This September 1960 issue of Startling Detective tells readers that police are bungling the investigation into the murders of three Chicago women who had been found dead in Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. Two months after this issue hit newsstands, authorities arrested a park employee named Chester O. Weger, and a jury convicted him of one of the killings. However, this case is still controversial. Did police overlook hair samples that indicated more than one killer was present? Was Weger’s confession obtained unlawfully? Weger relatives and backers answer yes to both questions and say he was framed. The police, for their part, admit the fifty-year-old investigation wasn’t perfect, but say their predecessors arrested the right man. With evidence now generations old, there’s no easy resolution. The situation also illustrates one of the classic paradoxes of criminal justice: i.e., a convict who has no hope of parole unless he admits his guilt and takes responsibility for his crime, but who, conversely, has no hope of a retrial or dismissal unless he maintains his innocence. It’s a fascinating ongoing drama. This is our first posting of Startling Detective, but we plan to revisit this venerable true crime magazine a litte later and get into the stories in detail.
