5 interesting details about the Starved Rock murders

Chester Weger after his release (Image via @bychiaraalexa/Twitter)
Chester Weger after his release (Image via @bychiaraalexa/Twitter)

The Starved Rock murders were horrible crimes that took place in 1960.

On this year, three women, Frances Murphy (47), Mildred Lindquist (50), and Lillian Oetting (50), were bludgeoned to death when they went to St. Louis Canyon for a trek. They were on a four-day trip to Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle County, Illinois. All three victims were wives of prominent businessmen.

The bludgeoned bodies were found inside a cave in the canyon, half-stripped and buried in the snow. The suspicions soon fell over a 21-year-old dishwasher named Chester Weger, who worked at the hotel the women were staying at.

Several things connected the crime to Weger, whose fellow workers also reportedly saw him with bruises on his face the day after the three women disappeared.

This case is filled with mysteries all around. Here are five interesting facts about the Starved Rock murders.


Weapon used to murder the victims of the Starved Rock murders and 4 other quick facts about the case

1) A tree limb was reportedly used to murder the three women

A frozen tree limb covered in blood was found right beside the bodies of Frances Murphy, Mildred Lindquist, and Lillian Oetting.

Authorities allege that the murderer used this branch to beat the women to death. According to sources, the three victims were hit on and around their heads over a hundred times.


2) All the staff members were questioned after the bodies of the three women were discovered

Staff members of the hotel where the victims stayed were all questioned once the murders came to light.

Upon questioning, many of the workers revealed that they had seen scratches on Chester Weger's face the day after the infamous Starved Rock Murders took place.

Weger maintained that he was in a barber shop at the time of the incident and that he got the scratches from shaving. He also passed several polygraph tests.


3) Chester Weger initially confessed to the crime but retracted his confession stating that he had been under duress at the time

Chester Weger became a person of interest from the very start of the investigation. He was arrested after failing a series of lie-detector tests.

Weger confessed to the crime a day after he was taken into custody. However, he later retracted everything he said, claiming that the authorities forcefully tried to get a false confession out of him.


4) Chester Weger became the longest-serving inmate incarcerated by the State of Illinois

Despite his allegations of foul play during the interrogation and his repeated claims of innocence, Chester Weger was found guilty of the murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on March 3, 1961. He was tried only for the murder of Lillian Oetting.

Weger continued to appeal for parole but got it only on his 24th try. By then, he was 80 years old. When his parole was granted, he was already the longest-serving inmate in the state.


5) Chester Weger still claims he did not commit the Starved Rock murders

Even years after his conviction, Chester Weger continues to claim that he did not commit the Starved Rock murders and is innocent. Since getting out of prison in 2020, he has consistently tried to clear his name.

Weger said after he got out:

"They ruined my life. They locked me up for 60 years for something I’ve never done,...Why should I feel remorse then if I never killed them [Murphy, Lindquist, and Oetting]? I mean I feel sorry for the people being dead, but I’m not going to admit that I’ve done something I [had] never done."

The Starved Rock murders remain one of the biggest cases in Illinois' history.

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