George Hennard : Luby's Cafeteria Shooting

if you like this show check out my other show somewhere sinister each season we take you to a different location where we tell sinister stories that happen in that area the first season we covered the pacific northwest and stories that involved a train robbery and mysterious severed feet in season 2 we're going to explore some stories in the deep south so search somewhere sinister on youtube or use the link on this channel's page you can also listen to it in podcast form by searching for somewhere sinister wherever you listen to podcasts thanks so much i hope you enjoy killing texas is the town that lies right outside of fort hood army base it was a small trading post until the beginning of world war ii camp hood as it was called until 1950 was created in 1942 as a training camp to help meet war demands its name comes from frank p killeen who was the assistant general manager to the railroad that built a rail depot there in 1881. george hennard didn't have much luck with women in the u.s it happens some people just aren't that sociable according to george though it wasn't his fault a group of white women were conspiring to keep other women from dating him when the government wouldn't help him stop this group of nefarious women he decided to take matters into his own hands this is monsters [Music] mario [Applause] [Music] on june 5th 1991 george henrard was at the federal office building in las vegas nevada when he was approached by an fbi agent on duty in the office he said quote i'd like to file a civil rights complaint when they got to the agent's office and sat down george was asked to explain the nature of his complaint after a deep breath george explained quote my civil rights have been violated by a secret group of white women they've gotten together to form a nationwide conspiracy against me they are preventing me from dating other women he went on to say that they would spread stories about him tell women that they shouldn't date him they followed him around the country and even called employers and said negative things to keep him from getting jobs when asked if he had seen these women following him he said yes he said that they would stand in front of his vehicle when he tried to drive the agent got out of pen and paper and asked for the names of the women in this group but george said he didn't know their names the agent asked what businesses they had called to sabotage his job prospects but george said he couldn't tell him george insisted that he was afraid for his personal safety but the agent told him that there was nothing they could do without more details george left the federal building without having the fbi pursue this conspiracy against him he seemed to believe he'd be able to tell a federal agent that his civil rights were being violated with absolutely no evidence to back it up not even a name of who was responsible for this violation and the fbi would just jump into action to the fbi george was just another person trying to use the system for a perceived slight against him but to george there was a real problem that needed to be handled and if the feds weren't going to do it he would have to do it himself george henard was born on october 15 1956 in air pennsylvania to george henrard senior and gene henard george senior immigrated to the united states from switzerland and eventually joined the u.s army where he became a resident in orthopedics george jr had two younger siblings a brother allen and a sister desiree jean was a widow with two children when she met george senior so george jr also had two half-siblings craig and carla clampett george senior was sent all over the world by the army and the family lived in france germany thailand and indiana before george senior was made the commanding officer at mcafee army clinic in white sands missile range near las cruces new mexico george senior was a typical military officer father he preferred a strict authoritarian style with his parenting the kids were allowed a pre-set amount of phone time and when they hit their limit their father would simply disconnect to the call another common punishment was to cut his son's hair after getting in trouble on their dirt bikes george senior took george jr and allen to the barber and had their long hair cut when george jr got in trouble again the elder george cut his hair further on his own people at his school said it looked like he had been mauled his hair was choppy and uneven and some said it looked like his father had performed the haircut with a butcher knife classmates said that george was outgoing and considered to be cool by the other kids but after his father chopped his hair off he got quiet and introverted in high school george got himself a sonar drum set and began playing music it was the 70s and his life began to revolve around listening to rock and roll music and smoking marijuana he joined a couple other teams in regular jam sessions but he would constantly deviate from the song they were playing and start doing his own thing the other teens didn't want to continue playing music with him and he continued to be a loner once george graduated from high school he enlisted in the u.s navy he trained as a fire control technician before being assigned to serve on the uss mississipa this ship was a fleet oiler that would provide fuel to other vessels along with other supplies and mail while on this assignment george would have spent most of his time maintaining the ship in 1976 george was assigned to the uss dixie which was also a support ship but this one specialized in repairs the ship was outfitted with facilities that would make it possible to repair or fabricate anything a naval vessel could need while on the dixie george had stops in guam japan hong kong and the philippines though george wasn't a major troublemaker he had received reprimands for two minor infractions and he was not recommended for re-enlistment after his three-year deployment was over he was likely due to his overall low performance scores