Andy Hale had less than a half hour Tuesday morning Oct. 6 to convince the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to recommend to Gov. JB Pritzker a posthumous pardon for Chester Weger. 

Hale is a Chicago attorney who has spent the last decade working to exonerate  Weger, who was convicted of the murders of three Riverside women March 16, 1960 at downstate Starved Rock State Park. 

Tuesday may have been the final step in a long journey for him on behalf of Weger, who was paroled in 2019 – but never exonerated. Weger died in June 2025. In addition to Hale, Weger’s sister, Mary Pruett, spoke, as did his son, John Weger, along with Thomas J. Homer, Illinois Appellate Court retired justice. 

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board provided 20 minutes to listen to arguments from Hale and the others, and a representative of the office of La Salle County State’s Attorney Joseph Navarro. It now must make a recommendation to Pritzker on the matter, which could take months, Hale said. 

Even if the board does not recommend a posthumous pardon, Pritzker still has the latitude to rule independently and has unlimited time to do so. 

That, Hale said, is important. 

“I think if the governor’s office reads it and digests it, I think we have a chance,” Hale said. “It’s overwhelming. If I was the governor and I came across this, I would be like, ‘What an injustice in the state of Illinois, I have to fix this.’  

“It makes him look good … ‘I’m going to correct this.’ We have to be honest about our past mistakes. I have a chance with an unbiased audience. I’m hopeful.” 

After Tuesday’s hearing, Hale said he was at peace on the matter. 

“I feel we put on a compelling case, that justice needs to be served. I’m optimistic and I feel good,” he said. 

As for the La Salle County representative, he countered with the fact that Weger confessed and was convicted for the crime. 

“I thought he was completely unpersuasive,” Hale said. 

Three Riverside women murdered in 1960 

The story is well known in Riverside partly due to a presentation Hale hosted in May at Riverside Presbyterian Church, where the murdered women – Mildred Lindquist, Frances Murphy and Lillian Oetting – attended. 

It’s less than 100 miles from Riverside to Starved Rock State Park, and the women set out in Murphy’s station wagon for a four-day visit on Monday, March 14, 1960, arriving at Starved Rock Lodge, where Weger was a 21-year-old dishwasher. They checked into the lodge, had lunch, then set off on a hike in the park’s St. Louis Canyon. 

Then they vanished. 

Two days later, all three were found deceased in a shallow cave in St. Louis Canyon. 

The case became a national story, including coverage in Life Magazine. 

Weger, who stood 5-foot-7 and 180 pounds, which compares with the women’s 5-foot-6 height, was interviewed by the Illinois State Police March 18 and interrogated again two days later, passed three polygraph tests by the end of the month, then passed three more in April. 

Then Weger, who had been relentlessly tailed by law enforcement for months, was interrogated for eight hours Nov. 16 before confessing early the next morning. 

His story was that on his work break at the lodge, he was walking in St. Louis Canyon, decided to rob the women and let them go. But one attacked him, likely Frances Murphy, who apparently dislodged a hair from her attacker, so he defended himself and killed them all before returning to work. 

Hale never bought that story due to DNA, legal errors and other evidence, hence his presentation Tuesday morning, even though Weger is deceased. 

“We want the truth to be out,” Hale said.  

“He is not innocent” 

Hale, of Chicago-based Hale Law LLC, laid out every shred of evidence both old and new in a Reply to State’s Response to Chester O. Weger’s Petition for Posthumous Clemency. He also pointed out a key fact in the reply’s conclusion.  

“This Board and the Governor are the first reviewing body in the history of this case to have the entire record in front of them – the 1960 investigative file, the suppressed reports, the DNA, the witnesses, the expert science, and the post-conviction record itself. No jury, no Illinois court, and no federal court has ever assessed that record in its entirety. The record is now complete, but the remedy is not.  

“Chester Weger spent 59 years in prison and died still bearing a conviction that the state’s own evidence disproves. The courts can no longer correct that injustice. The governor can.” 

The reply also included letters of support from Homer and Saul Kassin, Ph.D., distinguished professor emeritus in the psychology department of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. 

The first point in Navarro’s Response to Petition for Executive Clemency, dated Tuesday, said that Weger “should not be granted clemency posthumously and his petition should be denied because he is not innocent.” 

It also contends that the “theory that Weger was ‘railroaded’ by multiple unconnected prosecutors over a 60-year period without reason or motive is preposterous. Further, the unauthorized petitioner would have this Board and the Governor believe that any of the judges hearing any part of the Weger case would not have recognized it or blindly went along with it. Another unbelievable theory floated without a shred of evidence.” 

If you know anything related to the Starved Rock murders, however seemingly inconsequential, email Andy Hale andy@ahalelaw.com or visit https://www.andyhalepodcast.com/contact