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Starved Rock murders test results to be disclosed in podcast

Weger attorney Hale dissects controversial conviction in audio series

By Tom Collins
Chester Weger enters the La Salle County Courthouse, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, on Etna Road in Ottawa. Evidence from Weger's 1960 conviction will be re-examined.

Chester Weger, who recently turned 83, learns soon what a lab makes of decades-old evidence from the Starved Rock murders. Members of the public can find out, too. One of Weger's lawyers has launched a podcast and pledges to disclose the lab results in that medium. (Tom Sistak for Shaw Media)

Want to learn what a private lab learns from a fresh analysis of evidence from the Starved Rock murders? A lawyer for Chester Weger promises to divulge it via podcast launched March 3.

Weger, who recently turned 83, served six decades for the 1960 murder of Lillian Oetting at Starved Rock State Park, where she and two other women were bludgeoned to death. Weger maintains his innocence and a Chicago law firm succeeded in getting a La Salle County judge to approve fresh testing of crime scene evidence.

What has the lab found? The results aren’t in yet — a followup hearing was moved from Feb. 8 to April 18 — but Weger attorney Andy Hale pledges to disclose the results in a podcast series released last week.

The podcast can be heard online at andyhalepodcast.com via Spotify (https://spoti.fi/3p0JNwN) and Apple (https://apple.co/3uWs6Ct).

In the two episodes released to date, Hale disclosed he became interested in the case after hearing Weger’s protests of innocence. Weger’s comments sounded similar to those of Cleve Heidelberg, who had been wrongfully convicted of a murder near Peoria and whom Hale helped exonerate.

Hale and cohost Whitny Braun expressed their doubts about the contents of Weger’s since-recanted confession and inconsistencies in the evidence and testimony at his trial.

Braun had served as supervising producer on a recent HBO docu-series that Weger’s advocates believe omitted many details.