Maurice Possley, the award-winning criminal justice reporter for the Chicago Tribune, will discuss his newest book, “The Brown’s Chicken Massacre,” on Wednesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. at the Oak Park Public Library. The program is free and open to the public.

 On the night of Jan. 8, 1993, seven helpless employees of the Brown’s Chicken & Pasta Restaurant in Palatine were herded into coolers and systematically assassinated with a .38-caliber revolver. After carefully erasing the evidence, the killers fled with $1,800 in cash. The savagery of the crime stunned Chicago’s suburban residents; no one was arrested and brought to justice for nearly a decade. 

 In 1999, a breakthrough in the forensic science of DNA testing finally gave authorities a key to unlocking the mystery behind one of the worst mass murders in Illinois history.  A young crime scene analyst, Jane Homeyer, had the foresight to bag the leftovers of a single chicken dinner left in the restaurant’s garbage can. Six years later, those chicken remains were sent to the Illinois State Police crime lab for DNA analysis – providing a link that would provide important proof a while later.

 Much more than the story of a horrific crime, Possley’s book provides background on the people involved – both those who so tragically lost their lives and those who spent years trying to track the killers down. 
Come hear their stories from Possley who has spent 30 years as a journalist, breaking the story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and covering such high-profile stories as the prosecutions of Timothy McVeigh and Theodore Kaczynski. 

With Chicago Tribune veteran writer and WGN radio host Rick Kogan, Possley previously wrote “Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder and the  Price of Truth,” the true-crime story of a mob murder which occurred outside the borders of Oak Park in the Austin neighborhood. The authors told the tale of one very flawed hero who went up against the mob and a corrupt legal system – evil so pervasive it seemed unconquerable.

For more information or directions to the Oak Park Public Library, call (708) 697-6915.