Original subtitles

(crowd chatting)

Craig Findley: Cooper, is everybody inside?

We're gonna have a new boardroom,

and we should be able to accommodate more people.

We had no anticipation that so many would be here today,

so I apologize for the, for the inconvenience.

Diane Oetting: Hi, everybody. (clears throat)

Two years ago,

the board was concerned by the continued refusal

on the part of Mr. Weger

to accept any responsibility or express any remorse.

The board felt that a release at that time

could jeopardize public safety.

This was two years ago.

If you let him go today,

does that mean that the crime wasn't brutal?

Does that mean he is expressing remorse?

No.

We've been fighting this for 40 years.

Our family has been accused of being part of the mob.

My grandfather was accused of setting up a hit,

and my grandmother and her friends

were going out to look at birds.

Thank you.

-Yes, ma'am. -I'm Chester's sister.

He is two years older than what I am.

He was my closest sibling,

and he has always maintained his innocence.

He has lost his life as you all know.

I just hope my brother does not die in prison.

Thank you.

If there's nothing further, I'll ask Janet to take the roll.

If he receives eight votes, he will be paroled.

If he does not, he will not.

-Miss Martinez. -Yes.

-Mr. Fisher. -Pete Fisher: No.

-Janet Crane: Mr. Ruggiero. -Joseph Ruggiero: No.

Mary Pruett: My family has always been involved in this.

It's not that we put him on a back-burner and forgot him.

We have lived this.

Not like my brother's had to live it,

but we have lived this by trying to help him.

Mr. James.

Oreal James: Yes.

-Janet: Mr. Brink. -Daniel Brink: Yes.

-Ms. Crigler. -Edith Crigler: Yes.

-Ms. Daniels. -Yes.

-Chairman Findley. -Findley: Yes.

(Mary sobbing)

(Findley speaking)

You betcha. I will.

(pensive music playing)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(car approaching)

(bell tolling)

Kathy Etz: I don't know if members of the parole board

felt that, perhaps, he was innocent,

but it was extremely traumatizing,

and reopened the wounds of the tragedy.

The idea that he gets to be out of prison

while my grandmother is dead,

and I-I'm all for criminal justice reform,

but that does not mean letting a murderer out of prison.

So, yeah, I think that they messed up.

The day that he was granted parole,

my sister, she just started sobbing,

and, and said, "I'm so sorry, Mom," like...

and, um...

you know, I, you know, my mom was...

you know, just, it was,

it was incredibly upsetting for all of us.

(sobbing)

Mary: You couldn't believe it was happening

after all we have been through, you know?

You just thought, uh, "We must be dreaming."

You know, it's been 60 years.

His life is gonna start.

This is your sister.

We just got through with the parole board,

and it was-- Guess what?

Chester Weger (on phone): I won.

-(friends cheering) -Andy Hale: We're so excited for you.

I can't wait to see ya in person,

and I know your family can't wait to see you.

Start living your life, get out and enjoy freedom.

-We love you. -Andy: We'll, we'll talk to you soon.

When I got involved with Chester's case in 2016,

I had never heard of the Starved Rock murders.

I wasn't born in 1960, but I read--

It was a front-page article in The Chicago Tribune about Chester Weger,

"Starved Rock Killer Denied Parole Again," right?

So, I was really intrigued.

This guy's maintained his innocence over decades and decades.

So, I decided to write Chester Weger a letter.

You know, when you look at false confessions,

and there are certain factors that lead to wrongful confessions,

the primary one is the threat of death.

Here you have uncontested evidence that Chester

was threatened multiple times with the death penalty.

The second thing is all the surveillance.

The thing's to break somebody's will,

and the coercion and the techniques,

it has all the hallmarks of a false confession.

Our first goal was just let's, let's get him out of prison.

But I think the more important step

is trying to show people that he's actually innocent.

Reporter 1: 24 times Chester Weger was up for parole.

On the 24th try, parole was granted.

Reporter 2: The longest-serving prisoner

in Illinois is about to go free.

DJ (on radio): Classic Hits 103.9, WLPO

talking about, uh, Chester Weger's parole.

I wonder if any of this had to do with the fact

that there's no Tony Raccuglia to fight to keep him in.

Tom Collins: I really think that was part of it,

Tony was such a vociferous advocate.

DJ: And credible 'cause he prosecuted him.

Tom: Yeah, I really think that Tony's passing

was not a minor factor in today's decision.

DJ: Tom Collins of The News Tribune,

thank you very much.

Tony Raccuglia died May 2019,

and then, at the next parole hearing,

Weger is, indeed, paroled,

and can't help but think,

maybe, Tony Raccuglia's pressure had something to do with it.

