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48-670: Hearst hired Philip Payne away from the Daily News as managing editor of the Mirror . Payne's circulation building stunts ranged from reviving the sensational Hall-Mills murder case to sponsoring and being a passenger on the Old Glory , transatlantic flying record attempt, in which he was killed. Early on, several bright young writers and photographic journalists joined the Daily Mirror , such as Ring Lardner, Jr. , Hy Peskin and

96-514: A crab apple tree. The man had a hat covering his face, and his calling card was placed at his feet. Torn-up love letters were placed between the bodies. A jurisdictional issue complicated the initial investigation, as the crime scene was near the border between Somerset County and Middlesex County . New Brunswick (Middlesex County) police arrived first, but the crime scene was actually in Franklin Township (Somerset County). While

144-599: A media circus . It would take the Lindbergh kidnapping trial in the 1930s to eclipse the high profile of the Hall-Mills case. On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Eleanor Mills and Edward Hall were discovered in a field near a farm in Somerset County , New Jersey . Both bodies were on their backs, both shot in the head with a .32-caliber pistol , the man once and the woman three times. The bullet entered

192-445: A blue velvet hat that was on the ground near her body, and her brown silk scarf was wrapped around her throat. Her arm had a bruise and there was a tiny cut on her lip. Her left hand had been positioned to touch the man's right thigh. The man was identified as Edward Wheeler Hall (born 1881), a New Brunswick Episcopal priest. He was found with his right arm positioned to touch the woman's neck. His hat covered his face, which concealed

240-484: A cousin, Henry de la Bruyere Carpender. The original 1922 investigation by Joseph E. Stricker (1870–1926) yielded no indictments . Continued speculation in the New York Daily Mirror , fueled by comments made by a man associated with one of Mrs. Hall's housekeepers, led Governor A. Harry Moore to order a second investigation and a trial in 1926. Henry Carpender won a bid to be tried separately from

288-519: A fully-loaded one. In blowback -type semi-automatics, the recoil force is used to push the slide back and eject the shell (if any) so that the magazine spring can push another round up; then as the slide returns, it chambers the round. An example of a modern blowback action semi-automatic pistol is the Walther PPK . Blowback pistols are some of the more simply designed handguns. Many semi-automatic pistols today operate using short recoil. This design

336-515: A handgun with a single integral chamber within its barrel . Webster's Dictionary defines it as "a handgun whose chamber is integral with the barrel". This makes it distinct from the other types of handgun, such as the revolver , which has multiple chambers within a rotating cylinder that is separately aligned with a single barrel; and the derringer , which is a short pocket gun often with multiple single-shot barrels and no reciprocating action . The 18 U.S. Code § 921 legally defines

384-477: A member of his choir with whom he was having an affair , both of whom were murdered on September 14, 1922, in Somerset, New Jersey , United States. Hall's wife and her brothers were accused of committing the murders, but were acquitted in a 1926 trial. In the history of journalism, the case is largely remembered for the vast extent of newspaper coverage it received nationwide; it has been regarded as an example of

432-523: A single barrel and a separate cylinder housing multiple chambers) and the pocket-sized derringers (which are often multi-barrelled ). The most common type of pistol used in the contemporary era is the semi-automatic pistol , while the older single-shot and lever-action pistols are now rarely seen and used primarily for nostalgic hunting and historical reenactment , and the fully-automatic machine pistols are uncommon in civilian usage because of their generally poor recoil -controllability (due to

480-616: Is a type of handgun , characterised by a barrel with an integral chamber . The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French pistolet ( c.  1550 ), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the English language c.  1570 when early handguns were produced in Europe. In colloquial usage, the word "pistol" is often used as a generic term to describe any type of handgun, inclusive of revolvers (which have

528-540: Is generally used to describe a weapon that is more compact than a typical submachine gun. Multi-barreled pistols, such as the pepper-box , were common during the same time as single shot pistols. As designers looked for ways to increase fire rates, multiple barrels were added to pistols. One example of a multi-barreled pistol is the COP .357 Derringer . Around 1850, pistols such as the Jarre harmonica gun were produced that had

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576-600: Is often coupled with the Browning type tilting barrel. A machine pistol is a pistol that is capable of burst-fire or fully automatic fire . The first machine pistol was produced by Austria-Hungary in 1916, as the Steyr Repetierpistole M1912/P16 , and the term is derived from the German word maschinenpistolen . Though it is often used interchangeably with submachine gun , a machine pistol

