Cook County Blog

This is ridiculous.

Sentence the murdering sociopath idiot already, and let the families finally put this behind them.

Two people have now been convicted of the 1993 Browns Fried Chicken Massacre; Juan Luna on May 10, 2007-and James Degorski on September 29, 2009.

You know, this is starting to piss me off.  Boo, hoo, people don't know the real Degorski.  Boo, hoo, he's in jail now for the rest of his life; or could be sentenced to death.  Boo, hoo, he never hit me or was violent, and...I will always love him...!

Peters, who dated Degorski and lived with him at various times between the time of the slayings and his arrest, said he never hit her and that she never saw him hit anyone, including a woman he dated previously.

Peters, in her fantasyworld, doesn't believe to this day that Degorski did it, and calls the case against him "digusting". Give me a break.

How about this for the real Degorski?  From Victims' families confront convicted killer James Degorski at the Daily Herald:

Thursday's proceedings also included testimony from Degorski's former high school girlfriend, Kristin Smith, who described how he punched, slapped and verbally abused her during their one-year relationship. She described a particularly harrowing encounter May 11, 1992, after they broke up, in which he brutally beat and threatened to kill her, duct taped her hands and feet and made her get in the trunk of her car. He released her some five hours later. She made an official complaint and police filed charges against Degorski, who received a year's supervision and was ordered to stay away from her, Smith said. But she testified that he continued to drive by her house and call her occasionally for several years.

"He told me one time he was going to make himself famous and it wouldn't be the way I expected," she said.

Maybe; just maybe; Paul Degorski is a sociopath.  Maybe; just maybe; when he said he wanted 'to do something big' - and bragged about it afterwards to friends and associates--he didn't mean taking a stroll in the park; he meant something more diabolical - something more evil; something that most people would have never considered: murder.

You know what?  I'm sorry for people who had the wool pulled over their eyes by James Degorski and Juan Luna for so long.  But the 7 victims of the Brown's Fried Chicken Massacre deserve some justice.  Their families deserve some justice; and all their friends and people who loved them deserve justice.  This is a very old crime, and it's good that it finally came to a close.  I lived in the area at the time, and I remember what it was like wondering who was walking the streets and that murderers were walking around free out there.

This coverage which stresses emotional torment and crying for convicted murderers who deserve to be on death row defies the imagination.  James Degorski was convicted of his role in the Brown's Fried Chicken Massacre while an innocent man sits in prison and has been there for 16 years: Paul Modrowski.

Paul Modrowski was fingered in the murder of Dean Fawcett in Barrington around the same time.  From the same article at the Daily herald:

Ten days after the Brown's murder, a beheaded corpse had been found on a railroad embankment in Barrington. Later that spring, Paul Modrowski and Robert Faraci were charged in the killing, and the body was identified as Dean Fawcett. Faraci reportedly told interrogators that Modrowski had committed the Brown's murders as well, but the story never resulted in solid evidence or any charges.

Modrowski was convicted in the Fawcett murder, while Faraci was acquitted. Years after that angle on the Brown's case seemed to have gone cold, the police were apparently still interested -- asking the two men to submit DNA samples in 2000.

Robert Feraci and his wife had quite a rap sheet as I recall, I'd like to know since he was acquitted of that crime what other crimes he has added to his criminal history.

Dean Fawcett's murder was a horrendous crime, and it still gives me the willies because if Feraci didn't do it-and Modrowski didn't do it - then who did?  Modrowski was convicted, and believes he was convicted because people suspected he had a role in the Brown's fried chicken murders and Feraci and his wife lied about it.  But Feraci and his wife lied about a lot of things - and today Feraci is free.

Modrowski's conviction makes no sense; and now I'm going to ask my readers if they can get me in touch with someone who can get me the paperwork and the court records. What was he convicted of, one wonders, when all he did was lend his car to Robert Feraci who was acquitted of Dean Fawcett's murder?  Modrowski wasn't even in the car.  If Feraci was acquitted, then Feraci didn't commit the crime, one would think.  Right? Modrwoski LENT the car to Feraci.  So...I need to get some more information on this...it's bothering me.

Modrowski has spent over 16 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit - and people are crying for Degorski who admitted slitting that woman's throat at the Brown's Fried Chicken that fateful night.  Degorski admitted to the crime and confessed to it on tape.  There was no question that Degorski and Luna did that deed and thanks be to God they are in prison now to serve their time for having done so.

I remember one of the things that was mentioned in the reports shortly after the bodies were discovered...that those bodies were in the freezer (two were in the walkin cooler) and they wouldn't have gone through normal decomposition...so the time of death would have been difficult to determine.  But they were still able to estimate the time of death despite that.  Some creepy details about what I read in the news reports are coming to mind now as I'm recalling all this.

