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The Starved Rock Murders with Andy Hale — True Crime
The Starved Rock Murders with Andy Hale

In the winter of 1960 three women were found brutally murdered in a cave at the Starved Rock State Park. After months of dead ends, a manhunt ensued that ultimately pinned the crime on a 21-year-old dishwasher at the Starved Rock State Park Lodge, Chester Weger. In spite of contradictory physical evidence and under immense pressure from the police, Chester confessed to the crime. He has spent the last 60 years in prison, maintaining his innocence to this day.
Join Andy Hale, a civil rights attorney who specializes in investigating wrongful convictions, as he dives deep into parts of the case that have been left out of previous coverage. As Chester Weger’s attorney, he is actively investigating the case and has won the right to test DNA from the crime scene for the first time in 60 years. If Chester is innocent, this will become the longest wrongful conviction case in United States history. This limited series podcast will re-examine the story you think you know, provide real-time case updates, including DNA testing, and access to documents and photos previously unreleased to the public, to uncover the truth of what really happened in Starved Rock State Park over half a century ago.

Copyright: © Andy Hale

Latest Episodes:

EP 10: The Trial of the Century, Part 1 Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

When Chester Weger went to trial in 1961, it was heralded by the media as the “Trial of the Century.” Throngs of people, ranging from hungry journalists to curious citizens, lined up outside the LaSalle County Courthouse in Ottawa, Illinois to try and get a coveted seat in the gallery. The quiet Illinois Valley community had never seen a spectacle of this kind. The press, armed with giant cameras and blinding flashbulbs, waited for the police to pull up and escort the accused into the courtroom. The Weger family had pooled what few financial resources they had to hire Chester an attorney – John McNamara. But even with a fine lawyer like McNamara, Chester was facing a prosecution, with its vast resources, that was interested in nothing less than the death penalty, execution by 50,000 volts. Three women were dead, and someone needed to pay. The public needed their pound of flesh and the State needed to put this case to rest. After a three-week trial, the jury returned its verdict: Guilty. But the question that haunted jurors long after the trial had ended was whether or not the right man had paid…Those doubts were evidenced by the fact that the jury elected not to sentence Chester Weger to the electric chair, as the State had demanded…Just in case they got it wrong. It’s likely his resolve to prove his innocence that has kept Chester alive all these years. For 62 years and counting, Chester Weger has been waiting for that evidence, that full picture, to finally emerge and definitively reveal that YES. . . they got it wrong and real killers have never been brought to justice. Andy and Whitny dive into the trial of the century and discuss what the jurors were never told. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 9: The Red Fibers (and Chester's cousin is mysteriously found dead) Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

Solving a murder mystery is like solving a jigsaw puzzle in that you can’t see the full picture emerge until each individual piece interlocks with another surrounding piece. Solving the Starved Rock Murders is like attempting a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle but without the guide of the picture on the box. One piece is William Palmatier. Another piece is his brother Glenn. Yet another is the mysterious kid with the bloody overalls in the trunk of his car. These pieces interlock with the pieces of the story told by the acquaintance of Smokey Wrona. And those pieces interlock with eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports and physical evidence. Little by little the pieces are indeed coming together. But unlike a jigsaw puzzle from a box, not all of the puzzle pieces are on the table for us yet. DNA test results will provide a few more pieces. Yet to be discovered documents could add more. But perhaps the only way to finally complete this puzzle is with some small detail, some bit of minutia, remembered by someone out there listening…someone who may have the center puzzle piece necessary to finally bring all of these interlocking parts together and allow the full picture of what really happened six decades ago to be revealed. But until all of the pieces lock into place the search continues for any detail that can shed light on the truth of the Starved Rock Murders. This week we discuss a the mysterious red fibers and the mysteriously death of Chester's cousin. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 8: The Tip (the Smokey Wrona story) Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

It’s an unfortunate reality that cold cases generally only grow colder with time. Evidence is lost. Memories fade. Witnesses die. Collective interest wanes. And eventually unsolved crimes become nothing more than local legends told around campfires. Hope of ever really finding answers all but vanishes. But sometimes the truth of what really happened in the past survives in something as simple as a tale told by the old timer at the end of a bar. The truth of the past can sometimes live on in the stories told to us that we may not even realize contain answers to questions we never thought to ask. Perhaps contained within a second-hand story passed from one generation to the next exists the truth of what really happened in St. Louis Canyon on March 14th, 1960. This week we discuss a tip we received, illuminating the story of Smokey Wrona. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 7: The Smoking Gun (bloody overalls and the conversation overheard by the telephone operator) Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

In the months following the murders at Starved Rock countless reports, memos and other assorted documents were created. Some were preserved. Some were filed away and are still waiting to be discovered in rusty filing cabinets or disintegrating evidence boxes somewhere. Others have simply been lost or destroyed leaving us with only part of the story. But of the thousands of pages that still remain there are clues to what really happened in 1960. Sometimes sifting through these clues for something new, something relevant, something that can actually explain the truth of what happened can feel like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. But once in a case, sometimes once in a lifetime, you find that needle, that smoking gun… And just a week ago, after painstakingly reviewing old documents, we found it. We found a key document that will break this case wide open, the Zelensek Memo. In this episode, quick simply, we blow this case wide open. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 6: False Confessions (and the truth about how a person confesses to a crime they did not commit) Mar 31, 2022

