Historical Crime Files: The Hall-Mills Murder

I’ve always loved true crime and that’s one of the reasons I started writing cozy mysteries. I had intended to carry on writing romances, but my eldest daughter suggested I write something crime related. I’ve always loved Agatha Christie – particularly Miss Marple – and so I thought it would be fun to write something that meshed two of my favourite things together: crime and history. At the time I was rewatching Downton Abbey for the zillionth time and I thought how fun it would be if I wrote a series of books that featured the same grand settings and the glamour of the 1920s. At the time there weren’t too many 1920s cozy mystery series about and I didn’t actually start out writing the series trying to capture a particular audience – I just wanted to write what I thought might happen if Miss Marple was also in Downton Abbey!

All of this neatly leads me into a series I’m going to feature here on my brand new blog and that is historical true crimes 🙂

The first crime I’m looking at is the Hall-Mills Murder of 1922. I just had to feature a 1920s crime with the sort of characters and storyline that would be right at home in the pages of my books!

*Please be aware that the following post includes true crime details – there’s slightly more detail than you’d find in my books regarding the crime scene – please note the image in this post was created using AI and is not intended to be a true likeness of the victims or of the crime scene.

The Victims

Edward Hall was an Episcopal minister with a good reputation. Eleanor Mills was a choir singer at his church. Both were married to other people – Edward to Frances Hall who was related to many of the wealthy families of New Brunswick; and Eleanor to James who was an acting sexton and the church and a full time school janitor.

The Suspects

Frances Noel Stevens Hall – The prosecution suggested that the murders were set in motion by the reverend’s wife.

Henry de la Bruyere Carpender – A cousin of Frances Hall who, although was an early suspect, was never tried for the murders.

Henry Hewgill Stevens – Frances’s brother was a retired exhibition marksman and the person the prosecution believed fired the shots. He claimed that he was fishing miles away and had three witnesses who corroborated his alibi.

William Carpender Stevens – Willie was known to own a .32-caliber pistol like the one it was thought was used in the murder, though his gun had been filed down. The prosecution believed he provided the murder weapon. His fingerprint was found on Edward Hall’s calling card which was found at the scene.

The Trial

The trial took place four years after the murders and was a media sensation! Never before had a trial received so much attention.

Jane Gibson testified that went outside at 9.00pm on the night of the murders because her dog was barking loudly. She rode her mule towards a man who was standing in her cornfield. When she reached him, she says there were four people standing near a crab apple tree. She heard a gunshot and one person fell to the ground. Jane says she then heard a woman shout “Henry!” and then “Don’t!” three times before she heard more gunshots. She hurried home.

Despite Jane’s evidence, all three remaining suspects were acquitted of the murders.

After the trial, Frances Hall brought a defamation suit against one of the newspapers that covered the trial – this was settled out of court for a large sum of money.

The Outcome

After the trial, no one else was ever suspected of the murders and to this day, no one has been convicted of the crime. Several books have been written about the case – popular opinion seems to be that the crimes were committed by Frances Hall’s brothers.

Questions remain unanswered:

• Was Frances the mastermind behind the killings – exacting deadly revenge on her cheating husband?
• Did her brothers take matters into their own hands to spare their sister any more pain or to protect their family’s name/honour?
• Was someone else entirely involved–perhaps an unknown enemy of the lovers?

What do you think?