New-York tribune., 1922-09-20
Hall Murder
Clew Sought
Irl Old House

When reporters sought to learn from
whom Mr. Porter had bought the
Phillips place, they could not reach
! him. His brother-inlaw said:
Levin was just called over to High
land Park"
The brother-in-law did not know
whether he had gone in response to
call from Porter, who lives there.
When Levin finally was reached by
telephone, about II o'clock, he said;
II bought the Phillips place. Mr..
Porter's name never figured in it at
all"
He was told that the information
came. from the Phillips, who sold the
place, and that they had given the
information without knowing that it
WAS wanted in connection with the
murder investigation.
Il can't help that" replied Mr.
Levin vehemently. II bought the place,
Mr.. Porter had nothing to do with it."
Troopers Search House
Late this afternoon between 5
o'clock and 6-two state troopers who
are here from Trenton working with
the prosecutors staff of detectives
made thorough search Of the prem
ises, attempting to keep their hunt q
secret from other investigators, who
heretofore have studiously avoided the
two and a half story frame house. The
| troopers were looking for bloodstains
and the weapon with which Dr. Hall
and Mrs. Mills were killed, and any
other evidence which would support
the belief that the minister had been
accustomed to visit the house. Yester-
day Prosecutor Stricker directed one of
his detectives and Detective Totten, OF
Somerset County-the farm is in that
county--in making measurements about
the trampled grass where the bodies
were found. He was particularly care
full to have them measure the distance
from the south veranda of the house to
the crabapple tree beneath which the
murderer composed the limbs of his
victims as carefully as an undertaken
might have done after putting them in
coffin.
The distance is not moro than hun
dred yards, and the bodies actually
were just at the edge of what used TO
serve the Phillips family as a front
yard. A red shale driveway leads from
the main highway to the rear veranda
of the house. 1t is in much better
condition than the weed-grown yard.
A line drawn from the spot where
the bodies we're found, through the
| house and out to the road. If con-
tinued fer another hundred yards
would pass through the home of the
McCabes, the elderly cou pie, who heard
screams of two women last Thursday
night shortly before midnight and at
the time the murders are believed TO
have been committed. If the shots
were fred in or about tho house the
McCabes would have been much more
likely to have heard the disturbance
than il it had occurred where the
bodies were found.
Home for Aged Near BY
Near the McCabe cottage at Landing
Bridge, which spans the Raritan, is the
Parker Home for the Aged. Some of
DR.. Halls friends who sought to find
reason for the minister's presence at
night in that lonely region suggested
that he had been In the habit of visit
ing the old people at the home. An
official there said yesterday that Or,
Hall had not paid them visit in some
months.
Two attempts were made to-day by
Prosecutor Stricker to learn from Sex
ton Mills additional facts that would
help him determine the customs of the
minister and the sections wife-
whether they had ever mentioned q
visit to the old Phillips place or in any
way referred to visits to that neighbor-
| hood.
Mills, a puzzle to every one who has
talked to him since his wife was killed,
was taken to the courthouse at 1880
o'clock this morning. In the afternoon,
after Mrs. Mills's funeral, Detective
Fitzpatrick again escorted Mr.. Mills
back to the prosecutors office. This
time his tifteen-year-old daughter Char
lotte was with him. Daniel, the ten
year-old son, had been talked to earlier.
The Prosecutor learned to-day that
Mills had driven at / o'clock last Fri
day morning TO hunt for his wife, and