George Weber was an American radio personality on the ABC Radio Network doing hourly news updates. For several years he was on the WABC 77 morning show, with Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby in New York City. He did periodic news updates throughout the morning, as well as joining in conversation with the hosts about those news stories. He was found stabbed to death in his home on March 20, 2009, at the age of 47.
Career
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Weber began his radio career at WBUX in Doylestown. He then went on to WAEB in Allentown, where he worked for two and a half years as a reporter and news anchor. After contacting Phil Boyce, then news director at Denver stationKIMN, he received an offer to be a street reporter and anchor with that station. Two and a half years later Weber went to crosstown rival KOA, where he began a new career as the host of a night-time talk show. Some other important stops on his way to a full-time job with WABC were KGO, KOGO, KTLK, and KMPC. As a former tobacco user, he has been featured in radio advertisements for KickTheHabitNow.com. Weber was fired by WABC at the same time as John R. Gambling in February 2008. Financial problems at ABC, coupled with the fact that ABC's new morning show Imus in the Morning had its own newsman, Charles McCord, led to his dismissal. In April 2008, Weber obtained a new assignment doing news updates for the ABC Radio Network.
Personal life
A number of Weber's stories and investigations were based around experiences in his private life. He often reported about his neighborhood in New York and his two dogs featured in some of his stories. The last story on his website was published on the same day he died, March 20, 2009, and described an outbreak of bed bugs around his Carroll Gardens neighborhood.
Murder
On Friday, March 20, 2009, George Weber was killed in his Brooklyn apartment on Henry Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. A co-worker became concerned when he didn't show up for work on Saturday, so police were dispatched to Weber's apartment on Sunday at 12:30am, but they noticed nothing amiss, and left. When the co-worker called again at 8:30 a.m., cops returned to the building, where a neighbor said he heard water running in the newsman's apartment all night. Police entered the apartment and discovered Weber's body, with his hands and feet bound. Weber had been stabbed more than 50 times in the neck, chest and arms, and his guest bedroom had been ransacked. The water was still running in the apartment's bathtub and kitchen sink, and investigators believe Weber's killer used the water to clean himself after the murder. Authorities said there was no sign of forced entry. On March 25 police arrested 16-year-old student John Katehis of East Elmhurst, Queens, New York for the murder. He was lured to a rendezvous with detectives by his father, who promised to give him $300, and was arrested without incident. Katehis confessed to the crime when apprehended, also claiming to be a Satanist and a sadomasochist. Katehis told police that he and Weber had met through a personal ad Weber had posted on Craigslist for "rough sex," but stabbed Weber in self-defense after Weber tried to stab him. This led to the media referring to Katehis as a Craigslist killer. Katehis was charged as an adult with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, and pleaded not guilty, despite his confession. Katehis's lawyer claimed there was an ongoing relationship between Weber and Katehis. Following a mistrial, Katehis was convicted in 2011 at retrial, and sentenced to 25 years to life. Author David McConnell, in his book American Honor Killings: Desire and Rage Among Men explored the Katehis case as a main example of lethal hate crimes on homosexual men where the perpetrators exhibited some degree of homosexuality themselves.
