The Mount Pleasant Pizza Hut Murders: A Brutal 1982 Cold Case

On May 11, 1982, a quiet night in Mount Pleasant, Texas, turned into one of the town’s darkest chapters. Inside a Pizza Hut on U.S. Highway 271, three employees never made it home. What happened that night shocked the community and still raises questions today.

The Victims

The victims were George Landrum, Howard McClaflin, and Shirley Thompson. Each was killed in a viciously different way. Landrum was shot in the chest and struck with a hammer near the walk-in cooler. McClaflin was halfway inside the cooler when found, a bullet to his head. Thompson’s murder was especially brutal—she had been shot, stabbed, and beaten, with one weapon left embedded in her skull. It was clear this wasn’t just a robbery gone wrong. The level of rage suggested something personal.

The Investigation

Texas Rangers and local law enforcement launched an immediate investigation. Witnesses were questioned, polygraphs given, and suspects arrested. Two people—Calvin Loyd Padget and Twyllah Dawn Robinson from Kilgore—were picked up in connection with another robbery and later tied to the Pizza Hut case. Padget even attempted suicide while in custody. Still, despite interrogations and community suspicion, no conviction stuck. Even Shirley Thompson’s husband was questioned and cleared by polygraph.

Lingering Questions

The case faded into the background as years passed, but it never really left Mount Pleasant. Families of the victims carried unanswered questions, and the community carried fear. Was it a robbery that spiraled into chaos? Or was someone targeting these three specifically?

Why It Matters

The Mount Pleasant Pizza Hut murders remain one of East Texas’s most haunting unsolved crimes. It wasn’t just the brutality—it was the randomness. Ordinary workers, closing up a restaurant, caught in a storm of violence. Forty years later, their story is a reminder of how fragile normal life can be—and how justice doesn’t always come.