Zankou Chicken Murders

Summary

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Crime Scene Podcast - "Zankou Chicken Murders"

Sony Music Entertainment | Date: April 16, 2026
Host: Jonathan Hirsch | Co-Host: Cooper Maul

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode delves into the tragic 2003 murders within the Iskandarian family—the founders of LA’s iconic Zankou Chicken chain. The story unravels how jealousy, estrangement, family power struggles, and the burden of the American dream led to an explosive, violent conclusion. Through a mix of investigative detail and cultural commentary, Jonathan Hirsch and Cooper Maul examine both the events and the profound effects on the surviving family and their business.

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Episode Breakdown

1. The Triple Murder: January 14, 2003

[03:12 – 06:00]

• Setting the Scene
  On January 14, 2003, Marderos Iskandarian (son), his sister Zovig, and their mother, Marcrid, meet in Zovig’s Glendale home, apparently after a period of estrangement.

• The Attack
  In a shocking act, Marderos draws a 9mm handgun, shoots Zovig in the head, then shoots his mother—first pleading for her life—eight times, killing her. His nephew witnesses the aftermath.

  “He blocks the exit. And it's reported that she, at that point, is sort of pleading for her life. She says, don't shoot. And her son doesn't show her any mercy.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 04:50)

• Marderos’ Suicide
  Marderos then fatally shoots himself as his nephew watches.

• Immediate Aftermath

  • Cooper comments on the violence’s intensity and the deep-seated anger behind it.
  • Locals reflect on how public the family and business were; this shook Los Angeles.

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2. The Origins of Zankou Chicken & Family Dynamics

[06:46 – 13:20]

• Immigration and the American Dream
  The Iskandarian family fled Beirut's turmoil, arriving in LA in the early 1980s, soon opening their first Zankou Chicken. Their son Marderos convinced the family to run a restaurant, pushing for expansion.

  “[Marderos] pleaded with his family to give him the blessing to kind of start their original chicken franchise that they had done back home here in the us ... He really believes in what they have to offer.” (Jonathan Hirsch & Cooper Maul, 07:31–08:01)

• Business Success and Division
  Zankou thrived—by 1991, it yielded about $2 million annually, with high profit margins. Tensions grew when Marderos wanted to expand rapidly, while the rest of the family resisted. This resulted in a formal business split.

  “But it's kind of the first moment when the family starts to be split apart by the growth of this business.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 09:31)

• Family Loyalty and Estrangement
  Marderos had a very close relationship with his mother, causing his wife, Rita, to feel sidelined. After his father’s death, intra-family tensions over business and inheritance intensified.

  “She [Rita] at one point said that ... Macrid was the queen of the house, not me, next to God.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 12:10)

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3. Decline, Illness, and Family Fractures

[13:20 – 18:05]

• Health Crisis & Paranoia
  In 2001, Marderos is diagnosed with cancer that quickly spreads. His illness, coupled with medication side-effects, exacerbates paranoia and family mistrust. He becomes obsessed with ensuring his sons inherit the business.

• Irreparable Family Rift

  • When Marderos announces his succession wishes, his mother coldly rejects him:

    “Your sons, the shadow they cast is not yours.” (14:29)

  • For over a year, the two do not speak; Marcrid never reaches out during his treatment.

• Personal & Cultural Insight The hosts reflect on changing family norms and the growing acceptance of “no contact” relationships in contemporary society, contrasting with traditional Armenian values.

  “I think we have an increasingly sophisticated view of what family estrangement is now in our society.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 15:37)
  “I also think today we're, like, really moving away from that sense of obligation ... making it work can feel ... more toxic and draining.” (Cooper Maul, 16:32)

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4. The Countdown and Emotional Volatility

[19:20 – 23:14]

• Estrangement Deepens Marderos continues to deteriorate physically and emotionally—his paranoia and sense of betrayal peak. A symbolic act: he burns a photo of himself and his mother in her bedroom; days later, a fire breaks out in the house, which Marcrid views as a bad omen.

• Isolation & Sense of Agency Hirsch relates Marderos’ grasp of autonomy (like driving, business) to his own experience with a parent’s dementia, highlighting how loss can lead to irrational actions.

  “When they feel that slipping away, they ... will do unthinkable things.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 20:57)

• Marderos’ Son’s Loyalty Steve, his son, tries repeatedly—unsuccessfully—to broker peace, only to hear:

  “God will forgive the devil before I forgive my mother.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 22:13)

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5. The Day Of: Events Leading to the Murders

[24:28 – 28:31]

• Unusual Behavior On the morning of the murder-suicide, Marderos dresses immaculately (“dressing up for his own funeral”), leaves home alone for the first time in months, sending Steve on an errand as a diversion.

• Ambiguity of Motive The hosts discuss whether Marderos planned the murders or if some hope for reconciliation still lingered. Coroner findings—no tears found—suggest premeditation.

