Episode 369: Brown's Chicken Massacre, Part 1

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shortly after 9 p.m. on January 8th of 1993, seven people begin the closing routine for the Brown’s Chicken & Pasta restaurant located in Palatine, Illinois. Of the seven people, five are employees: 16-year-old Michael Castro, 17-year-old Rico Solis, 31-year-old Tom Mennes, 32-year-old Marcus Nellsen, and 47-year-old Lupe Maldonado. The other two individuals are the owners: 49-year-old Lynn Ehlenfeldt and her 50-year-old husband, Dick Ehlenfeldt. When two men approach the Brown’s Chicken’s locked doors after closing, no one is alarmed. Instead, the men are welcomed into the Brown’s Chicken. One man orders food, eats a few bites, and discards the rest. Then, that same man pulls out a knife, and his companion reveals a .38 snub-nosed revolver. The men proceed to murder all seven Brown’s Chicken workers. For nearly 10 years, investigators searched high and low for these killers. But it wasn’t until Anne Lockette spoke up about her violent ex-boyfriend that 20-year-old Jim Degorski, and his friend, 18-year-old Juan Luna, were put away for their crimes. In episode 369, Jac and Alexis work with author and lawyer Patrick Wohl to explain how this needless massacre changed the Palatine community forever and nearly ended the Brown’s Chicken franchise. This is part one of a two-part series. 🎟 Catch up to FOUR bonus episodes per month plus full video episodes over on Patreon: patreon.com/thefirstdegree 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/thefirstdegree 🕺 TikTok: tiktok.com/@thefirstdegreee 👤 Facebook: facebook.com/thefirstdegree Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first degree.
0:02.0	First degree.
0:03.0	First degree.
0:04.0	First degree.
0:05.0	First degree.
0:06.0	First degree.
0:07.0	The first degree.
0:09.0	You see it on the news.
0:10.0	You see it on the paper.
0:11.0	You see it on Facebook.
0:13.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:16.0	This case happened in 93. I was born in 94.
0:23.6	But I still grew up knowing about it for a number of reasons.
0:28.6	One is because it was just talked about so long and it was unsolved when I was growing up.
0:33.6	And in the 90s and early 2000s,, Bronze Chicken was a huge franchise in Chicago.
0:39.1	There were over 150 locations.
0:42.0	The advertising was all over TV and the radio.
0:45.9	I ate, grew up eating at Brown's Chicken.
0:48.5	My family would bring it home from the franchise that was near us.
0:52.8	I always thought that everyone was poisoned at the restaurant.
0:56.3	And so when my parents would bring this bag of greasy
0:59.0	home, I would think, why are you feeding this to this?
	...

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