Tony Raccuglia was one of the most forceful guys I know when it comes to cases.

Even at his advanced age, when it came time for the parole board hearings,

he'd make sure that those board members

knew how Tony Raccuglia felt about this case.

Anthony Raccuglia: You know, Harland Warren just passed on.

I'm the only living person that had anything to do

with the prosecution of that case.

The Sheriff's Office, they're all dead.

The judge is dead. The court reporter is dead.

The defense lawyer is dead.

There's just me and Chester.

We're the only two left.

David Raccuglia: Of course, I was happy for his family,

that Chester Weger was paroled,

but I was still mourning the loss of my father,

and they were, kind of, wrapped up together,

so it was a strange, emotional time.

The state's attorney had suggested...

David: It was my father's death that made me wanna go back

to a lot of the footage, and look at it and see him.

It was a, a good cathartic experience for me to see him again.

This guy got caught...

David: But now, there's a potential

wrongful conviction in the air,

and I still-- I had a lot of questions.

I decided it was time for me to get to the bottom of this.

♪ ♪

And so, I went back to 1960, and I studied it all.

You know, I, I feel like I've worked on this case for so long,

there might not be anything new, but there was.

(clapping and cheering)

Officer: If you can get out, and just go ahead,

and turn the car off, sir.

Chester: I got a seatbelt.

(Chester speaking)

Person: He's gonna-- Yeah.

(Man speaking)

Reporter: Well, is it a good day?

-Reporter: Are you scared? -No, I'm not.

After all this time,

you've maintained, your, uh, innocence,

and how does it feel looking back, 60 years are gone?

(Chester speaking)

Reporter: How do you feel? Are you excited?

Yes, I am.

Person 1: Okay, Dad, start the car up.

-Person 2: Thank you. -Chester: Thank you.

-Person 2: All right. -Person 3: Thank you very much.

That don't make sense.

Person: I know.

DJ: Old Chester Weger.

After 60 years,

60, 60 trips around the sun,

a man who's never admitted any wrongdoing,

he's gonna spend his, uh, remaining years trying to prove his innocence.

(Johnny Weger speaking)

(Chester speaking)

Get up, old man, get up.

Mwah!

-How are ya? -I'm all right.

Good, good, looking good.

Ooh, a little skinny. We need to fatten you up.

Chester: I'll be all right.

Person: We just thank you, dear Lord,

that Chester can get out of imprisonment, Lord,

and just pray that you'll continue to be with him and strengthen him, Lord,

and get him back into, into today's life, and just watch over him.

In Christ's name we pray these things, amen.

Amen.

Johnny Weger: You can't help but think, "What if?"

What if my dad wasn't in prison?

What if my mom hadn't remarried? What if, you know?

Oh, Dad.

Son.

You're all right, come on.

We'll be all right, we'll be okay.

-I'll be able to see you, and write to you and everything. -I know, yeah.

No, I'm just so happy.

I, I know, I'm happy to see you, too,

and Becky.

Johnny: He was convicted of Starved Rock murders,

I was four months old.

I didn't like nobody, I didn't like myself,

grew hair down to my ass,

put a chip on my shoulder,

and I kept it there for many years.

For my first burglary, we did four months together.

That's the most time I ever spent with my father

was behind bars.

Brian Towne: This is a horrible crime.

There are families that have been affected

on both the victims' side and the defense side.

I mean, Chester Weger's son has gone to prison,

several times.

A lot of his behavior has been as a sexual deviant.

It's hard to say if it's because of him being the son

of the Starved Rock murderer,

or if he's just made these choices on his own.

Johnny: All I ever heard from the courts,

from the people I've met was, "You're just like your father."

It's gonna affect ya.

61 years old,

the drugs and alcohol I put in my body,

and the mess I put my body through.

I'm here.

They say I don't have a brain,

well, let me tell ya this one.

This is called "Woe is Me."

"Again the shadow's loneliness

"have begun to transverse the passageways of my heart.

"I'm just a lonely prisoner caged in a man-made hell,

"and this pain and anguish I suffer is more than I can tell.

"Memories, without them I couldn't live,

"for in my mind's eye, I can see you clearly,

so if there'd be no memories, then there'd be no you."

I went through 30 years of prison,

and totally lost my mind.

In prison, that's all you have is memories.

My father, he taught me

how to love and to care about somebody besides myself.

They say he's supposed to have another chance in court,

but they couldn't pay him enough for 60 years of heartache,

his parents dying, his wife dying,

his kids suffering.

They couldn't give him enough.

Andy: I've never been here before.

I can't believe how scenic it is.

Now that I see this,

you know, the story that is set forth in the confession

makes zero sense.

And how high it is.

All the struggle to get the bodies up here,

which, how long's that gonna take you?