  “It was then sort of inferred that he did not shed a tear after he had murdered his mother and his sister.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 27:26)

• Police and Family Reaction The police quickly inform relatives; surviving son Steve learns the extent of the tragedy upon arrival at the scene.

• Media and Official Reaction Glendale PD quickly underscores that the catalyst is family/domestic violence, not business, though the hosts question whether these can truly be separated in such a case.

  “When your paycheck, your status, your sense of self kind of all live under the same roof. I don't know where the family conflict ends and the business conflict begins here.” (Cooper Maul, 30:36)

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6. Aftermath: Divided Legacy and Business

[31:08 – 37:16]

• Unexpected Succession Contrary to Marderos’ plans, Rita (his wife, with little business experience) ends up running his franchises, keeping a life-sized photo of Marderos in her office.

• Son’s Troubles None of Marderos’ sons are fit successors:

  • The eldest becomes an evangelical street preacher.
  • Two younger sons struggle with addiction.
  • Steve (the loyal son) faces serious legal troubles.

  “So these were the kids that Medeiros seriously thought could take over a business ...” (Cooper Maul, 33:03)

• Ownership Battles Post-murders, the Zankou franchise is legally and physically split between two branches of the family. Multiple lawsuits ensue over trademarks and inheritance; courts ultimately rule both sides must share the brand.

  “The fight just never ends.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 34:47)

• The Business Today & Enduring Legacy Multiple Zankou Chicken locations operate in LA, but the goal of national expansion dies with the family rift. Both hosts acknowledge its status as a Los Angeles institution—its iconic chicken-and-garlic sauce forever shadowed by tragedy.

  “As a crime story, it is sort of indicative of the dark side of the American dream and how this family had money get in the way of their ability to sort of come together.” (Jonathan Hirsch, 37:16)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “They say blood is thicker than water. What if it's not?”
  — Jonathan Hirsch (01:21)

• “Your sons, the shadow they cast is not yours.”
  — Marcrid (via Jonathan Hirsch, 14:29)

• “God will forgive the devil before I forgive my mother.”
  — Marderos (via Jonathan Hirsch, 22:13)

• “It remains one of the most infamous stories of crime in Los Angeles... the rotisserie chicken with the garlic paste and a brutal family dispute that ends in murder.”
  — Jonathan Hirsch (37:16)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:12] - The murders described in detail.
• [06:46] - Family immigration and Zankou Chicken’s founding.
• [09:31] - Business split, family rift deepens.
• [13:20] - Marderos’ illness and paranoia.
• [14:29] - Estrangement: “Your sons, the shadow they cast is not yours.”
• [24:28] - Lead-up to the murders; ominous morning.
• [27:26] - Coroner’s finding: “no tears,” evidence of premeditation.
• [31:41] - Aftermath: Family succession and legal battles.
• [36:41] - Business survives, but expansion dies.

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Closing Reflections

The “Zankou Chicken Murders” episode is a haunting intersection of immigrant ambition, family dysfunction, and cultural pressure—one that forever changed an LA institution. Hirsch and Maul sensitively probe the limits of loyalty, success, and reconciliation, emphasizing how personal trauma can spill into a legacy for generations.

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Perfect for true crime fans who want deeper context, unflinching analysis, and a uniquely LA story that lingers long after the final bite.

Transcript

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

They say blood is thicker than water. What if it's not? And what if you get into a feud so deep, even being family can't pull you out of it? In January of 2003, three members of the Iskandarian family were gunned down in their own home. A family that appeared to be the embodiment of the American dream was living a nightmare. Welcome to Crime Scene, the show where we tell the stories behind the world's most unforgettable crimes. And this week, a family undone by loyalty tests, betrayals and murder. From Sony podcast and the Binge. This is the story of the Zanku Chicken murders. Hey, y'. All. Welcome to Crime Scene. My name's Jonathan Hirsch.

[Cooper Maul]

And I'm Cooper Maul.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And together, each week we're going to bring you the most remarkable cases and crimes. Now and throughout history, we'll dive into every aspect of it. The investigations, criminal, the legal, the different angles. But most importantly, we'll tell you the story beat by beat, line by line. This show is a part of the Binge, which is Sony's true crime podcast network of limited series shows that I head up where you will find me. And Cooper now and again. Think of this as all the things that you love about limited series. True crime stories told in one episode. So, Cooper, this is a wild story. It's about a family. It's also about a business all of which go awry. It's kind of the American dream gone bad. Okay, Zanku Chicken Murders. Here we go.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

Coming up after the break, the story

[Mint Mobile Advertiser]

of the Zanku Chicken Murders.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Okay, so our story begins on January 14, 2003, in Glendale, which is sort of a suburb of Los Angeles. A man named Marderos tells his wife that he is going to meet an old friend at one of his restaurants. He hops into his BMW and drives instead to his sister Zovic's house. When he arrives, a housekeeper answers the door and sort of like promptly kind of goes into one of the other rooms to kind of give the family privacy. He's there to meet his sister, but he's also there to meet his mother, Marcrid, who he hasn't spoken to in quite some time. So his mother walks in the door and she's still wearing an apron from her job at the family business, zanku chicken. She's 75 years old and she still makes the garlic paste for all of the locations. She works like 12 hour days.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. And that's like their legendary thing there.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. Anybody in Los Angeles, and most people have probably heard of this place. I've never had chicken like this.

