The Zankou Chicken Murders

Zankou Chicken is an LA institution featuring a unique Armenian/Mediterranean recipe that is highly praised by foodies and restaurant critics. Everyone loves it! The key ingredient is a tangy garlic paste – the recipe is a family secret. Zankou Chicken stores have spread across the LA area and it remains family owned. However, it is split between two factions of the family, the result of a huge tragedy – a tragedy that occurred right here in the Crescenta Valley just over 20 years ago.

Zankou Chicken was the invention of the Iskenderian family in 1962. They were an Armenian family living in Lebanon who named their restaurant for a river in Armenia. The matriarch of the family, Markrid Iskenderian, was responsible for the delicious garlic paste that ensured their restaurant’s success. But in the 1980s, war in Lebanon brought the family to Los Angeles. They opened a tiny Zankou Chicken in Hollywood, which quickly became a success.

The oldest son of the Iskenderians, Mardiros, had great ambitions for the family restaurant, wanting to expand the operation across the U.S. and even internationally. But the mother, Markrid, resisted his ambitions. She wanted to keep things simple, insisting on continuing to prepare the special garlic paste herself by hand. Tensions built and Mardiros struck out on his own, opening Zankou Chicken stores in his own name in four new locations in LA. This caused further rifts in the family, even battles over the use of the Zankou name.

The family fractured and the mother moved out of her son’s house in Glendale and into the house high in the Verdugos above Oakmont Country Club owned by her daughter Dzovig. For Mardiros this must have been very painful for he worshiped his mother. But his emotional pain was accompanied by physical pain in his gut. Like so many people do, he ignored it. When he finally sought medical attention it was too late. The cancer in his gut had spread throughout his body and even into his brain. 

Mardiros retreated into his bedroom only emerging for treatments. However, those treatments were in vain. The cancer was eating him and his head throbbed intensely.

But on the morning of Jan. 14, 2003 Mardiros got out of bed and put clothes on. His wife was amazed to see him dressed and walking confidently. He told her he felt good and was going to see an old friend. What his wife didn’t know was that he had a handgun tucked in his waistband and another in his jacket pocket.

Mardiros called his sister and arranged a meeting with her and his mother at her home in La Crescenta. He got into his BMW, which he hadn’t driven in weeks. Leaving Glendale, he drove up Cañada Boulevard, transitioning to La Crescenta Avenue, and then climbing the hill into the Oakmont development in the Verdugo Mountains. His sister Dzovig met him at the door with a glass of lemonade and they went to the dining room table where Mardiros sat across from his sister and his mother.

No one knows what was said between the three of them, but neighbors did hear shouting. At a certain point Mardiros pulled out his gun and shot his sister in the forehead. His mother jumped up and ran, but Mardiros chased her down and poured eight bullets into her. Then he calmly turned and walked to a couch in the living room. There he put a bullet into his own head. 

This act seemed so unlike Mardiros. He loved his mother deeply. The remaining family members were sure it was the cancer eating away at his brain that had driven him mad. And perhaps that is the reason. Cancer can do terrible things to a mind.

But the broken family found they couldn’t resolve their issues with co-ownership of the Zankou name. The lawsuits flew back and forth, adding to the family’s sadness. A judge ruled that they must share the name and so it is today, each faction owning several Zankou Chicken stores separately. 

It was a terrible tragedy played out right here in La Crescenta.