The Tragedy at the Inn Continues...

"Only The Good Die Young"
....Billy Joel

The story involving the death of Chef Jim Webb will never go away. His business partner, Chef Guy Sileo, was found guilty of the murder and received a sentence of life in prison. We now learn that his sentence has been vacated and he will receive a new trial. I followed the events of this tragic story mainly because I got to know Jim Webb very well. I could see there were issues early on and I knew their business was going to have serious problems, but I had no idea that anything this horrific would occur.

It is interesting to note that I had a friend in the local police department and I called him shortly after the murder and simply asked him about the crime. He immediately told me who murdered Jim Webb and I was understandably shocked. Of
course, it's one thing to know what happened and a very different thing to find that party guilty. The murder took place in 1996 and Chef Sileo didn't go to trial until 2001, and here we go again.

The General Wayne Inn was opened in 1704 and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a Hessian soldier who was murdered in the restaurant and who still hangs out in the basement. I lived in the area and knew the previous owner (Bart Johnson) so I was familiar with all the ghost stories regarding the Inn. My familiarity with the restaurant was part of the reason that I stopped in to meet Jim Webb when he and Guy Sileo arrived in October of 1995. We met several times after that and he told me everything I had to know - in my mind, the restaurant was never going to make it.

The two chefs were the former owners of the popular American Bistro in Morton (Delaware County) and the only thing in common with the Bistro and the Inn was that both were restaurants. The Bistro was a small (second floor) BYOB while The General Wayne Inn was gigantic, very old, and needed tons of work which translates to tons of money. It was further complicated by the fact that the General Wayne Inn needed a whole new audience. Most of the devoted guests of the Inn were either deceased or well on their way. The Inn was basically Lawrence Welk - the new Inn had to be Bruce Springsteen. They needed major marketing dollars as well as all kinds of upgrades both inside and outside the restaurant. The expected crowds failed to materialize and the pressure on the owners was clearly taking its toll.

It is important to note that Jim Webb was an incredibly hard worker who constantly worked late at night and often slept in his office. Guy Sileo (or very few of us) could ever match his work ethic and that became an issue. Having said that, it was Sileo's father who helped the partners with a much needed influx of cash which played a major role in the motive for killing Jim Webb. If something happened to Jim, the insurance policy ($650,000) dictated that Guy Sileo would be the benefactor, and his father could be repaid immediately.

The thing that really bothered Chef Webb was an affair between (the married with children) Guy Sileo and a twenty year-old sous chef by the name of Felicia Moyse - a recent graduate of the Restaurant School in Philadelphia. It was possibly the main reason that Webb was ready to call it quits and walk away from this challenging restaurant endeavor.

On the morning of December 27, 1996, Chef Jim Webb was found murdered in his third floor office with a single bullet wound to the back of his head. On February 22, 2000, Felicia Moyse committed suicide. Shortly after the official sentencing, Chef Sileo suggested that a despondent Felicia Moyse murdered Jim Webb over his dissatisfaction with their affair. This is actually the basis of granting a new trial as the original judge dismissed this motion and the jury never heard this particular allegation.

I only spoke with Guy Sileo about three or four times and one of those was at the funeral. I don't know the man, and I will allow the courts to decide his fate. Jim Webb clearly ran the restaurant and I admired his talent in the kitchen and most of all his passion for trying to make the General Wayne project a success. Jim Webb was only thirty-one when he was murdered and that unto itself is a major tragedy. He also had a devoted mother and father, two brothers and a sister, a son and a daughter, a loving wife and many friends.

I still have the coffee cup he gave me during one of our meetings. It was inscribed with the following message: "The General Wayne Inn Since 1704... IT'S ALIVE". The Inn is still there, but for me personally, it's anything but ALIVE.