Original subtitles

Person 1: At this time, I'll ask you to turn off your cellphones.

All witnesses, including members of the bar,

will take an oath of affirmation or truthfulness.

Person 2: I just need you both to raise your right hands, please.

Do you solemnly swear and affirm the testimony

you give at this hearing today will be the truth,

the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

-I do. -Mary Pruett: Yes.

Members of the board, it is our contention

that Mr. Weger's confession in this case was involuntary,

and was the product of physical and psychological duress.

At one point, Mr. Weger was kept awake for a period of 24 hours,

where he was repeatedly questioned off and on by his interrogators,

and subjected to lie...

David Raccuglia: I was incredibly excited

about filming at the clemency hearing in Chicago.

These are all things I had never heard.

You gotta realize I lived in the home on the prosecution side,

my father's side of the story.

Also, it was the first time I was going to be able to see

Chester's family.

Mary: I believe my brother is innocent.

He could never have done anything like this to anybody.

Just clear your mind, and open your hearts.

Things throughout the years have just been shoved aside.

David: Chester's sister spoke.

They asked one of the victim's family to speak.

I'm Diane Oetting,

and I am the firstborn granddaughter of Lillian Oetting.

We're the ones that never had the privilege to meet her

because on March 14th, 1960,

that opportunity was taken away from us

by the actions of Chester Weger.

George Oetting: Weger only deserves to remain quietly

incarcerated in his Illinois prison

until his final breath.

That was his sentence, and only then will our families

be able to establish some sense of personal closure

in this case.

Thank you for your consideration.

David: I think my father was last,

and he gave a pretty strong fire and brimstone kinda speech.

I have a disappointment

that surpasses all other disappointments in my professional career

that Chester Weger did not get the electric chair.

Today Miss Kelly asks you to give him a reprieve.

He already has his reprieve.

His reprieve is to be allowed to live,

and keep his soul intact for 45 years,

waiting to descend in hell, to burn forever.

Only then will justice prevail.

David: So, when the hearing was over, and they were walking out,

we were trying to get an interview with Chester's sisters.

I just wish that you would've told me that you were Raccuglia's son

because he has lied, he has did so many lies,

and if I would've known that, I wouldn't have even talked to you.

You're biased. That's all I have to say.

Elveta Milby: That's right. You're 100% all the way, sis.

If Raccuglia wants my brother to go to hell,

there should be a lot more to go to hell a-along with him.

That's all I can say.

David: Chester's family did not trust me in any way, shape, or form.

And I'm sure my father's passionate comments didn't help that day.

But I kept trying.

I wanted the truth, you know, and I was trying to let her know,

"Look, I know this looks strange, but, you know, what do you have to lose?"

Wh-- You know-- What's he gonna go to jail?

Wh-What am I trying to prove?

Why would I make a film to prove somebody's guilty?

(pensive music playing)

♪ ♪

-Crew Member 1: Okay, let's roll. -Crew Member 2: Still rolling.

I just thought of him as extremely guilty

until I started reading into this a little bit more.

I went to the clemency hearing, and heard her speak.

I said, "This is it. I'm gonna go full, full steam ahead with this thing."

When I finally did get Donna Kelly to agree

to an interview with John Drummond, not with me,

but I knew that was gonna change the whole dynamic

because I was, for the first time, really gonna get to listen to another side.

I was appointed to represent Mr. Weger in approximately 2001.

In reviewing the transcripts of the record on appeal,

I had determined

that there were a lot

of troublesome aspects to the case.

John Drummond: Obviously, you must've been convinced that

he might've been innocent.

I, I was convinced of that,

and I am convinced of that to this day.

Mr. Weger should not have been even charged

with the offense, let alone convicted.

There's a whole other side that really wasn't focused on

by the people who believe Chester Weger is guilty.

Donna Kelly's clemency petition

was motivated by the locals in this community.

Person: There he is. Hey, Bob.

Bob Petre: Hi, guys. What's going on?

Person: Ah, we just wanted to stop by,

and take a look at some of that stuff,

uh, you guys have put together.

Bob: I went over to Donna's office,

and she said, "Well, what's your interest in this case?"

And I said, "Well, he's innocent."

She says, "Can you prove it?" And I said, "Yes."

Been working on this Chester Weger case

for some 24 years now,

and I'm convinced in my mind that he's innocent.

One of the things that bothered me through,

through everything was,

was, how many people were involved, you know?

They had two different hair samples,

so they knew that there were at least two killers.

That was big for me.

Let's see what else-- if there's anything else on this board.

Oh, robbery was the motive in this case and nothing--

It always bothered me that nothing was robbed.

Th-the wedding rings were there, the jewelry was there.

Nothing was taken from the women.

Steve Stout: I'm just amazed at the people

who stand out there, and scream on the street corners

that Chester Weger's innocent, but never talked to me.

The people who are interested in learning everything

about the Starved Rock murders, they have that information in one place.

I've had people read the book, and say, "I believe that he didn't do it."

I go, "Which book did you read?"

When I read that book, I, I thought Chester, probably, did it,

but he didn't do it alone.