though specific details were not included in his service record he received an honorable discharge not being ready to leave a life at sea four months after leaving the navy george became part of the military sealift command which was a government organization that provided logistic support to the armed forces nine months after that he joined the us merchant marine despite sounding like a branch of the military consisting of salesmen with marine corps training the merchant marine is a group of civilian mariners who were managed by a combination of government and civilian contractors who deliver goods and services over the water in and out of the u.s on may 20th 1982 george assaulted an african-american crew member on the ship where he worked he also disobeyed a lawful command from the ship's captain and when they arrived at port in louisiana he had his mariner's license suspended for six months and was given 12 months of probation once his license was reinstated george began working out of san pedro california those sailors who had worked with him before his suspension said he was racist he seemed to have no issues working with anyone out of the san pedro port maybe he was just trying to keep from having a repeat of his first incident while working out of california george had rented a storage space where he would regularly play his drums some of the other sailors asked if they could see him play but he always made an excuse to turn them down george was friendly with his fellow mariners but he didn't make friends with any of them he kept to himself and collected his checks which were becoming substantial he was a young guy with few expenses so he was able to save most of his income as well as purchase himself a new truck he paid cash for a 1987 ford ranger 4x4 and had a number of custom options added on he had it pinstriped and added chrome wheels he didn't only treat himself he bought his mother a cadillac as well when george had time off he took vacations to the philippines thailand and various places in south america people that knew him said his interest in those places was strictly for prostitution he liked non-white women especially ones that would do whatever he wanted he found that paying the women got him that obedience in 1989 george was promoted to supervisor of the ship's crew he was organized and had high standards which would make him a good supervisor this promotion must have made him cocky though since on his first voyage out his supervisor he rolled a joint and lit it up right in front of the other crew members while on the ship drugs and alcohol are a huge no-no crew members reported george and within a few hours the captain was searching the new supervisor's belongings when he found the bag of marijuana george admitted it was his and claimed he just forgot it was tucked inside the shoe where it was found george was ordered to an inpatient drug rehabilitation program and entered saint joseph hospital in houston on july 14 1989. he was released two and a half weeks later at his final court hearing george admitted to using drugs while on the ship and claimed that he had a choice of sailing or drugs and that he was choosing sailing he wanted to be on the water more than anything else unfortunately for him the judge followed the punishment guidelines for the us code that prohibited drug use by merchant mariners and his license was revoked permanently as of october 17 1989 george hennard was no longer allowed out to sea with no job and no prospects george moved to an apartment in austin texas and began working odd jobs he found an ad in the paper where a group of musicians were looking for a drummer and he began to jam with them they didn't mesh well with george but they couldn't find another drummer so they stuck it out with him for a while by this time george's sister desiree had gotten married and her husband jimmy shellenbarger offered his brother-in-law position at his construction business he had a job doing contract work at ellsworth air force base in rapid city south dakota the contract was just for the summer but george could use the steady work so he accepted the rest of the crew was not impressed by george's work ethic he would whine and complain anytime he had to do something he didn't want to do if jimmy wasn't around george would ignore the other crew members who were in charge these guys knew that george would have been fired by then if he wasn't the boss's brother-in-law eventually george's aggression affected jimmy as well one day while on the job site jimmy told george to clean up a mess he had made george ignored him jimmy told him again to which george responded quote [ __ ] you jimmy then he pushed his brother-in-law turned boss jimmy wasn't having it and despite being a good seven inches shorter than george he picked up a wooden stake and smacked him in the collarbone with it then he put george in a headlock and threatened to break his neck after the other crew members broke up the fight george slinked away and eventually left south dakota and drove to his mother's house in henderson nevada by this time george's parents had divorced and gene was living in an apartment in henderson despite having retained a 4 400 square foot brick home in belton texas a house the neighbors called the mansion due to its size in a small community of modest two-bedroom clapboard homes its six towering two-story columns on the front porch stuck out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood a final assignment at fort hood had brought the hennards to belton and after the divorce gene had moved to the las vegas area while dr hennard opened his own practice in houston jean was planning to sell the mansion but in the meantime george would divide his time between living with his mother in henderson and living at the house in belton maintaining the property in february of 1991 george learned that his appeal to have his mariners license reinstated had been denied it was official that he would never sail again he would never feel the calming sea air or visit