Surreal twist to the story.... the murderer was a model.Here's the woman (R), Jeanette Sliwinski, who murdered Michael (drummer for Silkworm), John (guitarist for the Returnables) and Doug (drummer for Exo) in her attempt to commit suicide.
She drove her shiny red Mustang at 70 mph into their little Honda Civic, and came out with barely a scratch on her God... er... plastic surgery given body.
While you can't pretend to understand the mind of someone committing suicide, the senselessness of this act is beyond belief. She mentioned she got in a fight with her mom earlier and she was distraught. Wow. Perhaps mommy was going to take away her trust fund.
She's been charged with three counts of murder and two counts of battery. Prosecutors may seek the death penalty, according to Colleen Daly, Cook County assistant state's attorney.
Tim Midgett has stated (Chicago Tribune, July 15th) that without Dalquist, Silkworm is no more. "He can't be replaced." That's true... Silkworm was the sum of the three parts - replace him, and it's not Silkworm. They were a great band.
More:
Discussion on Silkworm.net bboards
Discussion on Electric Audio boards
An in-depth piece from the Chicago Tribune, which has a lot of nice quotes from folks who knew them
Here's a local Chicago video news piece on the accident.
tag: playlist, silkworm, michael dahlquist
16 comments:
The picture you have on your site is the wrong Jeanette Sliwinski.
So, what you're saying is there's more then one Jeanette Sliwinski, age 23, from Chicago?
A 'sort-of' confirmation of this I.D. was given here .
that is the right jeanette sliwinski
I just wanted to say that this is the correct Jeanette Sliwinski and that yes, this whole terrible occurance is tragic. I also want to say that she is not the spoiled, plastic woman that you portray. I know Jeanette and I know that there was something called temporary insanity that must have come over her because she is a very sweet loving girl and this is completely out of character for her. She is not a trust fund baby, she is the daughter of Polish immigrants. Yes, she does have a great body and I know for a fact that this was accomplished by her hard work in the gym and genetics. She did an awful thing, this is true, but it was not premeditated I am sure. Please try to refrain from ignorant comments about a woman that you do not know. I just hope that you never go through something like this. We do not know what posessed her to do this. I can only imagine the desperation that she felt. I hope that she gets treatment and another chance at life. Two wrongs don't make a right. She is young and not a bad person. Believe me. I feel for the victims and their families but we should not destroy Jeanette's life and the lives of her family in the name of justice and revenge.
Well... first off, this post is from over 9 months ago, so forgive me if your reflections are lost on me a bit in the fog of time.
We miss Michael terribly and the absurdity of the event is all we had at the time to grasp on to.
By all means, we'd all like to know who the real Jeanette Sliwinski is, and I welcome it... I fully admit, I don't know who she is (and really, having a hard time even imagining who she is, based on the event.) Cobbling together bits and pieces from people who knew her (and your comment) I still don't know who she is other then the murderer of my friend.
However, to suggest that someone's life shouldn't be compromised after killing three amazing and wholly innocent people is... well.. in and of itself an ignorant comment.
Thanks for visiting.
Actually, you do know who Jeanette Sliwinski was--she was your friend, your sister, your mother, your daughter. The point is, clinical (i.e., chemically based) depression or mental illness can strike anyone, even people who previously seemed quite normal in most respects. It can come on slowly, insidiously, until suddenly the person involved doesn't "know" herself or her own motivations any more than you are able to fathom them from the outside. It isn't "their fault"--no one "chooses" to find themselves in such a bizarre mental agony that they engage in action guaranteed to risk both murder and suicide. To deny the reality of the "out of control" nature of mental illness without having experienced it yourself (which I hope you are lucky enough never undergo, unlike Jeanette clearly did--but make no mistake, it will be sheer luck on your part that you are so spared) is to be truly ignorant. As for Jeanette (and I knew her slightly, as a seemingly normal person) having her life "compromised", that happened irrevocably the second she survived the accident. She is not blithely gloating over some frivolous escapade--she was in an uncontrollable suicidal state and has awakened into a nightmare of a continuing life. The only question is, will that life, in which you can be sure she is extremely unhappy, be gratuitously made even more torturous to placate some animalistic sense of revenge that can benefit no one, and that appeals to the worst sadism of our natures, or will she be allowed to live out her still-ruined life with the hope of being someday able to try to redeem herself and make (partial, but no less important for that) amends, if possible.
