Moonlight Murder on Lovers' Lane (6 page)

Described as tall and thin, with tight skin that emphasized his gauntness, Gorsline was an industrial engineer by trade. He also had owned a dark green Apperson touring car, which he used to impress women.

Mott had formed his own opinion about Gorsline’s involvement. He’d surmised that Gorsline had found the reverend’s stash of letters from Eleanor, had gotten angry or jealous, and had shown them to Frances Hall and Henry Carpender. He’d then driven Frances and Henry himself to De Russey’s Lane, urging them to confront the lovers. When the murders occurred, he’d helped to cover them up. Thus, he’d been an instigator and an accomplice. Yet there had been no proof of Mott’s notion and Gorsline had denied being in the area.

Now the case was in new hands. Simpson wanted to hear from Gorsline for himself. His instincts were right. He learned that a young stenographer and choir member named Catherine Rastall had been with Ralph Gorsline on the night of the murders. Prior investigators had learned this from witnesses but had done little to follow up.

Simpson thought there was more to the story, so he’d applied some pressure to Catherine Rastall. The story she had stuck to for the past four years quickly crumbled. She admitted being near the scene of the crime and had heard four shots.

When told, Gorsline also changed his story. He, too, admitted he’d been on De Russey’s Lane on the night of the murders.

Ralph Gorsline

He’d turned into the lane around 10:20 PM, he said, and had begun to back out when he heard a shot, a woman’s scream, and then three more shots. The scream had died to a moan and then stopped altogether. A minute or two after that, he’d heard voices mumbling something. He’d waited at least three minutes before he left, but could not give a reason for this.

Why had he not said so before? He’d wanted to protect Rastall’s identity. Since she had talked, he was free to tell what he had witnessed. Yet Gorsline still seemed to be hiding something.

Simpson also discovered a report from another member of the choir that Gorsline had threatened to expose Eleanor to get her to give up the reverend, and that he’d been spying on her, in the company of a woman who wanted the reverend for herself. They’d been seen on more than one occasion watching the couple from a distance.

The defense attorneys could have used this to pose Gorsline himself as a viable suspect. Today we might call this type of person a stalker—someone so obsessed that he’d kill his rival and the object he desired. In fact, directly after being questioned by Mott in 1922, Gorsline’s expensive touring car caught fire. One might wonder if he was destroying evidence.

However, Gorsline faded back into the woodwork. He was just another witness, rather than a co-conspirator.

Grand jury testimony included a report from a man who had seen scratches on Frances Hall’s face on the day of her husband’s funeral, and a woman who placed Henry Stevens in New Brunswick on the day after the murders. The jurors returned a true bill to indict Frances, both of her brothers, and their cousin Henry Carpender for the murders of Reverend Hall and Mrs. Mills. Officers arrested Stevens and the four defendants were arraigned. Each pleaded not guilty, but only Mrs. Hall was allowed to remain free after posting a substantial bail.

Simpson asked that Carpender be tried separately from the other three. The first trial was scheduled for November 3, 1926, over four years after Edward and Eleanor had been murdered. As people waited, they speculated over whether the true killers had been caught or were still roaming free.

Because the original autopsy reports were missing, once again, both bodies were exhumed for another examination. Afterward, officials issued a statement.

Edward had been shot while either sitting or kneeling. The bullet had entered his head from an upward angle and exited through the back of his neck. But an item about Eleanor caught everyone’s attention.

No one had noticed before, but Eleanor’s tongue and larynx had been cut out.

Chapter 17: Suspects

In addition to Simpson’s theory of the crime, other theories emerged:

1)   Frances Hall was the lone perpetrator, bent on revenge. The night watchman saw only Frances go into the house at 2:30 AM that Friday morning. Two witnesses saw a car like hers out near the crime scene.

2)   James Mills did it, because he knew his wife was unfaithful and she had challenged him that night to follow her. She had mocked his manhood, making him angry.

3)   Frances and her brother Willie did it together, and Willie was the killer. He knew how to handle a gun and had taken Edward’s .32-caliber pistol. He had not meant to actually shoot anyone. It had been an accident, based on his impulsive nature. Frances had disposed of the gun. Willie had posed the bodies and cut Eleanor’s throat, because when enraged, he could act quite impulsively. Willie had sent his clothes to be dry-cleaned the day after the murders, and they’d been handed over to the police because they bore suspicious spots, but the outfit was subsequently lost. Willie had been agitated the next morning and made several remarks to the effect that he’d been up all night, there was trouble, and people would soon hear about it. His buddies at the fire station suspected that he knew about the murders before the bodies were discovered.

4)   Frances had hired a hit man.

