Chester Weger

On December 14, 2021, HBO Max released a three-part docuseries called The Murders of Starved Rock. The series focuses on the investigation into the murders, Weger's incarceration, and the idea Weger could ultimately be innocent. The series was produced by Mark Wahlberg, and helmed by David Raccuglia, son of Anthony Raccuglia, the prosecuting officer on Weger's case.

In prison, Weger repeatedly professed his innocence over the decades, but was constantly denied parole. On November 29, 2018, he fell one vote short of parole in a split vote of 7–7 before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. One year later, on November 21, 2019, the same board voted 9–4 in granting his release after nearly 59 years in prison. He was released to a Chicago mission that aids parolees with rehabilitation. After a 90-day delay as the Illinois Attorney General sought an evaluation of Weger under the state’s Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, he was released February 21, 2020.

Weger's trial began on February 13, 1961. His defense relied on the claim that investigators were relentless in extracting a confession from him, that he was told they would convict him on circumstantial evidence if he didn't and send him to the electric chair, accusations the investigators and other witnesses denied. He claimed he was getting a haircut during the time of the murders, and that the scratches seen on his face in the days after the murders were from shaving. Bloodstains found on Weger's leather jacket analyzed by the FBI were inconclusive as to whether they were human or animal.

On March 3, 1961, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and fixed a sentence of life imprisonment, rejecting the state's request to sentence him to death. Weger was formally sentenced on April 3, and began serving his sentence at Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet. His attorney filed an appeal which made its way to the Illinois Supreme Court, however the verdict was affirmed in September 1962.

In March 1960, three women, Frances Murphy (47), Mildred Lindquist (50), and Lillian Oetting (50), wives of prominent Chicago businessmen, took a four-day trip to Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle County, Illinois, along the banks of the Illinois River. They arrived from the Chicago suburb of Riverside, about 90 miles northeast of the park. On March 14, after checking into the Starved Rock Lodge, the three took an afternoon hike through St. Louis Canyon, but never returned. Their disappearances went unnoticed until March 16 when the husband of Frances Murphy phoned the lodge to inquire about his wife. Police organized a search of the park which led to the discovery of the women's bodies, bound with twine and partially disrobed, inside a cave in the canyon. All three suffered severe head trauma and a blood stained tree limb found nearby was determined to have been used to bludgeon them to death.

Chester Otto Weger (born March 3, 1939) is an American man who was convicted in 1961 of the murder of one of three women found slain at Starved Rock State Park the previous year. He was held at Pinckneyville Correctional Center and at one time was the longest serving inmate incarcerated by the State of Illinois as well as the third longest in state history before his release on February 21, 2020. On November 21, 2019, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board granted parole to Weger by a vote of 9–4. He was released on parole February 21, 2020. In August 2022, a DNA test concluded that the hair found in victims’ hands didn’t belong to Weger, proving his innocence after 60 years spent in prison.