Something Big: The True Story of the Brown's Chicken Massacre, A Decade-Long Manhunt, and the Trials That Followed

Customers know Brown's Chicken for its crispy buttermilk fried chicken and flaky biscuits. The Illinois-based franchise has a reputation for delicious but simple comfort food. But through no fault of its own, the words "Brown's Chicken" are also synonymous with 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 Chicke...