5)   Henry Stevens and/or Henry Carpender had shot the lovers in vengeance for their sister’s honor. She had been with them.

6)   Ralph Gorsline was angry at Eleanor for taking up with the reverend, and also jealous. He and a woman who wanted the minister for herself often spied on the two, so they could have been inflaming each other’s anger.

7)   A jealous rival of Eleanor who’d sought Edward’s attention did it. There were other women in the choir and church who hated Eleanor. A few days after the murders, someone tore a page out of several hymnals. The page contained her and Edward’s favorite hymn. The favorite suspect was Minnie Clark, a plump schoolteacher.

Whoever had killed them, Eleanor was clearly the target of this person’s rage. Edward’s eyes had been closed and a hat placed over his face, indicating comfort and possible remorse. Eleanor, on the other hand, had been shot three times, had her throat sliced, and her tongue and voice box cut out. Her eyes had been left wide open.

Chapter 18: First Witnesses

Before the trial, Jane Gibson was taken to a safe place out of town. She was a star witness, although her health was failing. She claimed she was ready to testify.

Reporters from major newspapers flocked to Somerville, New Jersey, and Western Union hired additional telegraphers. Some journalists arrived from other countries. It seemed that the mystery surrounding the murders of the minister and his mistress would finally be resolved. Despite their misdeeds, people wanted this crime against them to be punished. More importantly, some had money riding on a pet theory about the perpetrator’s identity.

Frances Hall and her brothers were to be tried together, focusing first on the murder and mutilation of Eleanor Mills. Supreme Court Justice Charles Parker presided with Somerset County common pleas judge, Frank Cleary. The jury, all members of which were male and married, was selected surprisingly fast, in just over an hour. (This was before pre-trial publicity issues were seriously considered.) The three suspects sat together with their defense team.

Frances Hall with brothers Willie(L) and Henry(R)

Simpson offered his theory: Frances had hoped to catch the couple in the act. When she overheard a phone conversation, she figured that September 14 was the night. She told her brothers and they all set out for De Russey’s Lane for a confrontation. They thought they were acting under the cover of darkness and isolation, but an eyewitness, Jane Gibson, saw what they did. She would give her story.

The incriminating evidence was mostly circumstantial, although Willie’s fingerprint on the calling card found at Edward’s feet seemed like a clincher. There was also Frances’ anonymous call to the police to inquire about “casualties,” dyeing a coat black after the murders, and the fact that her private investigator was alleged to have bribed Dickman to stop his investigation.

Everyone awaited the Pig Woman’s eyewitness testimony. They were eager to see this woman confront Frances.
That
would be a scene worth waiting for.

The first witness, an accountant, was weak, but Charlotte Mills, now 20, was next. She identified the letters her mother had written to Edward, and noted that the last time she had seen her mother was when she’d gone to make a phone call to Edward on the night she disappeared. She also identified letters and a diary from Edward to her mother. The court learned that Eleanor was in the habit of leaving her love letters in a large book in Edward’s study at the church. Charlotte knew its exact location.

Charlotte Mills

Anna Hoag, the next witness, lived near De Russey’s Lane. She had heard four distinct pistol shots on the night of the homicides. She also said that when she moved into the Phillips farmhouse in 1923, Henry Stevens had walked into the area. He’d inquired about a tragedy that had taken place near there, frightening her, and she had watched him walk away in an agitated state. As he passed near the location of the bodies, he’d nearly collapsed.

When Ralph Gorsline responded to questions, he appeared to be hiding something. Everyone knew that directly after the incident, he had led others in defending Edward as a “fine man” and had acted as if nothing was amiss. All along, he’d believed differently. The journalist Damon Runyon thought the prosecutor was certain that Gorsline knew quite a lot about the murders. Simpson badgered him relentlessly to get him to talk.

Gorsline repeated what he said he’d heard, although he changed the order, saying he had first heard mumbling and then shots. He seemed to know exactly how Eleanor’s throat had been cut, but to Simpson’s frustration, this testimony from a grand jury hearing was not allowed.

The defense team tried to get Gorsline to admit to telling a New York City detective in October 1922 that Henry Stevens recognized him that night on De Russey’s Lane and had fired two shots into the ground to warn him away. He was later threatened into swearing that he’d never tell.

Gorsline shook his head. He denied that he had ever confessed such a thing. Confronted with the man he supposedly told, he still denied it.

Then came the scientific testimony. Fingerprint evidence had been the subject of admissibility debates in 1911. It was now an accepted methodology, although still new to many juries. Three fingerprint experts testified that the left index fingerprint of Willie Stevens was on the calling card found at the scene.