The next time I read the book,

I, I paid a little more attention to detail.

The people that Steve was thanking

for the information for the book

were the people that helped Chester be put away.

Just didn't seem fair and balanced.

What is Chester's motive? Theft?

I mean, it's, it's just ridiculous.

I was in the Committee to Free Chester Weger with Bob.

We put a lot of time into this.

A lot of time.

Dave Marsh, Bob Petre and Deedra Fox.

We were gonna solve the case best we could,

or at least bring it back into people's attention.

In my professional opinion, having a degree

in criminal justice

and forensic science,

there is no way

that Chester Weger is guilty.

David: I really got to listen, for the first time,

to the other side,

and I have to tell you, it wasn't all innuendo.

There was things that I learned,

that I researched, that I was shocked.

I talked to some jurors.

I, I talked to Nancy Porter.

That was eye-opening stuff, too.

And I asked her, I said,

"There's no way one person could've killed those three women."

That much I know," and she said,

"Yeah, the jury knew that too."

When's all this gonna come about now?

-David: Oh, it takes a long time. -Oh, I'm sure it does.

Nancy Porter: I don't think any of us were 100% sure.

The nagging doubt was because

the reason he-- we said he was guilty

was because he signed a confession.

As far as we were concerned there was no...

nothing to prove that he did it besides that.

Bob: She was not convinced that Chester did it.

That's why she was opposed, from the beginning, to the death penalty.

With the life sentence, if anything ever happened

that would prove that somebody else did it, he had a chance.

If we put him to death,

and somebody came forward, he was gone.

Bob: She said, "If he did it."

She kept saying, "If he did it."

And I said, "Well, wait a minute. What do you mean?"

You were on the jury."

And she said, "All I can say is,

"if they held that same trial today

"with the evidence that they had,

Chester Weger would be a free man."

Nancy: At the time, we believed in the officers,

but after we got out,

I think there are 12 people

that had doubts about their testimonies.

(David speaking)

Uh...

I'd never heard of the-- those two officers

before the trial.

But, man, afterwards,

we heard plenty about them.

Bob: The people responsible for setting him up

was Billy Dummett and Wayne Hess.

They were gonna get somebody.

Dan Churney: People who think Weger is innocent,

I can understand where they're coming from.

My brother was a deputy sheriff in this county for 25 years,

and he worked with Dummett, and he told me,

this is exact quote, he said,

"Dummett was as crooked as the day was long."

I think that fuels this theory that Weger was framed.

Deedra Fox: It was political.

That was an election year.

The people of LaSalle County,

they had to have it solved.

David: Harland Warren was never gonna leave office

without getting that case solved.

After he lost the election,

he would have to leave office on December 1st,

so making the arrest on November 16th

still made him the man who solved the Starved Rock murders,

whether he was state's attorney or not.

Karen Norris: I mean, we all know how elections go.

I have heard some things about the pressure

that he was under if he didn't get a conviction.

I think my grandpa just wanted it done.

(indistinct chatter)

Harland Warren: This cake is nonfattening, girls.

Woman: Is that what it is? Okay, well, that's good.

-It better not be because this is a going out party. -Woman: It's delicious.

You gotta have something good.

Karen: People looked up to my grandfather as someone

that literally shut down a heinous, you know, murderer

and stopped him in his tracks, so that it couldn't happen again.

He protected the town, he protected the park.

Anne Warren Smith: Would you guys like something to drink?

Karen: My mom, she was right there with him.

Answering phones, doing errands for him.

She was pretty much by his side up until the day he died.

He passed in 2006.

His office was still full of everything,

um, people's files, files from the case.

So, he did have a lot of personal notes

that he was trying to just suss out what the hell happened.

Dave Marsh: Harland Warren's daughter, basically, called me and said,

"Dave, I found this note. It's scribbly.

I don't know what it is. I think it's important."

What it was was Harland Warren...

got hammered one night,

and drew up the plan to frame Chester Weger.

It starts out with query.

"How do you prove Weger was in the canyon?"

"Demand he confess. Persuade him."

"Commence psychological warfare."

Karen: You guys know what psychological warfare is?

It's where you break someone down.

It's where you put enough pressure on someone,

either physically, mentally, or emotionally,

that they, literally, have no choice but to give into your demands.

It kinda made me sick to my stomach

because that, literally, meant that...

there wasn't enough evidence.

(fanfare plays)

I have been confronted with a subject

who is stubbornly replying to interrogation with lies.

This was clearly a place where the polygraph could help.

Remember, the polygraph

is no substitute for a thorough investigation.

David: Chester Weger became the main suspect

in the Starved Rock murders

because the operator of the lie detector machine

was convinced this was the man.

Harland decided, "We gotta get a confession out of this guy."

They were after him,

and they were going to go balls to the walls to get this done.

Above all, the examiner must scrupulously avoid

using the polygraph as a psychological prop.

David: They asked him

and Stanley Tucker,

Chester's friend, and also

another employee of the lodge,

to go to Chicago to take another test.