the port cities where he could socialize with the working women he preferred less than two weeks after the decision was made george saw an ad in the newspaper for mike's gun house this wasn't a brick and mortar gun shop it was a guy named mike who was licensed to sell guns out of his house in henderson when george arrived he really didn't know what he wanted he had never had an interest in guns before then mike suggested a glock 17 and laid it on the coffee table for george to check out it was surprisingly light and had a decent capacity with 17 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber george paid 420 dollars cash for the gun and sat down to fill out the paperwork george listed himself as unemployed on the application and of the handful of questions it asked he answered everything truthfully except when it asked about drug use despite having gone back to daily marijuana use after he completed rehab he answered that he did not use any recreational drugs after george left mike took the form to the henderson police department for processing and while there he told the receptionist that he had a bad feeling about george the receptionist promised to red flag the form but there's no evidence that the henderson police paid any special attention to george hennard mike's bad feeling also didn't seem to stop him from selling george a second gun on march 29th this time a stainless steel ruger p89 for 345 dollars on june 1st george drove out to some canyons near lake mead with his drums and his guns first he set up his drums in the middle of nowhere and pounded out a drum concert to an invisible crowd when he finished playing his drums he downed some beers and fired some shots at the empty cans once he was used to the recoil of each weapon he set up a row of full cans and hit them all letting their contents explode onto the nearby rocks when he was finished with his target practice he pulled his truck over on the side of the highway and continued drinking beer at about 8 20 pm park ranger charles luttrell approached george's truck and asked him if he'd been drinking george set his beer on the floorboards out of sight and answered quote i can't say george was ordered out of the vehicle and made to perform a field sobriety test which he failed after he was told he was under arrest he informed the ranger that he had two loaded guns inside his truck along with the drunk driving charge george would also be charged with possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle and yes in most states you don't have to be driving to be arrested for dui just being behind the wheel while drunk can get you arrested while transporting george to the las vegas detention center ranger luttrell said he mumbled something something get me he asked him to repeat what he said and he responded quote i said they're out to get me after a minute of silence george clarified quote females white women they're out to get me it's a conspiracy what this had to do with him being drunk behind the wheel of his truck is anyone's guess when delusional people start thinking that people are conspiring against them they tend to believe it affects every part of their life even events that are the result of their own actions jean soon arrived at the jail and paid the hundred dollar bail to release her son just four days later george would go to the federal building in las vegas and unsuccessfully attempt to file a civil rights complaint when that got him no sympathy from the fbi george decided to take matters into his own hands not by using his guns not yet he chose to tackle this problem with a pen and paper a few blocks away from the mansion in belton left jane bugg who had two pretty blonde daughters 23 year old jill fritz and 19 year old janet jernigan jill had recently married though george seemed to be unaware of that he seemed to live in a world where they were still the young teenagers he would see in the neighborhood when he returned home on leave from work as a merchant marine despite both women being an exact match for the white women he was constantly claiming were conspiring against him he seemed to have developed an obsession with them that lasted for years somehow he believed that writing them a letter was going to solve the problem of white women conspiring to ruin his life other than the fact that that made absolutely no sense the biggest problem was that george had sent the letter to the wrong address he sent it to jane bug's neighbor and he couldn't remember jill and jana's names so he wrote stacey and question mark robin question mark and he spelt stacey with two e's at the end this thoroughly confused the neighbor's teenage daughter whose name just happened to be stacy spelt with an ie at the end but still close enough for her to believe that the letter was addressed to her it read june 6 1991 dear stacy and question mark robin question mark surprise surprise can you guess who is writing to you we'll just take a look at the enclosed pictures to help you figure it out they are for you and your sister question mark robin question mark i never did learn her name for sure believe it or not to this day 6 6 91 not one single person has ever come forward and volunteered one bit of information that would help me lead to your capture one day before i left texas to return to las vegas and all of its hassles i saw in the temple telegram your picture an impressive accomplishments is your sister of the same caliber i hope so the thing that immediately came to my mind was that you were senior in high school i finally realized that the mystery of what the problem was had been or was finally solved after three and a half years think back now stacy to january 31 1988 the night that neil piert my main man and rush played down in austin i remember seeing two young girls and their mother pass by me twice in a little tan compact car what was going on here i thought to myself oh god i was looking at two sisters was it only in just 15 to 17 years old at the time i can promise you i had no idea of your young