New-York tribune., 1922-10-07
Mrs. Hall To
Be Faced hy
Mills To-day
Officials Determined ON
Showdown in Mystery
of Slain Rector and
Murdered Choir. Singer
By Boyden Snarkes


NEW BRUNSWICK, N. j.. Oct. e.
An attempt to have showdown in the
Hall-Mills murder investigation will be
made tomorrow in the office of Prose.
cutor Joseph Stricken, where Mrs
Frances Stevens Hall, widow Of the
murdered rector, and James Mills, sex.
ton of the church and widower of the
slain choir singer, are to be forced
to confront each other, according ia
county official.
The purpose. Of bringing these two
together is to determine which of
them Is inaccurate about details Of
their encounters with each other after
the murdered couple disappeared and
before their bodies were found. There
are vital discrepancies In their stories
especially with regard to the CONVEX
sations they say they had, Mills saws
he suggested that DR.. Hall and Mrs,
Mills had eloped and that Mrs. Hall in
sisted they must have met with foul
play. Now Mrs. Hall denies there was
any such conversation.
Mrs. Hall Facing Ordeal
When it was learned to-day that Will
liam Phillips, night watchman at the
New Jersey State College for Women,
had been questioned at length in the
court house it was clear that Mrs.
hails interrogation tomorrow should
be more of an ordeal than anything
she has experienced thus far in the
investigation. 1t was Phillips who saw
a woman enter the Hall yard by a
side gate about 2 o'clock In the morn
ing OF September 15, about three hours
after the murders.
Mrs. Hall admitted that sha was the
woman and ae1ied that rs middle
4 g.,. gaa ptsAer pHlliam wass with her.
" Willie l., is a sown character, a Are
buff" whose idiosyncrasies are ex-
cused because it is realized that his
mentality is below normal. His S15o, 900
estate IS held in trust for him and for
ysaIs S the murdered rector had paid
VINE ~. limited weekly allowance.
well and could have recognized his
sallow, spectacled face and thick
shouldered frame almost as FAR as he
could see 1t. He declares positively
that the woman he saw was alone
Phillips is a better witness by reason
of the fact that he does not contend
that he recognized Mrs. Hall. He in
sists that he could not distinguish her
features, but saw that she wore q long
coat of light material.
Willie's Pistol Useless
About week after the murders
were committed the county detectives
went to the Hall home and were piven.
at their request, a revolver they had
learned was owned by Willie. An ex-
animation Of this weapon revealed
that the firing pin had been filed off
so that 1t was as harmless as a can
pistol. Investigators have learned that
Dr., Hall himself took this precaution,
and now they are seeking to learn why
the rector thought this was necessary
In view of Phillips's statement that
the woman he saw enter the Hall
home wore long coat, and Mrs. HalPs
admission that she had entered the
house at that time wearing such a
garment, the rector's widow is to be
asked tomorrow if the brown ulster
which was part of bundle of clothing
sent to a Philadelphia dyeing and
cleaning establishment on September
20 was the same coat she wore that
night.
Not much attention would have been
paid to the dispatch Of single bundle
of clothing from the Hall home to a
cleaning establishment, but investigat-
bundles that have left the house since
the murders. A suit of clothes be-
longing to Willie was sent to local
cleaning establishment. This was
seized and county detectives indicated
that it might be sent to a chemist. It
is not known whether they did this.
third package of wearing apparel
was shipped the day after the funeral
from the Hall home to Lavalette, a
seacoast village forty miles from here
where Henry Stevens, Mrs. Halls
other brother, lives, 1t was explained
at the Hall home that this was a suit
of light clothing worn to New Bruins
wick by Henry Stevens, rifle expert,
(corfuued nm neYt raceA