Paco Stanley

Francisco Jorge Stanley Albaitero (3 July 1942 – 7 June 1999), known by his stage name Paco Stanley, was a Mexican television entertainer who worked for Televisa and TV Azteca. He also participated directly, for a time, in political activities in his country, as he was a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Early years
He was born in Mexico City on July 3, 1942, son of Francisco Stanley Muñoz and Josefina Albaitero Vivanco; He was baptized on August 8 of the same year.

Career
Stanley began his career in radio in 1969. From 1974, he appeared in television programs like XEW News. For this network, he hosted the show "Smiles and Surprises".

After years of being a sidekick to comedians such as Madaleno, in 1991 he was offered his own show on Televisa, ¡Ándale!, with Arlette Garibay and Benito Castro. Later television work included Llévatelo and Pácatelas with Mario Bezares.

In 1998, he hosted the show "Un poco de Paco en radio" in its comic version.

He left Televisa and signed a contract in 1998 with rival network TV Azteca. On 15 December, he started his show Una tras otra, co-starring Jorge Gil and Mario Bezares. In 1999, he launched a nighttime show, titled ¡Sí hay, y bien!.

Stanley also appeared in theatre, starring in a comic version of the play Don Juan Tenorio, which toured across Mexico.

Personal life
Stanley's first marriage was with María Solís, with whom he had only one son, Francisco. After several years, he married Patricia Pedroza, with whom he had two children, Leslie and Francisco Stanley Pedroza. However, in an extramarital relationship, Paco had a third son, Paul Stanley (Now host of the morning program HOY).

Assassination
On 7 June 1999, Paco Stanley, Mario Bezares and Jorge Gil left the TV Azteca studios after their morning show Una Tras Otra to eat in the El Charco de las Ranas restaurant in Periférico, Mexico City's busy beltway. While Stanley, Gil, and his driver were waiting outside the restaurant after the meal inside his black Lincoln Navigator, three individuals walked towards the car and started shooting, firing more than 20 rounds, killing Stanley with four shots, three of them hitting him in the head, and wounding Gil and other bystanders.

Mexican TV networks Televisa and TV Azteca interrupted their programming to announce the news. That day, two news anchors from TV Azteca and the president of TV Azteca Ricardo Salinas Pliego blamed Mexico City's mayor Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas for poor governance, due to the high crime rate in the city.

Mario Bezares and another of Stanley's colleagues, Paola Durante, were arrested in connection with the murder and detained for over a year before being released. On 5 April 2011, Luis Alberto Salazar Vega was arrested and charged with Stanley's assassination, based on the testimony of a former cellmate.

In popular culture
In 2023, a biographical series about his life was announced, however this series does not have the approval of his family.

In 2024 Prime Video also premiered a biographical series about his murder titled Who Killed Him? About the perspectives of each person involved in his murder.

Legacy
One of the sketches from Andale!, La Güereja y El Papiringo, with Maria Elena Saldaña as the little girl, became a television series of its own as La Güereja y Algo Mas and La Güereja de mi Vida.