Analysis of Legal Case between Hall and Mills
Analysis of Legal Case between Hall and Mills
Love, lust, betrayal, murder, these things made the Hall-Mills case, to most, the “The trial of the century”. Just passed the outskirts of New Brunswick, Edward Wheeler Hall, a Reverend of the local Protestant Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in New Brunswick, and Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, a choir singer of the same church, were killed in Franklin on the dreadful night of September 14, 1922. This murder and case was on the front page of the New York Time astonishingly sixty-two times in 1922 and approximately ninety times in 1926, according to Katherine Ramsland of www.crimelibrary.com. This murder brought people from near and far to report on it and find out what really happened. Due to many mishaps, such as mishandling the crime scene, this murder was destined to never be solved. Therefore, it was not, and it still remains one of the most controversial cases in New Jersey.
This case was not only a case of two lovers, but it was an affair of four years according to scsc.essortment.com. The affair was apparently unknown of by the spouses of the two lovers, Frances Noel Stevens Hall and James Mills when asked. Mrs. Hall was a “dumpy, plain, severe-looking women” according to www.paulsann.com, in which her appearance would later be used to describe her as the “Iron Widow” by Christopher Hann in A Dangerous Affair because of her severe expression on her face at the time of the trial. She was seven years older than that of Rev. Hall. As for Mr. Mills, he was a janitor at the Lord Stirling Elementary School and sexton of St. John’s, raising a family on thirty-five dollars a week. He was eleven years older than that of Mrs. Mills, according to www.paulsann.com. The one thing that all four had in common was the church. The church was one connection between Mr. Hall and Mrs. Mills since Mr. Hall was the Reverend and Mrs. Mills was active in the choir and the auxiliary of the church. There many places in which linked many of the activities of the case such as the Hall’s house, Mills’ house, the murder scene, and finally the Somerset County Courthouse.
The house at 23 Nichols Avenue New Brunswick, New Jersey had belonged to the Stevens for many years; it belonged to Mrs. Hall’s mother. After her mother died, Mrs....