And risk having somebody else walk into the canyon?

That to me is the bigger risk, not a plane in the sky.

There's hikers, there's people here.

To drag three grown women up into that cave,

it strikes me so much more as being a two-man job.

If you go back and look at all the newspaper articles,

you see the complete focus being,

this is a crime committed by two people

because of the hairs.

There was all kinds of hair evidence collected at the scene,

and there was no hair evidence introduced against Chester at trial.

There were 18 hairs found in Ms. Oetting's hand,

and there were seven hairs found on Ms. Murphy's glove.

It clearly looks like the hairs of the attackers,

and there's this 1960 lab report that says

it's not Chester's hair on the glove.

That to me, for sure, would've been reasonable doubt

back in the day,

and it wasn't even introduced at the trial.

(suspenseful music playing)

I wanna test those for DNA.

The argument being used against us is,

"Oh, well, it's all been commingled and contaminated."

Oh, well, that's great.

So, the guys that we're claiming caused this guilty verdict

can contaminate all the evidence,

and prevent Chester from even looking at it?

Oh, isn't that convenient?

I retained an expert.

He has a lab called Microtrace.

His name is Skip Palenik,

and his son Chris works there as well.

Skip Palenik is world-renowned.

I mean, he's worked with Scotland Yard.

He's worked on the, you know, the Green River Murders,

the JonBenét Ramsey case.

I mean, I could go on and on and on.

Chris Palenik: Back in 1960, somebody took a glass microscope slide,

put the materials down, added a mounting medium,

it hardened, and a cover slip on top.

And so, that evidence is embedded in the microscope slide.

You can pick it up, you can hand it around, you can pass it around.

-You could lick it. -You could lick it.

And everything that's in there is preserved.

Even since 2004, DNA technology has advanced in great strides,

so it's, most likely, still material with evidential value.

Andy: One of the crucial things to remember about Chester's case

is the trial took place in 1961,

prior to Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland,

which said, "The state has to turn over

any exculpatory information to the defense."

So, this report, that the hairs did not match Chester Weger,

they were under no obligation, legally, to turn it over.

David: That's not his job.

This was pre-Brady.

Let's be honest, is it my father's job

to fight for what evidence was brought into the trial?

That's McNamara's job, the job of the defense.

However, I'm sure hoping Andy Hale and his team

have that opportunity. I hope that happens.

Reporter: New at 10:00, Chester Weger,

the so-called Starved Rock Killer,

pulling into his new home tonight.

That's after almost 60 years behind bars.

Reporter 2: Welcome to Chicago.

Can I speak with you for a moment?

Reporter 3: How do you feel, Chester?

Reporter 4: The convicted murderer tonight

steps into St. Leonard's halfway House,

his nieces by his side,

like his family has been for the past six decades.

(Reporter speaking)

-It's wonderful. -Yeah.

It's, it's almost hard to describe.

I mean, it's been, it's been

-our whole lifetime. -It's surreal, yeah.

(Reporter speaking)

-Carrie Clancy: No. -Nita Freeman: No.

Carrie: He's exhausted, sorry.

Nita: He can't, he can't. Thank you.

-David: I'm David. Do you remember me? -Chester: I remember you, David.

-You look great. -You look great, too.

You look healthy. You look fantastic.

-You look good. -Well, what a place to see you.

I'm, I'm happy to see you.

Don't you find it hard to believe

that somebody from a normal working class family,

raised in this area,

what, what would have caused him

to all of a sudden bludgeon three women to death?

Anthony: The true story is with Chester Weger himself,

and he'll never tell the truth in this case.

Chester was a different type of person,

and those were things that,

evidence that the public doesn't know about.

Past history, past experiences that he had,

and, and it just fit.

David: My father never said this to me until I was making this film,

but he believed there was more to the scenario

than what was in the confession.

He thought there might have been a sexual motivation.

Looking at a story over 60 years,

you, you have to go back to those tidbits,

those little things that answer questions.

A lot of my communication with Chester

after I filmed him was through letters.

They were not only personal,

but they were very revealing about his true feelings.

He told me about himself as a boy

witnessing one of his sisters, Elveta,

being raped by two neighbor boys.

Chester: I was eight years old

when much older boys, they raped my sister.

They forced me to watch.

The attack was, uh, in my dad's chicken house.

Yes, I was mistreated

by one of my neighbor boys,

and I could not explain to my folks

because I did not want Chester

to be blamed for something, you know?

Chester: It was my job to protect my sisters.

What would have happened when I got older?

I don't know what I would have done.

But I would try to kill 'em. I know that.

I wouldn't hesitate.

David: That started the string of several letters

that got a little darker, a little stranger.

