EP. 50 CALIFORNIA - The 1984 McDonald's Massacre: 77 Minutes of Hell
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Everyone knows of the fast food chain McDonald's. Today, the company is worth $180 billion. There are over 39,000 restaurants worldwide, and they serve around 69 million customers per day. Unbeknownst to many, the famous franchise actually started back in 1940 as a tiny little restaurant in San Bernardino, California. It was founded by the McDonald family, even

back then, the restaurant had a way of bringing people together with their burgers and fries. Over the years, as the company expanded and got more popular, they added their famous golden arches and different mascots like the clown Ronald McDonald.

Bertie, Mayor McCheese, and the Hamburglar. Names that you probably aren't familiar with if you're under the age of 20. And that's because the McDonald's that millennials grew up with is a lot different than the McDonald's today. Back in the 80s and 90s, it was a place where kids would host their birthday parties, where children from all over the country would go to order a Happy Meal with a little toy inside,

Then afterwards, you would play in their indoor playground until your mom said it was time to go home. This was the case for many children inside of the McDonald's in San Isidro, California back in 1984. There were around 45 people packed inside the restaurant on that hot July afternoon. Children were eating their happy meals, some were playing on the playground, and many families were inside enjoying an early dinner.

But at around 4:00 PM, all of their lives would change forever when a man enters the restaurant, giving an arsenal of weapons. For the next 77 minutes, families hide under the restaurant's tables, shielding their children and fearing for their lives

as a man walks through shooting indiscriminately. He shoots infants, children, husbands and wives, and the elderly. And at the end of it all, 21 people would lose their lives at the hand of one man. This is the story of the 1984 McDonald's Massacre. I'm Courtney Shannon, and you're listening to Murder in America. ♪♪

On October 11th, 1942 in Canton, Ohio, parents Earl and Isil Huberti would welcome a baby boy into the world whom they would name James Huberti. And although the first few years of James' life would go smoothly, he would experience some life-changing health problems when he turned three. Shortly after his third birthday, James contracted polio, which is a very dangerous disease known to affect the spinal cord and can even cause paralysis or death.

In less severe cases, polio can have lasting effects on the body's muscles, especially in a developing child. This was the case for James. He would end up surviving this disease, but he had to wear leg braces for a while and it would leave him with discomfort and chronic walking issues for the rest of his life. His father said that these disabilities caused him to be a very unhappy child. Now, years later, in the early 1950s, James' father Earl would sell their home and buy some property in the Pennsylvania Amish country.

But he and his wife, Isil, didn't really agree on this. She didn't want to live an Amish lifestyle. Instead, she felt more called to Southern Baptist living. And the two were never able to reconcile, so Earl stayed on the Amish farm, and Isil ended up leaving her family to preach with the radical Southern Baptists. Afterwards, James' paternal grandfather stepped in to help raise him, but his mother's abandonment still had a lasting effect

on his life. But James seemed to find comfort during this time by really immersing himself in guns. According to the New York Times, James would often leave their house in the middle of the night to go target shooting in the woods. Now, this isn't abnormal, especially for a young boy growing up on a farm. But in hindsight, it's an ominous thought that these kinds of hobbies would play a role in the massacre he would go on to commit. One overwhelming quality that we've noticed about James throughout his life

was that he had a hard time fitting in. When he was a teenager, one of his neighbors noticed this, so they asked him to come to a barbecue to help him socialize. But James wasn't very interested, and he just kind of kept to himself the entire time. These same neighbors would later tell the LA Times, quote,

Those guns were about the only thing he liked." But James did have dreams for himself. After graduating from high school, he would attend a Jesuit community college in Ohio and pursue a degree in sociology. Afterward, he would attend the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science

and receive a license for embalming. While James was at college, he would meet a woman named Edna, and in 1965, the two would get married. And from everything I could find, they had a happy marriage at first, and they would go on to have two daughters named Zelia and Cassandra. Shortly after their children were born, the family moved to Massillon, Ohio, and James got a job at the Don Williams Funeral Home.

where he would prepare bodies for burial. But life was not always easy for the Huberti family. In 1971, just a few years after settling in, their house would burn to the ground, forcing the family to move back to Canton, Ohio. And I have to say, losing your home in a fire is a horrible thing for a family to have to go through.

I lost my house in a fire back in 2012 and you basically have to start completely over and losing everything is really hard on a family. But luckily for James, after the fire, he was offered a welding job in Canton and he started making pretty good money for his family. He and Edna bought a three-story home in a nice part of town and from the outside looking in, it seemed like they were starting to get their life back in order.

