Pubdate: Tues, 8 Jun 1999
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 1999 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/
Author: From Tribune News Services

DRUG TIES SUSPECTED IN TV HOST'S SLAYING

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Mexicans mourned Tuesday the death of a well-known
television game show host whose daylight murder bore the hallmarks of a
professional hit, officials said, raising the specter of links to drug
traffickers or organized crime.

A day after Francisco "Paco" Stanley, 56, was shot four times in the head
while he sat in the front seat of his luxury car, crime-weary residents of
Mexico City swarmed to the funeral home where his body lay in a closed coffin.

Several thousand weeping fans filed past his coffin in a line that
stretched through three city blocks.

Reforma newspaper quoted sources from the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and Mexico's judicial police force as saying the killing
bore all the hallmarks of a typical revenge attack by Mexico's powerful
drug traffickers.
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