In July of 2005, lingerie model Jeanette Sliwinski, distraught with life, drove her car at 90 miles per hour into the back of another car. Sliwinski’s apparent suicide attempt resulted in her fatally injuring the three occupants of the other car, including Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist. Silkworm, active from 1987 to 2005 with Dahlquist’s death were staples of labels like Matador and Touch & Go, creating great music reminiscent of Husker Du, Pavement, and the Minutemen.

Jeanette, whom a psychiatrist for the defense has diagnosed as bipolar and apparently has a background of mental illness, was sentenced yesterday to eight years (with the possibility of serving only four with good behavior), according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The situation begs the question exactly how hot do you have to be to get away with killing a dude and not get life in prison or the death penalty or whatever it is they do to killers in the good ol’ US of A.

According to this Chicago Tribune story, she testified that she apparently didn’t mean to hurt anyone, though driving almost 90 miles per hour into a stationary car with other people in it seems like a pretty surefire way to do some damage no matter how messsed up you might be.

Thanks to Punknews.org for keeping up with the story.

Tags: News, Silkworm //