Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-11-30
HALL-MILLS TRIAL
Continued from Page One)


to have mistrial declared. 1t was
reported that the letter did not con-
tain allegations involving the defend
ants or their representatives.
The letter was given by Simpson
by Judge Parker and Judge Cleary.
The prosecutor got it from John w.
Underwood, chief of the Jersey City
police department, who. in turn, re-
ceived it from Harry Walsh, one of
his captains, Judge Cleary. while
refusing to disclose the contents of
the letter, said that 1t had been re-
turned to the special prosecutor.
Simpson last week indicated that
an effort might be made to have a
mistrial declared when he procured
affidavits from newspapermen that
certain members of the jury had been
seen ''nodding and apparently
asleep"
Mrs. Hall, resuming the stand to-
day, proceeded calmly to the end of
her cross examination and brief re-
direct examination over period of g.
few minutes more than two hours.
She said today that she is convinced
of her husbands regard for her at
the time of his death.
The extended cross examine ton
stressed what the state construed as
inadequate spreading of an alarm for
the missing minister by Mrs. Hall,
the day after he left his home for
the last time.
The prosecutor asked again and
again as to steps taken in the Hall
household to ascertain the where
abouts of the Rev. Edward w. Hall.
Mrs. Hall replied in even tones that
she had taken what she thought were
the necessary steps.
The state also emphasized that the
body Of her husband was not taken
to the Hall home, the widow replying
each that she asked that the body be
returned to the house, but that John
V. Hubbard, undertaken, had advised
against it.
The witness said that she never
saw the love letters of Mrs. Mills
to her husband, nor those of the min
listers to the choir singer until two
weeks before this trial. She said
that at her minister's advice, she did
not read the papers after her hus-
bands death.
The prosecutors plan Of GROSS ex-
animation involved much repetition.
Mrs. Hall again fatty denied any
connection with the crime on which
she and her brothers, Henri and Will
lie Stevens, are being tried. Her mo"
was emphatic as she replied to cues
tons If she had gone to De Russey's
Lane, when her husband and Mrs.
Mills were slain, had known of any
meeting between the two there, or
had seen Mrs. Mills shot down.
Following Mrs. Hall Mrs. Theodore
Bonner and Mrs. Francis Voorhees,,
sister of Mr.. Hall, went to the witness
stand to tell of a call from Mrs. Hall
when her husband and their brother
had not returned home Friday after
| leaving early Thursday evening. Both
said the defendant was agitated and
neither saw any scratch on her face
as had been testified to by states
witnesses.
Mrs. Bonner denied that Mrs. Hall
while accompanying her home from
a visit to Europe last year, had said
anything about hoping Mrs. Jane
Gibson was dead and that the only
mistake she made was in sending
garments to be dyed after the STAY
ing.
j. H. Taylor, navy department
| fingerprint expert, told of several
ways in which fingerprints could be
placed on a card. The state contends
that a calling card of the Rev. Mr..
Hall, found near his body, bears the
print of Willie Stevens finger Tay-
Tor and two other experts have testi-
fled that the print is not that of
Willie Stevens and one of the experts
gave an opinion that the print was
an "afterthought."
Rebuttal testimony was started
with an attack on the testimony of a
number of fishermen that Henry
Stevens was fishing at Lavallette the
night of the killing. Statements
made by Art Applegate, Thaddeus
Mellinger and Enoch T. Van Camp,
at Toms River in September. were
produced by the state and over the
objection of the defense were admit
ted.
The day closed with the testimony
of handwriting expert, who gave an
opinion that an entry art APPLICANT.
one blue, six pounds" appearing in
Henry Stevens diary under date of
September IA, 1922. was written with
greater care than any other entry in
the diary and that the notations I'M
der that date. the day of the staying,
containing four lines. were written
| with three different pencils.
The "six pound blue" caught by
Arthur Applegate has figured prom
inently in the trial. Henry Stevens
testifying that he weighed the fish
the night the state claims he shot
Mrs. Mills. He has been supported by
half a dozen neighhors In hts cIain,