"For several years afterwards,

"I had a bad dream about the 1947 rape.

"In each dream I reheard my sister's 1947 screams.

"So, I married a girl who was not a virgin.

"It saved me from having to sexually hurt her

by taking her virginity."

I'm not a therapist,

but there's, there's definitely a childhood trauma.

When we were in person, he was very kind.

I don't hate your father.

And he said, "You know, David, he just did his job."

Well, I then got a letter that said,

"Anthony Raccuglia told sexual lies about me.

"He claimed I raped an eight-year-old girl

"when I was 12.

"He also said I performed

"some sort of degenerate,

"perverted sexual act

"that left my wife permanently maimed.

"But the thing that your father forgot to report,

"if my murderous, perverted sex weapon

"was my tongue or my penis,

they were the only two Joann had ever taken sexually from me."

He knew my dad played professional baseball,

and so, he asked me if Mickey Mantle and Nellie Fox

stuck baseball bats up my dad's ass.

Maybe he was just trying to make me understand

how it felt to have an attack on someone's sexuality,

whatever it was.

At the end of that perverted stuff, he wrote,

"David, have a Merry Christmas, Chester Weger."

I felt like Chester was working at trying to get me

to understand him as a person.

But for me, the letters painted a picture of darkness,

and it completely changed my perspective on Chester Weger.

Chester Weger was a suspect right from the beginning

because of that juvenile rape of an eight-year-old girl

when he was 12 years old.

He denied it. He said he didn't do it.

Chester: The girl was raped and I helped her dress.

I carried her home.

This girl's father, he made the police release me.

David: So, I dug deep

into the 12-year-old Chester Weger rape.

I, ultimately, did find the report,

many, many years after I interviewed Chester Weger.

It was very detailed.

This young girl, who was eight years old,

was walking home from school with Mary Weger,

Chester Weger's sister.

Mary Weger said goodbye to her, went off on her trail.

Chester Weger grabbed the girl, raped her.

There was sign of penetration, blood,

and his parents noticed that he had blood all over his pants.

And Chester said, "I killed a snake."

And the police questioned him, he confessed.

It was a very dark picture of a sexual troubling.

All of this character analysis

with these priors was disturbing,

but does that make him a murderer?

Person: You can take off your mask now.

Andy: Poor Chester, I mean, he gets released from prison

after 60 years,

and the next month, COVID-19 hits.

Locks him down at his facility.

Family can't come see him,

he can't travel, can't go anywhere.

When you've been locked up for 60 years for something that you didn't do,

and then you finally get out, and now we have the pandemic comes.

Once again you're locked up.

(Person on phone speaking)

(Chester speaking)

(Person on phone speaking)

Andy: The clock's ticking. Every day matters, every day.

I feel like every waking moment,

I should be working on Chester's case.

I always think forensics is the way to start

if you can do it.

But, at the same time, I will always ask people,

"Well, what was word on the street?"

I'm open to anything.

(on phone) Okay, uh...

Sandra Bland (on phone): Yes.

Andy: Do I have your permission to tape this call?

Sandra: All right.

Andy: What was it that Stanley had told you?

Sandra: That Chester Weger was not involved in the murder.

It was him and George Spiros.

Andy: He admitted that to you?

Sandra: Yes, sir.

Andy: Wow.

Sandra: I remember him saying that the police,

the day they stopped him in his car,

if they would have searched the trunk,

they would have found all the evidence in his trunk.

Andy: When I heard that,

it sounded too crazy or good to be true,

but the part that struck me when I listened to it again

was that it didn't really seem like

she was trying to embellish things,

she was telling it kinda matter of fact.

It sounded credible in terms of how she told the story.

Sandra (on phone): He just said it went-- Something went wrong.

Let's go back to the physical evidence.

The devil's in the details,

and, a lot of times, there's something insignificant at first blush

that you later come back to, and you have, kind of, an aha moment,

and I had, kind of, that aha moment recently in this case.

"No explanation for end of finger missing,

hole in glove."

Ms. Murphy had

the tip of her left index finger cut postmortem.

Who does that?

And I think if you look at how they're laid out,

I mean, it's a very kinda graphic display.

To me, it's like a serial killer kinda thing

who wants to collect something from the crime scene.

That is a very deliberate act,

and that is not Chester Weger. Give me a break.

(Person speaking)

Well, I think there's somebody else who was out at the lodge,

and worked there that...

that was involved and, um,

is a more, a much more logical suspect.

Sandra: George Spiros. I know he was involved in that.

Stanley Tucker was like a instigator.

He would dare George Spiros to do something,

and George Spiros didn't have all his marbles,

and he would do it.

It wouldn't surprise me

if Stanley didn't tell George Spiros,

"Go get those cameras from them ladies."