624-774: The Daily News . On January 4, 1971, publisher Robert W. Farrell revived the New York Daily Mirror in name only, as a tabloid, published in Long Island City, Queens . Operating on a shoestring budget, the paper faced obstruction from the Daily News (from whom it had acquired the Daily Mirror name rights after the Daily News let them lapse). This new iteration of the Daily Mirror ceased publication on February 28, 1972. Hall-Mills murder case The Hall–Mills murder case involved Edward Wheeler Hall, an Episcopal priest, and Eleanor Mills,

672-585: The 16th century, when early handguns were produced in Europe. The English word was introduced in c.  1570 from the Middle French pistolet ( c.  1550 ). The etymology of the French word pistolet is disputed. It may be from a Czech word for early hand cannons , píšťala ("whistle" or "pipe"), used in the Hussite Wars during the 1420s. The Czech word was adopted in German as pitschale , pitschole , petsole , and variants. Alternatively

720-637: The Minister and the Choir Singer? is the most detailed exploration of the case written to date and concludes that the Stevens siblings were the guilty parties. Additional images and a more detailed account of the local perspective and effect on the once-rural community of Franklin Township can be found in books written by William B. Brahms . In 2012, Rick Geary released a graphic novel based on

768-404: The authorities addressed the confusion, curiosity-seekers trampled the scene, took souvenirs, and passed Hall's calling card among the crowd. The physical evidence was thus severely compromised. The woman was identified as Eleanor Reinhardt Mills (born 1888), the wife of James E. Mills (1878–1965). She was wearing a blue dress with red polka dots, black silk stockings, and brown shoes. She had worn

816-541: The case, titled Lovers' Lane: The Hall-Mills Mystery . It is one in the series, "A Treasury of XXth Century Murder". In her book Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby (2013), Sarah Churchwell speculates that parts of the ending of The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald , were based on the Hall-Mills Case. Based on her forensic search for clues, she asserts that

864-405: The chambers revolve about the cylinder's axis. After the revolver, the semi-automatic pistol was the next step in the development of the pistol. By avoiding multiple chambers—which need to be individually reloaded—semi-automatic pistols delivered faster rates of fire and required only a few seconds to reload, by pushing a button or flipping a switch, and the magazine slides out to be replaced by

912-491: The condition had not yet been clinically described, and no conclusive diagnosis can be made. Stevens died on December 30, 1942. Jane Gibson ( ca 1870–1930) and her son William lived in an old barn that had been converted into living space, just off De Russey's Lane (now Franklin Boulevard). The press called her the "pig woman" because she raised hogs. She told the investigators that her dog was barking loudly about 9:00 pm on

960-542: The decade's celebrities like Rudolph Valentino , Babe Ruth and Charles A. Lindbergh . By the 1930s, the Daily Mirror was one of the Hearst Corporation 's largest papers in terms of circulation. However, the paper never became a significantly profitable property as its earnings were mostly destined to support the company's faltering afternoon papers, and in its later years it declined substantially despite numerous efforts to turn things around. Despite having

1008-418: The development of the revolver , short for revolving pistol, in the 19th century, gunsmiths had finally achieved the goal of a practical capability for delivering multiple loads to one handgun barrel in quick succession. Revolvers feed ammunition via the rotation of a cartridge-filled cylinder , in which each cartridge is contained within its own ignition chamber and is sequentially brought into alignment with

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1056-510: The film was remade as The Past of Mary Holmes in 1933. Attorney and liberal activist William Kunstler published a 1964 book titled The Minister and the Choir Singer , which he re-released with added editorial material in 1980 as The Hall-Mills Murders . In his book, Kunstler theorized that the Ku Klux Klan had been responsible for the couple's demise, based on the facts that the Klan

1104-490: The gunshot wound to his head. He wore a pair of glasses. There was a small bruise on the tip of his ear, and abrasions were found on his left little finger and right index finger. A wound was found five inches (127 mm) below his kneecap, on the calf of his right leg. His gold watch was missing, and there were coins in his pocket. The suspects in the murder were Hall's wife, Frances Noel Stevens, her two brothers, Henry Hewgill Stevens and William "Willie" Carpender Stevens, and

1152-409: The lack of a buttstock ) and strict laws and regulations governing their manufacture and sale (where they are regarded as submachine gun equivalents). Technically speaking, the term "pistol" is a hypernym generally referring to a handgun and predates the existence of the type of guns to which it is now applied as a specific term, that is: in colloquial usage it is used specifically to describe

1200-446: The man's head over his right ear and exited through the back of his neck. The woman was shot under the right eye, over the right temple and over the right ear. A police officer at the scene noticed that the woman's throat had been severed, and maggots were already in the wound, indicating the death occurred at least 24 hours earlier. The bodies appeared to have been positioned side by side after death. Both had their feet pointing toward

