Something Big

Something Big tells the story of the infamous Brown’s Chicken massacre, a brutal case that captivated Chicagoland after remaining unsolved for nearly a decade.

Customers associate McDonald’s with its golden arches and cast of whimsical characters. Burger King has its unmistakable cardboard crowns. And Wendy’s will forever be known for its mascot’s red pigtails and iconic Frosty.

The words “Brown’s Chicken,” however, have a far less positive connotation for most customers. For anyone who’s heard of the Illinois-based fast food chain, these words likely remind them not of the restaurant’s crispy fried chicken or buttery baked biscuits, but of one fateful night in January of 1993.

“A Real Hometown” is the trite but apt motto of Palatine, Illinois, a quaint middle-class suburb west of Chicago. On a snowy Friday evening, the staff and owners of the city’s local Brown’s Chicken franchise were closing up when two final customers arrived just past 9 p.m. As the night drew on and the employees hadn’t returned home, the families of the owners and workers began to worry, prompting police to investigate. When they entered the dark building, police were shocked to find seven bodies stacked in the restaurant’s freezer and fridge. The killers, of course, were long gone. In the months that followed, the horrendous story rocked Chicagoland and the case remained unsolved for nine years.

The Brown’s Chicken massacre is one of the most infamous cases in Illinois history, yet it is often misremembered. In Something Big, Patrick Wohl gives a new account of the story, taking readers behind the scenes and sharing the perspective of the people who lived it.