[Mint Mobile Advertiser]

I don't know what the hell they're doing.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I don't know. It's unlike anything I've ever even tasted. So the three of them sit down together, which doesn't last very long. After sort of a few minutes of polite conversation, Medeiros stands up and he draws a 9 millimeter handgun from his waistband and then opens fire across the table. The first bullet strikes Zovig, his sister, in the head, killing her almost instantly. And then McCrid begins screaming and runs towards the front door in terror. He blocks the exit. And it's reported that she, at that point, is sort of pleading for her life. She says, don't shoot. And her son doesn't show her any mercy. He fires one round into her chest. She knocks to the ground. And then he proceeds to shoot her seven more times straight into the heart.

[Cooper Maul]

All right, this, like, kind of violence does not seem like a sudden snap to me. Right. Like this is a lot of hurt and anger kind of all unloaded in a single moment.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. And at this point at which this happens, Raideros sort of looks up and sees one of his nephews who was in the house staring down at him, who had witnessed the whole thing.

[Cooper Maul]

Okay, so this doesn't bode well for the nephew, maybe.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

So at that point, Raderos walks over to the couch and Then he takes the pistol and presses it to his right temple and pulls the trigger.

[Cooper Maul]

Okay, that did that. That went very differently than I thought it was going to happen.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Opposite direction, right? Yeah. So in a matter of moments, three members of this family are dead. Mother, daughter and son.

[Cooper Maul]

So, like, if you're an Angelino, you like prop. There's, like, a good chance in 2003 you could have gone to Zanku, like, the exact same week that this very thing went down. Right.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Depending on what generation you're in. Like, in N out. Pioneer Chicken.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Zanku. You probably heard of it.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, I've been there. It's like I'm thinking about myself. It's like, I have. I know this place. I grew up here. But, like. And I've always known there's, like, some kind of lore.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah.

[Cooper Maul]

Because there's about so many places in la. Right. Like, there's so many spots here that have some kind of, like, creepy story behind them.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. We are in Hollywood, after all. People like to spin a yarn.

[Cooper Maul]

I mean, but this is one, like, I really don't know, like, how it all went down to, like, how did we get here?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. So if you, like, heard of Zanku Chicken, it's like this LA franchise, Right. But for those who haven't heard of it, it has 15 locations. It's scattered all over the city. And all of this kind of began in the early 1980s in Little Armenia in East Hollywood. The original owners, Vartgis and Marcrid, we heard about her already, husband and wife, Iskandarian, they were not wanting to start a chicken restaurant. They had fled political unrest in Beirut in the early 1980s and came over to the United States with their family. And they swore off the restaurant business at this point.

[Cooper Maul]

I mean, there's just so much overhead. I do not envy anyone in that industry.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. Long hours, lots of work, a ton of risk. You can understand why they were starting a new life and trying to find some stable, secure form of income. But their son Marderos, did actually feel like this was something that they should pursue. So he pleaded with his family to give him the blessing to kind of start their original chicken franchise that they had done back home here in the

[Cooper Maul]

us there's something kind of, like, sweet about that. Right. Like, he really believes in what they have to offer.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. So he convinces his family to do this. This is in 1984, and they open the first American Zanku Chicken location in Little Armenia in East Hollywood.

[Cooper Maul]

It's like, this is actually the only Zanku I've ever been to. Yeah, it's my first time learning, but

[Jonathan Hirsch]

like I've never been to the original.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, so this is my first time learning. Like this is the OG location, but it's the only one I've ever been to. Yeah, it happens to be across the street from the Scientology building.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Oh yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, totally. Yeah. The big purple building that houses sort of the headquarters of the Church of Scientology and has some very quiet side streets that you feel weird sort of walking down on your own, especially at night. Story for another time. This is an LA establishment almost as iconic as the Church of Scientology building. Anyway, it didn't take long for this business to really take off. And within several years, by 1991, they were really ready to expand. But not everybody in the family wanted this expansion to happen. Maduros in particular was quite adamant on it. He wanted to have these new locations for Zenku and his parents and his two sisters did not want this to happen. So they ended up splitting the ownership of the business.

