BONUS Episode: DNA Results

BONUS Episode #1 : a massive break in the case

In this episode, Andy visits Chester’s home for an intimate conversation with him, his sister, and his niece.

In this episode, we go over some more information about the Palmatier brothers.

In this episode, we go over some of the motives for murder, and answer questions from listeners.

In this episode, we go over the trial of the century Part 2 - and all of the things that the jurors weren’t told before they were asked to send a man to his death.

In this episode, we go over the trial of the century - and all of the things that the jurors weren’t told before they were asked to send a man to his death.

In this episode, we share a lead that came in to the podcast. Go over the details, compare them to the facts of the case, and discuss what this means for the case.

In this episode, we share a lead that came in to the podcast. Go over the details, compare them to the facts of the case, and discuss what this means for the case.

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.

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.

Andy Hale shares information from a 40-page report written by William (Bill) Jansen who was a law student that was asked to consult on the case by authorities. The report, currently unobtainable, did have the base of its contents published in newspapers at the time of its release. In it, Jansen shared that as a professional this looked to be a revenge killing, and not a killing based on sexual or violent urges. This is a heavy player in Andy’s theory that these murders were premeditated.

While there were hundreds of leads that came in and suspects that were investigated, there are two suspects that the police collected evidence from and who have continued to be seen as having real potential to be identified as the murderer in this case.

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.

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 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 also provide introductions to the two hosts and how they came to be involved with this case.

The team talks about the case itself and some parts that legally cause issues with the conviction, including false confessions, the Brady v. Maryland court case, and an interview with one of the convicting jurors, her thoughts on the conviction, and exactly why she didn’t vote for the death penalty for Weger.

There is a lot more to this conversation so make sure you listen to the episode and take a look at the documents and photographs provided and outlined below for more context to the discussion and the case! For our audience without the ability to listen to the audio, check out the full transcript provided!