Chester agreed. Chester always agreed.

Chester Weger: I had no brother, and Stanley Tucker

was like a brother to me.

The police lied to him and me so much.

They'd tell me, "Stanley confessed,

and you might as well come clean."

And they'd tell Stanley the same thing about me,

tried to get Tucker to confess, and it wasn't true.

Person: Do you intend to answer, truthfully, each question?

Yes.

Chester: I told 'em, I said,

"You get me an attorney, I'll take the test."

I said, "Otherwise, I'm not taking it."

I'm already hooked up to the machine, he started asking me questions,

so I just started moving around to mess up the test.

David: According to Chester's account, it made him very uncomfortable.

He started flexing his muscles, he started doing things that they'd consider suspicious.

They put Chester back in the car.

Bill Dummett, the deputy sheriff, wasn't very happy,

and he turned around to Chester in his, you know, sort of, cowboy way,

and said, "Chester, you're gonna ride a thunderbolt.

You're gonna ride a thunderbolt."

And I knew what he was talking about

because he threatened me with the electric chair before,

and I told him, "I ain't going to get the electric chair. I ain't done nothing wrong."

(Chester speaking)

Donna Kelly: During the trial, Deputy Dummett swore under oath

that he never threatened Chester Weger that he would ride a thunderbolt.

And the defense called as a witness, Craig Armstrong,

who was in the vehicle,

and the assistant state's attorney testified

that Deputy Dummett indeed threatened Chester Weger

that he would ride a thunderbolt at least five times during that trip.

Deputy Dummett was a perjurer. He lied. He lied under oath.

Chester Weger's entire conviction is based

on that man's word.

That evening, he was brought

to the LaSalle County Courthouse,

and despite being kept up for 24 hours,

interrogated continuously,

he still maintained he was innocent.

Then, the Illinois State Police began trailing Chester.

They had a 24-hour surveillance on him.

Chester: I was being followed everywhere I went.

The police knew what was happening.

It's not too long before I got arrested.

(Harland speaking)

David: The night of the confession,

Chester Weger was brought in at five o'clock.

36 hours later, he had confessed to murder,

to rape, to robbery, to multiple people.

David: James Supan,

who was the boyfriend of the rape victim,

was brought in to identify him.

(Chester speaking)

One of the victims did pick him out of a lineup,

but I have never been able to get access to that lineup

until recently, and the lineup is a joke.

Chester Weger was 21 years old.

The Sheriff's Department from LaSalle County

put him in a lineup with four or five gentlemen

who are not under the age of 45.

A couple of them are elderly men.

I mean, call it a lineup. It looks more like a clown show to me.

They wanted to sully his reputation,

make him look like habitual criminal.

This was completely constructed out of thin air

by, uh, Dummett and Hess.

Chester: On the night that I was arrested,

Bill Dummett and Wayne Hess already had a confession,

and they read it, probably, 10, 15 times.

They were saying, "You know you done this. You know you done it."

I said, "I, I never com-committed the murder."

Dave: The way the whole thing went down just stinks.

Interrogating somebody at two o'clock in the morning?

Nothing good or honest happens at two o'clock in the morning,

unless it's between you and your wife.

Chester: Bill Dummett started messing around.

He was sitting behind me,

and he kept putting a gun behind my head,

and pulling the trigger, and stuff like that.

I turned like that, and, and the pistol went in my mouth.

He just kept on all night, and he hit me in the groin,

and, he said, "Oh, that hurt there, didn't it?"

I said, "Yeah, it hurt," you know, and...

he, he just kept hitting me, and--

Anthony Raccuglia: Do I think that Dummett, uh, did everything he could

psychologically to coerce Chester Weger into giving a statement?

Yes.

Do I think he physically abused Chester Weger? No.

Do I think we could've convicted Chester Weger today?

Absolutely not.

I don't think the confessions would've made it,

but the times were different.

See, you can't judge Chester Weger's investigation,

and whether the confessions were voluntary or involuntary

on 2000s law.

You have to go back in time.

That's what's so hard for you guys.

Guys your age that weren't even born.

Back then, a confession didn't have to be voluntary. It only had to be truthful.

And I think that's what happened in this case.

-I don't think he wanted to admit-- -Okay.

David: Blind faith.

My father had blind faith in the law.

As long as it went all the way to the Supreme Court, and it was upheld,

and it was all done with legal merit,

there's no way Chester Weger could be innocent of this crime.

Reporter: This morning, Weger accompanied police to the murder scene,

and reenacted the crime for them.

Now I submit to this board that anyone who reads

the substance of these confessions

would know that these accounts are fictional.

Chester: I was told what to say down there, and they coached me.

I figured, you know, people are goin' to see this and, and know that they're telling me.

Donna: He told the police, "Well, my motive was robbery."

Reporter: He says he tried to grab the purse of one woman,

and found it was a camera.

How does an unarmed man of 5'8" height

convince three women to go down into a canyon,

and agree to be tied up when the man is unarmed?

Reporter: The three women were cowed into letting him tie them up.

But he then begged the three women to give him a chance to get away, which they did.