And I DO remember the reports about the headless torso found in Barrington around that time.

Modrowski wasn't convicted of the Brown's murders, and he couldn't have been convicted of the Dean Fawcett murder if Feraci was acquitted of it...but that's exactly what happened.  Modrwoski wasn't there, but that doesn't even matter because if Feraci didn't do it, where's the crime?

What happened

On January 8, 1993, the event that would become infamous as the Brown's Chicken Massacre occurred at a Palatine, Illinois branch. Seven people were murdered, including both owners and 5 employees, all of whom were found bound in the walk-in freezer. In 2002, James Degorski and Juan Luna were arrested for the murders.[1] In May 2007, Luna was convicted of his part in the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.[1] (Wikipedia on the Brown's Chicken and Pasta entry)

Actually, 5 were in the freezer, 2 were in the cooler, an example of why you can't rely very heavily on the accuracy of Wikipedia. But it's a nice place to start.

Also see the Wikipedia entry on the Brown's Chicken Massacre.

On neither entry do they mention Paul Modrowski - who, for quite some time, was the main suspect in the Brown's Chicken Massacre.

On September 28, 2009, James Degorski was found guilty of the Browns Chicken murders. Interestingly enough, you really have to search around to find information about what happened, the trials, etc.

There is another murder case that is related to the Brown's Chicken Massacre-and you can find out about it by finding information about Dean Fawcett's murder. The two cases seem to overlap in some ways.

See the blog Paul Modrowski - On the Inside - which is where Paul Modrowski's story is being told. Paul does not have access to the internet - and has never seen the blog. He writes his blog with a paper and pencil from his prison cell. Paul Modrowski was only 18 when he was charged in 1993 with one count of first-degree murder in the death of Dean C. Fawcett, 22, of La Grange Park, whose headless torso was found along railroad tracks in Barrington, officials said. Modrowski was also under suspicion and questioned in the Jan. 8 murders of seven people at the Brown's Chicken & Pasta restaurant in Palatine. (Sun Time-April 30, 1993-Rebecca Carr; Tom McNamee)

On February 17, 1995, a Rolling Meadows jury

"decided Paul Modrowski was a cold-blooded killer, guilty of fatally shooting an acquaintance and then sawing off his head and hands.

The jury reached its verdict this morning after deliberating 18 hours in the case against the 20-year-old Mokena man.

"Justice has been done and the community is safer," said Charles Fawcett, the father of the victim, Dean Fawcett.

Dean Fawcett's torso was found two years ago along railroad tracks in northwest suburban Barrington.

Two men were accused of the murder. Robert Faraci, 27, of Schiller Park, was acquitted of first-degree murder charges Wednesday by a separate jury. Prosecutors argued that both men killed Fawcett..." Chicago Sun-Times -February 17, 1995 by Sharon Cotliar

That's pretty brutal reporting, considering what I've read on the other side of it.

Robert Faraci was acquitted - and he supposedly was the individual who borrowed Modrowski's car and did the deed. This story hardly makes any sense; which is probably one of the reasons it's so hard to find any evidence that it even took place. I can't find much in news reports on it, either. I find it incredibly odd that Modrowski- who lent his car to Feraci who was acquitted of Fawcett's murder - would be put in jail when he wasn't even there when the murder took place, according to his blog entries; and no evidence was found in his vehicle. With the conviction of Juan Luna and James Degorski, it would seem that the cloud over Modrowski's head should have cleared, too; but he's stuck in prison and has been there for 14 years.

Interestingly, there is little to be found about the Brown's Fried Chicken murders on the internet now. At the Daily Herald, however, a new story emerged about one of the alleged perps having been exonerated -Celso Morales - with the conviction of James Degorski at the end of September.

Dark clouds lifts for innocent man eyed in Brown's Chicken killings

With the conviction of James Degorski on Tuesday - the second after the 2007 conviction of accomplice Juan Luna, those long wrongly under scrutiny are finally, truly free.

Not all of them; but at least the ones you might suspect as hispanic gang members have been 'truly set free'.

No official number of suspects has been made public. But the trail left by investigators in more than a decade of searching for the killers ranges from some of the restaurant's employees to Chicago gang members and suspects in similar fast food killings across the nation.

See NBC coverage of the Degorski trial here.

Restaurant owners Lynn and Richard Ehlenfeldt, Michael Castro, Rico Solis, Guadalupe Maldonado, Marcus Nellsen and Thomas Mennes all died in this execution style killing - God bless them and may they RIP.


See 44 Minutes in January - The Daily Herald - read the entire tale with some of the facts glossed over by journalists.

Palatine councilman wants to meet about Brown's Chicken reward money
More than $100,000 collected following 1993 slayings at restaurant, Wagner says