When Chester Weger went to prison for the infamous 1960 Starved Rock State Park murders, he was a young, wiry backwoodsman with two small children and had accused detectives of framing him.
On Friday morning, he emerged from the prison gates a balding grandfather with dentures and a list of ailments that include asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, still maintaining his innocence.
“They ruined my life,” the 80-year-old Weger said from the front passenger seat of a family minivan. “(They) locked me up for 60 years for something I’ve never done.”