Saturday, September 14, 2024

Tonight, Darlings, Is The 102nd Anniversary Of The Hall-Mills Murder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                             This was the central mystery of my childhood.  The road you see is DeRuse's Lane back in 1922, when the murder took place.  It is now Franklin Blvd. and borders both Middlesex and Somerset counties in New Jersey.



                              Off to the side was a famous crabapple tree.  It is said the Rev. Hall and Mrs. Mills, a choir singer he was having a liaison with, were found next to one another, their throats cut, and a penis stuffed in Mrs. Mills mouth.



                                 It was the scandal of this small-town area, and still is.  Mrs. Hall was a member of the family owning Johnson and Johnson, which still controls New Brunswick.  It was just too sexual for people to take, especially with the people involved.  In William Kunstler's book, "The Minister And The Choir Singer," he mentions on an early page, that as word of the murder spread, a little girl, living in inner New Brunswick, raced to spread the word to her mother and neighbors.  That little girl was my Aunt Mary, my father's oldest sister, and the eldest of the Hearn children.  Six degrees, darlings.



                                  And then there was the Pig Woman, who lived on a farm with pigs, thought she saw or heard something, and was ill by the time of trial, so she had to be brought in on a gurney!



                                  It remains unsolved.  Kunstler claimed it was the KKK.



                                  My paternal grandmother, who would talk to me about the murder, said she always believed Willie Stevens, Mrs. Halls' special needs brother, was responsible and I agree.  They probably confronted the couple in their tryst on this night in '22, things got out of hand, or maybe Mrs. Hall ordered Willie to do the dastardly deed.



                                    However, I always will believe it was Willie.  



                                   But each night, on this date, it is said you can hear the voices of the adulterous lovers, crying out for justice!



                                    Happy Anniversary, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

  1. when we were children, words like “liaison” and “affair” sounded so sophisticated didn’t they.
    What do the young people call it now, just, “cheating” I guess?

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  2. Victoria, I think cheating is the term today. I think the earlier words sounded mysterious and scandalous. But today the quality of language has changed.

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