But a lot of the time, as we've seen, these picture-perfect families aren't always so perfect. According to Murderpedia, after the move, the Hubertys started exhibiting violent behaviors. In one instance, James was arrested at a gas station for starting an argument with someone and refusing to quiet down. But James wasn't the only one who had a rap sheet. While the family was attending a birthday party, Etna told her eldest daughter to beat up one of the girls at the party.

and later, Etna would threaten the girl's mother with a 9mm pistol. She was later arrested for this incident, causing the family to have a pretty bad reputation in Canton, Ohio. They also weren't really liked by their neighbors. Law enforcement would often receive calls about constant gunshots going off at the Huberty property, and also about the attack dogs that James raised. We weren't able to find information on any of the other dogs that James had, but he did have a German Shepherd at one point.

And on one occasion, the dog went off of their property and somehow damaged a neighbor's car. When the neighbor confronted him about the damage, James immediately took the dog in the backyard and shot it. The neighbor told James that that was unnecessary, and James responded, "I believe in paying my debts, both good and bad."

And it seemed like this was a reoccurring pattern in James' life. He never really let anyone get close to him, and the people that were close in proximity didn't really have anything to say about him except for that he was a loner with a gun obsession. His wife, Etna, would later say after the massacre, quote, I always figured there was a strong chance he'd kill me one day, end quote.

And one day, Edna even became concerned with his daughter's safety when Zelia quote "went flying into her bedroom with an Uzi pointed at her."

End quote. Apparently, James would threaten his daughter with the same gun he would later use in the massacre. Neighbors also confirmed this abuse against his children, saying that Zelia would walk around with bruises on her face and tell people that, quote, her daddy slapped her around. End quote. And according to the New York Times, she would later say, part of me will remember him as a very nice person. Another part will remember him as a violent person.

And things seem to only get worse for James from here on out. At one point in the early 80s, James got into a motorcycle accident and injured his arm. Because of this, he wasn't able to continue his job as a welder and they eventually let him go. Afterwards, James tried to invest in an apartment complex to make some extra money, but the real estate deal fell through, which really upset him. And it was around this time when we start to see James spiral into a mental health crisis.

He became overly paranoid that international bankers were in cahoots with the Federal Reserve and that their ultimate goal was to throw the U.S. into bankruptcy. And he kind of became obsessed with this idea. He began spending thousands of dollars on guns and non-perishable foods, thinking that the government was after him.

and he even went to the extremes of moving his entire family to Mexico in January of 1984, about six months before the massacre. But they wouldn't stay there for very long. For whatever reason, James decided to come back to the US and moved his family to a neighborhood of San Diego called San Ysidro, California. Once there, he found a job as a security guard, but in the summer of 1984, he would get fired from this job as well.

And this incident seemed to be the breaking point for James Huberty because just a few weeks later, he would go on to commit one of the worst massacres in United States history. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. We talk a lot about BetterHelp on this show, and this month we're discussing some of the stigmas around mental health.

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We always wonder what's going through people's heads in the days before they commit heinous crimes. Some people are totally normal, acting as if it was any other week. Others act paranoid, and some even act excited. But one interesting thing about this case, something we normally don't see, is that James actually warned several people that he was going through a severe mental health crisis.

Three days before the shooting, he told his wife Edna that he believed he had a mental illness and that he thought he needed to seek some help. Then, the day before the shooting, James called a mental health clinic in San Isidro to try and make an appointment with a specialist.

But when the receptionist asked James about the nature of his mental health problems, he was kind of vague and he didn't sound very worried or anxious. He told the receptionist that he wasn't on any medication and that he had never been hospitalized before, and he spoke in a calm and polite manner, leading the receptionist to believe that his needs were not that urgent.

But this would go on to be a fatal mistake. Not only did they not understand the severity of James' call, but they told him that they would call him back within a few hours to schedule an appointment. And when they took down James' information, they accidentally wrote his last name down as Schuberty instead of Huberti. And because they didn't have the right information, they never called him back. According to Aetna, James waited by the phone for hours in complete silence. But the phone stopped.

never rang. The system failed him that day. James Huberti genuinely wanted help with the mental anguish going on inside of his head. But eventually, after hours of waiting by the phone and realizing that no one was going to call him back, Etna said that he abruptly left the house without telling anyone where he was going.

But James wouldn't go out and kill anyone on this night. Instead, he would come home later and spend one last night with his family. But it seemed like he was well aware that this would be his last day on Earth. Because the following morning, on July 18th, 1984, James would take his family to the San Isidro Zoo. And he spent the morning making memories and watching his daughters marvel over the exotic animals.

Maybe something inside of him wanted one last good memory with his family before he ruined their lives forever. During their time at the zoo, James was clearly upset that the mental health clinic never called him back. And he even told Edna, society had their chance.