And George Spiros murdered those women.

And I think Stanley participated in the murder,

so that there was no witnesses.

Karen Norris: I don't really like to use the word "psychic,"

because there's a lot of negative connotation

that comes with those words, so I use "energy sensitive."

Person: What did your grandfather think of your--

He didn't believe in it.

He'd be like, "Oh, there's nobody here, you know."

"Y-You're crazy, you're just seeing things."

That's how my grandfather was.

Is Chester Weger responsible

for the murder of these three women?

I have a male entity stepping forward saying "no."

I don't know if that's my grandfather,

but this does not feel like my grandfather.

Ooh...

A really aggressive...

a really aggressive male energy, um, ooh...

A really aggressive male energy telling me

that I don't wanna go down this path, that I need to stop where I am

because I'm not going to like the answers that I get.

Um, I think this is George Spiros.

I think, I think this is George Spiros, oh...

I feel really threatened.

Whew!

Um...

He's telling me to stay out of it.

(exhales sharply)

David: You know, to say this story

has become more colorful

is a very large understatement.

Dave Marsh: Well, George would take the opportunity

to go to the crime scene, and do whatever was on his mind,

pretty freaky things.

That would be consistent with the women...

David: As a filmmaker, I went in deep.

I found myself at night on these blogs

reading all of this incredibly crazy information,

things that I-- were hard to believe,

but, you know, I tend to be a believer.

But I started to realize that there was a couple of people in town

that were not very credible.

Dave: There's a wound, there's a wound,

and there's a wound.

This is a torture technique.

When the cut is made,

the, uh, ligaments in the arm snap back.

The Chinese Triads call it "death by a thousand cuts."

The person that would, specifically, know this technique

would be George Spiros because he's been trained

for the CIA and other clandestine operations.

If you look back in history,

an operation that was going on around the world,

uh, was called Operation Gladio,

which was, basically, just mayhem and terrorism everywhere.

The first Operation Gladio event

was probably the Starved Rock murders.

Excuse me.

If you study the history of these pedophile rings,

you always find judges, governors.

"I'm gonna go have a sex orgy at the Starved Rock Lodge, honey. Y-Ya got a problem with that?"

Nobody wants to talk about it, there's a fear.

You gotta be careful what you say.

And I don't really know anything about the senator,

but, uh, give me some liquor and I'll speculate.

(laughs)

David: David Marsh is

unapologetically inappropriate.

I mean, the things that he comes up with, the theories,

and they don't help the case.

Dan Churney: There's this hardcore group of people who believe Weger

is framed, and they're just, you know, one-track mind.

It's hard to have a conversation with them about it.

Steve Stout: I know David Marsh, yes.

We've had some... discussions.

He enrages me.

I'd rather not be talking about him, personally.

I mean, he's, I think, dangerous.

Dave (on phone): This is David Marsh.

You hung up on me 'cause I yelled at you.

You are the biggest pussy I've ever talked to in my life

if you thought that was yelling.

Th-That's just his nature.

And he came in several times to the newspaper,

and the authorities were called in.

David: The Free Chester Weger group

went from being, sort of, rumors and innuendo

to lunatic fringe.

Mary: Everybody that sticks their nose in this

that don't know him--

I have nothing to do with Free Chester Weger.

As a matter of fact,

we call them "The Three Stooges."

I try to say, "Stay out of it. Leave him alone."

It-- All it does is it hurts the case.

It does-- It hurts my brother.

(cat meows)

Deedra Fox: We started out with the best intentions.

We were led down a dark road.

Dave Marsh destroyed me.

He destroyed Bob Petre.

And we were led to believe, the end of our movie,

we're gonna film Chester coming through the gates,

and him grabbing your guys' hands and crying.

And I wish that's the way it had happened.

But it didn't.

(peaceful guitar playing)

Person: We have one more topic here, the documentary.

David Raccuglia, I believe, whose father,

Tony Raccuglia, coincidentally,

I'm sure they had some fun Thanksgiving dinners.

I mean, we're going back almost 60 years now.

How do you begin...?

Anthony: Why are you doing this?

What motivation do you have?

I wonder about what this is gonna really do for you.

Through grade school, through high school,

didn't I tell you the same things I'm telling you now?

There just isn't any doubt that the man was guilty.

David: I don't have the confidence my father had

that Chester Weger was guilty.

I also don't believe he's a hundred percent innocent.

(on computer) So, let's start with the beating.

I went back to the interview that I did with Chester Weger.

Sher-Sheriff Eutsey

started out by jabbing me in the stomach

with a, a nightstick.

David: The first time I interviewed Chester,

I was infuriated, you know?

It sounded like the confession

was completely coerced out of him. I got a little angry.

