please do us a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: favor and give us a five star rating. Wherever you listen.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: It really helps other people find beyond infographics and join
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: these important conversations.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Absolutely so.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: After Mankins was cleared in ninety five, the case went
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: cold again, really cold, for almost another decade. The original
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: investigators had mostly retired, the leads had dried up. It
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: honestly looked like the killers might just get away with it,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: that the families would never see justice. But the Rusk
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: County Sheriff's office they just couldn't let it go. This
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: was a deep womb in their community. So in the
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: early two thousands, buoyed by advances in forensics, they brought
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: in some fresh eyes, a former FBI agent named George Kinney.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: They basically told him look at everything again from completely
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: different angles.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: That's smart move bringing in someone experience but detached from
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the original investigation's history, especially with new tech available. What
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: was Kinny's big idea his approach to cracking this decade's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: old case.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Kinney's core insight was pretty fundamental, based on understanding criminal behavior,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: especially extreme violence like this. He reasoned that whoever did
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: this five cold blooded, execution style murders for relatively little money,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: they probably hadn't just stopped committing crimes. It wasn't likely
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: a one off. He figured it was a pretty safe
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: bet that these individuals, if they were truly violent habitual offenders,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: were likely already in prison for other crimes committed in
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: the twenty years since nineteen eighty three, So that completely
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: shifted the focus. Instead of searching for suspects out in
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: the world, which hadn't worked, they started systematically looking inside
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the prison system, cross referencing DNA profiles of known offenders.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: And that's where the forensic science the DNA databases finally
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: delivered the breakthrough they needed, building right on Kinney's insight.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: How did that finally happen?
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Right in two thousand and one, a forensic scientist named
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Lorna Beasley meticulously went back to the DNA evidence collected
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: way back in eighty three, Remember that blood from the
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: oil field and inside the KFC. She took that unknown
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: DNA and ran it through COTIS, the Combined DNA Data
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Indexing System.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: It's basically this.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Huge national database comparing DNA from crime scenes against profiles
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: of convicted offenders. She was hoping, maybe, just maybe there'd
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: be a match with someone already locked up, and the
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: results they were stunning, a real Eureka moment for the
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: cold case team. Two names popped up two matches, Romeo
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Pinkerton and Darnell Hartsfield.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Pinkerton and Hartsfield. Wait, those names so familiar from earlier, Yeah,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: weren't they looked that way back at the beginning they were.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: And this is where a massive, just colossal mess up
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: from the original investigation came back to bite them. Pinkerton
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: and Hartsfield, who were actually cousins. They were among the
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: very first suspects considered back in nineteen eighty three. Unbelievably,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: they were even on a sort of makeshift wanted for
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: questioning poster that went around within a week of the murders.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: But and this is the crucial error, they were rubbed
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: from the list, dismissed early on why because of bad information.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: The police at the time incorrectly believed Darnell Hartsfield was
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: in jail when the murders happened, but when the cold
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: case team rechecked those old records wrong, he'd actually been
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: released from prison two days before the KFC massacre. It
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: was a huge oversight, a failure in basic fact checking
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: that let two potential killers walk free for decades, prolonging
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: the agony for the families and the mystery for everyone.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. So decades later, they finally have DNA linking these
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: two original suspects of the scene. But even with that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: huge breakthrough, it wasn't an immediate slam done for charges.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Was it still hurdles to overcome?
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: No, not quite.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: The CODAS hit was massive, obviously invaluable, but it still
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: wasn't enough to charge the men for the crime directly.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: You have to remember this case was ancient by then,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: plagued by those early mistakes. Witnesses were older, memories fade.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: The prosecution needed more than just a database hit from
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: decades old evidence. They needed something rock solid, something current
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: to take to court, Especially after the Mankins fiasco. They
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: really needed fresh direct DNA samples from Pinkerton and Hartsfield
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: to confirm the CODIS match beyond any doubt.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, how did they get from that code has hit
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to actually getting convictions? Took another couple of years, right
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: until prosecutor Lisa Tanner took it on in two thousand
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and three.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Must have been daunting, Oh, absolutely daunting. Tanner herself said
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: she had major doubts at first. It was like, inheriting
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: this dusty, complicated relic, she.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Saw quite a few holes in the entire story.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Witnesses were getting older evidence was twenty years old, and
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: maybe the biggest challenge. The DNA evidence actually pointed to
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: three men being involved, not just the two they'd identified,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: So even with Pinkerton and Hartsfield idd there was still
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: this ghost accomplice out there unidentified. What he really needed
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: urgently was that fresh, undeniable DNA sample from Hartsfield to
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: nail down the link.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: And Hartsfield wasn't exactly volunteering a sample, right. This is
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: where the police got creative, using that now famous technique.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Not volunteering at all. Hartsfield flat out refused to give
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: a DNA sample, which was his right legally, but the
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: police they were smarter this time. They used indirect methods,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: offering suspects drinks, gum pens, then collecting the discarded items
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: with Hartsfield, though, they got this amazing, almost comical gift
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: from the suspect himself. Lisa Tanner, the prosecutor, told the
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: story later, and it's incredible. She said, Basically, he told
