Starved Rock Murders: Conviction Upheld 65 Years After Triple Slaying

UTICA, ILLINOIS — More than five years after he was released from prison, 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. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, who was named a special prosecutor in Weger's bid for exoneration, announced Judge Michael C. Jansz's ruling on Wednesday.

Weger, now 86, 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.

Wegner, 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.

Weger's attorney also argued that the victims' husbands were really behind the grisly slayings, having contracted hired killers with the Chicago mafia to carry out the murders. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a woman who testified at the hearing said her grandfather told her that Weger was innocent and that he had "registered" the hit on the women.

Jansz said that testimony is hearsay and would never be admitted in a new trial.

After the hearing, dubbed by some a "mini-trial," Jansz found that the evidence presented by Weger's defense was not credible and upheld his conviction.

Glasgow thanked Assistant State’s Attorneys Colleen Griffin, Christopher Koch and Jon Walters, saying they spearheaded the 54-month-long investigation with extensive research, discovery, briefings and litigation. Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Shlifka joined the team for the final hearing and excelled at cross-examining key witnesses, Glasgow said. He also thanked investigators Patrick Cardwell, Shawn Filipiak, Louis Silich, Mark Revis, and Scott Lustik, who followed up on issues raised by interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence.

"Our office worked diligently for 4.5 years reviewing the evidence from the original prosecution and all of the materials provided by Weger’s attorneys during the lengthy post-conviction process," Glasgow said in his statement.

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