Ninety-Nine Years Ago, Tonight, Darlings........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      I did a long post on this, nine years ago, but as the Centennial is approaching, I thought it worth mentioning.

                                       Many of my age, and older, living in Middlesex or Somerset Counties in New Jersey, could not help hearing about The Hall-Mills Murder.  My paternal relations talked about it all the time, as they were children, when it happened, back  in  1922.

                                           Technically, it is till  an unsolved case, though, like my paternal grandmother, I always felt Willie Stevens, Mrs. Hall's special needs brother, did the deed, at his sister's request.

                                             It was the scandal of the day.  The Reverend Hall, pastor of the Episcopal Church on George Street, was allegedly having an affair with his choir singer, Eleanor Mills.  It was known all over town, and Mrs. Hall came from money; her family was involved in the founding of Johnson and Johnson, which now runs New Brunswick.   I grew up, across the river, in Highland Park.

                                              The murder took place this night in an apple grove, on what was then DeRussey's Lane, and is today Franklin Boulevard.  What I believe is that Mrs. Hall discovered what was going on through the discovery of letters, and, with Willie Stevens, went to the lovers' trysting place, where they confronted them.  Either things got out of hand, or Willie was ordered to kill them, but on  the morning of September 16, their  bodies were found under the crabapple tree.  Allegedly--maybe an urban legend--his penis was cut off and placed in her mouth.

                                               Several books were written about the case--"Lovers Lane," by Rick Geary, "The Minister And The Choir Singer," by William Kunstler (the one and only!)--and countless articles,  proposing all sorts of theories, but, based on the knowledge  of  my grandmother, plus the credibility of its possibility, I have always gone with Mrs. Hall and  Willie confronting the couple, resulting in their deaths.

                                                   Something  to think about, girls!  No wonder I developed such macabre fascinations.

                                                    They geographically surrounded me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    Let's hope New Brunswick does a Centennial Celebration, next year!

                                                   I  will actually go back there, for that!