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: us he wasn't gonna give us his blanket blank DNA,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: and then he was so adamant about it. He wrote
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: us a letter saying I'm not giving you my DNA
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: and you can't make me give me my DNA. And then,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: of course he licked the envelope and sent it to us.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: He literally sealed his own fate with his own saliva
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: on that envelope that gave them the perfect, fresh, undeniable
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: DNA sample they needed.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Yes,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: this moment that confirms everything. So with that key piece,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: what happened next for Pinkerton and Hartsfield.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the wheels of justice finally started turning properly this
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: time with that new DNA. Hartsfield was looking at the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: death penalty, so in two thousand and seven he admitted guilt,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: although he kind of qualified it, saying something like five
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: life sentences was better than a shot of lethal drugs,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: suggesting it was more strategic than truly remorseful. He was
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: officially convicted in two thousand and eight, sentenced to five
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: consecutive life sentences, one after the other. His cousin, Romeo Pinkerton,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: took a plea deal in October two thousand and seven.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: He pleaded guilty to five lesser counts of murder and
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: got five concurrent life sentences served at the same time.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And the DNA evidence itself beyond the envelope drama was
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: really solid, this time tying them directly to the KFC.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely ironclad. Forensics confirmed Pinkerton's DNA was on
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: that napkin found inside the KFC back in eighty three,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: right at the abduction scene, and Hartsfield's DNA found on
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: a box it was under the register inside the restaurant.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: It placed them both firmly inside the KFC when the
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: victims were taken. No denying it, despite their later claims,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: it's just wild, isn't it. They were suspects even on
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: a poster a week after the crime, but then just
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: fell through the cracks because of that bad info about
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Hartsfield being in jail until DNA finally brought the truth out.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: But even facing those convictions, did they ever actually take
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: full responsibility or did they stick to claims of innocence,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: especially when facing life sentences.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: They absolutely stuck to their claims of innocence, both of them,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: even after conviction while serving time, vehemently denied killing anyone.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Hartsfield said things like, I might have had crimes that
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I did do, but no one ever got hurt. I
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: would never kill those people, and from day one. I
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: have stated my innocence, and I'm still stating my innocence.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: He even throughout this wild claim that he was doing
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: free time for someone else, maybe trying to protect a
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: rich man's son. Sounded pretty desperate. Pinkerton, for his part,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: tried to cast doubt on the evidence itself. He questioned
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: how blood could last on a napkin for twenty three years,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: saying it looked brand new at the trial, implying it
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: was planted or faked. Investigators, of course, strongly refuted that,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: explaining the scientific methods used to preserve and test old evidence.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But it shows they never really accepted responsibility.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Fascinating the denial. But let's talk about the most unsettling
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: loose end, the one that still hangs over this case.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: The third person, the accomplice who seemingly got away.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, this is the part that truly haunts everyone involved,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: the most enduring, heartbreaking mystery. Despite convicting Hertzfield and Pinkerton,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: the DNA evidence recovered from Opie Hughes's body, remember he
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: was sexually assaulted and found separate from the others, That
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: DNA did not match Hartsfield, Pinkerton or the wrongly accused
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Mankins or anyone else in the code of database, it
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: points definitively to a third individual being involved in that
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: horrific crime, an accomplice whose identity remains completely unknown, never identified,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: never brought to justice.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: So after all that time, all the work, the breakthroughs,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the convictions, the case still isn't truly fully closed. That
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: third person's shadow is still there.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Not completely closed. No, and that's what gnaws at people.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Investigators say it flat out the crime cannot be said
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: to be solved until that third person is arrested. Danny Puddle,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: the retired detective who lived with this case for so long.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: He still feels it.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: He said, I think about it every day and I
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: lie awake some nights with it on my mind. I
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: still want the third person. And prosecutor Lisa Tanner, even
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: though she felt it was unbelievably satisfying to get convictions
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: for two of the three, she admits, it's still and
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: always will haunt me that we don't have the last one.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: It's this incomplete justice that leaves a real void and.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: What ultimately happened to Darnell Hartsfield.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Darnell Hartsfield died in prison. It was May fourth, twenty
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: twenty two. He was sixty one. Cause of death was
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: a massive hemorrhagic stroke. Ironically maybe tragically, depending on your view.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: He had actually become eligible for parole just a few
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: months later in January twenty twenty three. That prospect had
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: deeply worried the victim's families. His cousin, Romeo Pinkerton is
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: reportedly set to be eligible for parole sometime in May
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, but Lisa Tanner, the prosecutor, she's expressed
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: skepticism that either would ever be free in her lifetime,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: suggesting the sentences were intended to be truly life sentences.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: This whole winding, complicated story really does take us beyond
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: info graphics, doesn't it. It shows how even getting the
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: facts doesn't always fill in all the gaps, How the
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: search for total truth can be this relentless, lifelong quest.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And if you're finding this deep die valuable, if
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: it's helping you understand the immense impact of these events
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in the long road to even partial justice, please think
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: about giving us that five star rating. It helps us
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: keep bringing these detailed stories to you.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks, And it's so important when we discuss tragedies like
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: the Kilgore massacre, to think beyond just the crime scene tape,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: we need to consider the ripple effects these events, often
