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The Case of James Degorski
📻 Episode #486
🎙️ Hosted by Maggie Freleng
📅 Oct 21, 2024
About This Episode
On January 8, 1993, seven employees at a Brown’s Chicken and Pasta in Palatine, IL. were brutally murdered. With no solid physical evidence, police unsuccessfully chased down hundreds of leads. Local officials established a $100,000 reward. Still, the case went cold for nine years. Then, in 2002, two of James Degorski’s ex-girlfriends came forward with…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On January 8, 1993, seven employees at a Brown’s Chicken and Pasta in Palatine, IL. were brutally murdered. With no solid physical evidence, police unsuccessfully chased down hundreds of leads. Local officials established a $100,000 reward. Still, the case went cold for nine years. Then, in 2002, two of James Degorski’s ex-girlfriends came forward with a story implicating James, and what they said would land him in prison for life. He continues to claim his innocence.
“The Brown's Chicken Massacre” by Maurice Possley https://www.amazon.sg/Browns-Chicken-Massacre-Maurice-Possley/dp/0425190854
Bonjean Law Group https://www.bonjeanlaw.com/
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:57“Speaker 1: They just he's saying why, and then you answer, and Speaker 1: they say why, and then they answer it, they say why. Speaker 2: That was him, He calls them why kids. Speaker 1: I was one of those irritating kids. But hindsight, I Speaker 1: guess I wasn't irritating because my neighbor's always answered my”
00:19:09“Speaker 2: back of the school cafeteria, as Jim calls them. Speaker 1: She's like me. She goes a lot of concerts, so Speaker 1: she goes like she likes that death metal stuff, like Speaker 1: the Cannibal corpse stuff. Oh, and she wore the leather Speaker 1: jacket heavy metal parties and tiger parties, and she got”
00:33:03“Speaker 4: the story, in the investigation, everything seemed very confusing and Speaker 4: not clear. And why ten years later, and also why Speaker 4: were these two guys, Wan Luna and James de Gorski Speaker 4: the suspects, Like, usually you don't just go murder seven Speaker 4: people and then go about their merry business just living.”
Listen to the Episode
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← #485 Lamont Hunter #487 Angel Bumpass →
Also on the podcast: #142 Josh Dubin on James Dailey · #148 James Davis · #205 James Davis