New-York tribune., 1922-11-02
,lice Now Ask
iiigerprints
Hall |. Staying
Mske Firss Official Photo.
graphs of Scene of Kill
iisg, bus Little Is Expect.
"a Because of Changes
So Arrest Due This Week
Marks ON Letters Pslrporiing
ii Have Been Written by
Slain Pair Obliserated
BY Boyden Sparkes

xEW BRUNSWICK. Nov. I.--pre-
IN forty-eight days after the Rev.
rsssra ". Hall and Mrs. Eleanor Mills
~,rs murdered attempts were made to-
i, By the officials IN charge Of the
s,wstigation to the fngerprint and
.tAer primary evidence against the
frininals.
| lanes Mason, the detective of New
II Who Is acting as chief investira-
.ar for Special Deputy Attorney Cen
sra. Wilbur Mott, superintendent this
sssu,Ingly hopeless task. He was aided
Il two state troopers and three ex-
.sss OF the Newark Police DEPART
/ srsst These we're Lieutenant Edward
SSysrts, Bertilion expert, and his as
s;ssst.. Lieutenant Paul neriveux, and
sts.snant Day. photographer of the
Ssosrsmsrt. George Totten. county de-
tessiye of Somerset, was with them at
The farm.
Epu.enaut Day, under the direction
Il Dsss-.ive Mason, made photographs
sfthe Phillips farm and the spot where
he murdered rectU- .-..l his sweetheart
xere fourd lying side by SID AS far
1
he first photographs that any official
corrected with the investigation has
,sused to be made.
Taking Photographs Futile
Taking pictures of that spot at this
date and labelling them photographs of
.le scene of the crime is as futile as
vhotographing the bare brick walls of
,ht unset stage OF the Metropolitan
Opera House and using them to illus
trste the third act of Carmen" The
bodies were found beneath a low
branching crabapple tree, literally
rested in thick vegetation. Now the
,rabapple tree has disappeared and
t.rtieSs % the field in which it grew
nearIs forty-yard radius appears
50 ssya besi the camping grounds of
gircus IN addition to this, the
thiekets OF locust saplings and the
sumae bushes which sheltered this spc.
seven weeks ngo are now bare of
leaves.
The objects submitted to the scru-
tiny Of Lieutenants Schwartz and Der
eyieug with the idea that they might
discover finger prints of the murderer
or musderers included the letters that
we're found scattered over the bodies
Of the victims. Since these letters
came into the possession of the author
tiles they have been handled again and
agkin by inexpert fingers. 1t was the
obliteration of this sort of evidence
thst was, more than any thing else re-
sponsble for the failure of the pros
eeStors Of Middlesex and Somerset
counties to detect the criminals.
AE Mason said tonight that the
purpose OF the visit to the farm to-day
gsst 10 make pictures and draw a map
Of the region figuring in the crime. to
DO submitted to the Somerset County
grand jury and later as trial exhibit.
No Arrests This Week
"Do yeu expect to make any arrests
this week. Mr.. Mason was asked.
$50 that you wont misinterpret my
suence,' he replied, 81 will reply that
we do not expect to make any arrests
this week.
Mr.. Mason declined TO comment on
the interview Mrs. Frances Stevens Hall
gave to newspaper reporters to-day, ex-
tept on one point. Mrs. Hall said she
left her home about $3.50 o'clock in
The morning, accompanied by her brother
Willie Stevens and that she returned
home aabout half-past three" Mr.. Ma
sensaid it had been determined positive
Eshas Mrs. Hall returned to her homo
Mten minutes past two. He said there
Hre two witnesses to support this
uh Is the watchman, Phillips, Of the
Asw Jersey State College for Women
lust across Redmond Street from the
sles Of the Hail home. Phillips insists
me woman he saw was alone when she
entered the house.
!, fnislips never has said thas he saw
sirs. Hall. When ne first told what
no aad seen. on the day the bodies were
loud, MRS. Hall, through her lawyer
Sofmer State Senator William Florance
samtted that she had been out about
.hst TIME looking for her husband, and
,nat va ner brother Willie was with her.
lhsle are only two women, SO far as
~ Ahown, who were staying in the Hall
aoms az that time, one Louise Geist, q
Me'ua and the other Barbara Hough, q
Ssasmsssfess, who, by strange chance,
Ws raa peen earlier that day at the Parker
s.sa .o'as ios the Aged, just across the
'1ye1 ms ifom the Phillips farm.
!; s, ns ether witness who supports Phil
osp p .5e watchman, is A. II. Bennett, of
~ ~. heamond Street. His dog rushed
~. ~ sne Bennett yard and barked
r. 80 Jug woman supposed to be Mrs. Hall
snsssu 90 ss ms home. The dog gave such
ss ~ a'arm that Mr.. Bennett got UP and
ea,ss e.,se. 70 quiet him. BY way Of getting
s,ausaee sra against his dog for distufb-
:. as "a ms slumbers Mr.. Bennett looked
ssra - ais watch. 1t was 2:10 o'clock, he
HATS ua1s, Jane Gibson Cor Mrs. William
as. @ Easton), the stato's chief wit
hsiia MIL "a The case Mr.. Mott is seeking to
Sss s,m !. against Mrs, Hall, declared to-
ssa aa: saat the attempts to discredit her
,snssa NM ses story of witnessing the double
ssSsr are traceable, in her opinion
rs wealth and influence of the FAM
= y which Mrs. Hall member.