Infamous Starved Rock Killer Dies: 'Rest In Peace, Chester,' His Lawyer Says

JOLIET, IL — Less than one week after a LaSalle County judge denied Starved Rock killer Chester Weger's petition to vacate his conviction based on actual innocence in the 1960 slayings that left three suburban women dead, the 86-year-old Illinois man has died.

The following announcement was posted Tuesday afternoon on the Friends of Chester Weger Facebook page: "Chester passed away peacefully this weekend surrounded by family. I believe he was holding on for his exoneration, which sadly did not come. We know Chester is innocent. Thank you everyone for helping with the good fight as (Chester's attorney) Andy said he will battle on for Chester's name."

Last week, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, who was named a special prosecutor in Weger's bid for exoneration, announced LaSalle County Judge Michael C. Jansz's ruling went against Weger, who was granted parole back in 2019.

Weger was convicted of the first-degree murder of one of the women, 50-year-old Lillian Oetting. She and friends Frances Murphy, 47, and Mildred Lindquist, 50, all from Riverside, were on a four-day trip to the state park when they vanished on March 14, 1960, after eating lunch in the Starved Rock Lodge restaurant.

Their badly beaten bodies, with their wrists bound, were found two days later inside a cave in the park's St. Louis Canyon.

Weger, who worked as a dishwasher at the lodge, initially confessed to beating the women to death with a frozen tree branch and even reenacted the killings for detectives in the state park.

After winning parole in late 2019, Weger was freed in February 2020 at age 80. In January 2021, Glasgow was named the special prosecutor in Weger's exoneration bid due to a conflict of interest with the La Salle County State's Attorney at the time.

After a direct appeal and several post-conviction petitions were denied, Weger filed a final motion for leave to file a post-conviction petition, which was granted, Glasgow said. During a two-week hearing between May 12 and 25, Weger's defense argued that his confession was false and had been coerced by police in 1960.

They also presented witnesses, including forensic experts who testified that a single hair, found on a glove Frances Murphy was wearing, did not belong to Weger. According to WSPY News, genealogical DNA found the hair belonged to one of four brothers from a family that lived near Starved Rock State Park.

Jansz discounted the DNA, citing concerns that the glove had not been properly stored since the 1960 crime. He also said one of the brothers had died the same day the women's bodies were found, and a deputy coroner could have contaminated Murphy's glove with the hair from the brother's body, the Sun-Times reported.