Parole denied again for Starved Rock killer

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Prisoner Review Board has ruled that 70-year-old Chester Weger, known as the Starved Rock murderer, will spend at least one more year behind bars.

At a hearing Thursday in Springfield, the board denied parole for Weger, who is an inmate at the Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mount Sterling.

Board legal counsel Len Tupy said the panel considered Weger's age and his conduct, but that wasn't enough to outweigh the three killings.

Weger, who is Illinois' second longest-serving inmate, can seek a parole hearing again next year.

Weger was sentenced to life for the 1960 murder of Lillian Oetting. He originally confessed to three murders, including Oetting's two companions, Frances Murphy and Mildred Lindquist, but he later recanted his confession and has sought numerous appeals and post-conviction motions.