Hall Mills Murder Case Study

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The Halls-Mills Murder The Halls-Mills Murder is the most fascinating unsolved murder in America. An unknown person murdered Reverend Hall and Mrs. Mills. Both of their dead bodies were posed after they were killed. There were multiple suspects and theories. No one knows and probably never will know who committed the murder. You are about to learn all of the know factors of the most fascinating unsolved murder, The Halls-Mills Murder.
The murderer, whoever it was, wanted everyone to know who the victims were. “A card propped up against his foot gave the man’s identity — Rev. Edward Wheeler Hall, 41, pastor of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in New Brunswick. The woman was identified as Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, 34, wife of …show more content…

Hartman once wrote, “He swore that this young man, called Clifford Hayes, had killed Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills in a case of mistaken identity. Amazingly, Hayes was arrested and charged on October 9.” (Hartman.) Clifford Hayes was arrested on a murder charge of a mistaken identity. Mrs. Jane Gibson was a lonely corn farmer who was itching to catch who kept stealing her corn. “This woman, Mrs. Jane Gibson (or Easton), declared she had heard and seen the murders as she lay in wait outside near her fields, hoping to catch whoever had been lately stealing her corn. Jane Gibson was admittedly a peculiar individual, and her account, which featured her mule Jenny, changed with each retelling.”(Hartman.) Mrs. Jane Gibson said she had witnessed the murders while waiting to see who had been stealing her corn lately. She had come forward to tell her account but every time she told her story, a small piece of it changed. There were many theories on what had happened but Doug MacGowan reported, “Many theories of what happened that night would be postulated. Some felt that Mrs. Hall and her brothers had committed the killings, but had gone free due to a flimsy prosecution case. Others believed that the Ku Klux Klan had killed off Reverend Hall and Mrs. Mills as a discouragement for immorality in general. Other theories claimed the killers were local teenagers, Mrs. Mills’ husband, or a hired assassin. At the trial, the defense even proposed that the Pig Lady did it.” …show more content…

The man and woman had been laid out side-by-side next to a crab-apple tree. The man had a hat covering his face and the woman’s head rested on the man’s right arm. Torn bits of paper lay between the bodies (later found to be love letters between the two). A calling card was propped up against one of the man’s shoes. The killer or killers had taken the time to arrange the bodies after they were dead.” (MacGowan.) The murderer had set the dead bodies in such a way that it looked like they were just enjoying the beautiful day in the sun. There were torn love letters between them and the man’s face was covered by a hat. Mary S. Hartman wrote a quote from Mr. Hamborszky, “"Mrs. Hall is a very cool woman. She has changed very much lately, and I am very much afraid that she will do me bodily harm." Was Hamborszky lying? We'll never know. He vanished on the eve of the trial in 1926.” (Hartman.) Mr. Hamborszky once said "Mrs. Hall is a very cool woman. She has changed very much lately, and I am very much afraid that she will do me bodily harm". We didn’t know if he was lying or not because he then disappeared the eve of the trial. Mary S. Hartman once said in her article, “By now, all the principals in this celebrated affair are long dead. There is no telling whether the truth of the identity of the murderer or murderers will ever be uncovered, but the documents themselves have many other truths to tell

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