Weger denied parole: Reaction to the decision So what exactly did Chester Weger do before killing three women in St. Louis Canyon? Weger was denied parole Thursday after the Illinois Prisoner Review Board went into closed session to review Weger’s juvenile history. The board won’t disclose their findings but there concerns were enough to deny him parole 9-3. The board nearly released Weger in 2013.NewsTribune photo/Scott Anderson + click to enlarge So what exactly did Chester Weger do before killing three women in St. Louis Canyon? Weger was denied parole Thursday after the Illinois Prisoner Review Board went into closed session to review Weger’s juvenile history. The board won’t disclose their findings but there concerns were enough to deny him parole 9-3. The board nearly released Weger in 2013. NewsTribune photo/Scott Anderson Tom Collins Staff Writer Share With Friend Brian Towne said he wishes he could have been a fly on the wall when Illinois’ parole board discussed Chester Weger’s juvenile record behind closed doors. Because whatever the members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board heard made several change their minds about letting Weger out of prison after 53 years — and this was virtually the same board that last year split 7-7 on whether to let him go. Weger, 75, was denied parole Thursday by a 9-3 vote. He had been denied many times before, but Thursday’s vote took some by surprise because he had inched closer to release in each of three hearings conducted since 2011. “I’m completely happy and relieved for the victims’ families,” Towne said, “and I’m happy and relieved for the people of La Salle County.” Diane Oetting, granddaughter of murder victim Lillian Oetting, said she was “relieved” by Thursday’s decision, but she and her family were resigned to the possibility that Weger would go free. “We really did think this would be the year,” Oetting said. “We were at peace knowing he’d spent at least a year in prison for every year of my grandmother’s life.” Though the board openly discussed Weger’s good health and capacity for violence, Towne said he’s less certain the new information would keep Weger behind bars for good. Though the board voted down parole, they also voted 9-3 against postponing Weger’s next hearing for three years. The board, he observed, seemed willing to hear the matter again a year from now. A Facebook post on Thursday’s announcement drew more than 2,300 views in the first hour. Among the comments posted, opponents of release outnumbered Weger supporters four to one, with one poster commenting, “Big surprise.” Indeed, Weger had never received a single vote for release until 2011, when he suddenly received five. In hearings held the next two years, he came up two votes and one vote short, respectively, suggesting the board was leaning toward release after 50 years’ incarceration. One Weger supporter expressed disappointment. “We think he’s illegally locked up,” said Bob Petre of La Salle, a member of the Committee to Free Chester Weger, asserting that Weger by rule should have been released years ago. “There’s something going on here that ain’t right with this case.” As for the murky juvenile history discussed behind closed doors, Petre posed the question, “What does that have to do with him serving his sentence today?” The Illinois Prisoner Review Board won’t say; but spokesman Ken Tupy noted Weger had also racked up some citations for misconduct in prison and that, too, weighed against him. Weger was charged following an investigation into the 1960 deaths of Oetting, Frances Murphy and Mildred Lindquist. The suburban women were bird watching in St. Louis Canyon when they were bludgeoned by a then-unknown assailant. The case baffled authorities for months until then-state’s attorney Harland Warren linked some physical evidence to the Starved Rock Lodge kitchen and developed Weger, then a 21-year-old dishwasher, as a suspect. Weger eventually confessed to the murders but then recanted before his trial, which concluded with a guilty verdict and life sentence in 1961. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty; but jurors at the time said they opted for natural life. Weger was an avid outdoorsman and jurors said they believed he’d suffer more in confinement. Supporters variously say Weger was coerced or framed and that other leads and suspects (some openly named) were too quickly disregarded. Opponents and authorities countered that Weger’s confession was largely reliable — except with respect to motive — and that alternate theories have never checked out. In his confession, Weger told police he was trying to rob the women. Lead prosecutor Anthony Raccuglia said years later he believed Weger was in fact trying to rape his victims, though he elected not to challenge Weger’s professed motive when the case went to trial. Tom Collins can be reached at (815) 220-6930 or courtreporter@newstrib. Follow him on Twitter: @NT_Court.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:19:49 +0000
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