Killer Behind Brown’s Chicken Massacre Claims New Evidence, Wants Court Hearing

One of the two men serving life sentences for the 1993 Brown’s Chicken massacre claims a star witness lied to get her hands on a $50,000 reward and that he needs another court hearing to get to the bottom of his explosive accusation.

The “lynchpin” that put 44-year-old James Degorski in prison for life was the testimony of his former girlfriend, Anne Lockett, according to a petition filed by his attorney, Jennifer Bonjean.

But Lockett was actually a liar, the petition said, calling her a “troubled woman, prone to dishonesty, who planned to implicate someone in the Brown’s Chicken murder to take advantage of the handsome reward money.”

That handsome reward was $100,000, and Lockett was to get half, the petition said, with the rest going to “her friend Melissa Oberle,” who had urged her to come forward about Degorski supposedly confessing to the killings.

“Stunningly, the jury never heard that Lockett had been promised (and received) half of the $100,000 of reward money for her testimony contingent upon successful convictions of Degorski and” his accomplice, Juan Luna.

Luna, 42, is also serving a life sentence.

Degorski and Luna were not arrested for more than nine years after the killings at the Palatine restaurant.

Seven bodies — those of owner Richard Ehlenfeldt and his wife, Lynn Ehlenfeldt, and employees Guadalupe Maldonado, 46, Michael Castro, 16, Rico Solis, 17, Thomas Mennes, 32, and Marcus Nellsen, 31 — were all found in the Brown’s Chicken freezer.

In 2002, Lockett claimed it was Degorski who did it, explaining that she kept her silence for so long because he had threatened that if she told anyone, she would die too.

Lockett said the primary murder weapon, a revolver, was thrown into the Fox River near Algonquin on the night of the crime.

Degorski and Luna, a former employee at that same Brown’s location, were friends who met while attending Fremd High School. Luna was implicated by a piece of partially consumed chicken that tested positive for his DNA.

While Luna’s DNA was on the chicken, there was nothing ever found that linked Degorski to either of the killings or even the Brown’s Chicken, according to the petition.

“Despite a massive forensic investigation, not a single piece of physical evidence connected Degorski to the Brown’s Chicken murders,” the petition said. “Indeed, over 200 fingerprints were taken from the crime scene, and loads of trace evidence including hair, fibers and blood. None of it implicated Degorski.”

Photo via the Illinois Department of Corrections