[Cooper Maul]

Which seems like reasonable agreement though.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, it definitely is. But it's kind of the first moment when the family starts to be split apart by the growth of this business. And over the next decade, Maduros opens locations in Anaheim, in Glendale, in Pasadena and Van Nuys. He's like a full on mogul at this point. He lives in a multi million dollar estate. He has live in servants.

[Cooper Maul]

All right, so his ambitions have like really paid off here.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, this is like supercharged American dream. Right. So he is raking in $2 million a year before the split.

[Cooper Maul]

1991, that's like, I mean, it's a lot of money now, but 1991, that's a lot of money.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

On top of that, they were, according to the reports that we had, half of that was profit. So they were making a 50% margin on their business.

[Cooper Maul]

So we get into the chicken business.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I know, seriously, he's got fancy cars, the whole nine yards. Right. So during this time, Varkis, his father, who had originally been hesitant about doing the chicken business at all, he passes away. And then arguments start to emerge within the family and get worse and worse about the ownership of the Zenku name. Because this franchise has gone to lengths that they never could have imagined.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, I mean, you can't pass a strip mall in LA without saying a Zenku in it.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. And then, you know, all of this complication of their own success, you know, is complicated by the fact that, you know, this is a very values driven Armenian family that we're talking about here. And they very much cherish the relationships in this culture, as far as I understand, and I'm not an expert, but cherish the relationship between mother and son. And Marderos and Macrid had been very close for a long time. She'd lived with him, with his wife and their four sons for almost 25 years.

[Cooper Maul]

So he's like a certifiable mama's boy.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, exactly. And his wife Rita was kind of like, you know, the second fiddle in the house. And her husband's mother, obviously always coming first in this arrangement.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, I don't think I'd like that

[Jonathan Hirsch]

very much, but yeah, it sounds like a tough situation to be in. But again, I can't really speak to the parts of the family dynamic where they really felt like this was the way that things go anyway. So, you know, it got to the point where Rita was actually. She would actually sit in the back seat and her mom and her mother in law would be riding shotgun. She at one point said that she being her mother in law, Makrit was the queen of the house, not me, next to God. It was his mother that Maduros took as the priority person in his life, or personage, I guess.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, Rita's a lot tougher than me. I don't think I could put up with all that.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. So even though he put his mother first, Maduros was fiercely protective over his wife and his sons. And, you know, Rita wasn't really involved in the family business at all. Maduro was the sole provider. He wanted his wife to stay home and not work and he wanted his sons to eventually take over the business at some point.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, I respect that. Like giving them a nice little launching pad.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, I mean, it's a family business after all. Right. So a decade following the sort of split of the business, it got to. It sort of came to a head because there was all this opportunity. There's sort of like a victim of their own success here. At some point, the Pepsi Co. Company had approached them and offered a buyout of the franchise at $30 million.

[Cooper Maul]

Dang.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And this is like 25 years ago. That's a lot a dough. But Maduros himself started both to have all of these arguments within the family about what they should or shouldn't do with the franchise. He's becoming increasingly sort of paranoid and

[Cooper Maul]

they become like a little too big for their britches here.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so by 2001, all of this kind of comes to a head and the Midst of this sort of power struggle, Maduros is diagnosed with cancer. And it spreads really quickly. He's like 54 at this point. It metastasizes to his brain and combined with these medications that he was taking for sort of like fluid buildup in the brain, all the stuff that was going on with his health, he begins to get more and more paranoid about like people maybe trying to take from him or not being able to trust his family. Something's going on there.

[Cooper Maul]

Poor guy. I mean, I imagine that like with this diagnosis.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah.

[Cooper Maul]

Some of these tensions are put to rest. Like this is kind of a really stressful situation. Like.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Right.

[Cooper Maul]

Not a lot of time to like worry about the business.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. So he kind of tries to bring everybody together in the family to kind of come to an alignment on this and tell them about his prognosis. He's fighting it, but he sort of also says, like, I want my boys to take over the business when I'm gone. And his mom did not react well to this. She apparently stood, she apparently sat stone faced and said coldly to him, your sons, the shadow they cast is not yours. I mean, that's a pretty poor.

[Cooper Maul]

I want to know what the deal is with that.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And then she got up and walked out and shut the door behind her.

[Cooper Maul]

That's cold.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, what a burn, right? Yeah. So for over a year the mother and son are not speaking to each other at all. Maduras is undergoing chemo during this time.

[Cooper Maul]

That's a hard time to be estranged from your family, right?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. He's having all kinds of changes that are happening. Obviously some psychological stuff that's going on due to the medication. He's also losing his hair. He lost 60 pounds. And I guess during that time his mother never reached out to him to ask him how he was doing.

[Cooper Maul]

That's cold.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, it's so interesting too. Like, I think we have a increasingly sophisticated view of what family estrangement is now in our society.

