New-York tribune., 1922-11-20
Frcns j stoS coyrespondsns

NEW BRUNSWICK, N. j., Nov. 19.--
All through the testimony Of the Atty
two witnesses that the prosecution in
tends to cell before the grand jury
which will hear evidence In ske Hall
Mills murder case Will be woven the
names of six women, two of then,
nothing but slips OF girls. 1t is In
these women that the heart interest
of the ease is ceatered. Their stories
are stranger than fiction and this
sense of unreality extends to them.
selves. They are not like the normal
people of everyday life.
First will figure the name of Mrs
Eleanor r. Mills. She cannot speak
for herself. But the history of her life
win be told, And, in greater detail
the story of her death--how she was
found shot, her head almost severed
with knife wounds, lying alongside the
dead body of the Rev. Edward W Hal
under crab apple tree in field oil
goldenrod
Mrs. Frances Stevens Hall. thu
widow of the rector, the cold, proud
woman of Southern blood. viii sit
amid her Victorian surroundings in hel
big, cheerless house and wonder whai
the grand jury is doing and thinking
She will not forget that three womer
are sitting on that grand jury
Third Comes Mrs. Gibson
| Mrs. Jane Gibson, the third remark
able woman in the case, will go before
the grand jurors as chief witness fo,
the state. She will tell her story o1
the night of September Id, that strange
| story Of ride on mule, four figures
4 under crabapple tree, shots and ex
| clamations, the fall of a man and
woman, and later, when the moon came
out and all was still, woman in 9
/ gray coat sobbing bitterly over the
! figure of the dead rector.
/ Perhaps Nellie Lo Russell negress
viii tell the grand jury that "she doar
pin no faith to calendars" and thai
she was talking to Mrs. Gibson abou,
the time the farm woman said she was
| riding around on Jenny, the mule. II
mr.. Mott calls her, it will simply be
| Tor the effect her presence will have
on the credibility of her story.
| Charlotte Mills, the sixteen-year- old
daughter of the choir singer, is almost
sure to be called and writ has bee,
| obtained to permit Pearl BANNER. o.
| the same age, to appear before tn,
grand jury to tell of finding the deac
bodies under the crab apple tree.
| inns completes the list of six wo,ney
whose lives are so dramatically wover
into the fabric of the crime-Mrs
] Mills, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Gibson. Mrs
Russell. Charlotte Mills and Pear
! BANNER.
Environment and Fate
! Their lives all help to explain tht
| fate that has overtaken them. Firs,
! of all there was Mrs. Mills-one o,
large family, untutored. lacking il
self-control, sickened by sordid sur
/ roundings. and a colorless life. Sht
| had deeply implanted instinct fol
| self development that found expression
in her romantic attachment for tn.
rector of the church of st. John tht
Evangelist. Her home is vividly de
/ scriptiye of her life. 1t is rickety
jsshoddy and untidy, poorly Furnished
! and mean, with detected clotheslins
/ strung from the porch. 1t is the rear
! upstairs apartment of frame house
But there is one little room, her den
where she dreamed, read and sang
! Here you see evidence of the other
side Of her nature. There is a baby
| grand piano, some really good pieces
| of old furniture and one or two choice
| prints, indicating her pathetic striv
/ ings for some of the finer things o.
| life.
1t would be hard TO imagine tw,
women more different In temperance