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The Luby's Cafeteria Massacre of 1991

In a great twist of Texas-style irony, the mass murder at Luby's
Cafeteria in 1991, where 23 were shot to death and 20 wounded,
led not to calls for gun-control but to the passage of
legislation signed by Gov. George W. Bush that eased the way for
citizens to obtain concealed-carry licenses.

by Robert Walsh

On October 16, 1991, unemployed merchant seaman George "Jo Jo"
Hennard committed what was at the time the largest mass murder
in U.S. history at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, when he
shot to death 23 people and wounded 20 others before taking his
own life 13 minutes after his rampage began. The Luby's massacre
is still America’s third-largest mass shooting ever and the
largest non-school mass shooting in American history.

A Loner

But why? What would drive a person to do something so appalling?
And what kind of man was George Hennard

The answer to that would be a very disturbed, deeply troubled
man, according to many who knew him, although nobody felt he had
the potential for such a crime. In an interview with The New
York Times shop clerk Mary Mead described Hennard's general
demeanor and the difference in him just before the shootings:

“George never smiled when he came in here. He just seemed like
he had the world on his shoulders. He was a loner. He never
talked. But yesterday he seemed almost calm, even a little
friendly, for the only time I can remember. Usually, I was
scared of him.”

Mead had cause to know Hennard on a passing basis as he bought
breakfast at her workplace, six days a week. Other acquaintances
describe him as combative, impatient, rude, troubled and a
loner. One occasional drinking buddy, Tom Snyder, described him
as particularly obnoxious when drunk. In short, George Hennard
was never a people person.

Hennard was 35 years old at the time of the shootings, his
birthday was the day before the massacre. He was unemployed and
down on his luck. The son of a housewife and retired Army
officer, Hennard had previously served two years with the U.S.
Navy, gaining an honorable discharge before joining the Merchant
Marine in 1977.

His discharge from the Merchant Marine in May, 1989 was less
than honorable. He lost his place aboard ship when marijuana was
found in his room while his ship was docked in Oakland,
California. A second drug bust cost him his seaman’s papers
without which working at sea, the only job he seemed happy in,
was no longer open to him. He became progressively more
embittered, rude and difficult around people in general from
then on. The loss of his job signalled the beginning of his own
decline.

Colleagues aboard ship were glad to see him gone. As much as
Hennard enjoyed life at sea, his shipmates didn’t seem to enjoy
sharing a ship with him. Speaking to The New York Times, Ike
Williams, port agent for the national maritime union in
Wilmington, California, summed up Hennard’s behavior towards his
shipmates:“He was very loud and he appeared to be combative at
times. He would come in with a very cold look and be very
argumentative, loud, boisterous, sometimes cursing and swearing.”

Hardly atypical behavior in a sailor, a certain amount of
roughness isn’t unusual in that line of work. Hennard’s
boorishness and roughness was more obvious than usual and
certainly more than was comfortable for his shipmates. According
to Williams, Hennard never lasted long aboard any ship he was
assigned to. After his drug bust, Williams recalled Hennard
asking for a letter of recommendation enabling Hennard to regain
his seaman’s papers and return to the Merchant Marine. Williams
didn’t provide one.

In February, 1991, only months before embarking on his mass
murder binge at Luby's, Hennard learned that his attempt to
regain seagoing status had been denied. This fanned the flames
of Hennard’s entrenched rage at the world and, rather than face
his own personal difficulties, he decided to take out his
frustrations in the most destructive way possible.

Hennard immediately started his preparations for seeking his
revenge. He took a trip to the town of Henderson, Nevada, where
he visited Mike’s Gun House owned by Michael Buchanan. There he
purchased two pistols and plenty of ammunition. Despite his
having a history of drug abuse, he had little difficulty in
purchasing his weapons. That ease of purchase would soon cost
many innocent people their lives.

The Massacre at Luby's Cafeteria

Lubys Massacre Truck (Photo godfatherpolitics.com)Hennard spent
his time between buying his guns and committing his crime
unemployed, living at his mother’s house in Benton. Unemployed
and unemployable, at least at the only occupation he was suited
for, he brooded, waited and planned. Benton isn’t far from
Killeen but, while Benton is a small town, Killeen is a larger
town owing to the nearby military base at Fort Hood. Both are
typical Texas towns made up of urban sprawl and predominately
honest, hard-working people, different only in their size and
only a short drive apart.

Hennard began his assault on Luby's at the height of the lunch
hour by crashing his pickup truck through the glass front of the
cafeteria at 12:39 p.m. As the pickup truck came smashing
through the glass, the stunned diners were showered with glass
fragments. Initially thinking the truck had crashed
accidentally, some of the diners went to help the driver only to
be shot down where they stood. Hennard instantly stepped out of
his truck, one gun in each hand and, bellowing “This is what
Bell County did to me! This is payback day!” and opened fire.

