New Britain herald., 1926-08-13
.'PIG WOMANS' TALE .
 CAUSE OF ARRESTS.
Willie Stevens and Henry Car
 bender Accused of Murder
WITNESSES ARE READY
State Prepared to Present Its Case Today But Postponement Until Next Week Seems Practically Certain.

Somerville, N. J., Aug. IS R - All principal state witnesses in the Hall Mills death investigation have
 been summoned by Special Prose. cutor Simpson, for today's hearing
 Of the evidence on which Willie Stevens and Henry Carpenter, O New Brunswick, were arrested las
 night and charged with the mur.
 der four years ago of the Rev | Edward Wheeler Hall and Mrs Eleanor Mills.
 Stevens is brother and Car. bender a cousin of the widow who
 was arrested two weeks ago ant released in s15,O0O bail on similar charges.
 First predictions were that thi. afternoon would see the hearing postponed until next week. The action of Simpson was taken, how. ever, as an indication that il would get under way without de- lay and that he intended to make all his evidence public.
 Judge Cleary today said that he had offered the hearing as a means for putting the witnesses on oath and thereby preventing afy possi- ble chance of testimony and also to demonstrate whether the state l had a case.
 He said that 1t would likely be postponed from two o'clock this afternoon until Monday and that it might continue for several days.
 Crazy" Willie Stevens, the brother, and Henry Carpenter, wealthy cousin of the wealthy widow, were arrested last night, two weeks after the arrest of Mrs. Hall, now at liberty in S15,0 bail.
 Plead Not Guilty
 All three have pleaded not guilty.
 State Senator Simpson, special prosecutor, however. says. we , have established a case nothing con destroy.
 A chemical analysis of blood died soil, he declared, has estab- lished the fact that pr. Hall and Mrs. Mills were slain under the crabapple tree on deserted farm where their bodies were found. It had been suggested that they were killed elsewhere, the bodies moved and the clothes carefully straight ened out.
 Simpson Orders Arrests
 Last nights arrests were ordered by Mir. Simpson after 57 deposi- tions of witnesses had been taken in reopened investigation which resulted from the filing of an an annulment suit by Arthur S. Riehl, who alleged that his wife, for mer maid in the Hall home, had made damaging confessions to him.
 New evidence was withheld when Mrs. Hall obtained bail after her arrest two weeks ago, but last nights arrests aroused expecta- tions that it would be revealed in a hearing today before County Judge Frank L. Cleary.
 Pig Woman's Testimony
 It was known that the arrests were based largely on the re-ex- animation of Mrs. Jane N. Gibson, known as the pig woman," whose eye witness story of the staying was discredited In the previous in vestigation.
 'The states chief witness never was scientifically examined until my men went after her" said Mir Simpson. Mrs. Jane Gibson, the pig raiser, told me a straightfor- ward story and I am convinced that she saw what she was de- scribing."
 Never Changed Her Story
 Mrs. Gibson herself an uncouth. vigorous figure, has lived aloof from her fellows except for brief period when she figured in a sideshow at a circus This was sub- sequent to the fame that she and Jenny. her mule, acquired from figuring in the Hall-NIll case. Her story has never changed.
 "All I know is what I saw" she told investigators. My eyes are good. So is my memory. am ready at any time to tell my story"
 Mrs. Gibson fixed the time of the murder as shortly after g o'clock Her calculations were made on the passing of the Millville bus. She went out in the moonlight riding the mule and wearing a pair of She was looking for thieves who had been stealing from her farm.
 She saw three figures under the crabapple tree, she says. She thought nothing of it then. But when she returned to find one of the moccasins she had dropped, | she declares, she saw the figures in action and heard voices.
 Mrs. Gibson has named the i woman she says she saw. But the ! men she never seemed to be sure | of. When she appeared before the | grand jury four years ago she stumped past Mrs. Hall. The two women exchanged antagonistic | glances. Now, as then. they are the focal figures in the case.
 Stevens was arrested yesterday | at his sisters home. Carpenter to state police in front of their headquarters. The two were questioned by investiga- tors, their finger prints taken, and then they were removed to Judge Cleary's office in a severe storm that was just beginning. Loud ex- plosions of photographic fash lights greeted their arrival there.