SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM Newsradio) – Attorneys for Chester Weger, the man convicted in one of Illinois' most notorious murder cases, are asking Governor JB Pritzker to grant him a posthumous pardon, nearly a year after Weger's death.
Weger was convicted in the 1960 killing of Lillian Oetting, one of three women from the Chicago suburbs who were found beaten to death in St. Louis Canyon at Starved Rock State Park. The other victims were Mildred Lindquist and Frances Murphy.
Eight months after the killings, Weger confessed to all three murders but was tried and convicted only in Oetting's death. The cases involving Lindquist and Murphy never went to trial.
For decades, Weger maintained that his confession was coerced and insisted he had no role in the killings.
Sentenced to life in prison, Weger was denied parole 24 times before being released in 2020. He continued fighting to overturn his conviction after his release, but a judge denied his request for a new trial just one week before he died at age 86 in June 2025.
His attorney now argues the murders were part of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the husband of one of the victims.
The petition, filed with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, asks the board to recommend that Pritzker issue a posthumous pardon clearing Weger's name.
