The Luby's Cafeteria Massacre

For roughly ten minutes at a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, a man moved from patron to patron, shooting them at close range with a Glock 17 and a Ruger P89. As police closed in, he turned one of his guns on himself, ending what was then the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The killer took the lives of 23 people on October 16, 1991, and wounded roughly two dozen more.

George Hennard

Born on October 15, 1956, in Sayre, Pennsylvania to an American mother and Swiss father, Hennard's father Georges was an expert in orthopedics, and as a result, the family constantly moved around the country since he worked at various Army hospitals. Hennard's parents allegedly didn't care about him, and he was quiet and antisocial throughout high school. After graduating high school in 1974, Hennard joined the Navy, where he experienced many troubles, among them an arrest for marijuana possession and a suspension after having a racial argument with a shipmate. He soon went to a substance-abuse program in Houston after being suspended again for marijuana possession aboard a cargo ship, and then drifted from job to job, having numerous jobs in different U.S. states. Hennard eventually became particularly prejudiced against women, once sending two sisters living a couple of blocks away from him a five-page letter voicing his hatred for them. A week-and-a-half prior to the massacre at Luby's Cafeteria, Hennard resigned from his current job at a cement company at Copperas Cove. According to TruTV, Hennard had watched a documentary about James Huberty, a disgruntled man who committed a massacre at a San Ysidro, California McDonald's restaurant on July 18, 1984, killing 21 people. He also watched The Fisher King, a 1991 movie in which a radio DJ inspires a man into killing several people at a restaurant in a shooting. The two movies apparently inspired him to commit the Luby's massacre.

The Shooting

On October 16, 1991, after eating breakfast at a convenience store he commonly visited, Hennard then drove to a Luby's Cafeteria that was located seventeen miles away in Killeen, Texas.

Luby's Cafeteria was a popular restaurant on U.S. Highway 190 at Killeen, right next to America's biggest military base, Fort Hood. The lunchtime crowd was bigger than usual as a result of diners celebrating Boss's Day. Around 150 customers and employees were present when, at 12:41 p.m., the restaurant's plate-glass window crashed inwards as a 35-year-old from nearby Belton, George Hennard, rammed his pickup truck through it.

A local veterinarian rushed to the driver's window to offer help. He was the gunman's first victim. The gunman then yelled, “This is what Belton did to me!” and opened fire. (Another source reports that Hennard shouted, “This is what Bell County has done to me.”) Patrons and staff screamed and dove for cover as he stalked the restaurant and shot victims, allowing one woman with a child to flee before killing another woman next to her. Hennard saw another woman hiding underneath a bench near the serving line and said, "Hiding from me, bitch?" before shooting her dead. Hennard then approached Steve Ernst, who was hiding underneath a table before shooting him. Ernst then rolled over, holding his stomach.

Hennard continued to shoot when four policemen arrived and fired at him. Finally, wounded and cornered by the police, he shot himself, leaving 23 dead or dying and another 20 injured.

The shooting lasted for roughly 10 minutes, with at least 100 shots fired by Hennard.

The police feared entering the are the shooter had killed him self, but eventually went in.

Government Response

The 24 Luby's deaths were 6 more than were recorded 25 years earlier on the day of the University of Texas tower attack, which was the country's deadliest shooting until a gunman murdered 21 people at a California McDonald's in 1984. Both events shocked a nation that was unaccustomed to such slaughter. But by the time the Luby's massacre outstripped them, a certain narrative had begun to take hold. In the 33 years from 1949 to 1981, three mass shootings of ten or more people took place in the United States. In the nine years from 1982 to 1990, six occurred. The bloodletting had become so familiar that hours after the Luby's massacre, Peter Jennings opened his World News Tonight broadcast by saying, “It has happened again.”

The Texas State Rifle Association and others preferred that the state allow its citizens to carry concealed weapons. Democratic Governor Ann Richards vetoed such bills, but in 1995, her Republican successor, George W. Bush, signed one into force. The law had been campaigned for by Suzanna Hupp, who was present at the massacre; both of her parents, Alphonse "Al" Gratia and Ursula "Suzy" Gratia, were killed by Hennard. She later testified that she would have liked to have had her .38 revolver, but said, "It was a hundred feet away in my car." (She had feared that if she was caught carrying it she might lose her chiropractor's license.) Hupp testified across the country in support of concealed handgun laws, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996.

The restaurant reopened five months after the massacre, but closed permanently on September 9, 2000. In 2006, a buffet called "Yank Sing" occupied the former Luby's. The restaurant remains open as of April 2024.