Donna: And then, only after Mr. Weger was leaving

does one decide to break free of her string,

and go and attack him.

Reporter: He then picked up a broken limb of a tree and clubbed her,

but he was afraid the other two women would get away,

so he clubbed them to death, too.

Donna: The confessions don't even match

some of the physical evidence in the case.

These women died with three instrumentalities of death.

It's implausible that you're gonna have a single individual

killing one woman with the camera, hitting the other one with a log,

and then, killing a third one with a set of binoculars. It just doesn't make any sense.

It seems as though there was a struggle,

and there were multiple individuals involved.

(Reporter speaking)

(Reporter speaking)

If the motive was robbery, how come nothing here was taken?

There were-- The women had their watches, they had their rings.

These confessions are implausible, they don't make any sense,

and yet, this is the evidence which was used to convict this man.

-David: This is such a bizarre crime, Dad. -Anthony: I agree.

David: You know, beating three women's heads off is not a standard--

-I agree. -Rage doesn't even do that.

-Well, rage does, but-- -And then, let, let me ask you this, though.

Then it said he staged them to look like a rape

with their underpants torn off.

I mean, it just gets-- It, it gets even harder to understand.

But we know why he dragged them, uh, under the, uh, cave, uh, edifice

is because he saw that red airplane.

And that could not have been known by anyone

other than the person who was there at the time of the crime.

John: From the confession, he went to a great amount of detail

that only the killer, you think, would know.

But the problem with that is that Bill Dummett

was a member of the Ottawa Airman's Club.

He, in fact, may have even flown that plane before.

And we did have an affidavit from Homer Charbonneau,

who was the pilot of that plane.

Person: Did you see Bill Dummett a lot at the club?

-This was the-- -Oh, frequently, yeah.

Frequently, I saw him.

Bill Dummett could have known prior to the confession

that that plane had been flown on that particular day.

It was instrumental in getting him convicted, I think,

and, uh, it bothers me.

The police already knew about the plane before I was arrested.

(Person speaking)

Yeah. "Big point, why pull bodies underneath the cliff?"

"The plane was flying around, checked Ottawa Airport."

"Wayne said deputy made it up."

Okay, that would be Wayne Hess.

If he said the deputy made it up,

that's because Dummett and Hess, they were in on it.

Man.

I mean, I've heard some professional liars in my day.

Donna: The entire case rests

on the credibility of Bill Dummett,

an individual who was a perjurer.

He was a liar.

Bill Dummett took one of the murder weapons,

the log which was used

to bludgeon three women to death,

and put it on his mantelpiece as a trophy.

This only one example of how the evidence was handled in this case.

David: They call him "Dustpan Dummett."

He would always clean something up for the state.

He, he was the guy they would bring in,

and, all of a sudden, a fact would appear.

You know, according to Chester,

Dummett is the man who fabricated, and wrote the confession.

Dummett, yes. I'd say that Dummett had a,

had a questionable reputation in, in terms of investigations.

He would take over an investigation,

and would, uh, not share the, the, uh, information until the last minute,

which was, uh, suspicious.

-(crow cawing) -Radio Host: Ken in South Ottawa.

Ken, I know you're old enough to remember when this happened,

and you, probably, knew Harland Warren, right?

Ken (on phone): Knew both Harland Warren and Tony Raccuglia,

and both gentlemen were-- had integrity beyond reproach.

Radio Host: I agree. I would never question

the integrity of the people trying this case.

And it's in Steve Stout's book, The Starved Rock Murders.

I mean, so that's pretty convincing, I think,

just the transcript from the trial.

Steve: You could imagine the horror

of finding three tourists

dead at a state park.

It really was the OJ case of its day,

and now, people think that Mr. Warren, the detectives,

Tony Raccuglia were wrong.

They sent an innocent man to jail.

You don't know these men if you think that.

Mr. Warren, why don't you come up?

-Person: Harland, he's talking to you. -What?

Steve: Come on up.

-Steve: Yeah, you! -Me.

Steve: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the hero of the county.

Steve: No.

-Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you very much. -Glad to do it.

I think the real question, Mr. Warren, would you ever send an innocent man to jail?

No.

-It's that simple. It's that simple. -Well, I couldn't man--

Tell me, could I manufacture that?

The airplane story? How 'bout you?

Huh? No?

David: Harland Warren is a real enigma to me.

Highly celebrated.

He wanted to make a statement, and he didn't want rebuttal.

Shake the hand of a hero right here. Thank you so much.

Dan: Another thing that kinda is unfathomable now,

Harland Warren and, uh, two sheriff's office investigators,

uh, all shared the reward money

for solving the crime, which, you know,

that's unbelievable that that was how it went down.

David: Harland Warren said he would never take the money.

I thought that was his job,

but he ultimately got the lion's share.

Anthony: I didn't approve of that.

I don't know why he did it. He certainly didn't need the money.

Harland was upset that more didn't go to his camp.

Well, what does that tell you?

Doesn't that tell you that his ego was involved?

He was upset because he didn't get the credit.