ages and the fact that i had just stepped into a legal twilight zone my goodness i must admit being truly flattered knowing i have two teenage groupie fans it makes no sense it was five pages hand written and it just rambled on jill would later say that she didn't even know who george was and janna said she had seen him once while she and jane drove past the mansion a few months prior otherwise they had absolutely no connection to george hennard neither of them were seniors in high school and neither of them had any memory of driving by him in 1988. in the letter he asked if they wanted to go out and if they did it would give him quote the satisfaction of someday laughing in the face of all those mostly white treacherous female vipers from those two towns who tried to destroy me and my family then he wrote it's very ironic about belton texas i found the best and worst in women there you and sister on one side then the abundance of evil women that make up the worst of the other side i would like to personally remind all those vipers that i have civil rights too just because i did hire an attorney to enforce my civil rights does not mean they have carte blanche to do what they want in violation of these rights i will no matter what prevail over the female vipers in those two rinky-dink towns in texas i will prevail in the better end he closed the letter by saying no more talk of rejection slander deceit etc etc the truth is now in writing peace sisters love you both george your fan ps how about sending me your nice pictures on the back of the last page georgia wrote the address and phone number of his mother's apartment in henderson he waited days for a call or a letter at his mother's apartment but it never came frustrated he wanted to call jane's house and find out why they rejected him he wanted to know if the other white women had gotten to them too before he was able to lash out at the women he had become obsessed with he checked the address and realized he had sent the letter to their neighbor as a means of clearing up the goof he called jane's house and left a message on her answering machine while she was at work janna had gotten to the house before jane and when she listened to the message she was just as confused about it as stacy was about the letter the message wasn't any more coherent than that letter jane listened as a man said i know you're going to think this is funny but there's been a terrible mistake just an awful mix-up there is a letter that was mailed to your next-door neighbors by mistake we've got to set this right it's a mess just a mess a mess jaina called her mother at work and asked her to come home early jane didn't know what to make of the message either but she figured it couldn't hurt to go to the neighbor's house and ask next door stacy handed over the letter probably relieved to learn that it wasn't meant for her when jane and jana read it they were shocked with the letter were a handful of photos of a man she recognized from the mansion down the street jane promptly punched the number on the back of the letter into her phone and when she connected with george she laid into him she told him to never contact her daughters again in any manner not on the phone not by mail george apologized and hung up he wasn't sorry though he was angry he called the neighbor's house and yelled at stacy's mother he told her that it was her fault that she had poisoned their minds against him when jane found out about the call to the neighbor she brought the letter to police but there was nothing they could do they couldn't arrest george for sending a creepy letter it didn't help that in the months following the letter george was spending more time at the mansion having to make repairs for the upcoming sale in the middle of july george went on vacation to panama he had patched up his relationship with his brother-in-law jimmy so he took george to the airport and picked him up when they were driving back from the airport george talked about how his vacation had been ruined he said the police had tailed him everywhere he went jimmy didn't understand he asked if george had been involved with drugs no george responded they were after him they were also tapping his phone jimmy brushed it off and tried to maintain a somewhat normal relationship with his brother-in-law but it was short-lived when george got back to the mansion he realized that it had finally been put on the market he was losing his home which was really his mother's home and he believed that the white women were closing their grip on his life he had no other choice but to fight back every morning at about 5 30 a.m george would go into a nearby convenience store and purchase an orange juice a sausage and biscuit sandwich a newspaper and donuts on october 16 1991 he added a candy bar to the order the cashier had seen george every morning and this was the first time he bought a candy bar when george dug in his pocket to pay for his items he chuckled and said he didn't seem to have any money he asked the cashier if he could stop it later and pay for it and she agreed it was national bosses day and people were taking their bosses out to eat in the town of killeen less than 30 minutes west of belton looby's cafeteria was a popular destination and people from the area were filing into the restaurant for lunch on a sunny wednesday at 11am george had just finished writing a letter to his sister it read desiree enclosed is 100 to cover the water and electric bill do not pay the phone bill i am responsible for it southwestern bell violated my privacy rights therefore they don't get paid don't let the people in this rotten town get to you like they done to me take care of yourself and be strong love you brother jojo jojo was his childhood nickname he apparently believed the phone company had tapped his phone and didn't want to pay them because of it this was another slide against him on top of losing his mariner's license and the white women conspiring against him at 12 39 pm george henner drove his ford ranger