Carrying Glock 17 and Ruger P89 pistols with plenty of spare
clips, Hennard methodically circled the cafeteria where about
140 people were now scrambling to avoid the onslaught. As he
roamed around the dining room it seemed to be most intent on
killing women, frequently passing over men who were equally at
his mercy. He seemed to pick his targets with more care than the
typical lone gunman, many of whom simply kill anybody who
appears in front of them. He also went largely for shots most
likely to be fatal -- 10 of the 23 people killed were murdered
with gunshots to their heads rather than Hennard aiming
randomly. With seemingly total focus on killing as many people
as possible, he stalked round and round the cafeteria like a
predator, picking his targets, killing with an almost automatic
precision and absolute ruthlessness.

The Victims

The first to die was local veterinarian Michael Griffith who,
with bitter irony, had approached the crashed pick-up to offer
assistance, thinking this was simply an ordinary road accident.
Among the first to be wounded (and both of whose parents died in
the shooting) was Suzanna Hupp, later to become a Republican
member of the Texas House of Representatives and an opponent of
gun-control legislation. Hupp normally carried a .38 revolver in
her purse, but had left the weapon outside in her car. She’d
left her gun outside to avoid breaking strict Texas rules at the
time of the shooting, rules expressly forbidding carrying
concealed firearms in a public place. Thus, perhaps when she
most needed her gun, it was outside and entirely out of reach.
Her father charged Hennard and was fatally shot. Her mother was
murdered cradling her dying husband. Customer Tommy Vaughn
managed to evade the gunfire. Throwing a table through the
windows, he created an escape route for himself and many others
in the cafeteria while Hennard continued methodically picking
his targets, aiming and firing his guns with an almost-military
precision.

More victims swiftly followed. Hennard repeatedly emptied and
reloaded his pistols with fresh clips, intent on causing the
maximum carnage. Loading, aiming, firing and reloading, Hennard
stalked through the building methodically slaughtering the
diners as he went. Bodies and dozens of spent cartridges
littered the floor and a miasma of cordite fumes tainted the
afternoon air. Panic-stricken diners hid behind chairs and under
tables, intent on avoiding the bullets flying in all directions
as Hennard wreaked havoc.

When police officers responded to a 911 call from Luby's,
Hennard fired at the officers and was fired upon. He was
seriously wounded in the exchange. Hennard retreated into a
restroom and shot himself in the head. At 12:52 p.m., only 13
minutes after the assault began, he was dead.

He left behind 43 dead and wounded customers. Women were the
principal victims of Hennard’s rampage. Of the 23 people killed,
14 were women and nine other women were wounded. The men shot by
Hennard were seemingly an afterthought and he didn’t injure any
minors.

Investigation

Subsequent investigations by local police uncovered Hennard’s
obsessions with serial killers and a particular obsession with a
song by rock band Steely Dan entitled "Don’t Take Me Alive," a
song about a violent criminal engaging in a last stand against
law enforcement. The owner of the record store where he bought
the album described Hennard as unable to cope with his place in
life, having lost his career and harboring an apparent desire to
be remembered for something, regardless of what it might be. The
store clerk also described Hennard as having a particular
obsession with "Don’t Take Me Alive." Lyrics include:

"A man of my mind can do anything...Here in this darkness I know
what I’ve done, I know all at once who I am."

Police also discovered a 1989 calendar at Hennard’s home.
Remarks scrawled on the calendar included: "They shall live with
what they have created and they shall find no redemption in what
they have done."

His final remark was: "There is simply no hope and not a prayer."

Police also discovered two videos. One was a documentary on the
destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 during the Lockerbie bombing of
1987. The other was on serial killers and mass murderers
including James Huberty’s California massacre, similar to
Hennard’s own crime. It seems that Hennard had been researching
mass murder and shooting massacres for some months before
committing his own

Misogyny

Hennard’s misogyny is attested to by two events, one prior to
the massacre and his actions during it. Before the shootings he
had stalked two local teenagers whose names he didn’t know. They
lived near his mother’s home in Benton at which he often lived
between seagoing jobs. He sent the two young women a letter
praising their individual "virtues" but stating that: "All women
of Killeen and Belton are vipers!" No evidence has so far been
discovered for his having any other motive than a hatred of
women and pent-up bitterness and rage at the world in general
and his own place in it. The precise reason for his hatred of
women is also unclear, although it’s often the case that
individuals like Hennard are seldom popular with the opposite
sex and often bitterly resent the fact.

