True Crime
The Man Who Went Hunting For Humans
James Huberty and the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre
It was late Wednesday afternoon when a man walked into McDonald’s.
“I’m going hunting…hunting for humans.”
Armed with guns and hate in his heart, James Oliver Huberty fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others in one of America’s worst massacres.
The background of a killer
James Huberty was born on October 11, 1942, in Canton, Ohio, and contracted polio at the age of three. Earl Huberty, James’ father, said that his entire nervous system was affected by polio and that the sickness made him “quick-tempered” due to the discomfort and spasms he experienced. He was also left with chronic walking issues as a result of his illness.
Then, to make a tough childhood even worst, Isel, James’ mother, felt “called” to become a Christian missionary when James was just seven years old. She abandoned her family, leaving James with severe psychological scars. A clergyman remembers James blaming God for his mother’s separation from him.
As he grew older, James attended Malone College in his early twenties, where he met Etna, whom he eventually married in 1965 and later had…