After the zoo, he would take them for lunch at a McDonald's that was just a few hundred blocks from their apartment. The exact McDonald's where he would commit the massacre just hours later. James Huberty could have picked anywhere to be his hunting grounds that day. It was probably pure chance that he picked the place

where he spent his last meal with his family. And it makes us wonder, what was going through his mind while he ate his burgers and fries? Did he decide right then and there while he ate with his family that he was going to come in later and kill everyone inside? Did he see the children playing on the playground? Or the dozens of happy families eating lunch together? Or did he make the decision afterwards once he left?

These are questions Courtney and I have asked while looking into this case, but we still don't have those answers. All we know is that after eating at the McDonald's, James and his family would drive back to their apartment down the street and life for the Huberti family would never be the same. Once home, Etna would lie down in bed

The girls would go to their rooms and James would go into his closet to change his clothes. He put on a maroon shirt, green camouflage pants, white Adidas shoes with red stripes, then walked over to Edna and kissed her goodbye. When she asked where he was going, James replied, "I'm going to hunt."

Humans. James then grabbed his 9mm pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun, a 9mm Uzi semi-automatic, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and then made his way out the door. When his daughter saw him leaving with the guns in hand, he told her, "'Goodbye. I won't be back.'" The very last image she would have of her father was this. On the way out of the apartment, a witness watched as James made his way to the McDonald's, holding the firearms, and they even called the police, but it would be too late.

Inside of the McDonald's on San Ysidro Boulevard, dozens of people filled the restaurant thinking it was an average Wednesday. There were children enjoying milkshakes, several families spending quality time together, and even some people that had just stopped in for a quick bite to eat before heading home. Around 45 people filled the restaurant that day. They were all of different backgrounds, different ages, with completely different life stories.

But one thing that most of them had in common was that their lives would all end in the exact same way in just a matter of moments.

Because at around 4 p.m. on that summer day in 1984, James Huberty would walk through the doors of the McDonald's and it soon became clear to everyone that this was not your average Wednesday. Upon entering the restaurant, James first pointed his shotgun at a 16-year-old employee named John Arnold. John didn't notice it at the time, so the assistant manager, Guillermo Flores, saw the encounter and yelled out,

Hey John, that guy's going to shoot you. James then pulled the trigger with every intention of ending the teenager's life. But the shotgun malfunctioned. Shocked and disturbed at what just happened, John walks away from the creepy man, thinking that maybe this is just some sort of sick joke. Nervous laughs rang out throughout the restaurant of other people who witnessed the strange encounter.

The manager of the McDonald's, 22-year-old Neva Cain, did not find it funny. She had actually just returned to work after her honeymoon when she walked over to John to see what was going on. But while she did so, James raised his weapon towards the ceiling and fired a round.

The shotgun was no longer malfunctioning, and the blast echoed throughout the small restaurant. James then raised up his Uzi semi-automatic rifle and fired at Neva, striking her beneath the left eye. She would die only a few minutes later, being the first victim of the McDonald's massacre. After she was shot, chaos erupted throughout the McDonald's.

as James proceeded to fire his shotgun at John Arnold, hitting him in the arm and chest. James then yelled, Everybody on the ground! As dozens of people hid under the McDonald's tables, James began to yell out about how everyone there was, quote,

dirty swine and Vietnam assholes." End quote. James shouted that he had killed a thousand and that he was planning on killing a thousand more. After witnessing the initial shooting and fearing the worst, a 25-year-old man named Victor Ferreira attempted to defuse the situation by calmly asking James to stop shooting.

But this only seemed to make him more angry. James then aimed his gun at Victor and fired 14 shots at point blank range, all while screaming, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Victor writhed in pain with each and every shot that entered his body before passing away on the McDonald's floor. And once James was sure that he was dead, he moved on to his next victim.

At this point, the restaurant was in complete chaos. Patrons and employees were scrambling to find cover, hiding behind tables, chairs, service counters, and taking shelter in the food preparation area. After murdering Victor, James then walked over towards a group of people that were huddled together, a group consisting only of women and young children.

James raised his gun towards the huddle and shot 19-year-old Marina Culminero Silva in the chest, killing her instantly. James then pointed his Uzi semi-automatic rifle at 9-year-old Claudia Perez and fired several shots into her hip, chest, leg, back, cheek, armpit, thigh, and head, killing her instantly.

Claudia's 15-year-old sister Imelda was shot in the hand during the gunfire and it was at this point when James switched back to using his shotgun. The first shot aimed at 11-year-old Aurora Pena. Aurora at the time was only shot in the leg as she was being shielded by her 18-year-old pregnant aunt, a woman named Jackie Reyes. Seeing that Jackie was shielding her young niece angered James. So he switched back to his Uzi and shot Jackie a total of 48 times. At this point a number of children are dead, several are injured and all

All people inside of the McDonald's are terrified and the cries of young kids start to fill the restaurant, including cries from young Carlos Reyes, Jackie's 8-month-old son who she was also shielding. Baby Carlos wailed as he watched his mother die right in front of him and this seemed to anger James. He yelled at the child and then told the hostages that he was getting anxious and that he didn't want to kill children. But his actions didn't seem to line up with his thoughts because most of the people he had killed thus far had been children.

