When paroled, Weger won’t be able to go to Starved Rock

When he first was shipped to prison, John F. Kennedy was president. The average American did not own a color TV or a car with automatic transmission. The cellular telephone was decades away.

After 59 years in prison, the Starved Rock murderer will find much has changed on the outside. It figures to be a big transition and there is no publicly-disclosed plan for how to get him through it. The Illinois Department of Corrections is hammering out the terms of release and St. Leonard’s Ministries, the Chicago mission providing Chester Weger with a bed, isn’t talking. (Multiple calls were not returned.)

But one key detail has emerged: Weger won’t be able to go near Starved Rock State Park.

Though the Illinois Prisoner Review Board wouldn’t confirm it, an attorney with knowledge of the Illinois corrections system said Weger’s terms of release would include a provision keeping him away from the scene of the 1960 triple murder.

“The Prisoner Review Board does have the authority to issue certain conditions as part of release, which generally include, foremost, no contact with victims, but somewhat routinely includes not returning to the scene of the crime, or possibly even the entire county of conviction,” said the attorney, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

If Weger harbored any concerns about life after prison, he kept them to himself when advised of a Thursday vote granting him parole. The parole board voted 9-4 to free Weger, though a representative of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office immediately invoked a 90-day stay that halts Weger’s release pending a risk assessment. His target release date now is Feb. 19.

Weger family members reached him by telephone following the hearing in Springfield and put Weger on speaker so the media could hear his reaction.

“I’m happy,” he said. “I’m happy just to get out, you know. ... Tell everybody I said, ‘Thank you.’”

After Presidents’ Day weekend, Weger is ticketed for Chicago — and he needs to stay there. Anyone worried about bumping into Chester Weger on the trails of Starved Rock State Park can rest easy: Straying outside Cook County will get Weger a one-way ticket back to prison.

Weger was sentenced to life in prison for the 1960 bludgeoning death of Lillian Oetting in a canyon at Starved Rock State Park. He also confessed to killing Oetting’s two companions. Weger had once seemed assured of dying in prison after standing for multiple parole hearings and never fetching a single vote in favor of release.

That changed abruptly when he was 72 years of age and had served 50 years behind bars. Over each of the past eight years, Weger drew at least some votes for release. Last year he fell a single vote short of going free.

The realization that Weger might go free prompted a last-ditch effort by the Oetting family to argue against release.

Lillian’s granddaughter Diane Oetting appeared before the parole board Thursday to remind them of the brutal nature of the killings — 100-plus blows to each of the women’s heads — and how the Oetting family endured baseless rumors that Lillian’s widower had hired a contract killer.

“I ask you,” Oetting told the board, “if you let him go, does that mean the crime wasn’t brutal? That my grandmother is still here?”

Thirteen board members (two were absent) listened patiently but gave few hints as to how they would rule. Towards the end of the 90-minute hearing, several board members said they had no stomach for rehashing the facts of the case. Nonetheless, the discussion turned to the question of whether Weger’s confession, which he recanted, was reliable by today’s exacting legal standards.

Board member Vonetta Harris, who voted in favor of release, said she was troubled that Weger’s confession was obtained after police developed Weger as a suspect and then interrogated him intermittently over an eight-month span — a timetable that wouldn’t fly today.

Board member Donald Shelton voted against release, flatly rejecting any talk that police tortured Weger or physically coerced him. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled as much in a 1962 ruling after Weger appealed his conviction and life sentence. Shelton acknowledged he was troubled by primitive handling of evidence but that the case against Weger remained strong.

“The deeper you look, the more evidence you find,” Shelton said.

Board member Pete Fisher also voted against release, reminding the board that Weger directed police to where he had moved the bodies. Such knowledge of the crime scene, Fisher said, discounted any notion that Weger was coached or told what to say.

The prevailing sentiment, however, seemed to be whether Weger had simply reached a stage of life where he could do no further harm. Board member D. Wayne Dunn said he interviewed Weger and found him cooperative and with a disciplinary record showing him to be a good inmate.

“I believe it is time for Mr. Weger to be paroled,” Dunn said.

The resulting vote was greeted with dismay by a prosecutor who lobbied the board against release.

“I am deeply disappointed in the board’s decision this date to release Weger,” said La Salle County state’s attorney Karen Donnelly, who was present Thursday in Springfield. “There are fewer voices out there opposing his release, as many of those who played any role in the investigation and prosecution are now gone.

“He now gets to enjoy the remainder of his life as he chooses, having once stated to a reporter that he would like to spend the remainder of his life with his grandchildren. Tell that to Diane Oetting, the granddaughter of one of Weger’s victims, who did not get that same opportunity.”

The parole vote will be hotly debated for years to come; but as recently as May there were signs it was coming.

Weger turned 80 in March, strengthening the case he no longer represents a physical threat to society. Weeks later, the parole board cut loose Henry Hillenbrand, who killed two in Streator, signaling multiple killings no longer were a barrier to release. Then in May, a key voice in opposition was lost when Weger prosecutor Anthony Raccuglia died, leaving the board without a live witness to recall the investigation and ensuing trial.

Tom Collins can be reached at (815) 220-6930 or TCollins@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @NT_Court.