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: called Matt's violence incidents or MVIS, their impact radiates outwards,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: far beyond the direct victims. They create these waves of
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: trauma that affect individuals, families, the whole community for years,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: sometimes decades.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: That's such a critical point. It's not just the five
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: people who lost their lives and their famili's grief. It's
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the first responders who saw that scene, the townspeople who
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: felt unsafe, the businesses nearby. The fear spreads exactly.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Research on mviis shows the effects are incredibly broad. There
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: are the obvious physical impacts injury, disability for anyone who
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: might have survived in attack, or even chronic stress related
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: health issues later, but there are also instrumental impacts people
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: losing jobs, homes, final stability because of the disruption, and
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: then the psychological fallout shock, anxiety, grief that can turn
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: into long term depression, PTSD, substance abuse issues as people
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: try to cope socially, to relationships suffer, community trust, e roads,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: people struggle to go back to work or school. The
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: mental health impacts like PTSD, depression, anxiety, persistent grief. They're
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: profound and can last all lifetime.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: So it's not just the visible scars, it's these deep,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: unseen wounds across the whole community and kilgre With that
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: unresolved piece, the third killer, that healing must have been
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: even harder.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, events like this create significant fear among victims and
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: the entire community, a real sense of vulnerability. It's not
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: just abstract fear. People who might see themselves in the victims.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: You know, young people working late shifts in small towns.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I think that could have been me. That leads to
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: heightened anxiety, maybe trouble sleeping or concentrating, changes an appetite.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Often these reactions fade over weeks or months, but they
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: need watching because, especially when there's an unresolved element, the
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: third person in kil Gore, those feelings can persist, They
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: can reopen wounds, prevent real closure. How do you fully
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: heal as a community when you know part of the threat,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: part of the horror, is still out there unidentified.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: It complicates everything.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: So how can communities and individuals cope with that fear?
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: That distress, those lingering questions especially when information can be
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: confusing or overwhelming, like those early theories in kil Gore.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Well organizations like the National Mass Violence Victim Resource Center
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: the NMVVRC, they offer some really solid advice. One key
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: thing is to examine your reactions and seek support. Basically,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: acknowledge how you're feeling. Talk about it with others, friends, family, professionals.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Don't isolate yourself. Recognize your reactions are normal. Another vital
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: point is to seek accurate information. Understand that early reports
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: can be wrong. Facts emerge slowly, sometimes decades later, like here.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Stick to credible sources for updates, but even then, realize
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: that in the chaos, even good sources might get initial
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: details wrong. It was even tougher back in eighty three,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: before instant news, when rumors could really take root.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: That point about information seems especially relevant today with the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: twenty four to seven news cycle and social media everywhere.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: It really is.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: The NMVVRC strongly advises people to limit media exposure. It's
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: natural to want to know everything after something horrific happens,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: but constantly consuming news reports, watching replays, scrolling through social
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: media speculation it can dramatically increase stress and actually hinder
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: your ability to cope. It doesn't matter if it's TV, radio, podcasts,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: news sites, social media. Overload is overload. Replaying graphic details
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: or dwelling on theories can make the trauma worse. And
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: the Kilgore case, with its decades of mystery, the hunt
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: for that third person, the family's long agonizing fight, it's
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: just a powerful example of how these events create deep,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: lasting trauma and this intense need for complete closure. Those victims,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Oki Hughes, Mary Tyler, David Maxwell, Joey Johnson, Monty Landers,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: their futures were stolen. They deserve to be remembered as people,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: not just names in a cold case file.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: What an incredible, only complex journey, this deep dive has been,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: from that night of shocking brutality, through all the false starts,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the cold years, then the amazing DNA breakthroughs leading to convictions.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: But even with two men ultimately held accountable, those critical
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: questions remain, especially about that third person. It's a real
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: testament to the dedication of the investigators, the prosecutors, the
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: resilience of the community that even partial justice was found,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: but that yearning for full closure it's palpable. It truly
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: takes us beyond infographics.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: It really does, and that dark hole, as investigators called it,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: of the missing third person, it's just such a stark
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: reminder that even when justice seems served, some mysteries just endure.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: They cast us long shadow.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: The pursuit of truth in cases like Kilgore can literally
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: become a lifelong quest for everyone touched by it, the families,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: the investigators, the community itself. And it makes you think,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: doesn't it. In a world where we crave simple answers,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: need endings, what does it really mean for a community
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: when a shadow like that lingers for decades, when the
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: absolute truth, that final piece, still just out of reach.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: This case, it's more than just a crime story. It
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: shows that relentless human drive for answers, for resolution, even
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: when resolution remains stubbornly incomplete.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: That is a powerful thought to haend On, Thank you
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: so much for joining us on Beyond Infographics for this
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: deep dive into the Kilgore KFC massacre. We hope it
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: shed light on the many layers of a story that's
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: about so much more than just the crime itself. It's
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: about justice, truth, memory, and incredible human endurance. Keep asking questions,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: keep digging deeper, and keep that curiosity alive,