FBI profiler John Douglas concurs with the idea of a lone gunman
looking for revenge upon a society he despises. In a "48 Hours"
documentary Douglas, one of the pioneers of criminal profiling,
described those who engage in mass murder:

“They have a long history of personal life failings. They want
to manipulate, dominate, control somebody because they feel that
this insignificant nobody (meaning themselves) has been
manipulated, has been dominated and controlled for his or her
life and now ‘Here’s my opportunity to dish it out. I can call
the shots, I can make the decision whether this person will live
or die with just a snap of my fingers.'"

According to Northeastern University Sociology Professor Jack
Leven there are several criteria under which mass murderers are
most likely to act. First is frustration. Life isn’t going their
way, they’re not getting breaks and opportunities that they feel
they deserve and are entitled to. The fact that others seem to
be getting those breaks and opportunities, in Leven’s view,
while the mass murderer is not, tends to fuel their personal
fire. Second is isolation, a resentment of the fact that they
don’t feel themselves a part of mainstream society. They feel
rejected, frustrated and bitter. They act methodically, often
planning their crimes over a long period, picking out a
potential target and planning thoroughly. Loss also plays a
part, loss of status, of a particularly cherished job, a
bereavement, things that breed upset and emotional turmoil in
most of us, but seldom to a degree where suicide or mass murder
become an option. According to Leven, most people confronted
with these problems relieve their frustrations and resentments
in other ways and try to make the best of life’s difficulties.

Of those who don’t or can’t cope in more conventional ways, a
few will take their own lives. Unable to stand life’s pressures
they seek any available means to relieve them. A very few, like
George Hennard, decide to take others with them. They decide, in
their own minds, to restore their status and lost pride, relieve
their frustration and resentment by striking out at anybody and
everybody, striking with homicidal fury at society in general.

Leven argues that George Hennard fits this category perfectly
and that it was Hennard’s own personal demons that led to the
Luby’s massacre. Hennard selected women as his particular target
while others have been indiscriminate (such as Charles Whitman)
or selected for alleged political motives (such as Joseph Paul
Franklin) or ethnicity and/or religion. A common thread is that,
while they may particularly hate a particular group or groups
within society, spree killers like George Hennard are fuelled by
resentment, rage, declining personal fortunes, an inability to
deal with life as it stands and an equal inability to look to
their own personal deficiencies and failings. They prefer to
believe that their misfortunes are the fault of their victims,
denying most or all blame that might be better directed at
themselves.

The Aftermath

The response to the incident was strong and fast. The local
community quickly rallied round to bury the dead and comfort
those injured and bereaved by Hennard’s massacre. Local pastors
worked hard to comfort their parishioners while local hospital
staff worked back-breaking hours to deal with the wounded. Local
law enforcement worked equally hard, trying to find as much
information as possible on Hennard to try and establish a motive
for his crime. His troubled personal life, drug use and rampant
misogyny were all cited as contributing factors in the Luby’s
massacre. The response within the State of Texas didn’t stop
there.

In 1995 the Texas Legislature passed a so-called "shall issue"
gun law. This law required that all qualifying applicants should
be issued a "Concealed Handgun License" provided they passed the
criteria also laid down within the law. A Concealed Hangun
License is mandatory within Texas for anybody to carry a
concealed firearm, but the new law removed discretion on the
part of the issuing authority. Provided an applicant met the
criteria, a license would now automatically be issued.

The criteria are strict and an application is paid for by the
applicant. If the applicant fails the mandatory tests then the
license is denied. In order to qualify an applicant must have a
clean criminal record, attend at least 10 hours of classes with
a state-certified instructor, pass a 50-question test, pass a 50-
round shooting test and pass two background checks. One of the
tests is "shallow" and the other a "deep" background test. Both
checks are aimed at ensuring that concealed-carry licenses are
only granted to those the state feels are safe to have them.
Each license lasts four years.

The change had been campaigned for by one of the Luby’s
survivors, Suzanna Hupp. Hupp has testified at hearings and
events all over the United States in support of concealed-carry
laws and served in the Texas House of Representatives on the
Republican ticket between 1997 and 2006. She declined to seek re-
election after that period. The new law was signed by then-Texas
Governor George W. Bush prior to his seeking election as
President.

The town of Killeen (since rocked by two massacres at nearby
military base Fort Hood) constructed a memorial to those killed
and wounded. Built of simple pink granite, it bears the names of
the dead and the date of the massacre, October 16, 1991. It
stands behind the Killeen Community Center, not far from the
former Luby’s Cafeteria.

As for Luby’s itself, it has long since closed down. After the
cafeteria had been cleaned and repaired it went back to serving
customers as it had before George Hennard’s rampage. Business,
however, began to suffer. Despite a redesign and its owners
doing their best to keep it going, it closed permanently on
September 9, 2000, later re-opening as a Chinese-American buffet
under the name Yank Sing.

http://www.crimemagazine.com/lubys-cafeteria-massacre-1991
 

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