Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1922-09-25
Believe Rector and Singer
Were Taken From
Park Bench
GIRL IS QUIZZED
Witnesses Testify That The Two Vic
tins Were in Habit of Sitting in
Dark Part of Park-At Work on
Three Theories.
nv United press.l

New Brunswick, \. D., Sept. 20
The Rev. Edward w. Hall and Mrs.
Eleanor Mills. were seized as they
sat or a bench in Puccleigh Park,
dragged to a waiting automobile, acr-
ried to a knoll on the abandoned
Phillips farm and there killed and
laid out under an apple tree, accord
ing to a new theory being investi-
gated by police today.
Ten witnesses have been found who
swear that the clergyman and Mrs.
Mills. wife of his sexton, frequently
sat on the bench in question, which
is in u dark. secluded part Of the
park.
Detectives searched the ground
around the bench for signs of
struggle but found nothing as any
marks which might have been there
when the killings occurred the night
of September IA, have been obliterat-
ed by the weather.
Police were reticent concerning de-
tails Of the new theory. If it turns
out to be the true one, search will
be made for members of gang hired
by Jealous woman" to do the kid
mapping.
Pearl BANNER, Is, was quizzed in
Jail here today by authorities who are
probing the murders of the Rev. Ed
ward Wheeler Hall and Mrs. James
Mills, choir leader of the church of
St John the Evangelist.
The girl, together with Raymond
Schneider, 10, found the bodies un-
der gnarled apple tree'a week ago
last Saturday. 1t was they who gave
the alarm to the police that the miss
ing couple had been found.
The girl was not arrested in con-
nection with the murder, it was an
nounced. Her father asked authori-
ties to lock her up, charging that she
was incorrigible.
Through the cross-eXamlnation of
the girl and young Schneider yester-
day, it was learned that the day the
bodies were found was not the first
time that the two had visited the de-
serted Phillips farm.
They had been there, Prosecutor
Strickler announced, two days before
the night that the Rev. Hall and
Mrs. Mills disappeared and were shot
to death.
The couple said they were on the
farm between the hours of eight and
nine thirty. but did not see the par
son or his choir leader.
Schneider was not detained by po-
lice but allowed to return to his home.
He is to be quizzed again today.
The girl spent the night in the
keeping of Mrs. Puerschner, matron
of the Jail and wife of the warden.
On next Friday she is to be arraign-
ed in Children's Court on the COM
plant lodged against her by the
father, Nicholas BANNER.
The renewed examination OF the
girl and young Schneider would IN
dicate that authorities, having once
made the rounds of all persons who
NAV have been able to throw light on
the mystery, had decided to start IN
anew.
These three theories were advanced
today.
THAT the parsOn and singer
were slain by blackmailers whom they
had gone to the farm to meet. In tins
connection it was conjectured that
perhaps that torn letters, sald to
have been love epistles, had been
stolen by the blackmailers and We're
to have been delivered to the Rev.
Hall for a sum of money he is known
to have had on his person. :,
2.-That the crime was committed
by a Jealous woman who resented
the attentions that the Rev Hall was
paying to the pretty wife Of the
church sexton. .,
3.-That the two had gone to the
farm and had been surprised by, rob,
bers who, after a struggle, Killed
the pair and robbed the clergyman