The Starved Rock Murders, by Steve Strout

I read this book on my own - in just 2 days. "L" did not. 

March 14, 1960 -- three "suburban housewives" (from Chicago suburb of Riverside) were murdered at St. Louis canyon, part of Starved Rock State Park. The author is local to the area. Book pubbed 1982. 

It took 8 months for a grand jury to deliver indictment for Chester Weger, a former dishwasher at Starved Rock Lodge & Restaurant. 

This all took place before "Miranda," and when juries decided the sentence. Rather than the chair, the jury chose life in prison. The jury was shocked to learn -- after their decision on the sentence -- that Chester Weger would be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. 

Weger was released in Feb. 2020. Now age 84 (@Nov 2024), he is fighting for his case to be overturned. He has maintained that the LaSalle County sheriffs coerced a confession. The confession was quite elaborate -- on-the-scene (at the murder site), Weger detailed how he accidentally killed one of the women, then killed the other two so they couldn't identify him. He even detailed how a small plane flew overhead and he dragged the body under the overhang of the cliff. There were indeed drag marks in the dirt. And a nearby small airport indicated the exact color plane was flying during time of murders (about 3:30 pm). 

DNA in a hair found in the glove of one of the women points to one of 3 brothers who lived in the area - last name Bray. This fact, of course, is new. There were no DNA results in 1960. All 3 Bray brothers would have been aged mid-50s to about 60 at the time of the murders. 

DNA does not lie. And we know that confessions have been coerced. LaSalle County sheriffs were torched in the media for bumbling the crime scene. Mishandling of evidence. The states attorney was voted out because of the mishandling. So was there pressure on the sheriffs to produce the culprit? Yes. 

Meanwhile, Weger is 84 yrs old and fighting for his name to be cleared. Is he innocent? Or was he somehow an accomplice with one of the Bray brothers? One of whom died just two days after the murders. Of a heart attack. Suspicious? Yep. 

If Chester Weger is completely innocent, then this was a huge miscarriage of justice. NOT the first or last. 

The book was well-written, but I skipped certain parts of testimony that seemed redundant.