Thank you for coming tonight.

David: I found Harland Warren's character interesting.

A very strange little dynamic in this community of reward,

and who was the hero, and who was in it for the money?

Dan: I think people feel you can't trust the system.

The system will always screw the little guy.

People who believe he was framed

feel the cops saw there is a reward,

they wanted the money,

they wanted the prestige of solving this big case,

and so, they picked on Weger, and framed him.

Person: Do you ask us to hold this

to the standard of 2005, or to the standard of 1960

when the case was first, uh--

I ask you to hold it to the standard of today,

and I think that--

In today's criminal justice system,

hopefully, hopefully this would never happen.

David: I think police like Bill Dummett believed,

to be a cop in the late '50s,

pushing criminals around was part of the appeal of being a policeman.

Right. They went after him, and they got him.

That was the only time I met Dave Raccuglia.

It's like,

"This is a pro-Chester film

"that you're making.

What's your dad gonna do to you?"

I wouldn't be real happy if my child did that.

Do you think Weger's not guilty? Is that what you're trying to prove here?

A lot of people think he's innocent.

A lot of people in this town believe he's innocent.

All, all of these are myths that, that are created by people

who don't know the inside story,

and I'm telling you, Chester Weger is not innocent,

so I don't know what you're trying to gain

by presenting this type of documentary.

I don't think you'll ever be able to show, uh,

anything other than the fact that he's guilty.

Do you feel that...

the questions that are out there today,

why I'm here making this film,

is because of the way the investigation was handled?

Yes. Everybody that was involved in the investigation,

in my opinion, did a terrible job,

but if you read my final argument,

I don't think you'll hear more than about five or 10 minutes on the confessions

because I knew that there were holes in that confession.

I don't know that the confessions

might, might've even had as much of an impact

as that buckskin jacket.

That was a source of information that didn't come from Harland Warren,

it didn't come from Bill Dummett. It was human blood.

David: The buckskin jacket is something my father,

as an attorney, was really hung up on.

That was an important part of the prosecution.

There was no indication of human blood on my jacket at all until September.

Prior to that time, they were saying that the blood on my jacket

was animal blood, which it was.

It was either raccoon blood or, or, uh, squirrel blood, and I hunted both animals.

-David: Do what now? -Franz Zwergel: Can we, can we have you hold up the jacket

-again (inaudible) pull the tag, so we can see the (inaudible)? -Sure, okay.

Franz: I was with David when we were filming the evidence,

and we saw the buckskin jacket.

It was a pure passion project for him,

and when he presented things that he had found,

I, too, became impassioned with it.

David: I was a little shocked by the evidence.

I was really more emotionally distraught over the women's clothes.

It was the scarf and the coats. They had all this blood.

And then, I saw a little name tag that said "Chester Weger,"

and there it was on the suede jacket.

I was very surprised there was very little blood

visible on the jacket.

Let me put it this way.

From having seen the buckskin jacket,

from having seen the photos of the crime scene,

there would've been so much blood.

There is no way that jacket was a jacket that he "wore"

when he committed those murders.

It's impossible.

Donna: The blood on the jacket was

never typed to any of these women.

I filed a motion for DNA testing.

The hope's to show, through forensic evidence,

that Mr. Weger did not commit these offenses.

John: Now Weger's attorney wants Weger's jacket

with blood splattered on it, and hair from one

of the victim's hands tested for DNA,

but there are some unique problems in a 44-year-old case.

Do you guys want me looking at the cameras or at him or...?

I, I was called upon to, basically, conduct an investigation

into how much of the evidence still existed,

and whether or not we could, actually, do anything with that evidence.

Back in those days,

when a, when a case had completed all of its appeals,

the evidence was destroyed.

Th-The fact that any evidence in this case exists at all

is sheerly coincidental and mostly because

of the, the hype surrounding this case.

If I had to guess how many people have touched this evidence,

the number would have to be in the hundreds.

I've touched that evidence over the 60 years.

I've touched the camera, I touched the binoculars.

I touched the clothes, I've touched Weger's jacket.

I've touched the murder weapon.

Should I have? I don't know.

I didn't break any laws doing it.

Donna: It was shocking that the evidence

had been so compromised.

Just to give you an example, the bloody clothes of the women

were stored in the same bag as Mr. Weger's jacket.

So, that, that was-- Pretty much shot down the hopes you had

through the testing that you could absolve Mr. Weger.

Kathy Etz: I wish we could test the DNA evidence.

I absolutely wish that they could test it,

but the idea that, because we can't

that means he's innocent, that does not follow for me.

I, I will say, I think my whole family does believe,

you know, the idea that one man overpowered three women

does not make a whole lot of sense to us.

That there must have been other individuals,

or there must be some other things going on for him

to be able to overpower three women.

David: I feel sorry for the victims' families.

They still have questions.

Just like Chester's family.

I would want clarity.

So, when I went back to Chester's sister,

that's what I focused on.

I think she found it very hard to believe that I could make

a fair story, and not be biased towards my father.

But I kept trying to get her to understand

that we had good intentions.