Right after this, James approached the eight-month-old Carlos and shot him in the back, killing him immediately.

A 62-year-old trucker named Lawrence Versalis would be James' next victim. Lawrence was on his coffee break at the time of the shooting and was one week away from retiring from the job that he had worked for the last 40 years. The week of the shooting was Lawrence's victory lap, but that didn't matter because James then walked up and shot him, killing him instantly.

Afterwards, James looked around and noticed a family hiding near the playground underneath two booths. It was the Herrera family, who had been coming home from a vacation that day and had stopped by McDonald's for a quick bite to eat. Blythe Herrera, her husband Ronald, their 11-year-old son Mateo, and his friend Keith Thomas all huddled in fear as they watched James slowly approach them.

Blythe, the mother, wrapped her body around her son, Mateo, and Ronald had used his body to shield Mateo's friend, Keith. James then pointed his gun at the group and fired a number of rounds. Ronald Herrera was shot in the chest, stomach, hip, arm, shoulder, and head, and Keith, the 12-year-old friend who he was shielding, was struck in the arm, wrist, and

left elbow, and shoulder. Surprisingly, both Ronald and Keith would end up surviving the shooting, but Mateo and Blythe, Ronald's wife and son, would not. They were both shot multiple times in the head, leading to their immediate deaths, killing Ronald's entire family.

In the vicinity of this group of four was another group of individuals taking cover under a booth. 24-year-old Guadalupe Del Rio and her two friends, 25-year-old Gloria Ramirez and 31-year-old Erez Delci Vargas. The three friends had actually met that day for a quick lunch and had been in the process of leaving the restaurant when the shooting began. When the three saw James approach their booth, Gloria and Erez Delci had used their bodies to shield Guadalupe, the youngest in the group. And just like the others, James raised up his weapon and fired several rounds at the young adult.

Guadalupe was hit multiple times but sustained no serious injuries. Gloria wasn't struck by any bullets at all and was completely unharmed. But unfortunately, Arizdelce was struck once in the back of the head and would die the next day from her injuries. Arizdelce was the only victim from the shooting who survived long enough to be treated in a hospital before she died. Everyone else would die inside of the restaurant.

James continued his reign of terror on by walking booth to booth searching for victims or as he would call it, hunting humans. And as soon as he came across 45-year-old banker Hugo Vasquez, James shot Hugo once in the chest, killing him instantly.

And from what we could gather from the surviving witness accounts, James would open fire on a group of people and then pause, taking a break for himself. And during those breaks, there was a penetrating silence. Many victims that were hiding didn't want to draw attention to themselves, so they tried to remain as quiet as they could.

James would then walk over to another table and open fire, sometimes shooting at people and sometimes firing at windows and machinery just to do it, seemingly just to shoot. And you may be thinking, where were the police in all of this? How did they allow the shooting to carry on for 77 minutes? In the wake of the shooting, many others had this exact same question.

Shortly after the shooting began at 4 o'clock p.m., the first of several 911 calls were placed. One call came from a post office on the San Ysidro Boulevard located right next door to the McDonald's.

One of the victims that had been shot had escaped the restaurant and was taken to the post office for medical assistance. The first responders that arrived on scene that day were Albert Vitella, a community service officer for the San Diego Police Department, and Miguel Rosario, a local police officer. Years after the massacre, Albert would tell the Los Angeles Times, quote, "'Whenever I'd hear a call, I'd respond, just like any officer.'"

But there was something different about this one. The dispatcher said, quote, End quote.

After the first 911 call, the police dispatcher mistakenly sent units to the wrong McDonald's, a McDonald's located two miles from the restaurant where the shooting was unfolding. Normally, when this happens, police will immediately lock down the area, making it safe for innocent civilians and forcing them to go around the scene rather than walk right through the scene of the unfolding crime.

But since they were given the wrong address, this lockdown would be delayed. So while James shot at people inside of the restaurant, people were walking, riding their bikes, and driving up to the McDonald's, completely unaware of the atrocities occurring inside. This was exactly the case for a woman named Lydia Flores, who had pulled up to the McDonald's with her two-year-old daughter shortly after 4 p.m. She, at the time, had no idea what was happening inside of the restaurant when she pulled in to grab a bite to eat.

But when she drove her car to the food pickup window, she quickly noticed that some of the windows of the restaurant were shattered. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, Lydia hears the sounds of gunfire ring out from within the McDonald's. And when she glances through the pickup window, she sees James Huberty firing his weapon indiscriminately throughout the restaurant.

