The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Evidence Uncovered: The Legal Team Breaks Down the Case

   Join Andy and his team, Sally Cohen and Johanne Karizamimba, for an in-depth discussion of their posthumous clemency developments. They break down uncovered witness testimony, examine key details in both new and previously known evidence, and provide insight into their legal strategy. Hear their analysis, the unanswered questions, and what these developments could mean for the verdict. You can join this ongoing pursuit of justice by signing and sharing our Change.org petition. https://www.change.org/p/justice-too-long-denied-sign-for-chester-weger

   August 24, 2026·59min
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   Number 2: EP 12: Motives for Murder (and answers to questions from listener emails)

   Even though the murders at Starved Rock took place over six decades ago the anger, frustrations, fear, grief and guilt experienced by all of the people involved feel as palpable today as they did in 1960. Three women lost their lives, one man went to prison for sixty years, children lost parents, parents lost their children, and countless other souls became collateral damage in a horrendous miscarriage of justice that has left generational trauma and shattered lives in its wake. The question that haunts anyone who touches this case is what motivated this brutal crime? What demons possessed whoever performed this heinous act to savagely take the lives of three innocent women? Was it money? Was it lust? Greed? What sin drove someone to want one or more of these women dead and why? To do justice to this case, we must peel back all of the layers of the onion, no matter how much it might sting. The victims, the accused, and the families and community members whose lives were forever altered deserve the truth. As we have said before on this podcast, you can bury the dead but you can’t bury the truth. The ghosts of this case have haunted the dreams of too many people for too long. The truth is out there. We owe it to the victims to not be afraid to discover that truth, no matter how painful it might be. In this episode we discuss motives for murder, and answers to questions from listener emails. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

   May 14, 2022·40min
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   Number 3: EP 10: The Trial of the Century, Part 1

   When Chester Weger went to trial in 1961, it was heralded by the media as the “Trial of the Century.” Throngs of people, ranging from hungry journalists to curious citizens, lined up outside the LaSalle County Courthouse in Ottawa, Illinois to try and get a coveted seat in the gallery. The quiet Illinois Valley community had never seen a spectacle of this kind. The press, armed with giant cameras and blinding flashbulbs, waited for the police to pull up and escort the accused into the courtroom. The Weger family had pooled what few financial resources they had to hire Chester an attorney – John McNamara. But even with a fine lawyer like McNamara, Chester was facing a prosecution, with its vast resources, that was interested in nothing less than the death penalty, execution by 50,000 volts. Three women were dead, and someone needed to pay. The public needed their pound of flesh and the State needed to put this case to rest. After a three-week trial, the jury returned its verdict: Guilty. But the question that haunted jurors long after the trial had ended was whether or not the right man had paid…Those doubts were evidenced by the fact that the jury elected not to sentence Chester Weger to the electric chair, as the State had demanded…Just in case they got it wrong. It’s likely his resolve to prove his innocence that has kept Chester alive all these years. For 62 years and counting, Chester Weger has been waiting for that evidence, that full picture, to finally emerge and definitively reveal that YES. . . they got it wrong and real killers have never been brought to justice. Andy and Whitny dive into the trial of the century and discuss what the jurors were never told. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

   April 28, 2022·48min
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   Number 4: EP 7: The Smoking Gun (bloody overalls and the conversation overheard by the telephone operator)

   In the months following the murders at Starved Rock countless reports, memos and other assorted documents were created. Some were preserved. Some were filed away and are still waiting to be discovered in rusty filing cabinets or disintegrating evidence boxes somewhere. Others have simply been lost or destroyed leaving us with only part of the story. But of the thousands of pages that still remain there are clues to what really happened in 1960. Sometimes sifting through these clues for something new, something relevant, something that can actually explain the truth of what happened can feel like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. But once in a case, sometimes once in a lifetime, you find that needle, that smoking gun… And just a week ago, after painstakingly reviewing old documents, we found it. We found a key document that will break this case wide open, the Zelensek Memo. In this episode, quick simply, we blow this case wide open. For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 6’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

   April 07, 2022·38min
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   Number 5: EP 5: Andy's Case for Premeditation (and why the law student turned FBI agent on the case thought so too)

   In the days following the murders law enforcement and the public seemed to gravitate towards the belief that only a depraved lunatic could have perpetrated such a heinous and depraved crime. Because who else but a madman would have reason to harm three lovely church-going ladies with no enemies? But did these women truly have no enemies? How much do we really know about the motive for the murders? When Chester Weger was ultimately charged with the murders his supposed motive was robbery, and yet curiously nothing was missing. Random robberies don't typically result in the complete and utter destruction of the faces of the victims and their bodies being dragged to a cave and displayed like macabre snow angels. In today's episode we explore the clues left behind at the crime scene that not only suggests that at least one of these women had an enemy and might have been targeted specifically, but also that many of the clues do indeed point to this being a premeditated crime. We also correct the notion that nothing was taken, because we do know that Frances Murphy’s fingertip is gone. Is that missing fingertip more evidence of premeditation? For more information, documents, photos, and other assets associated with and referenced in episode 5’s coverage of the case, visit andyhalepodcast.com.

   March 24, 2022·32min
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