Mary: Doing this, I-I'm doing it for my brother.

My brother has lost his whole life over this.

Uh...

he's lost his kids, growing up with his kids.

His wife died of cancer.

She's gone.

Mom and Dad are both gone.

And... I just don't want my brother to die in prison.

We were a very poor family.

You might as well say we were dirt poor because we were.

Uh, mother made a lot of our clothes.

We got a lot of homemade Christmas presents.

We had water that had to be carried in.

But, you know, as you're growing up,

you don't think of those things.

We were a very loving family.

A lot of hugging, a lot of kissing.

That was just Mom and Dad.

Why they picked him?

Is it because we were poor?

Is it because we lived on the wrong side of the tracks?

Why did they pick him?

I, I could never, ever imagine my brother

doing something like this.

I've-- Can never, ever remember my brother being angry or upset.

David: He has no violence in his past as far as a criminal record?

No, not that I know of, no.

The, uh, petitioner does have a history of sexual assaults.

He was arrested as a 12-year-old for statutory rape.

Uh, I am not clear whether he was adju--

actually, even adjudicated delinquent minor, I--

-He was. -Donna: Okay, again, he was 12 years old.

David: The only thing that turned up in Chester's history is,

when he was 12 years old,

a sexual assault charge to a younger girl.

No, uh, I, I can never, I can never remember

anything like that growing up as a child.

Chester: There was a girl in my hometown,

her, her father had told me to watch over her.

She was younger than me, and one night when I was throwing newspapers,

I was going home, I heard crying.

The girl was raped, and I'd helped her dress,

I carried her home.

That night the police arrested me on a rape charge.

This girl's father talked to a judge in Ottawa,

and he made the police release me.

We was never shunned about it.

Our life went on the same way,

and I mean, we still played together.

David: That was his side of the story.

He was assisting someone who had already been raped.

Again, more complication.

Anthony: Donna Kelly did her job.

She's a lawyer, and I understand a pretty good lawyer.

But when they filed that petition,

he convinced her to put in that petition

a whole completely new alibi,

that he was in Oglesby getting a haircut

the day of this particular murder.

Why didn't he bring that out at the time of the trial?

His alibi was entirely different.

His alibi was he was writing a letter.

David: At the trial, Chester said

during the time of the murders he was writing a letter

in a small little room at the Starved Rock Lodge,

but we found out in 2003

that that wasn't Chester's alibi.

According to the clemency petition,

he went to Oglesby with Stanley Tucker,

got a haircut at Ben Franklin's Barber Shop,

and then, he picked a ride up in Oglesby, and went to work.

Donna: Mr. Franklin signed an affidavit last year

indicating that Mr. Weger was at his barber shop

during the time frame which the state, uh,

believes that these women were killed.

When John McNamara called Stanley Tucker

to testify as a defense witness,

Stanley Tucker, all of a sudden, had memory failure.

He couldn't recall whether or not he even saw Chester Weger on March 14th, 1960.

(David speaking)

Chester: I had to.

Sandra Bland: We're on First and Joliet Street in LaSalle, Illinois,

the former Robinhood Restaurant.

The kids would hang out here,

and have, like french fries and soda.

And back here,

that's where I saw Stanley Tucker

when I came out from work.

David: Stanley Tucker passed away in 2006.

You know, I was trying to figure out

why he would lie on the stand.

Mary, Chester's sister, told me

that she knew someone who had something to say about that.

Tell me about the night that you were at the Robinhood.

How old were you on that night?

15.

I was just getting done working,

and this black car pulled up with no lights on,

and it was dark,

and it was Stanley Tucker and his girlfriend.

Stanley said to me, "Come here."

So, I walked around the car to the driver's side.

This was during Chester Weger's trial.

And Stanley said,

"I testified against Chester today,"

and I asked him, I said, "What did you do?"

And he said, "Well, I lied on,

on the stand," he said, and--

"Because," he said, "they threatened me."

He said, "I couldn't tell them

"that Chester didn't do it in the courtroom

'cause I didn't wanna spend the rest of my life in prison."

He got really scared, and he said,

"You can't say nothing,"

he said, "because what they'll do is they'll either hurt you,

"or they're gonna hurt your family.

Don't ever say nothing to nobody."

He said, "I gotta go before, before the cops see me."

That was the last I ever saw them.

David: It's okay, you're doing great.

What are people scared of?

You think it's the authorities, the sheriffs?

I ain't never asked.

I was just so scared, I never asked, you know,

who, who he was talking about.

I figured it had to be the police.

The state got to Stanley Tucker,

and it was the state that got to him.

I don't know who did it, and he got up,

and he didn't say what they had done that day.

So, what was my brother supposed to say, "Well, Stanley Tucker gave me a ride?"

McNamara said, "That'll never hold up in court."

And you're gonna do exactly what he tells you to do

because he knows the law.

David: I found those stories incredibly interesting.

Well, I think we're finished.

I felt like Chester had an alibi,

and it was like, "We've got this Oswald-type character.

"He's the perfect one to frame this on.

Let's go after him, and get him."