Suddenly, in full panic mode, Lydia puts her car in reverse and floors it backwards at full speed, eventually crashing into a fence. She then grabs her two-year-old daughter and runs to some nearby bushes for cover. Both Lydia and her daughter would survive the shooting, but some people who came to pick up fast food during the massacre wouldn't be so lucky. Around the same time that Lydia Flores narrowly escaped death,

Estolfo Felix, his wife Marciela, and their four-month-old daughter Carlita pulled into the parking lot of the McDonald's wanting some burgers. As the family exited their vehicle, they noticed that the windows of the McDonald's were shattered and that there was broken glass all over the ground. But they initially thought that the restaurant was undergoing some renovations.

So when they saw a man walking out of the restaurant towards them, they assumed he was a repairman holding some tools. No one would ever assume that grabbing a bite to eat at your local fast food restaurant would lead you right into an ongoing massacre. So they were completely caught off guard when James opened fire on the family with both his shotgun and his Uzi semi-automatically.

rifle. The gunfire would immediately wound all three members of the family. Estolfo was shot in the chest and head, Carlita, the four-month-old, was shot in her chest, neck, and abdomen, and Marciela was struck in the arms, chest, and face.

The wounds that Marciela sustained would leave her blind in one eye and render one of her hands completely unusable. As they fled from the shooter, El Stolfo handed their child Carlita to a random woman named Lucia Velasco, who was also fleeing the scene. And when he handed over his daughter, he asked her to bring her to the hospital. He knew that he might not survive his injuries, but his dying wish was that someone would take care of his daughter.

And Lucia did just that. While her husband helped Marciela and El Salfo seek shelter in a nearby building, she drove Carlita to a nearby hospital. Astonishingly, all three members of the Felix family would survive the shooting. But not everyone that rode up to the parking lot that day would make it out alive.

At this time, the cops are still not on the scene after being given the wrong location. And because the scene isn't secure, three young boys, Omar Hernandez, Joshua Coleman, and David Delgado, ride their bikes right up to the restaurant, wanting an afternoon snack. The trio first visited a bakery right next to the McDonald's called Yum Yum Donuts to pick up some sweets.

But after they had finished eating there, they decided that they were still hungry. So they rode their bikes over to the west parking lot of the McDonald's for some sundaes and ice cream cones. A random civilian who was taking cover outside saw the three boys approach the building and tried to yell out to warn them, but it was to no avail. Joshua Coleman heard the strangers yell and partially turned to see what was happening, but he was shot in the arm, leg, and back.

He would later tell the filmmaker Charlie Min in the film 77 Minutes, I'm just trying to stay alive at this point. I'm just thinking about breathing. I needed air and I couldn't get enough. That's all I can think of at the time that I didn't want to die. James then shot 11-year-old Omar in the back and 11-year-old David in the chest. All three boys immediately fell to the ground off of their bikes as James Huberty continued to fire both his shotgun and his Uzi semi-automatic rifle at the trio, blowing out the windows of the cars around them.

Glass sprayed across the ground and bullets ricocheted throughout the air as the three boys laid on the pavement. Joshua Coleman would be the only one of the three to survive. And for the next hour, he was forced to play dead as he watched his friends die right in front of him. In the film, he's quoted as saying, "David, when he got shot, he was pretty much done right away. Omar was crying for his mom."

I remember him screaming for his mom. Something you don't forget when you see life leave the body. Because you go into these convulsions like hovering across the ground. It's kind of crazy. Omar was vomiting. David died right away. Omar, it took him a few minutes, did his little death draws, and then he started vomiting, and then he was still. I knew it was over.

At this point, some people are still driving up to the McDonald's, completely unaware of the dangers both inside and outside in the parking lot. After gunning down the three boys, James zeroed in on an elderly couple, 69-year-old Ada Victoria and her 74-year-old husband, Miguel. The two were walking towards the entrance of the restaurant when Miguel went to open the door for his wife.

But before they could step inside, James fired his shotgun.

immediately striking Ida in the face, killing her instantly. Miguel was also injured from the blast, and he got down on the ground, picked up and cradled his wife's dead body, and proceeded to wipe away the blood from her face, all while screaming profanities at James. James then walked back towards the doorway, screamed curse words at Miguel, and proceeded to shoot him in the head.

both him and his wife dying outside of the McDonald's doorway. Now, it seems like this massacre has been going on for a while without any police interference. And for the victims, I'm sure it felt like an eternity. At this point in our story, the police were finally making it on scene, nearly 10 minutes after the first shots rang out. And tragically, the massacre wouldn't end for another hour.

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Like we mentioned, officers Miguel Rosario and Albert Vitello were the first to arrive. When Miguel first got to the McDonald's, he parked at the post office next door and swiftly relayed the correct location and information to his superiors. But James saw the police cars outside and immediately opened fire on Miguel. Luckily, none of these shots hit anyone.

