In 1983, investigators say, both cousins left behind DNA evidence linking them to a botched robbery and a violent struggle in the kitchen of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, culminating with the execution-style shootings of five people in a rural East Texas oil field.
Both men were on a list of 56 suspects obtained early in the investigation by the Tyler Morning Telegraph. Yet both men went free, and forward with lives of crime, going in and out of Texas prisons for years: Hartsfield last entered prison after a 1995 drug-dealing conviction, then was convicted of perjury in October for telling a grand jury he was never at KFC on the night of the murders. Pinkerton was jailed in Smith County in September for a parole violation unrelated to KFC.
The suspect list doesn't specify exactly how authorities ascertained who was suspect. It mentions of Hartsfield only that he was working a job in the area at the time of the murders. It says a Texas Ranger interviewed Pinkerton while in the Gregg County Jail, and that "his alibi sounds fair."
"I have no recollection of ever being at that KFC," Hartsfield, 44, would later say at his perjury trial. "I feel like I'm being framed."
But investigators said a bloody napkin left over from a violent struggle contained Hartsfield's DNA.
The robbery happened on a "record day of business," the store manager said at Hartsfield's perjury trial. Store employees had fallen into a habit of making deposits the morning after close of business, a practice that left $2,000 in the store that night, said manager Leanne Killingsworth.
Three days later, Hartsfield, then 22 years old, was in Tyler, where he robbed a convenience store clerk at gunpoint. Later that fall, according to records at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, he burglarized a residence. In February 1984, he was sentenced to 25 years and 9 years, respectively, for the crimes.
Paroled in 1992, Hartsfield then had his probation revoked in 1994, was released later that year, then quickly found his way back to prison by dealing drugs. Charged with delivery of a controlled substance and organized crime, he received a 40-year sentence that he was still serving in 2005 when charged with perjury.
The new capital murder indictments show Hartsfield also had burglary convictions in 1982.
Pinkerton, who had burglary convictions in 1980, 1982, and 1984, was paroled from a 25-year sentence in time to burglarize another building in 1988, prison records show.
He then served 10 years before another early release. He was arrested again on parole violations in 2001, released on parole again in 2004, and burglarized Griffin Elementary School in Tyler in July 2005, police said.
Authorities failed to recognize that he was on parole, and he was released yet again. He was arrested on the parole violation warrant in September, and remains in the Smith County Jail.
Mark Collette covers Smith County. He can be reached at 903.596.6303. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com"> news@tylerpaper.com
Kenneth Dean covers police, fire, public safety organizations. He can be reached at 903.596.6353. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com"> news@tylerpaper.com
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