If others hadn't been there, I, I think he, actually, would have killed me

'cause Eutsey, Eutsey went nuts.

Chester was not physically abused at all.

And you have to remember he had the opportunity

to challenge the confessions at a separate hearing.

If he was going to claim someone beat the confession out of him,

that's when it should have been made, and it wasn't.

He never at any time

said anybody beat the statement out of him

in order to get him to admit to the killing.

I thought, yeah, you know, that's, that's interesting.

I got all the transcripts,

everything I could get on the trial, and I started reading.

There's not one mention of beatings and physical abuse in 1960.

To deem that confession admissible, they had a long hearing.

Anthony: We put on about a dozen witnesses to testify

to show the confession was a voluntary statement.

David: And Herschel Weger said to all of that,

"My son seemed like he was fine."

And Chester was asked the same questions.

"I was not beaten."

I was given cigarettes and sandwiches. I was treated well."

I saw no intimidation or anything.

He seemed very willing,

very friendly with them, I would say.

Especially with Dummett, he seemed to be very friendly.

David: It wasn't just Dummett and Hess,

court reporters, psychologists.

His confession of this crime was given to many.

There was a photo of Chester with his shirt off.

There was a doctor's report, and it said

Chester was not beaten the night of the confession.

Chester's own words,

his side of the story,

is completely different than public record.

These other people, it's really hard to believe

that they would be part of a conspiracy to frame Chester.

The conspiracy has to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Sheriff Eutsey bragged about what he done to me, everybody knew about it.

I told McNamara, and he told me

that the police were gonna deny that they done it, that--

and I just went by what McNamara told me.

McNamara told me to forget about it.

Impossible.

McNamara was very adamant

at the corruptness of the law enforcement

on this case.

Very adamant.

He would have had that tattooed on his arm

that Chester was beaten.

To keep that fact out makes no sense.

I don't believe he was beaten.

Andy: He says he was beaten.

I believe that.

But whether there was or wasn't,

I think the threats of death,

and all the coercive techniques that have gone on since September,

their game plan worked.

Chester, I believe,

added color to the story after years in prison.

So, we're entering Oglesby.

This is where Chester Weger's family home was.

According to the clemency petition, on the day of the murder,

Chester would have visited Franklin's Barber Shop,

which is right here.

Chester: The time this crime happened,

Stanley Tucker had taken me to Oglesby,

and I got a haircut at Ben Franklin's Barber Shop.

I told the police when they first questioned me.

David: That's the new alibi that came out in 2003.

Chester claims he told that to law enforcement

right from the beginning,

so I started digging for more documents,

and I came across the original police file.

This was the first time the police ever interviewed him.

"I finished work about 2:45 or 3 PM,

and went down to the basement, and wrote a letter to a girl."

The jury heard one alibi in 1960,

and it was the same one he told the police.

There's no mention of Stanley Tucker.

He never mentioned anything about haircuts,

and things like that.

I believe Chester might have not been telling me the truth.

Donna Kelly was very adamant he was getting a haircut.

She had a man who was quite elderly sign an affidavit.

I, I don't know, I don't know why he never come in, you know?

I was told he had died, and, and, and, uh,

I-- my father thought he had died, too.

Brian: Chester Weger had many, many years

to try to think of,

uh, "Okay, well, maybe this was this or that was that."

"Oh, check with so-and-so because I was there."

An alternate reality

can suddenly become reality in some people's minds.

(Chester speaking)

It's an interesting ride when you interview him

because he changes the story.

(Chester speaking on phone)

I don't even wanna say lies, but the truth is,

they're looking like lies at this point.

Every shoot, Chester had a whole new story.

David: He told me this whole story

that is nowhere to be found in 1960.

DJ: I'm still a little uncomfortable about it,

but there it is on the front page.

You know, the Facebook meatheads are like, "Oh, he didn't do it.

He didn't do it. He's innocent."

The same Facebook meatheads are now like...

(slaps desk) "I can't believe he's living next door!"

(laughs) 815-223-30--

Nita: So, he's finally home,

and we weren't even

at the new house for 15 minutes,

and The News Tribune knocked on our front door,

and he said, "LaSalle County needs to know that he's here."

That's when the fiasco started with the city and the police department.

-They were harassing him. -Carrie: Yeah.

The harassment's gonna continue, and has continued,

and no matter where he moves, it's gonna, it's gonna continue.

-Carrie: Yeah. -Nita: And now, they're adding

the sexual offender registry on him now, too.

Johnny is labeled as a sex offender as well,

so they are not allowed to see each other.

And, and Johnny's crushed just like he is.

(Chester speaking)

Nita: We always ask him, "What do you want us to do?"

He wants to be cleared.