Afterwards, 175 police officers were deployed to the area, and an immediate lockdown of the surrounding six blocks was finally put into effect. Soon, SWAT team members surrounded the McDonald's, but they were having a hard time getting a head count of how many individuals were inside of the restaurant.

And because many of the windows on the exterior of the building were clouded with bullet holes, it was hard to get a clear look inside. And at first, authorities believed it was a hostage situation, that maybe James wanted something in return for people's lives. But the people that had escaped the building made it very clear to authorities that this was no hostage situation. James wanted to kill anyone and everyone just because. Back inside of the McDonald's, James continued shooting at people as they hid under tables.

But knowing that he had control over the interior of the restaurant, James took his time with the killings. He walked back and forth through the rows of booths, firing off random shots. He would even stop at tables to sip on soft drinks that were left by the victims.

And at one point, he walked up to the service counter of the restaurant and turned on a portable radio that he had brought there himself. Some survivors of the massacre would later go on to say that they thought that James had brought the radio so that he could keep in contact with someone on the outside.

or to listen in to police radio chatter. But that was not the case. James brought this radio into the McDonald's simply to play music while he took innocent lives. After he turned the radio on, scanned through some channels, and found a station that he liked, James began to dance.

all while continuing to fire rounds into the bodies that surrounded him, the bodies of both the living and the dead. Chillingly, one survivor later recounted that James began to dance violently to a Michael Jackson song,

when it played. It was also said that James would insult his victims before killing them, screaming expletives and insults in their direction. And he repeated that he was a veteran of the Vietnam War, even though he had never served in the military. And at one point, he also allegedly claimed that he himself did not deserve to live, but that he was working on it.

At one point, while listening to the radio, James remembered that he hadn't yet checked the kitchen area of the restaurant, and he headed back to see who was hiding in that area. As he rounded a corner, he discovered six employees and reportedly shouted out, Seeing James tower over the group with his weapons, a female employee screamed, in Spanish,

but these pleas fell on deaf ears. As James raised his weapon and took aim, 18-year-old Margarita Padilla grabbed her 17-year-old co-worker Wendy Flanagan's hand and took off running for the exit. James then opened fire, killing 19-year-old Elsa Borboa Fierro, 21-year-old Paulina Lopez, and Margarita Padilla, the girl who was attempting to flee. In the gunfire, 17-year-old Albert Leos was also critically wounded but not killed.

Wendy Flanagan, who had successfully managed to flee, took shelter inside of a utility room in the basement of the building with four other McDonald's employees and a female customer. Later on, Albert Leos, who had been shot five times, crawled to the utility room, bloody and bleeding, and found safety in there as well.

And even though the building was surrounded by authorities and a SWAT team, the massacre continued. At this point, James headed back out to the dining room area and continued firing shots. But he wasn't just shooting at patrons of the restaurant anymore. He was firing at windows, shooting at cars out in the parking lot, and firing at machinery in the kitchen. Aurora Pena, the young girl who had been shielded by the bullets by her pregnant aunt,

had been playing dead for almost an hour now, lying silently next to the dead bodies of her baby cousin, aunt, and friends. Suddenly, Aurora noticed that the room was silent. James wasn't moving around anymore, and the gunfire had ceased. Maybe...

Just maybe she could finally escape. But as Aurora opened her eyes, which had been closed almost the entire time, she was met with a horrific sight. There was James, staring right in her direction. And he immediately

immediately noticed that Aurora was still alive. Getting angry, James Cust grabbed a bag of french fries that was lying on a nearby table and violently threw them at Aurora. He then shot her again with his shotgun, this time striking her in the jaw, arm, and neck.

Although Aurora survived the shooting, she ended up being the victim that had to be hospitalized for the longest time. Once again, for a brief moment, an eerie silence filled the air of the McDonald's. And during this period of calm and quiet, James heard 19-year-old Jose Perez, who had previously been wounded, moaning in pain.

James then took aim and shot Jose in the head, killing him instantly. After he was killed, Jose's body slumped forward on the booth where he sat, spilling blood across the seat as his hand still held on to his baseball cap.

Near Jose's body lay the bodies of his own friend and neighbor, 22-year-old Gloria Gonzalez, and another woman by the name of Michelle Carncross, who had previously been killed in the gunfire. At one point, as a fire truck arrived on scene, James fired at the windows and rained bullets on the fire engine, injuring a firefighter. It

It was now past 5 p.m., and the shooting had been going on unobstructed for over an hour. The police knew that they had to make a move, but dealing with such a heavily armed shooter, they didn't know exactly what move they were supposed to make. Initially, authorities were afraid that if they fired into the building, they may accidentally strike and kill an innocent hostage. But regardless, after being on scene for almost an hour, listening to the sounds of gunfire and screaming echo out from inside of the building, a call was made.

and at 5.05 p.m., all of the law enforcement officers that had been deployed on scene were given authorization to kill the perpetrator if they were to get a clear shot. And so, a plan was set into action. At this point, James had begun to focus on firing off shots at the authorities rather than the people inside of the restaurant.