[Cooper Maul]

Just read an article this week about it.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. I think I know what you're talking about. The sort of like no contact stuff that increasingly people are feeling like if that relationship is not rewarding to them, that there will be. I'm thinking about all the tiktoks I see all the time of people being like, if you are going no contact with your family member or whatever. I was estranged from my father. I've written extensively about this and so I know how heartbreaking that can be, particularly if you come from a culture and you know, my dad's Hungarian. Not too far down the road from where this is taking place, the conversations. And, you know, I think there's a pressure to keep things within the family that is generations deep.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. But I also think today we're, like, really moving away from that sense of obligation. Right. Like, you're seeing a lot of rhetoric right now like that, like, making it work can feel, like, a lot more corrosive than stepping away. Right. This idea of, like, going along to get along can be, like, actually just, like, a lot more toxic and draining. And sometimes people would just, like, really need that clean break to live their life.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, I think we are a culture that is just so much more aware through the Internet and through social media about, you know, changing standards that I can imagine that, you know, somebody like Maduro's felt this very particular cultural and personal obligation to his family that, you know, younger generations don't feel with the same sort of pervasiveness that his generation might have felt. Anyway, so he's super hurt and dying. And at one point, he felt so betrayed that he went to his mother's bedroom in her house, found a picture of the two of them, and lit it on fire.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, that's not sending a message.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And then days later, this gets crazy. So then, like, days later, an unrelated fire breaks out in the house. There was, like, an electrical issue, and his mother, like, took that to be a sign.

[Cooper Maul]

I probably would too.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, she was like. I don't know if she called her psychic or did some tarot on this one, but she definitely knew, like, this was a bad situation. So she packs up her things and moves in with her daughter Sovig. Which leads us to the next bend in the river.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

Coming up, a family business starts to feel like a battlefield.

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[Cooper Maul]

So for everyone following this isn't just a successful restaurant family with some hurt feelings in the mix. Like this is a son whose body and mind are failing, a mom who's gone ice cold, and a business that's become their only language for both, like love and revenge, it seems like.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. And at the same time, murderos isn't getting any better. Right. So in the year following the fire, McCready never calls her son. They don't. He doesn't get. And he doesn't get phone calls or any sort of contact from his sisters or nephews who he also sort of considered to be his son. His health is continuing to decline and he can kind of hardly take care of himself. He's paranoid.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. So it's like now you've got this toxic mix of a man whose brain is literally changing from illness plus all of this business stress. I feel like this is just a totally volatile cocktail for decision making.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, and look, I. And I've talked about this quite a bit publicly, but, you know, my dad had dementia and he eventually died and after suffering from that illness for many years and I took care of him. And you know, there does come this point particularly around the sense of agency in your day to day life where people hold on really fast to the things that once mattered to them. And it is very hard to disentangle someone from the things that sort of gave them the sense that they had agency in their life.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. When they feel that slipping away, they

[Jonathan Hirsch]

will do unthinkable things, truly. So he's kind of at this point because of whatever psychosis he's experiencing or whatever's going on there, he's fully in belief that his mother and sister are plotting against him. At this point, he's not really driving himself anywhere. His son Steve is the one who's like sort of taking him to the different stores. It's managed by his sister. This guy's around, you know, because he needs help getting from place to place. And we are in la, by the way.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. Your car is like your second home.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. You live inside of that thing for better.

[Cooper Maul]

It's also, I just think like, no matter where you are, kind of the like ultimate symbol of autonomy, Right?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Totally.

[Cooper Maul]

I know a lot of times like elderly people or sick people have their car taken away. That's really tough.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, like not to bring it back to myself. But like, I remember when my dad crashed his car and the argument that we had to have with him to be like, dude, you can't drive anymore. This is it. So at the same time there's all of this, you know, strife within the family. Steve, the son who's sort of caring for him, is begging Maduros to reconcile with his mother, which is not going very well. He at one point said, God will forgive the devil before I forgive my mother. So his sense of betrayal runs very deep at this point.

[Cooper Maul]

I mean, that's really intense. But part of me kind of understands it. Like I can't even imagine how hurtful the silent treatment would be in this great of a time of need.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. And then there's sort of like the cultural aspect of this too, like in Armenian culture. I did like a little bit of reading on this. I'm no expert, but, you know, a son defying his mother is kind of this unthinkable shame that can be brought on the family. And you know, this dynamic must have been very difficult for him because in a sense, he's having a side with his sons who he wants to take on the business after him, and his mother doesn't want him to do that. And that's kind of the core of the rift between them, as best I

[Cooper Maul]

understand it, being pulled in two different directions.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. And he's dying, so he has to find some way to settle these affairs before he passes.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

Coming up, a fight over the Zanku name that refuses to die.