That's-- We're gonna continue to fight until

he is vindicated.

And we know it's gonna happen.

-Yep. -We just don't know when.

Photographer: Let me just take a few more shots.

(camera shutter clicking)

David: The span of time,

to me, that's the biggest hurdle we're gonna have to jump

in order to get to the truth.

There's not a lot of people left.

My father, Harland Warren, these people are gone.

I thought the only one left in this case would have been Chester Weger

after my father passed away.

It wasn't true.

This was my father's first case.

He was 26 years old.

You were both very young and very early in your careers,

and you both had such an impact on this case.

That's pretty rare.

Bill Jansen: You learn by experience.

You ran into a lot of different characters

that could have done it, you know?

That's all part of, of a criminal investigation,

but I thought to myself, this case has to be solved.

It has to be solved.

David: Back in 1960,

Bill Jansen was handpicked

to give fresh eyes to the case.

I mean, this is a man who,

later in life, went into the FBI,

became a judge.

He made a lot of sense, and what he said, for me,

changed everything about the case.

Bill: The superintendent of the Illinois State Police said,

"I'm assigning you to the Starved Rock murders case

because there was a standstill."

Few suspects, but really nothing definite going on.

Complicated case, very complicated.

It was from the beginning.

Now the details set out in the confession, it just didn't make sense.

The women were found at St. Louis Canyon.

There's quite a distance from the lodge to the crime scene.

That trail was treacherous.

Ms. Oetting had a bad back, a slipped disk.

Now to walk that with a bad back and a slipped disk, it's almost impossible.

I walked it several times during good weather and it is tough.

But going in the West entrance, it's flat,

just walked right in.

I believe someone gave 'em a ride

to the West entrance of the canyon.

George Spiros saw the three women

in front of the-- what they call the root beer stand,

saw them walk past.

Timewise, there's quite a distance

from the lodge to that root beer stand,

and then, to go all the way back...

and then, down through the trail...

I, I just don't believe it.

I, I, still to this day, believe that they were given a ride

to the West entrance of St. Louis Canyon.

A little later, another witness

saw a black car in the parking lot

at, at St. Louis Canyon, the West entrance.

Person: Can you read that witness statement?

Bill: Yeah. "One man, leather fringe jacket,

"the two men standing behind the trunk,

and he was pouring water on the other man's hand."

Stanley Tucker has a black Cadillac.

I'm strongly convinced

that Stanley Tucker gave 'em a ride

to the West entrance of the canyon.

That put 'em together.

That's why Chester Weger and Stanley Tucker

were the two main suspects in this case.

(Person speaking)

No, no.

But that was up to Harland Warren.

They didn't have enough, I guess, to prosecute him on.

Uh... and I, still to this day,

I said, I, I don't see how he did it by himself,

but he said he did.

Was he by himself?

Stanley Tucker,

whether he went into the canyon with Chester,

only Chester can answer that.

(Person speaking)

He was a good guy.

Stanley, Stanley wouldn't bother nobody.

Person: One of the things, Chester, that I wanted to ask you about,

you wrote this letter to your father.

This.

What year is this? Do you know?

Person: This is December 13th. It's 1960.

So this, David, actually, found in a stack of papers.

David: This letter...

this letter, you know,

incredibly cryptic and hard to understand.

Chester wrote this to his father

while he was awaiting trial at county jail.

"Dear Dad, I don't know how to say this,

"but I have to, and I don't want you saying anything.

"If you do, I'll see myself that I get the electric chair.

"Any ideas you have that if I never told the truth,

"you were going to tell the truth yourself

"who killed these people.

"Only I could tell you,

"and despite of what I never will tell you the real truth.

"Your life, Mom's life,

"Joann's life,

and the kids' mean more to me than my own."

I think what he's trying to say is,

"I'm not the murderer, but I'm harboring information."

"I've only got two choices, Dad: to fight it in court,

"and either burn or see bloody harm come to you,

"or to stick with the story and to give life to all.

"But I want you to know I'm not the one.

"Tell no one this and I promise you this,

"if you do at any time,

"I'll burn because I won't see you hurt

for something I can't and I won't ever tell you."

(Mary speaking)

David: "I'm young.

"I have read the Bible, and I believe in the Lord,

"and I'm not afraid.

"So, forgive me.

Your son, Chester."

Andy: "Your son, Chester O. Weger."

Were you ever protecting anybody else that, actually, did the murders?

-No, no. -Okay.

Protecting somebody else who may have killed somebody--

and you didn't want to tattle on them?

Andy: Can we, maybe, take a break?

David: That letter made me feel Chester is hiding something.

If it wasn't him, it was someone else that he had knowledge

because then he came back and said, "I am not the one."

"The one."

