No new trial for "Starved Rock Killer" Chester Weger
There will be no new trial for the man known as the Starved Rock Killer, convicted in the death of a woman in the Illinois state park in 1960.
Attorneys for 86-year-old Chester Weger had been asking for a new trial, saying he was wrongfully convicted.
Weger first confessed to killing three women at Starved Rock State Park when he was 21 years old. He had been a dishwasher at the lodge. He told police he had murdered three middle-aged women from the Chicago suburbs eight months after their bodies were found, partially nude and beaten to death, in St. Louis Canyon.
He was convicted of murdering Lillian Oetting, and also allegedly killed her companions Mildred Lindquist and Frances Murphy though he did not go to trial for their murders.
Weger later claimed he had been coerced into making his confession, and told CBS News Chicago in 2010 that he had been threatened by the sheriff.
He was sentenced to life in prison, was released in 2020 after being granted parole. All 24 of his previous parole requests had been denied since 1972.
