New-York tribune., 1922-10-31
W. II. Easton, Mechanic.
Calls Mrs. sCibson'Wife:
Says She Has Fine Mind:
Murder Tale Amazes Him
She Denies Report
of Kentucky Past
Iacit1lrn GraveDigger Put
Forward as New Hope
for Solving Mystery
BY Boydcn Sparkes

NEW BRUNSWICK, N. ), Oct. 3d.
The grave Of Mrs. Jane Gibson's hus-
band yawned tonight and gave up Will
ham III. Easton. He is a prosaic tool
maker. who lives with her and their
twenty-one-year-old son, Willie jr., on
the woman's pig farm.
Last Wednesday, when "Mrs. Gibson"
was telling reporters hos ~
the murder of the Rev. Ed,.
and Mrs. Eleanor Mills from the back
OF mule, and recognized from the
same vantage point the rector's wife,
the widow Gibson said her late hus-
band had been clergyms.a A and now
was ian angel"
Mott Maintains Silence
News Of the existence or the nip
farm Of "Nfrs. Gibson's" husband was
broken tonight over the telephone to
special Deputy Attorney General Will
buf Mott at his home in East Orange,
N. j. He declined to discuss it.
Timothy N. peiffer, Mrs. Halls at
torney, discussing Mrs. Gibson,g al
legged identification of his client, said
to-day: Regarding Mrs. Gibson's
statement that she is eager to con-
front Mrs. Hall and that she will be
ahle to state positively that it was
ars. Hall she saw on the night of
September Ia on the Phillips farm, /
can say just this: We are perfectly
Wiling to do whatever the prosecutor
requests.
There has been some little con-
fusion, 1t seems, regarding the early
part OF the evening of September Ii,
the night Of the murders. Little Fran
ces Voorheee. Mr.. Halls niece, who Is
ten years cd, had come to visit the
Halls or the preceding Wednesday
afternoon. Mrs. Hall takes a great in
terest in children. She was with The
chlid until she went to bed.
MES. Hall and little Frances were
inside the house when MIR. Hall left
after receiving the telephone message
from Mrs. Mills. They went out onto
the porch and came in again q little
later to play with picture puzzle un-
til $3.50 ors9 O'Clock, when Frances
went upstairs to get ready for bed. She
called to Mrs. Hall when ready and
Mrs. Hall went to her and heard her
prayers.
Mrs. Hall Only Forty-seven
''The public mind has been given a
mistaken impression through the in
correct publication OF the ages of Mr.
and Mrs. Hall. Mrs. Hall has been
pictured as woman markedly older
than her husband, some setting her
age as high as sixty. AS matter Of
fact she is but forty-seven years old,
only six years Older than her husband,
who was forty-one."
The Hall-Mills murder investiga-
tion is to 90 on. There can be no
doubt Of that SO long as the supply
of eyewttnesses hold out. With "Mrs.
or the back of Jennie, new witness
was discovered tonight. He is not
precisely new. Rather he is an old
che who has been neglected. His name
is Sigourney Smith, and no is grave
digger who boards with Mrs. A. C.
Fraley, whose house overlooks the spot
where the rector and his sweetheart
were laid out by their murderer or
murderers.
James Mason, chief investigator for
Prosecutor Mott, had long talk with
Gravedigger Smith this afternoon on
the Phillips farm, where Mr.. Mason
had gone, accompanied by two state
troopers, to check UP, with the aid Of
chart of the murder scene, the richly
dramatic story of ''Mrs. Gibson" 1t
terested in Smith because of report
that they have been unable to verify
the ,rumor that he said "there was a
murder out my way last night on
September 10, more than twenty -four
hours before the bodies had been
found.
Reporters Make Discovery
The naturalization Of William Henry
Easton was brought about by news
paper reporters. First, they went to
the Franklin township school, where
William Easton
has attended classes from time to
time, when he was not engaged in col
Letting garbage in New Brunswick for
his mothers forty-five pigs.
Miss Margaret Van Doran, of 151
Welton Street, New Brunswick, is the
teacher Of the upper grades. She said
that about eight or nine years ago
(Centlnurd on rsae sIqht1