When I was making the documentary,

the Spiros name kept coming up.

Bill Jansen took the heat off Spiros,

and started to shine the light a little bit more on Stanley Tucker.

I told the police, I said, "You arrest Stanley Tucker."

I said, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna testify for him

because I know the man's innocent. He was with me."

David: It's possible that Chester sticks up for Stanley,

uses Stanley in his alibi

because Chester and Stanley were together

on the day of the murder.

I, I can't remember too much about it.

It's been so long ago.

David: Time has warped the perception,

and I'm not sure Chester Weger's capable

of answering the questions anymore.

Andy, I spent a lot of time interviewing Chester.

Things like his alibi.

That was a very inconsistent story.

I can't tell you whether he's telling the truth when he says he was beaten,

uh, when he says his alibi was X, Y, and Z.

Uh, those things may or may not be true.

But there's all the elements of a false confession.

The crime scene is not compatible

-with his story and the confession. -Right.

That's why I'm sitting here today.

I think he is not a reliable storyteller

40, 50, 60 years later.

The damage to a person after four decades in prison

can be substantial, especially if you're innocent.

That's why I've looked at, kind of, the evidence as opposed to,

you know, whether he said something that, that did or didn't make sense.

David: The ironic thing about this case

is we've uncovered

an incredible amount of information,

but I-I-I'm not sure I can do any more.

It's, kind of, up to Andy Hale to take it from here.

Andy: If your dad was here right now, if I were to say to him,

"Would you be interested in DNA testing?" What do you think he would say?

I'm positive he would be interested in DNA testing.

That is the only way conclusion is going to come,

through a DNA match of either Chester Weger or another individual.

Andy: Let's be real, today is our biggest day.

-We're not asking the court to declare Chester innocent. -Right.

We're simply asking,

let us have access to the physical evidence,

so Microtrace can do analysis.

Carrie: You know, we wanna clear his name

before he does pass. That is my, my biggest fear,

is not being able to do that for him before he passes--

-Mary: And I think he'll keep fighting, he will. -'cause he wants it so bad.

-He wants it so bad. -Mary: 'Cause that's what he said all these years.

"I'll fight it 'til the day I die."

-And I think that's what has kept him going. -It's kept him going.

-It really has. -Mary: Because that's exactly what he's done.

God is with us.

All the way through.

Andy: Absolutely, absolutely.

Steve: Is that why we're here, looking for justice?

Is it a search for justice,

or is it a search for a settlement?

Mary: Everybody thinks that we're in it for the money.

We're not in it for the money. I'm not in it for the money.

I want the world, because this is worldwide,

and I want those people to know that my brother did not do this.

(Judge speaking)

Andy: Hallelujah!

-Yeah. -Mary: Finally, finally.

Oh my gosh.

The judge started talking about the history of the case.

It sounded like we were gonna lose again.

But then, when he said, "You know what?

This isn't fair. It's not fair."

Can you hear me, young man?

Chester (on phone): Yes.

So, we took a huge step forward today.

We'll be able to test this evidence,

and prove your innocence. How about that?

We just had to call, and tell you the good news.

I love you, brother.

All: Love you, Chester!

(Mary laughs)

Steve: I'm here to protect the story.

That's the only reason I'm sitting here.

I stand for the prosecution.

I stand for the truth.

And I know that sounds pretty noble,

but that's just what, what I am right now.

And I'll protect this story until my last breath.

David: When it comes to true crime,

everyone wants to be part of solving something.

Decade after decade,

generation after generation,

it snowballed out of control.

(cat meows)

Mary: I put all these memories away.

Everything just comes flooding back.

Early this morning, I, I dreamt about my mom.

She don't have to go through it no more.

David: Let's face it, this is a collateral damage story.

I feel for the families.

They're gonna have to hear this story again...

be emotionally brought back to all of this trauma.

I wish my father was alive to talk to him about this.

You know, I know deep down he supported what we were doing .

We're getting everything out on the table.

What is fact?

What is fiction?

That somebody really looked into this case.

(pensive music playing)

("Devil or Angel" by Bobby Vee playing)

♪ Devil or angel ♪

♪ I can't make up my mind ♪

♪ Which one you are ♪

♪ I'd like to wake up and find ♪

♪ Devil or angel ♪

♪ Dear, whichever you are ♪

♪ I miss you ♪

♪ I miss you ♪

♪ I-I mi-i-i-iss you ♪

♪ Devil or angel ♪

♪ Please say you'll be mine ♪

♪ Love me or leave me ♪

♪ I'll go out of my mind ♪

♪ Devil or angel ♪

♪ Dear, whichever you are ♪

♪ I love you ♪

♪ I love you ♪

♪ I love you ♪