But in doing so, in a way, he actually helped the responding officers. You see, every time that James fired at the authorities and their vehicles that were positioned outside of the building, he chipped away at the windows and building materials that were obstructing their shots. During this almost lull in the shooting, a 27-year-old police SWAT sniper named Charles "Chuck" Foster climbed to the roof of the post office next door and took position with his rifle.

It is now 5:17 p.m. 77 minutes after the massacre started and at this exact moment James walks in front of a doorway of the restaurant and doing so for just a brief moment he exposes himself giving the authorities an unobstructed shot. Seeing this opportunity Charles Foster zeroed in on James with his telescopic sight, took a deep breath and fired a single shot.

The bullet that was fired immediately tore through James' chest and exited through his spine, shattering his spinal cord and severing his aorta directly below his heart.

It was an extremely precise kill shot that sent James flying backwards to the ground. Ray landed in front of the service counter and died almost instantly. The gunshot left a one inch wide exit wound in James's chest. And with that, the McDonald's massacre was finally over. Once the authorities were able to enter the restaurant, they were faced with a horrific scene. Not only were they able to see the face of the man,

who committed this atrocity, but they were also able to see the faces of the innocent lives that were taken that day. There's a quote that stuck with me in doing research for this episode from Dr. Thomas Newman, a medic from the San Diego Medical Center who responded to this crime scene. When referring to the scene, Dr. Newman stated, quote,

End quote.

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Now, let's get back to today's episode.

After the shooting, America was shocked. At the time, the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in American history. And not only was it so completely random, but it hit Americans close to home because it had taken place inside of a branch of America's most popular fast food chain. A place where many Americans stopped to eat every day. A place where people felt safe. A place that marketed itself as family friendly. In the months after the massacre, the Happy Meal didn't seem so happy anymore.

Immediately after the shooting, McDonald's voluntarily withdrew its ads from television and radio for a period of time. And in an act of solidarity, McDonald's key competitor, Burger King, also decided to stop advertising for a while. And shockingly, within two days of the massacre, yes, two days, the McDonald's in which the shooting had taken place had already been fully refurbished and renovated.

It was practically as good as new, and from the outside looking in, no one could ever have known that a shooting that claimed the lives of 21 people had taken place in the building only two days before. One employee was even quoted at the time as saying that eventually, the company hoped that this specific branch of the fast food chain would one day be known as just another McDonald's. The Kentucky New Era newspaper published an article just days after the massacre saying, quote,

And not only is it shocking that McDonald's had publicly announced that the restaurant where the shooting happened would eventually reopen, but that

two days later they were sending in crews to fully repair the restaurant for reopening that's unbelievably soon considering how many lives were lost inside of that small building after this decision was made public however there was immense backlash from community leaders

victims, and their families. And on September 26th, 1984, McDonald's made the decision to demolish the building by a bulldozer. The materials were sent to a landfill and the asphalt from the parking lot was torn up from the ground, leaving only an empty dirt lot where the tragedy had occurred.

Soon after the massacre, a survivor's fund was established to which McDonald's pledged to donate $1 million. The widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc also personally donated $100,000 to help cover victims' burial fees, counseling for survivors, and financial aid for relatives of the deceased. But in a move that infuriated victims of the massacre and their families, the first person to receive a payout from this survivor's fund

was the widow of James Huberti herself, Etna Huberti. Etna would go on two years later to sue McDonald's and James' former longtime employer, Babcock & Wilcox, for $5 million. She claimed that the metals that James had inhaled during the years he worked as a welder, alongside the chemicals that he had ingested while eating chicken nuggets from McDonald's, had caused him to hallucinate and had turned him into a homicidal maniac.

In the lawsuit filing, Edna also claimed that her husband may have thought that he was killing groundhogs that day, instead of humans. After hearing that James had allegedly stated that he, quote, had killed thousands and will kill a thousand more, Edna stated, that's what he said about groundhogs. Edna also claimed that James would regularly talk to God.

whom he described as a four-foot tall man with a long gray beard, and that he also talked to another character whom he had nicknamed Anita Garcia, who was nine inches taller than God and had purple hair. Obviously, the lawsuit was dismissed. Another tragic part of this story is that James' daughter, Zelia, watched all of this unfold down the street from her apartment. She told the San Diego Tribune that, quote,

I had a perfect view of it. I saw the car there. I saw everything. I saw people I knew who I went to school with. I wasn't thinking anything at the time except better them than me. I know that's a horrible thing to say, but as a 12-year-old, that's the sort of thing you think, end quote. As we mentioned before, the McDonald's was just down the road. So as everything started unfolding, Celia actually watched as it all happened.

and she and her family would face a lot of hate from their community, specifically towards Edna because she never called when James told her that he was going to hunt for humans.

