Evening star., 1926-12-03
CASE BRILLIANT
AS HE SUMS UP
Mastery Address for Defense
Holds Court Spectators
SpeIIbound.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
special Dispatch to The Star.

BY DOROTHY DIX.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
SOMERVILLE. N. J., December
S.-"Prisoner. look upon the jury
jury, look upon the prisoner" cried
senator Case dramatically yesterday
as he closed his summation in tho
Hall-Mills case. and then, crossins
swiftly to Mrs, Hall, he took one o.
her small black -gloved hands in his
and held 1t out toward the jury.
Do you believe this hand ever firet
the shots that killed her husband ant
Mrs. Mills? Do you believe this hand
ever cut another woman's throat"
he demanded.
Senator Case spoke for four hours
and 1t is tribute to his ability as ar
orator that for all of that time he
held his audience spellbound. Some
OF this rapt attention was due, oi
course, to his being not only a Somer
set man, but Somerset County's IA
vorite son. But beyond all that, his
speech was worth listening to for its
own intrinsic merit.
From every angle It was a master
piece Of jury pleading, and he played
upon the II good men and true as
upon a harp of IL strings. They are
nearly all old men. Some of them
grandfathers, and he began his
speech by defending age and rebuk
Ing Senator Simpson for the way in
which he has derided Mr.. McCarter
for his years. He marshaled his facts
with conSummate ability and pre-
sented his arguments vividly and in
terestingly
Describes Widows Suffering.
He muted his bow and drew forth
fxyn 1o %oI1 0f
ferings of Mrs. Hall and her. brothers
in being prosecuted for a crime they
had never committed. and most of all
no smote loud and long and often
upon the chord of local pride and de-
manded to know of Somerset men IL
they would let Hudson County domi-
nate their affairs and make Somerset
subservient to it.
Senator Cases speech mostly con-
Corned itself with Jane Gibson, and
when he got through with her the
lew shreds of character she had left
were hanging on the line. He went
over the various stories that she had
related at different times and pointed
out how they contradicted each other.
He called attention to the fact that
when her story had first directed
euspicion against Mrs. Hall and her
brothers, and she was called upon to
identify them, she was unable to do
so. and that after the grand jury had
failed to bring in an indictment
Sheriff Conkling had met her on the
streets of New Brunswick, and had
said to her, Jane, do you think that
Mrs. Hall and Henry and Willie
Stevens had anything to do with the
MURDER And she had replied.
Nothing at ALL" Also that at first
she had claimed it was Henry
carpenter that she had seen at the
scene of the murder, and afterward
she changed this to Henry Stevens.
and later on located both of them on
the spot.
Inconsistencies Charged.
Coming down to the story that she
told from her sick bed in court. he
showed up it's many Inconsistencies
that Mrs. Gibson should be able four
wears later to recognize Mrs. Hall and
Willie Stevens, whom she passed on
n dark night in De Russey's lane, and
the impossibility that in the brief
flash of a light that she only claimed
to have seen for a second the faces
of four or five people that she saw
engaged in a. struggle could have
branded themselves on her memory,
so that she could identify them years
later, though she only saw them
through bushes, then in full leaf.
Also the fact that she described
Mrs. Hall as being a large woman
with white hair, whereas Mrs. Hall Is
only medium sized and at that time
was not even gray.
Mrs. Gibosn is suffering from can
Ger, the doctors say, and Senator Case
advanced the theory that perhaps
this story about what she saw on the
night she rode her old mule down De
Russey's lane might have been in
spired by dope that she took to ease
her pain, or else it might be the hal
lucinations of woman who was men,
tally unbalanced. and who, starting
out to tell story that would startle
and thrill her neighbors and give
her a certain glamour of interest in
their eyes. had told it over and over
again, adding to 1t as she related it,
until She had come at last to believe
II herself.
And certainly in her evidence there
was much In her manner of speech,
in her wild expression, in that intan-
Sible atmosphere of unreality that
hangs about those who are not nor.
mai, to give color to this belief.
Explains Calling Card.
Certainly there was nobody who
heard her monotonous repea ting of
the same Words-"l was going, going
going; Il heard screams, screams,
screams; they were fighting, fight
ing, ghting"--during her recital of
her testimony and her hysterical out
, burst at it's end. who did not get the
uncanny sense that they were listen.
ing TO woman who would be likely
10 be seeing things" as her poor old
half-crazed mother does.
Another interesting point made in
Senator Cases speech was the asser.
tion OF his belief that the card found
at DIR. Halls feet, which Is supposed
to bear the fingerprint of Willie
Stevens, was really left there by Ray.
inond Schneider, who discovered the
bodies, and who, Senator Case thinks.
robbed them. He thinks that
Schneider took Mr.. Halls gold watch
and fob and the money in his billfold.
and that in running through the cards
In his cardcase. in search of some.
thing else valuable. that he threw the
cards upon the ground, and one accl-
dentally lodged at Mr. Halls foot.
Anyway, why didn't the State bring
Schneider to testify to finding the
bodies. which would be the usual way
OF procedure in a murder case? Be.
cause. said Mr.. Case. the prosecution
was afraid that on cross-examination
Schneider would be made to tell this
If Mrs. Hall and her brothers did
not Kill Mr.. Hall and Mrs. Mills, who
did? is the question that is perpetual
ly asked, and ii was curious to find
out that Mr.. McCarter and Senator
Case have different theories on that
subject.
McCarter Doubts Mills.
Mr.. McCarter intimated his belief
that Mr.. Mills did 1t, in proof of which