American Hauntings Dinner & Spirits
THE STARVED ROCK MURDERS
Mineral Springs Hotel | Alton, Illinois
7:00 PM
$46 Per Person
Next Available Date:
Join author Troy Taylor for another night of our “An Evening with…” series of events! This eerie evening will include a catered dinner, served in our private ballroom at the former hotel. After dinner, Troy Taylor will be presenting an “Evening of the Starved Rock Murders,” a night that delves into the mystery and mayhem connected to the one of the most infamous murders in Illinois history – and the stories of lingering ghosts and unanswered questions that remain today!
The Starved Rock Murders shocked the entire nation and led to a manhunt that snared a confessed killer who spent the next six decades in prison. Not only did the murders leave a haunting behind but the man who confessed to the murders later recanted while behind bars and spent decades trying to get out of prison. Was he guilty of murder or was he, as he has claimed for so long, coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit?
We’ll explore all the possibilities during this chilling evening and decide if the Starved Rock Murders are still unsolved – or if the police really got the right man!
About The Night
Join us at the Mineral Springs in Alton, Illinois for another great event!
- Doors open at 6:30 PM / Dinner starts at 7:00 PM
- Events held at the Mineral Springs Hotel Located at 301 East Broadway in Alton, Illinois
- Limited number of guests for each event
- Private American Hauntings Ballroom for use for our event only
- American Hauntings Bookstore located in the Ballroom so books will be available for purchase and can be autographed by Troy
- Nearby restrooms
- And if you’re coming from out of town, the nearby Best Western Premier Hotel offers American Hauntings guests an exclusive discount price! Details are sent out with your confirmation!
More About the “Starved Rock Murders”
Join Troy Taylor for this night of darkness and detection as we delve into the mystery of the Starved Rock Murders. It’s a night of history, hauntings, true crime, violence, and murder and you don’t want to miss it!
On March 14, 1960, the bodies of three women from the Chicago suburbs were discovered in St. Louis Canyon, one of the many natural wonders at Starved Rock State Park, near Utica, Illinois.
It became of the most shocking stories to ever occur in this otherwise peaceful region. But no one can say that Starved Rock does not have a violent and bloody past. The park takes its name from a rock fortress on the Illinois River, where a band of Illiniwek Indians were trapped by their enemies in the seventeenth century. As their numbers decreased from starvation, desperate warriors attempted to escape, only to be slaughtered in the surrounding forests.
Centuries later, the violence of the past returned with the discovery of the bludgeoned bodies of those three innocent women who had traveled to the state park to do some hiking and birdwatching. At some point, they walked into St. Louis Canyon, one of the park’s most scenic locales, and came face-to-face with their killer.
The manhunt that followed led to the arrest and conviction of a former kitchen worker at the Starved Rock Lodge named Chester Weger, a local man with a violent past. He eventually confessed to the murders, was convicted by a jury, and sentenced to spend his life in prison.
And then he changed his mind. Claiming to be innocent and the victim of coercion by the police, he spent the next 59 years trying to gain his freedom. He was later paroled at the age of 80, still claiming he hadn’t committed murder.
But what was the true story? That remains the question. And on this night, we’ll look into how a simple case of murder might have been an unsolved mystery all along. And if that’s the case, is it any wonder that the spirits of the dead refuse to rest?