1248-411: The night of the murder. She went outside of her house and saw a man standing in her cornfield. She rode her mule toward Easton Avenue to approach the man. As she got closer she saw that there were four people standing near a crab apple tree. She heard gunshots and one of the figures fell to the ground, presumably dead. She testified that a woman screamed "Don't!" three times. She said she turned her mule in

1296-508: The opposite direction and headed back to her house, then heard more gunshots; when she looked back at the tree, she saw a second person fall down, presumably dead. She testified that she had heard a woman shout the name "Henry." After the trial, Mrs. Hall brought a defamation suit against the New York Daily Mirror , which was settled out of court for an unspecific large amount. The New York Times ' accounts were actually more voluminous, but less slanted; they reported on all aspects of

1344-478: The pistol was loaded with a lead ball and fired by a flint striker, and then later a percussion cap . The handgun required a reload every time it was shot. However, as technology improved, so did the single-shot pistol. New operating mechanisms were created, and some are still made today. They are the oldest type of pistol and are often used to hunt wild game . Additionally, their compact size compared to most other types of handgun makes them more concealable . With

1392-989: The police, to newspapers, and at the trial (at which she testified from a hospital bed rolled into the court room). All three defendants at trial were acquitted. Eleanor Reinhardt was married to James E. Mills. They lived at 49 Carman Street in New Brunswick, New Jersey. James was acting sexton at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church and full-time janitor at the Lord Stirling Elementary School, both in New Brunswick. Eleanor and James had two children, Charlotte E. Mills (1906–1952) and Daniel Mills (1910–1992). Eleanor, James, and their children were buried in Van Liew Cemetery , North Brunswick . Edward Wheeler Hall married Frances Noel Stevens on July 20, 1911. He

1440-528: The political commentator Drew Pearson . The poet-songwriter Nick Kenny was the paper's radio editor, and Edward Zeltner contributed a column. The gossip columnist Walter Winchell and managing editor Emile Gauvreau were both hired away from the New York Evening Graphic , the city's third sensational tabloid. Winchell was given his own radio show and syndicated, in his prime—the 1940s and early 1950s—in more than 2000 daily papers. During

1488-416: The prosecution's scenario, he provided the weapon, and his fingerprint was found on a calling card left at the scene of the crime. Willie was a colorful character on the witness stand, delivering credible and not unsympathetic testimony. He was incapable of holding a job and spent most of his time hanging out at a local firehouse. Willie's eccentric personality was consistent with high-functioning autism , but

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1536-618: The second-highest daily circulation of an American newspaper at the time, the Daily Mirror closed in 1963, after the 114-day 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike (which also contributed to the death of the Herald Tribune , the Journal-American and the World-Telegram and Sun ). On October 16, 1963, the Daily Mirror published its last issue. The Daily Mirror name rights were at that point acquired by its rival

1584-536: The shots. Henry testified that he was fishing miles away from the murder on the night of the killing, and three witnesses corroborated his testimony. He died of a heart attack on December 3, 1939, in Lavallette, New Jersey. William "Willie" Carpender Stevens (1872–1942) was born on March 13, 1872. He owned a .32-caliber pistol like the one used in the murder, although the firing mechanism was supposed to have been filed down so that he could not hurt himself with it. In

1632-512: The term "pistol" as "a weapon originally designed, made, and intended to fire a projectile ( bullet ) from one or more barrels when held in one hand, and having: a chamber(s) as an integral part(s) of, or permanently aligned with, the bore(s) ; and a short stock designed to be gripped by one hand at an angle to and extending below the line of the bore(s) ", which includes derringers but excludes revolvers. Commonwealth usage, for instance, does not usually make distinction, particularly when

1680-838: The terms are used by the military. For example, the official designation of the Webley Mk VI revolver was "Pistol, Revolver, Webley, No. 1 Mk VI". In contrast to the Merriam-Webster definition, the Oxford English Dictionary (a descriptive dictionary) describes "pistol" as "a small firearm designed to be held in one hand", which is similar to the Webster definition for "handgun"; and "revolver" as "a pistol with revolving chambers enabling several shots to be fired without reloading", giving its original form as "revolving pistol". The pistol originates in

1728-536: The three others accused; ultimately, he was never tried. The Hall–Mills trial began on November 3, 1926, at the Somerset County Courthouse in Somerville , with Charles W. Parker and Frank Cleary presiding as judges. It lasted about thirty days and garnered huge national attention, largely because of the social status of the wealthy Stevens and Carpender families. The prosecuting attorney

