Evening star., 1923-09-14
DOUBLE MURDER
YEAR UNSOLVED
Slayer of Pastor and Choir
Singer at New Brunswick,
N. J., May Never Be Known.
BY ROBERT IT. SMALL.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


NEW BRUNSWICK, n. j., September
lit is just year ago today that
the Rev. Edward Wheeler Hall, rector
Of the Episcopal Church of St. John
the Evangelist, and Mrs. Eleanor
Reinhardt Mills, his favorite choir
singer, were shot to death and their
bodies placed side by side beneath an
apple tree on the Phillips farm, just
outside the city limits.
During the year that has gone not
one forward step has been taken look
crime. New Brunswick has had many
theories; the townspeople are still
strong in making accusations in vaTt-
Gus directions, but the authorities
claim that today they have no more
tangible clue 70 the perpetrators of
the double murder than on the morn
ing the bodies were discovered.
The apple tree. however. long has
ceased to exist. 1t was literally torn
to pieces, bit by bit, by the souvenir
hunters The Phillips farm is again
the trysting place of New Brunswick
lovers, all memory of the crime seem
ing to have disappeared from those
who, like the rector and the singer.
set out nightly to meet their loves in
the dark seclusion of the abandoned
homestead.
Authorities StiII Hope.
New Brunswick is convinced at last
that the Hall-Mills killing is a murder
which will not out. They have writ
ten it down among the unsolved mys-
teries of the metropolitan district.
Yet the murder was not a city affair.
1t involved two prominent persons in
a small town-persohs whose every
day life and associates should have
been known to every one in the place.
Despite this fact, no compelling mo-
tive apparently ever could be traced
by the authorities to the doors of
those who from time to time were
suspected of the deed.
The state and county authorities
would not admit today that they had
given up hope.
The case is not dead; something
may yet turn up to unlock the riddle
If we could only get one avenue of
approach to the mystery open the
whole case would stand revealed in a
little while. The natural places to
ing on which we could proceed"
Mrs. Frances Noel Stevens Hall,
wealthy widow of the slain rector, is
in Europe, where she went just as
soon as the authorities granted her
permission to leave the country. Mrs.
Hall employed counsel for herself
Immediately after the shooting and
was examined several times by the
authorities. When "a special grand
jury was considering the case she
demanded that she be given a hear
ing. At all times Mrs. Hall proved
herself a woman of tremendous poise
and Self-poSSesSion. She insisted from
the first that she knew nothing of
the love affair between 4er husband
and the wife of the sexton of the
church
Husband StilI in Town.
some persons still suspect him of hav
ing had a hand in the crime, but he
is such a mild-mannered man, so sub
miSsive in spirit, that the authorities
never have believed that he could
have committed such a cold crime.
Certainly he did not have the means
to hire paid assassins, no matter how
cheaply life is held in and about New
York city. Mills still goes about his
duties as janitor of a nearby school,
tors for the manner in which he says
they "botched" the whole affair.
Henry Stevens. d brother of Mrs.
Hall, is also in Europe with his wife,
but 1t is said they planned their trip
long before the murders were COM
mitted. Willie stevens, the fire buff, -
still visits the fire house daily and
runs. after the apparatus at every
alarm. Willie" a simple soul If ever
there was one, was questioned sharply
by the prosecution at one time, for
the crime had some of the earmarks
or the cunning Of a half wit
In the last analysis, however 1t ap-
peared to be one in which the motive
of jealousy and revenge played the
major role.
The manner in which the two bodies
were laid side by side, with the rec
tor $ arm thrown over the shoulder of
his companion in Illicit love and in
death, showed sthe calculating pre-
cision with which the murderer or
murderers had gone about their work.
One of the minister's calling cards
was propped up against the heel of
one of his shoes. A single bullet in
the head had ended his life. There
were three bullet wounds, an inch
apart, in the head of Mrs. Mills. Her
throat also was badly slashed. The
shooting was the work of an expert
marksman. No trace of the pistol
ever was found.
Clifford Hayes, whom the authori-
ties blunderingly arrested on the
strength of an unbelievable confess
sion by Raymond Schneider that
Hayes had shot the couple by mis-
take, goes about his daily work, re-
spected by his friends and towns
people. Schneider is in the reforma-
tory as q result of his false testimony.
His wayward sweetheart, Pearl Bal
mer, is in the House of the Good
Shepherd, in Newark.
Quiet reigns today in New Bruins
wick and Jersey justice, for once at
l. . -,.lw