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

We are back. January 14, 2003. The day of the murder. That morning, Maduro, like I said, told his wife that he was going to meet an old friend at one of the restaurants. Now, of course, we understand that that was, like, one of the Zanku chicken restaurants. Rita sort of retells that he was, like, quite nicely dressed that day. He was wearing this elegant, like, silk suit that he hadn't worn in years. And because, you know, he had lost all this weight because of the cancer treatment, he could wear it again.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, that would. That would make me feel a little suspicious. Like, when someone who's been too sick to drive is suddenly dressing to the nines, like, insisting he has to go out alone.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, he's, like, dressing up for his own funeral.

[Cooper Maul]

What's going on here?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, something seems off about that. But the suit did sort of surprise her. She does say that. But I think the thing that came out later that really shocked her is that he hadn't been driving on his own for months. Right. Like, Steve had been driving him around. Well, he popped in the BMW and headed over to his sister's house that day on his own.

[Cooper Maul]

So where, like, where was Steve? Isn't he the one, like.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, he's the chauffeur. Right. Yeah. So he had been sent out on another errand of his own. So his dad had said, like, hey, can you go get me some lemonade? So Steve had gone out to get his dad lemonade. And while he did, he popped into the car and drove over to his sister's house in Glendale.

[Cooper Maul]

He knew what he was doing.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. And as you remember, like, a housekeeper answers the door and sort of, like, gives him some privacy. And then he sits down with his sister Zovig, and then his mother comes in.

[Cooper Maul]

Can you imagine, like, the tension here? You could probably cut it with a knife. None of these people had spoken in years at this point, and just, like, walks in, suited up, and they're all just sitting across from each other at a table.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

And apparently they were having sort of a polite conversation at first, I think, you know, it's unclear whether or not that conversation. They're not here to speak for themselves, but it's unclear whether that conversation was an effort to try to create some final resolution or if he had already sort of made up his mind about what was going to happen next. So that becomes a key mystery in the story of the murders of the Iskandarian family, which is like, did he know that day that he was going there to kill them and himself? Or was there anything that could have been done, anything that happened in that conversation that would have changed the outcome of that day?

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, I mean, there's just. There's. Right, It's. It's a hard question to ask because with the way the morning is structured with, like, what he's telling, his lying to his wife, he has his son go on this, like, diversion. There's very planned level of premeditation.

[Mint Mobile Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Cooper Maul]

But also the, like, sitting down. Maybe there was an effort there to work it out and then. But there's also this level of impulsivity to the way this all goes down, too. It's really hard to disentangle.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, and then all of the, like, psychological things that were happening there. Was he suicidal? And like, this just became sort of the expression of things that he had long planned. He hadn't been living an independent life. He really hadn't recovered from the betrayal that he experienced with his mother. And, you know, he wanted to make sure that his kids were going to be taken care of. This is a crazy detail, but apparently the coroner had checked for traces of salt beneath his eyes and didn't find any. So it was then sort of inferred that he did not shed a tear after he had murdered his mother and his sister.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. That tells me, like, how resolved he was. Right. Like he wasn't surprised by what he'd done.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. Like he had already sort of made up his mind to do this. People still speculate to this day. It is kind of a Los Angeles mystery, if you will. But there is one aspect of this story that I think does kind of shift the point of view.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah. I mean, I was in high school when this all went down, like, just by growing up here. So I don't really know how this was, like, how did the word spread, you know, but like.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there was a lot that happened really quickly. I mean, I think it was like a pretty fast moving situation the day of the. Of the murders. So neighbors had heard loud arguments, and then there were gunshots. The housekeeper saw what had happened, obviously, so, you know, informed the authorities. Rita heard about the shooting at Zovik's address and warned her son, who immediately wanted to pop in the car and get over there. She said, steve, you know, something bad has happened. There's been a shooting at your Aunt Zo Vig's. And, you know, then he says, like, where's dad? And, you know, she says, he's gone. He said he was going to Zenkou, but I don't believe him. Now, why everybody speaks in such poetry, we'll never know. Anyway, so Steve rushes over there anyway, right. And he says, like, I'm Steve Iskandarian. I'm looking for Madeira Iskandarian. I'm his son. Is he inside? The officers apparently replied that, yes, he is, but that he's dead. What about my grandmother and aunt? Are they dead too? And of course, they were. Investigators quickly kind of start to put things together. There wasn't a ton of surprise about the circumstances of it. Intent, maybe, but the position of the bodies, the physical evidence, all of that.

[Cooper Maul]

Double murder, suicide.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

They were cautious about pointing out a single motive right out the gate. So the Glendale spokesperson for the pd, who had, you know, made public statements after this, sort of noted the business disagreements and the family dynamic. He said, this is definitely not a business issue. This is like a domestic violence incident. And, you know, sort of pointed to these deep rifts within the family that we've been discussing.