1776-461: The three tabloids' 1920s circulation war, management of the Mirror estimated that its content was 10% news and 90% entertainment. For example, the Mirror and Graphic both had devoted substantial resources to the exploitation of scandal with repeated stories on such events as the divorce trial of real estate tycoon Edward West "Daddy" Browning who at age 51 had married 16-year-old Frances Belle "Peaches" Heenan , as well as constant coverage of

1824-493: The trial and dedicated more space to the Hall-Mills case than any previous trial in American history. (That record would soon be eclipsed by another New Jersey trial, the Lindbergh case . ) The Hall-Mills murders have been much examined in both fiction and non-fiction. Damon Runyon was one of the reporters of the trial, as were famed mystery novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart , H. L. Mencken , and Billy Sunday . Willie Stevens

1872-569: The two victims in the Halls-Mills murder case inspired the characters who were murdered in The Great Gatsby . The non-fiction book Blood and Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder that Hooked America on True Crime (2022), by Joe Pompeo , considers the Hall-Mills murder from the standpoint of the media coverage and its general effect on the treatment of crime in contemporary newspapers and magazines. Pistol A pistol

1920-418: The weapon's barrel by an indexing mechanism linked to the weapon's trigger ( double-action ) or its hammer ( single-action ). These nominally cylindrical chambers, usually numbering between five and eight depending on the size of the revolver and the size of the cartridge being fired, are bored through the cylinder so that their axes are parallel to the cylinder's axis of rotation; thus, as the cylinder rotates,

1968-498: The word originated from Italian pistolese , after Pistoia , a city renowned for Renaissance-era gunsmithing, where hand-held guns (designed to be fired from horseback) were first produced in the 1540s. However, the use of the word as a designation of a gun is not documented before 1605 in Italy, long after it was used in French and German. Single-shot handguns were mainly used during the era of flintlock and musket weaponry where

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2016-496: Was Alexander Simpson . Defense attorneys were Robert H. McCarter (a former New Jersey Attorney General ) and Timothy N. Pfeiffer. Joseph A. Faurot was the testifying fingerprint expert. Raymond C. Stryker was the foreman of the jury. The prosecution 's key witness was Jane Gibson, a pig farmer on whose property the bodies were discovered. The defense portrayed Gibson as uneducated and "crazy", and attempted to ruin her credibility. Gibson's account varied, differing when told to

2064-561: Was a very violent organization and was active in New Jersey in the 1920s. But he acknowledged that the Klan had not previously killed anyone in the state, and could only speculate on why the KKK would target this particular couple, both of whom were white and uninvolved in racial politics. Fictional detective Nero Wolfe reads this book in A Right to Die , while investigating a similar situation. Gerald Tomlinson 's Fatal Tryst: Who Killed

2112-406: Was born on May 15, 1882, to John Neilson Carpender and Anna Neilson Kemp. He lived with his wife Mary Nielson at the corner of Suydam Street and Nichol Avenue in New Brunswick. Henry was a cousin of Frances Stevens Hall and her brothers, whose mother was a Carpender. He worked as a Wall Street stockbroker. Although he was an initial suspect, he was never brought to trial. He died on May 26, 1934, and

2160-608: Was buried in Elmwood Cemetery , North Brunswick. Frances Noel Stevens was born on January 13, 1874, to Francis Kerby Stevens (1840–1874) and Mary Noel Carpender (1840–1919). Frances and Edward married on July 20, 1911. She was buried on December 21, 1942, in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband. In the prosecution's scenario, she instigated the murder of her cheating husband. Her home

2208-727: Was later bought by Rutgers University and used as the residence of the Dean of Douglass Residential College . Mrs. Hall was related to many of the wealthy families of New Brunswick, including the Carpenders, Nielsons, and possibly the Johnsons of Johnson & Johnson . Henry Hewgill Stevens (1869–1939) was born on November 10, 1869. He married Ethel Griffin on June 27, 1901. He was a retired exhibition marksman and lived in Lavallette, New Jersey . The prosecution contended that he fired

2256-458: Was later the subject of an essay by James Thurber . The trial inspired the novel The Crime by Stephen Longstreet as well as Frances Noyes Hart 's novel The Bellamy Trial , a pioneering work that helped establish the genre of the courtroom mystery and was turned into a film in 1929. Even before the trial, the silent film The Goose Woman (1925), starring Louise Dresser and Jack Pickford , capitalized on Jane Gibson's story and statements;

2304-519: Was raised in Brooklyn , New York , receiving his theological degree in Manhattan . After graduation, he moved from New York to Basking Ridge, New Jersey , and then to St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in New Brunswick. Edward was living at 23 Nichol Avenue in New Brunswick at the time of the murder. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Henry de la Bruyere Carpender (1882–1934)

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