Edna's excuse for this was that James was always saying weird things and having these outbursts, and she didn't think he was being serious. Edna also had some difficulty with her daughter's school board after they refused to let their daughters enroll back in school. But in the school board's defense, their daughters went to school with some of the victims of the shooting, and they didn't want them to have to relive that over and over.

Zelia would also say that if she could turn back time, she, quote, probably would have killed my father before any of this would have occurred, end quote. The entire city of San Ysidro, California was affected that day, both the Huberty family and the 21 victims and their families who experienced a loss that day. Now, I'm going to go off script a little bit at the very end of this podcast and just discuss the controversy surrounding the police response time.

Now, 77 minutes, that's how long it took for the shooting to end. That's a very, very long time. People have often criticized the police for not doing enough, for not acting fast enough, but interestingly enough, right after the massacre, multiple authority figures from within the San Diego Police Department and the FBI claimed that there was nothing more that they could do and that they had acted completely within their regulations and their rules and they had done exactly what they needed to do. But some survivors don't agree with that statement.

still to this day. In an article posted on 7 San Diego News NBC in 2016, Adriana Wright, a woman who had four of her family members murdered in the massacre, talked to a man named Paul Ibarando, who was a homicide detective at the time. When recalling the scene inside of the restaurant during the massacre, Adriana told Paul that it was like two to three inches of blood, a red carpet of blood. Now, that's a lot of blood and as you can imagine,

A number of these survivors died not immediately, they actually ended up dying from bleeding out. And I'm going to quote the article right here. And here's a quote from Adriana again, where she says, quote,

End quote. Now, if you consider that, that there were 21 total people killed, that means eight people died from bleeding out. If the police would have acted sooner in this massacre, they probably could have saved a lot more lives. But what's done is done, and we can't go back and change the past. Only make regulations and improvements that will save more lives in the future.

Eventually, McDonald's offered to donate the empty lot where the McDonald's once sat to the city of San Ysidro, but with a few conditions. One, that no restaurant was to be built on the site, and two, that whatever memorial was erected on the property for the dead could not bear the name McDonald's anywhere on it. Years later, the land was sold to nearby Southwestern College, who expanded their college campus onto the vacant lot.

But at the front of the lot, where the McDonald's once stood, where the blood of the victims was once scrubbed from the pavement, a memorial was indeed erected. This memorial, which stands at 460 West San Ysidro Boulevard, was designed by a former student of the college that now sits where the McDonald's once sat, a student named Roberto Valdez. 21 hexagonal white marble pillars, each emblazoned with the name of a victim.

make up the memorial. It's small, simple, and it's quiet. The plaque that accompanies the pillars reads: "The Southwestern College San Ysidro Center is dedicated as a living memorial to those who died so tragically on July 18th, 1984, and to those survivors who continue to bear the scars of that day." When looking at the memorial, the viewer will notice that each pillar is a different height. Although each pillar looks the same, is built from the same materials, and is the same color, the height differentiates them all.

When asked to clarify why he chose to design the memorial that way, designer Roberto Valdez stated, Unfortunately, now those 21 victims are indeed bonded together forever. Bonded through death, through tragedy, through a horrific event that never should have happened.

And only through healing, hope, and change can a massacre like this one be scrubbed from the pavement, paving the way for a safer future for generations to come.

Hey everybody, it's Colin here. And Courtney. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for listening to another episode of Murder in America. Now, this story is actually kind of special to me. I don't want to say special, but this was the story that I wanted to tell from the beginning of our podcast. You remember last January of 2021 when I said I wanted to do this? Yep, and we're finally getting around to it. And I know, Courtney, you didn't know that much about this case. What were your thoughts coming out of this?

It's such a sad story. I didn't know much about it at all. This case has, I mean, this episode's really opened my eyes to how many people were affected from the McDonald's massacre. And I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they refurbished the McDonald's within two days. That's like crazy.

We want to thank all of our amazing patrons.

Farrah Dawn, Kelsey, Charmaine Schwart, Christina Westby, Alex Burleson, James Stockham, and McKenna Jensen. Thank you to all of you patrons out there. Seriously, y'all are the ones that are making this show happen and keeping us on there. You can always reach out on Patreon to talk to Courtney and I. We love having this community that we've built. And we want you to keep asking yourself that same old question. Just think about it. The dead don't talk. Or do they? Or do they?

See you next week, everybody, for a very interesting case.