At one point, I'll say that David was obsessed

with getting Chester Weger released from prison.

He was sure of his innocence.

David: I couldn't believe that this frail little guy in front of me

was capable of what he was convicted of.

(Chester speaking)

(camera shutter clicking)

I know if someone killed my mother,

I'd wanna know who done it.

David: We found out a lot of stuff.

I mean, there's, there's hundreds of people on camera saying you're innocent,

but unless we get a smoking gun in this film,

actually, uncovering a murderer,

you won't get out just from us making this film.

(indistinct chatter)

Dave: The brutality of the murders,

I think, is consistent with, uh, a motivated outside third party

that had a grudge against these women.

It was obvious to me that Chester had nothing to do with it

from a bunch of different sources.

Well, if Chester didn't do it, then who did it?

Then, actually, a big break came when we discovered...

this guy, Smokey Wrona.

I-It's pinned to the top of my, uh, Starved Rock Murders Facebook group.

Um, say your name, and then, just tell your story.

My name is Alice Wrona.

My brother was Harold "Smokey" Wrona.

And before he died in 2005,

he started talking about prisons and whatnot.

Then I start asking him questions, and...

(clears throat)

I was really shocked when I got some of the answers.

-Dave: Your brother did? -He's one of the killers, yes.

Dave: Really?

Smokey confessed to her that

he was one of the primary people

involved with the Starved Rock murders.

Yeah, he was, basically, the local muscle.

Smokey Wrona was the one criminal

responsible for everything in my hometown.

If something bad happened,

uh, the cops need to go talk to Smokey.

Dave: Alice Wrona, she estimates

that he's killed 13 people.

The very lifeblood of organized crime

is gambling, prostitution, and that sort of thing.

Dan: The Illinois Crime Commission,

were seven counties they considered

infested with organized crime.

Two of those seven counties were LaSalle County right here,

and Bureau County, which is right next door.

Smokey's crew, they were involved with organized crime

around LaSalle County, you know?

It wasn't his idea.

He got paid $25,000 according to Alice.

You know, it was really the husbands of the women

that were the motivation behind this.

One was in a very bitter fight.

He wanted divorce from his wife,

and, uh, she wasn't giving it, so he had planned this.

And my brother got $25,000.

The theory was that Mr. Murphy got a new secretary.

They got a little frisky, and she became pregnant.

He tried to get a divorce, and Mrs. Murphy wouldn't give it to him.

Well, that's a clear motive.

Six weeks after the Starved Rock murders,

he married his secretary.

If you go to the public library,

you can see the wedding announcement, May 5th.

So, that's six weeks after.

Well, the previous Mrs. Murphy, her body's still warm.

There's a typo, I think, in the date.

If you look at the news clipping in archives,

it looks like he got remarried like six weeks after the murders,

when, actually, I believe it was like a couple years.

So, people point to that, and say, aha!

I find that preposterous.

Y-You have to fill it in, but, you know, it's, it's-- It just seems obvious.

You are so irresponsible.

There's no way that you could know anything about what was going on in 1960,

and these people didn't speak to any member of my family.

To me, that's inexcusable.

It's just absolutely false.

I asked how many people were involved.

He says he knows of 18 people and possibly 21.

Steve: That's insanity. 18 people can't keep a secret.

$20,000?

You could buy two houses with that back then.

David: Is it ridiculous? Yeah, probably.

And it's a really blatant attack on a group of innocent people

that just, their mother died.

I was very much trying to get to the bottom

of all these conspiracy theories.

I went down every avenue.

Stories that didn't really add up.

But it wasn't all lies.

If Chester Weger then is innocent, who do you suppose could've done these things?

Well, my opinion on that,

I do have an opinion as to who may have committed the murders.

I would rather not go into that,

but I do believe it was two individuals who committed the murders,

and one of them is deceased at this time.

David: Donna Kelly had a theory of who could have done this.

Did she mention a name?

Mary: During her last days on the case,

she told us that she gave the state's attorney

two names that she wanted to have investigated.

One name was Spiros.

Just days later,

after she turned the two names in to be investigated,

a phone call come in that George Spiros was dead.

Spiros had left his groceries on the doorstep.

He went into the house...

and evidently killed him and his dog.

Who would shoot their dog, then shoot themselves,

whilst naked from the waist down,

after having possibly gone grocery shopping for the week?

David: George Spiros was the son of Nick Spiros

who owned and maintained and ran the lodge.

Who, who is responsible for you being here, do you believe?

I think, I think that...

He said that he seen me and Stanley talking to these three women.

The police were saying, "Oh, we got an eyewitness here.

"Somebody working here at Starved Rock seen him talking to these women,

two workers," you know?

And it was a lie.

In 1960, to begin with,

the first suspect they had I know was George Spiros.

There's so much money in-involved in it, you know?

The Spiros are millionaires,

and, and a lot of people say money talks, you know, and--

David: He said a lot,

and I did everything I could to prove it as truth.

That wasn't easy.

