Evening star., 1926-11-25
HALL DEFENDANTS
IN THANKFUL MOOD
Stevens-C Carpenter Families,
Seeing Victory, Mark
Feast Day in Jail.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
SOMERVILLE. y. j.. Noveml

For what we are about to receive,
good Lord, make us truly thankful"
That Old fashioned blessing will be
quavered forth by many a white
haired grandsire above a bountifully
~Dread table this Thanksgiving day.
And it is in this spirit that the Hall
Stevens carpenter families are cele
brating their Thanksgiving, for they
sincerely and confidently believe that
hey are about to receive not only the
great boon of freedom for themselves
and their loved ones but that they are
20 be vindicated of the charges
brought against them and have their
names cleared of the aspersions that
have slimed il over for the past four
years.
They hold to New England tradi-
lions, and Thanksgiving has always
been the red-letter day in their cal
endar. 1t has been their habit to OBJ
serve it with big family parties, with
fcasting that would make Lucullus'
mouth water. and general good cheer.
such merrymaking is. of course, i'm
POSSIBLE this year, but they are max
ing the best of what Mark Tapley
called "creditable circumstances.
Turkey for Carpenter.
l,;E turkey % Henry Carpenter, and
this will form the piece de resistance
ior the dinner OF the three prisoners.
Mrs. Carp"HGcr will dine in Jail with
ler husband. and he will send their
mare OF the bird to his two cousins,
Willie and Henry Stevens, who are
not permitted to dine with him or with
Zach other, but must each eat in Soli-
gary state.
The Edwin carpenters will motor
Gown to Browns Mills 10 be with the
charles Carpenters at their country
estate, and Commander Carpenter
and his wife will dine with Mr.. and
Mrs. Runyon. the latter of whom is a
sister to the commanders wife and
Mrs. Henry Carpenter.
For many years it has been Mrs.
Halls custom to either dine with her
aunt, Mrs. David Murray, or to have
Mrs. Murray as a guest in her house
"n Thanksgiving, but this year she
VIII join Willie in his cell.
Mrs. Murray, by the way, is the
nIatriarch of the family. a sprightly
cid lady, who at "a has all the pep"
and interest in life Of flapper. Her
husband was the man selected by the
Mikado to establish the educational
system of Japan when Japan ceased
Western progress. For his services
Re was decorated with the Order Of
The Rising Sun and had every honor
that Japan could give heaped upon
him.
Cause for Thanksgiving.
But. taking it all in all, the family
had plenty of cause for thanksgiving,
Tor the defense had gone through the
testimony of a lot of the States star
witnesses like a dog through a paper
hoop. To begin with, Willie completed
his roSS-eXamtnation without allow
ing Simpson to score q single point,
md ended on the high note of having
only been TO the Mills house once, and
that was when his sister had sent him
10 take a Christmas present to Mrs.
Mills.
The man who drove the hearse in
which Mr.. Halls body was taken to
Greenwood had testified that he had
seen a long scratch on Mrs. Halls
face. So did another man, who said
he was a newspaper photographer.
But three ClergYmen, one of them
tanon Wells, who had gone to see
Mrs. Hall rs soon as they heard of the
tragedy, emphatically denied that her
face had any mark on 1t. and so did
several woman friends who were also
with her on that sad occasion.
Mrs. DemareSt'S daughter, who was
with her mother in the automobile at
the time that she said she saw DR..
Hall and Mrs. Mills sitting on a
bench and Mrs. Clark and Gorslne
nearby, declared that she didn't see
any of the things that her mother
saw.
Mrs. Wahler. a pretty young woman
with hobbed hair and no hat and a
led coat, she who was Jennie Lam
bert and who Erhng had asserted was
lis companion on the night that he
fingered 50 long in De RusSey's iane
that Jane Gibson. riding mule, came
and peered in his car. fatty denied the
whole story. She said that they only
drove through De Russev's lane with
out stopping, and they didn't see Jane
or her mule or ANYTHING.
Tells OF Money Talk.
To this Willard Straub added the
interesting information that Erling
had told him that if he would say
that he was in De RuSsey's lane on
The night of the 14th he would get
some money.
Then the defense began trying to
prove that Jane Gibson had told half
J. dozen different persons of what she
cid ana saw the night of the murder.
1}yteCtiVe David. who was one of the
lIrst on the case. told about going with
Mrs Gibson over the route she said
he rode on her mule. He said she
told him that while she was riding on
the mule she saw the flash and heard
the shots. but that she did not get
Gown OFF Of her mule. She said moth
ing Of tying her animal to the cedar
stump and creeping through the
bushes to get a better look. as she
told the other day in court.
And Sheriff Conkling told that he
asked her soon after the murder if she
thought any of the Stevenses had any
thing to do with the murder. and she
replied. mo, not thing Also she
failed to identify the prisoners when
she first saw them, and it was only
later on that she placed Henry Car
bender on the scene Of the murder.
Then Edwin Il. Carpenter and his
wife were called to the witness stand
and gave the first version that we
have heard vet of Mrs. Halls real re
HCtion TO the tragedy-ar.u Il pitiful
story ii was of a proud and hurt
woman trying to hide her husbands S
defections from the world as long as
she could
Mr. Carpenter Is Mrs. Hall's first
cousin. and lives just across the street
rom her, and he said that the first he
knew of the affair was on Saturday
morning about $50 O'Clock, when Mrs
Hall called him up over the telephone
and told him that Edward had left
home on Thursday night and he had
not returned He went over to see
her and found her wild with anxiety.
Told by Newspaper.
lie had no suggestions TO offer as
- what had become of Mr.. Hall. and
30 take her mind off Of he: troubles
!,e and Mrs Carpenter took her down
;nvn with them in their car to MAKE