[Cooper Maul]

Just like, I wonder though, like, is it possible to separate those two issues with this? Because, like, when your paycheck, your status, your sense of self kind of all live under the same roof. I don't know where the, like, family conflict ends and the business conflict begins here. Right. Like, everything's blended together.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah. I mean, it's a little armchair quarterbacking of us to sort of say, like, hey, don't start a business with your family. But, like, this is the worst case scenario where.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, it's a bit of a cautionary tale.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

I mean,

[Jonathan Hirsch]

your cultural history, your family history, your personal relationship and your business relationships are all tied up with one another in a deadly cocktail in this case. So in the wake of the murders, the surviving members of the Iskandarian family were not only left to grieve, but here's the big question mark, right? What is going to happen to the businesses? Turns out Rita, the homemaker. The homemaker who never worked is the one who steps in to manage the restaurants.

[Cooper Maul]

Like, wasn't the whole point that the suns were gonna run this?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It was, right? They were supposed to be the ones that were gonn to do this, but, like, they have a whole host of issues of their own that we didn't know about until all of this starts to come out.

[Cooper Maul]

This is what the mom meant about the long shadow they cast.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's like the shadows, like, sort of they're like kind of coming out into the light, if you will. So the. The oldest son, he was, apparently had made plans to go to law school, but then became a born again evangelical preacher whose church was the world's stage. In other words, he was like, on the street corner as like, a sort of fire and brimstone street prophet. That's the first son in the mix here. And then, of course, we have two younger sons, both of whom had been struggling with varying degrees of drug abuse. And then there's Steve, the reliable son. Right. The one who was apparently closest to his dad, who was taking care of him. He had his own issues, which included being charged with the shooting of a prostitute and her pimp. And he faced a life sentence at one point. And this was like, three years before his dad committed the murders.

[Cooper Maul]

So these were the kids that Medeiros seriously thought could take over a business like, yes.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

To Steve's credit, the. The case did end in a mistrial, but there were some questions about leadership that I think emerged from every member of the family.

[Cooper Maul]

So now everything's kind of resting on Rita's shoulders. Like the woman who's never worked a day.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Exactly.

[Cooper Maul]

In the Zanku chicken, she's taking it over.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

She is now sort of the queen of Zanku chicken. She's about 50 years old at this point. She apparently kept, like, a life sized photo of Madur in the office to sort of remind her of the standards that he had set. The sister who was murdered, Zovig, her husband and his two sons inherited her share of the original location, the one just down the street from the Church of Scientology. And then the other sister took Macready's share. But things weren't completely resolved at that point.

[Cooper Maul]

So the riff remains like, Rita's running the new locations, the other side running the original locations. Like, was there ever any coming together?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, unfortunately, it does get worse before it maybe gets better. I don't know. In the mid 2000s, Rita sought to sort of like, consolidate the Zenku trademark, and she wanted to have it under her sole control. And during probate, she receives a letter from Zovig's two sons, a lawyer representing them, basically, like, challenging that claim.

[Cooper Maul]

So they're continuing to fight.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The fight just never ends. Yeah. So she files suit, and the matter goes to trial. And in late 2006, to the displeasure of everyone involved, the appellate court ruled that the trademark belonged to both sides. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like my.

[Cooper Maul]

No clear line was ever drawn in the sand here after all that.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, what. What can we do? The judge made a mistake, which is, I'm pretty sure, something that one of my two sons plead to me about. When I tell them that they have to share the basketball outside, she says, you can't have one restaurant chain with two owners is what sort of Rita says at the end there, she just the whole thing was a fool's errand, I guess. But it doesn't stop there. Rita's in laws and one of her nephews counters the lawsuit alleging wrongful death. So now they're bringing all of that into the sort of estate and trademark discussions. But they failed to file within the statute of limitations, so the suit was dismissed. The business remains split. So Zovig's sons continue to run the original Hollywood location. And then they opened up a new one in Montebello as well.

[Zanku Chicken Representative]

The origin to the garlic sauce began in Beirut, Lebanon in 1962. We use fresh raw garlic for it. The rest of the ingredients we don't like to talk about. It's kind of a secret and a family recipe.

[Cooper Maul]

I thought they were anti franchise, but

[Jonathan Hirsch]

you know, times are changing. So Rita expands too. There's multiple locations across la and that that dream that Maduro's had to sort of expand it to like 100 Zenku outlets from coast to coast was kind of put on indefinite hold for obvious reasons that, you know, they just weren't able to scale.