If you get mad at me, get mad at me, but I'm gonna tell you,

I'm gonna tell you exactly what, what, uh, I've heard,

that they were trying to put a case together

that the potential murderer was George Spiros.

Spiros, who was sent away after,

right afterwards, to boarding school.

What's "right afterwards" to you?

They'd say, "Well, after the murders,

George's father sent him overseas."

Well, that was a few months, no, it was a, a few weeks, no, it was a few days.

In the several months after the Starved Rock murders,

Spiros went back to Greece,

the family's originally from Greece, and then, eventually came back.

But, again, that fed into this theory that he was the real murderer,

and that he fled the country, you know, until the heat died down.

Dave: This is absolutely the work of George Spiros.

Rumors are not perpetuated unless there is some basis in fact.

I believe George is one of the killers.

(Chester speaking)

There was a lot of people in, in 1960

that believed that George Spiros committed this crime.

Mary: Donna Kelly, she got an anonymous letter

that Spiros, when he was young,

he would knock a bird down,

and-- but he wouldn't really kill it,

and then, he'd watch it squirm.

This is a path of somebody, you know,

with bigger things in mind as they get older.

She even put out, "Whoever sent me the letter, I'd like to talk to you,"

but the person never did respond.

David: One of the suspects committed suicide, uh--

-He wasn't a suspect. -David: He was never a suspect.

That's very unfair to do to the memory of that man.

If you're so set on believing that Chester Weger's innocent,

do some homework.

George Spiros killed himself

as a personal cure for his cancer.

David: Did you ever work at Starved Rock?

Deedra: Yes, I worked at Starved Rock for George Spiros.

He used to really, like...

do spooky things.

Like, we had cabins...

and we would go in there, and we'd clean.

You know how you get the feeling like, you know,

there's something not quite right, like you're being watched.

And you'd look out, you know, making the bed,

and there'd be George in the window watching ya.

Several times, when I went to leave,

the dogs were there, and they wouldn't let me out of the cabin,

and he would stand out there and laugh at me.

"I enjoyed watching you bend over that bed."

"You know what I'd like to do is smack your ass."

H-He abused any woman. It made him feel powerful.

What clicked for me is when I saw the crime scene photos.

When I saw those paw prints, it clicked.

And I believe he had those dogs hold those women at bay

while he tied them up.

Chester: Your father knew I was innocent,

and to, intentionally, to send

an innocent man to the penitentiary, it's wrong.

David: How did he know you're innocent? How did my father know that?

Your father knew I was innocent.

There was nothing that pointed to me of, of committing that crime.

Anthony: He did it.

The only question, David, is how did he do it?

I, I question that myself.

How can I criticize people who bring out the fact

that here's a man by himself,

talks these people into going into the, into the St. Louis Canyon area,

and I can't because I don't believe that myself.

I didn't think that Chester's confessions were the truth.

It's a known fact that people who give a confession,

sometimes they're not willing to admit to the facts that led to the crime,

and I think that's what happened in this case.

He would not ever admit to what really happened,

and that was that he

sexually assaulted Mrs. Murphy.

My theory was inconsistent with the confession,

but you have to remember what we're doing here.

We're prosecutors.

We want to convict this man.

Even though we say that some of those confession statements

are not plausible or truthful.

The part that is truthful

is the fact that he killed those ladies.

David: My father said to me he didn't believe the confession.

He believed Chester Weger's motive was more sexual than it was robbery.

He had never really said that to me before, and I was a little shocked.

Donna: The man who prosecuted Chester Weger,

he has come up with new theories,

which don't even match the confessions.

According to Chester Weger's confession,

the motive was robbery.

Now, 40-some years later,

Mr. Raccuglia has publicly stated

that he believes the motive was sexual assault.

This story is so fictional

that a sixth grader reading it would realize that.

Anthony: This case of Ms. Kelly's

is built on fantasy and illusion.

It's cruel to Chester Weger,

if one should be concerned about that,

to give him any kind of hope.

Mr. Raccuglia talks about illusion and fantasy in this petition.

I think the only illusion and fantasy here is the confession of Chester Weger.

So, I ask that this board recommend to the governor

to grant Mr. Weger an actual pardon.

-Thank you very much, and thank you for coming. -Thank you.

John: Will he ever get out?

Donna: It's in the governor's hands,

and I honestly do not know

whether he will release him or not.

♪ ♪

David: This is a tough case

to get to the bottom of,

and my father's biblical belief in his guilt,

probably, let him sleep well at night,

and that's what it takes.

But for me, I was obsessed with some sort of closure.

That was why I was on this journey.

There really wasn't any absolute smoking gun.

So, in 2010, I hit the pause button.

Now here we sit in 2020,

and now they have modern technology,

and that's, probably, the only way some closure could come to this.

DNA evidence that shows Chester Weger

is either absolutely the person or absolutely not.

I wanna know.

Andy Hale: You are so screwed

once you get convicted,

if the system doesn't get it right.

After serving 60 years to vacate that conviction,

I think it's going to take a holy-cow bombshell.

It would go down as the longest prison sentence

to be vacated in U.S. history.

It's gonna take something big.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