Keep Weger where he belongs
The following exceeds the Bureau County Republican’s 500-word limit on Letters to the Editor, therefore, the BCR will extend the same opportunity to someone with an opposing view. Call BCR Editor Terri Simon at 815-875-4461, ext. 229.
The Starved Rock murderer should spend the rest of his life in prison and leave only occupying a hearse to bring him to be placed in the ground — somewhere where his soul will descend to hell and forever suffer for the brutal, unnecessary murders of three middle aged women, killing them by brutally beating them with a tree stump and causing such a distortion of their features that when I first reviewed the photographs, it was difficult for me to believe these were human beings and/or that the condition of each of them, their bodies, were not the result of ravishing by some unknown creature that could not be human.
I was right, and I was wrong. The killer possessed a body of a human but the mind and the soul of an animal. An animal that will soon be released back to the site of his horrendous cruelty, if the rumor is true that the parole board will soon parole this “monster-man” and bring him back within the citizens of this county and the citizens of the Starved Rock area, where this all began.
The parole board should not trump the decision of a LaSalle County jury finding this defendant should spend the rest of his life in prison following six weeks of testimony, which included the testimony of the members of the murdered victims’ families and the impact these murders had on each of those families from the day they were committed until this day, taking in generations of those family members that were not in existence at the time of this brutality.
As long as I have been knowledgeable of (Chester) Weger’s intentions to seek parole and have testified many times before the parole board, I was always very confident the parole board would deny any effort on the part of Weger to leave confinement. I have not, in my time, either as a prosecutor or as a lawyer, up to the present time, known of any parole board releasing anyone on parole that would not admit and stand fast in denying the commission of the crime. To do so will give the impression to many people that the paroled defendant wins out and that in fact, he, as he has persisted, was not guilty of the crime for which he was found to be guilty by a jury of his peers.
Over the course of these 50 years, Weger provided the justice system with three or four different alibis as to where he was on the day of the murders. All different than the alibi he provided at the time of the trial. Why is this important? It is important because it demonstrates unequivocally that this “man” is the Starved Rock murderer.
At the time of the trial in this case, during my cross-examination, Chester Weger said he was in the recreation room of the Starved Rock State Park facility writing a letter. Subsequently, during the next 45 years, his alibis varied from having been downtown Oglesby getting a haircut, playing pool and/or having lunch. When confronted with why this alibi and the number of witnesses that he professes observed him in the city of Oglesby was not presented to the jury during the time of trial, his answer was that his lawyer convinced him that to present this testimony would harm his case rather than help his case. That is the twisted logic of a perverted mind, who to this day will not admit his involvement in this murder and therefore to this day, in my opinion, is mentally and physically capable of committing other perverted acts if released from custody.
I won’t go into the economic effect his release would have on the Starved Rock Park facility, but it is fairly obvious many people, knowing that Chester Weger, the Starved Rock murderer, resides several miles from Starved Rock State Park could and would bring back sad memories of a time when people avoided Starved Rock State Park like the plague. Every citizen of LaSalle County should write to the governor, their representatives, their state senators, and ask that they do whatever is necessary to keep this man in jail.
Weger and I are the only survivors of the trial participants, with the exception of one or two jurors. I know that from each deceased juror through every witness that testified on behalf of the state, all the investigating officers and police officials, State’s Attorney Robert Richardson and State’s Attorney Warren, Sheriff Eutsey, Deputies Dummet and Hess, and last but not least, those deceased family members of the victims, would roll over in their graves had I not taken the time to seek your help in keeping the Starved Rock murderer behind bars.
Anthony C. Raccuglia, prosecutor
Peru