I actually went to school with this girl when she went to Niles West from 1996-2000. I believe she was the same year as me, and for a fact remember having her in my classes and talking to her. It's kind of eerie when you hear this news.
But, that said, she was never as pretty as in the picture. I found her to be a pretty shallow person, and in my memory she used to dress all skanky and it looked really bad, and she had pretty bad acne.
Not that any of these things are important, but it's what I remember. I remember her talking to me one time about trying ecstasy, and there was something about her I identified as dumb.
Anyway, horrible thing that happened there. I drive by that intersection everyday. My condolences to everybody involved, and I was just sharing things I remembered.
of course depression can come at any time especially if you've killed three innocent people
I meant to say especially as a defense to killing three innocent people. I hope they throw away the key.
I frankly hope her 'nightmare of a continuing life' as was put, happens behind bars, for a long period of time. Before dying of some long drawn out illness, so she can learn the true meaning of pain and death.
im just curious what the anonymous thats defending jeanette suggests should happen to her? it seems as you think she should get off w/ a warning or something? insane or not she commited a crime. if she never hit a car that day and instead got pulled over for speeding 80 mph down dempster you can bet a temporary insanity claim would not get her out of that ticket.
I was working with the State Attorney's Office throughout the whole time trying to put her into jail.. and from the times I saw her in court during the trial, that girl does not even look one bit as the Jeanette Sliwinski I saw everyday. It is possible that jail has made her look pretty awful, but I am pretty sure those pictures have been altered by some sort of computer program.
It really doesn't matter if the picture is her or not all that matters is what happened. I mean what's done is done and I'm not saying that you should forget about the whole situation but that people should really try to get over it. You can't so anything about it now and you never can. Even if you put her in jail all you're doing is taking her life away and you're still alive. Isn't that basically the same thing that she did? Except for the fact that she was ill at the time and you know what you're doing.
To the person defending the murderer,
I think everyone understands that some people are unfortunate enough to find themselves in an "uncontrollable agonizing state" in which they do not want to live anymore. However, most people have the sense to go jump off a bridge, or take a few too many pills. Jeanette's lack of judgment should not be attributed to her "agonizing state of mind" any more than we should be crediting people who jump off bridges for not taking anyone else with them. She made a very poor decision to compromise the lives of others, one that most people in the same suicidal state of mind still have the sense not to make. For that, she deserves more than the punishment she got today.
I'm sorry about the loss of your friends. I agree with an anonymous poster saying that you have to consider her background. She is confirmed to be bi-polar (in her court hearing) and if you know anything about that, it's an ugly thing that can lead the affected to anywhere at anytime without their knowledge and I think it was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Consider this: Earlier this year, a bi-polar woman from California was found half-naked, on the ground on front of what was the last building of the notorious Robert Talyor homes to be torn down in the city's southside. Apparently, she was forced into the housing structure by five men who raped her who then threw her off the ninth floor. She lived thought it all, but is currently in a comatose state after suffering massive head injuries and will never recover.
How did she get there? She had been off her meds and ended up flying into Midway airport, where she was found causing a ruckus at the airport train stop and was taken into custody by police, who, even after warnings and pleadings by her mother to not let her out until she arrived, released her into the mean streets; a pretty, Caucasian, blond woman in her early twenties and student at UCLA let out in THE WORST neighborhood in Chicago.
What happened to her was a tragedy and a travesty that could have been avoided, if the officers in that precinct weren't complete idiots and understood the effects of bi-polar disorder. Jeanette could have avoided killing innocent lives if she had gotten the proper treatment for it. Anger, hatred and the desire to see her rot in prison won't bring your friends back. It's just an unfortunate tragedy that could have happened to any of us.
The typical model is narcissistic, shallow and selfish. All the attention they get warps their minds to believe that only they matter.
If she wanted to kill her sad self she could have aimed at a concrete wall or a bridge rail.
She only cared about her problems at the moment and she could not give a shit if anything happened to anyone else...after all it's her world and no one else's.
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