Show notes

A common response from those who subscribe to the belief that Chester Weger is guilty is simply: "he confessed...why would an innocent man confess? Surely no innocent person would ever confess to attacking three women and bashing their faces in before dragging them to a cave in the woods." In 1960 a confession was a one-way ticket to life in prison or the electric chair, and to most people a false confession was as improbable as the existence of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. But in the six decades that Chester Weger sat behind bars, the concept of the false confession began to make its way into the public consciousness. Patterns began to emerge that created profiles for who was likely to succumb to the pressure of interrogation and falsely confess to a crime. Science and particularly DNA also made it common to disprove people's confessions. In this episode we discuss what makes an innocent person confess to a crime, what factors lead to a person reaching their mental breaking point, and then apply these learnings to Chester's case. Additionally, the team highlights some high-profile cases where average people confessed to gruesome crimes, only to be disproven later by DNA and other evidence. A common theme in many people's statements who have falsely confessed is that they had reached their breaking point in that moment but planned to prove their innocence when they got their day in court. As we look at the treatment Chester received at the hands of law enforcement, you should ask yourself…would you be able to withstand that same pressure? For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 5: Andy's Case for Premeditation (and why the law student turned FBI agent on the case thought so too) Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

In the days following the murders law enforcement and the public seemed to gravitate towards the belief that only a depraved lunatic could have perpetrated such a heinous and depraved crime. Because who else but a madman would have reason to harm three lovely church-going ladies with no enemies? But did these women truly have no enemies? How much do we really know about the motive for the murders? When Chester Weger was ultimately charged with the murders his supposed motive was robbery, and yet curiously nothing was missing. Random robberies don't typically result in the complete and utter destruction of the faces of the victims and their bodies being dragged to a cave and displayed like macabre snow angels. In today's episode we explore the clues left behind at the crime scene that not only suggests that at least one of these women had an enemy and might have been targeted specifically, but also that many of the clues do indeed point to this being a premeditated crime. We also correct the notion that nothing was taken, because we do know that Frances Murphy’s fingertip is gone. Is that missing fingertip more evidence of premeditation? For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 5’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 4: Two Key Suspects: Gerald + George (one of which bludgeoned a girl to death a month later) Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

Handwritten police notes, dating to the weeks and months, following the triple homicide at Starved Rock State Park indicate that hundreds of people were questioned. A spectrum of characters ranging from the women's restroom attendant at the lodge, to known sex offenders from as far away as Chicago, and interstate truck drivers, were all pressed as to their whereabouts on the afternoon of Monday, March 14th. Most interviews consisted of a few pages of notes or in some cases, a couple of paragraphs, but two suspects in particular, stand out from the pack for the sheer bizarreness of their statements and actions, George Spiros and Gerald Nemke. In this episode we explore a these two most compelling suspects, their circumstances at the time of the murder and how their backstories make them undeniably plausible perpetrators. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 3’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 3: The Crime Scene (and why the evidence doesn’t point to Chester) Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Imagine being any one of the members of law enforcement standing in St. Louis Canyon on March 16th, 1960. These were small town cops who had spent most of their careers dealing with domestic disputes, bar brawls and livestock theft. Suddenly, they were responsible for investigating the most high profile murder in the state’s history. All three women seemed to have been left posed. Their arms and legs were extended and spread out as if they were making snow angels, but their undergarments were pulled down, their wrists bound and their faces had been beaten so badly that they were unrecognizable. The crime scene provided more questions than answers but there was a tantalizing bit of evidence. In the clenched hand of Lillian Oetting were two strands of hair that didn’t belong to the victims. One hair was fine and light brown. The other strand was coarse and dark. Who did these hairs belong to? In this episode we explore the crime scene, key evidence collected, and how a closer look suggests Chester could not have committed this crime. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 3’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 2: Why the State’s Narrative Can’t Be Right (and where’s the missing finger?) Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

Around 10:00 in the morning of Monday, March 14th, 1960 50-year-old Lillian Oetting, 50-year-old Mildred Lindquist and 47-year-old Frances Murphy, the wives of prominent businessmen from the affluent Chicago suburb of Riverside, Illinois packed their suitcases into the back of Lillian Oetting’s Cadillac station wagon and drove out of town. Their destination - the Starved Rock Lodge. What happens next is where the mystery begins. In this episode, we explore the timeline of events leading up to the crime, the crime scene itself, how the victims were killed, when they were killed, and highlight some critical details missed in the initial investigation. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 2’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

EP 1: The Enduring Mystery of Starved Rock Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

In the winter of 1960 three women were found brutally murdered in a cave at the Starved Rock State Park. After months of dead ends, a manhunt ensued that ultimately pinned the crime on a 21-year-old dishwasher at the Starved Rock State Park Lodge, Chester Weger. In spite of contradictory physical evidence and under immense pressure from the police, Chester confessed to the crime. He has spent the last 60 years in prison, maintaining his innocence to this day. We kick off this series with an overview of this convoluted tale and the team talks about the parts of the case that cause issues with the integrity of the conviction. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 1’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

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