[Cooper Maul]

But you know what, it still remains an LA institution after this PR nightmare. Really?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, I mean, I'm getting kind of hungry actually as we're talking about it. They've added multiple locations across LA and you know, they never were able to get to that big pie in the sky dream that Maduro's had of like expanding to coast to coast. Like a hundred locations. None of that really happened.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, but in la, I mean, it's still undeniably an institution. Right. And like they have been able to survive with this brand integrity after this, what most people would say is a PR nightmare.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Right, right. Yeah. And as a, as a crime story, it is sort of indicative of kind of the dark side of the American dream and how this family had money get in the way of their ability to sort of come together and sort of a worst case scenario version of this. It remains one of the most infamous stories of crime in Los Angeles. And you know, it'll always have this kind of dual association, the, you know, rotisserie chicken with the garlic paste and a brutal family dispute that ends in murder. Okay, y'. All. So I've been thinking about crime storytelling

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

a lot lately since we started this show.

[Cooper Maul]

Well, before that, to be fair.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, to be fair, I've been in

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

the game for a minute, as you well know, as we both have, and it's interesting.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

You know, they say that like truth is stranger than fiction.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

It's like a way to sort of say that the most extreme forms of human drama almost play out like a novel or a movie that they have this dramatic quality to them that really hooks us in. And I wanted to tell you about a new movie that sort of like turns this a little bit on its head. And it's one of the sponsors of today's show, a film called Hunting Matthew Nichols that's out in theaters right now. And it's basically inspired by real events, but it tells the story in a documentary style way that is also inspired by the true crime documentaries that you and I and all of you I know love so much.

[Cooper Maul]

Sounds super clever. Okay, what's it about?

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

I think before we get to the film, we should start with what is true and what inspired this, which is missing people on Vancouver island in British Columbia. I didn't realize this until I started looking into this story that British Columbia has the highest rate of missing adult reports per capita in all of Canada. And in particular Vancouver island is quite remarkable in this way because dozens of people have vanished from the island and under circumstances often that kind of defy explanation. There's this wild incidence of missing feet showing up on the island. Detached human feet washing ashore on the British Columbia coastline.

[Cooper Maul]

You certainly don't hear that every day.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

It is cause for a lot of questions and speculations. It's one of the inspirations of the film.

[Documentary Narrator]

Families are desperate for answers after their teenage sons disappeared without a trace. The 17 year old boys, Matthew Nichols and Jordan Reimer were last seen on the evening of October 31st in Port Rupert on the northern edge of the island. Their families are holding out hope they'll be found safe.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

All kinds of people have been noted as missing from this island. And I think in part it's due to the terrain itself. You know, there's like old growth forests that are really, really dense and remote. There's all these logging roads and the film takes place and is filmed in British Columbia on Vancouver Island. So you get this sort of like moody, dark Pacific Northwest. Yeah. Vibe to it. So it is also stunning to watch. So this is the sort of terroir, if you will, that the film takes place inside of Hunting Matthew Nichols.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It, it has all of these incredible

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

elements that we love in a true crime story as a sprawling mystery. Intrepid investigators, powerful people that, you know, know more than they let on.

[Cooper Maul]

Yeah, it's like the, the formula to a great crime story, right?

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

Yeah. When I first heard about this film,

[Jonathan Hirsch]

I was like, this is. Somebody made this for me.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

Two decades after her brother mysteriously disappeared on Vancouver Island, A documentary filmmaker sets out to solve a missing person's case. When a disturbing piece of evidence is revealed, she comes to believe that she's not only looking for somebody who's missing, she's looking for somebody who might still be alive.

[Documentary Interviewee]

The thing you have to understand is that this wasn't a missing persons case where anyone was accused of a kidnapping, kapping or murder even. This was a situation where two kids disappeared and nobody, as far as I can tell, has ever been able to explain how or why. So you either have to accept the simplest explanation, which is that we'll never know what happened to Matthew and Jordan, or you have to allow for the possibility that unnatural events can can occur and do everything in your power to understand those events.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

The film is in theaters now all over the country, but you can actually learn more about the story and really immerse yourself in the world that they've created, which sort of twists and turns between reality and fiction.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It's really cool.

[True Crime Narrator/Host]

You can go to huntingmatthewnickels.com to learn more or you can go see it this weekend. We'll have a link in the show Notes to the website where you can buy tickets and go see the movie today. It's called Hunting Matthew Nichols. Just go to huntingmatthewnichols.com to learn more.

[Sony/Binge Podcast Producer]

Thanks so much for joining us on Crime Scene. This show is a production of Sony

[Cooper Maul]

Podcasts and the Binge.

[Sony/Binge Podcast Producer]

Thank you to everyone who makes this

[Cooper Maul]

show happen each week.

[Sony/Binge Podcast Producer]

Also, we love journalism. These stories are deeply informed by the reporting that has brought these cases to light. We stand on the shoulders of giants. To learn more about our sourcing, check out the extensive bibliography listed in our Show Notes. Be sure to like subscribe and follow wherever you watch or listen. You can get exclusive content from US and over 50 jobs dropping true crime series Ready to binge ad free right now by subscribing to the binge on Apple Podcasts or go to getthebinge.com to explore all the true crime stories included in your subscription.