The Horrifying McDonald's Massacre

On July 18, 1984, James Huberty walked into a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, California, and for 77 minutes methodically murdered 21 people and wounded 19 others. He had taken his wife and daughters to the zoo that same day, then told his wife he was “going hunting. Hunting for humans.” The massacre was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history at the time, and it unfolded in a place built for birthday parties and Happy Meals.

The making of a killer

James Huberty was born in 1942 in Canton, Ohio. He contracted polio at age three, before the vaccine was available, and wore steel leg braces for the rest of his life, walking with a permanent limp. When he was seven, his mother abandoned the family to become a street preacher, and his father moved them to a remote farm surrounded by Mennonite and Amish neighbors. Young James was often found alone, hiding in the chicken coop and crying.

He grew into an angry child who took everything as a personal attack. As a teenager, he refused to appear in his high school yearbook photo because he hated everyone. He became obsessed with guns and spent evenings alone at the shooting range. In 1965, he married Etna, though the host speculates he did so only because he felt it was what normal people do. They had two daughters.