pickup through the floor-to-ceiling window of luby's cafeteria and into the dining area tables in the truck's path were smashed and customers who occupied them went flying a waitress station was crushed and condiments splattered the hood of the truck the patrons who weren't in the path of destruction jumped up at the site of what must have been a horrible accident multiple good samaritans rushed to the driver's side of the pickup to find out if the driver was okay they worried that a medical condition might have caused the driver to lose control and plow through the front of the restaurant as people were approaching to help george he turned off the engine and raised both pistols firing out of both the drivers and passenger side windows 33-year-old tom simmons was hit multiple times and killed as george jumped from the driver's seat he yelled quote this is for the women of belton george began shooting at the closest customers the ones who had been knocked down when the truck crashed through the window he killed 57 year old patricia carney 48 year old jimmy caruthers and 30 year old sylvia king he began shouting quote this is for what bell county did to me and my family this is payback was it worth it was it worth it he killed 33 year old deborah gray 48 year old michael griffith and 29 year old john romero jr the youngest person who would lose their life that day customers began building barricades out of tables and chairs trying to shield themselves from the madman's bullets the assisted manager unlocked the back door which allowed many employees to escape but customers were still trapped in the dining room one of the kitchen staff mark matthews hid inside the industrial dishwasher auto mechanic tommy vaughn managed to dive through another window and create an opening for some of the customers to escape 71 year old al grazia was shot in the chest and was dying instead of running for the broken window with her daughter 67 year old ursula gracia went to her husband's side and cradled him as he gasped for air george took the opportunity to execute the grieving woman with a bullet to the head killeen police dispatch reported the shooting over the radio at 12 40 pm investigators ken olsen and chuck longwell were not far from looby's when they heard the call on the radio they raced to the scene and were there in just a few minutes as they snuck around the front taking cover behind cars in the parking lot george spotted them and opened fire in the same parking lot was a sheraton hotel where a group of police officers were in an auto theft training course when they heard the commotion they ran to their vehicles to grab their weapons and provide backup as george turned to take aim at another patron investigator olson saw his opportunity and fired a shot the bullet hit george and he retreated to the hallway that led to the bathrooms customers had hidden in the bathrooms and barricaded the doors george was stuck investigators olson and longwell advanced into the restaurant's dining room and ordered george to surrender george responded quote [ __ ] you i'm gonna kill more people after exchanging more fire george was hit two more times with one round left in his glock he put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger george henron ended his rampage with a fatal bullet to his right temple it was the day after his 35th birthday and the day before the second anniversary of having his mariner's license revoked george henrard killed 23 people and injured 27. at the time it was the deadliest mass shooting in the country an investigation afterward turned up little other than evidence that george was a very disturbed man who had a profound hatred of women based on notes and audio recordings that he had made of all of his actions they learned of his belief that a group of white blonde women were working to destroy his life they also listened to the audio tape of his arrival at the federal building and his frustration after leaving the meeting with the fbi agent recording wasn't allowed in the agent's office so the meeting wasn't recorded witnesses would later say that george seemed to prioritize shooting women when he could calling two of them [ __ ] before he shot them of the 23 people he murdered 14 were women and nine were men george henard lived a life of isolation where he could only find happiness while out to sea where very few people could interact with him then he only wanted women in foreign countries who he could pay to be completely obedient and then he didn't understand why women in belton or killeen didn't want to date him he couldn't recognize that he was an awful person so he took it up a notch and became a monster if you're the victim of domestic abuse please reach out to someone for help talk to your local shelter or call the national domestic abuse hotline at 1-800-799-safe that's 1-800-799-7233 or you can go to thehotline.org to chat with someone online this website is set up so that at any time hitting the escape key twice will take you to a google search page that way if your abuser is nearby you won't get caught seeking help if you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else or even just need someone to talk to please contact your local mental health facility call 9-1-1 or call mental health america who operate the national suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-talk that's 1-800-273-8255 they're available 24 hours a day seven days a week thanks so much for letting me tell you this story if you enjoyed it subscribe on whatever platform you're on hit like rate us or leave us a comment you can also check out our other show somewhere sinister on youtube or anywhere you listen to podcasts if you'd like to support the show check out our new merch at teespring the link is in the description thanks again and be safe

Channel: this is MONSTERS

Views: 347,019

Keywords: True crime, luby's cafeteria, george hennard, killeen, mass shooting

Id: 5zD9H0d45do

Length: 31min 40sec (1900 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 23 2022