Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA) and the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance (NJSAA) are pleased to host an author talk with Vanity Fair correspondent and Rutgers University alumnus Joe Pompeo on Thursday, November 10, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. via Zoom. Pompeo will speak about his new book on the notorious Hall-Mills murder case, Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime. Please register at this link or visit libcal.rutgers.edu/event/9365079 for more information.
Blood & Ink was published by William Morrow this month, marking the 100th anniversary of the double murder of Reverend Edward Hall, rector of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in New Brunswick, and Eleanor Mills, a singer in the church choir, who were reputedly having a scandalous affair. Their bodies were discovered artfully posed on a notorious lovers’ lane on the border of New Brunswick and Somerset. Edward Hall’s wife, Frances, who was related to the wealthy Johnson family, and Eleanor Mills’ husband Jim were early suspects in the case. The bungled investigation by the police took years and failed to bring any criminals to justice. The much-anticipated trial featured eccentric characters such as Jane Gibson, a pig farmer who came forward with a purported eyewitness account of the murder, at one point testifying from a stretcher brought into the courtroom. As well as investigating the fascinating details of the case, Pompeo shows how the rise of New York tabloid journalism and the resulting wars between papers of the 1920s kept the story alive. In an epilogue, Pompeo suggests his own theories on the still-unsolved case.
Joe Pompeo (photo by New Moon Photography)
In his well-researched book, Pompeo used the Hall-Mills Collection, as well as the Wallace Conover Papers and the Stevens family letters from SC/UA. This presentation forms part of SC/UA’s Research Salon series, which features researchers who have used SC/UA’s resources in their work. It is co-sponsored by the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance.
Over the years, many authors have tried to solve the case, including famed attorney William Kunstler, whose The Minister and the Choir Singer: The Hall-Mills Murder Case (1964) attributed the murders to the Ku Klux Klan. Another theory was offered by former dean Mary S. Hartman, who lived in Frances Hall’s house, now the residence of the Douglass Dean, in “The Hall-Mills Murder Case: The Most Fascinating Un-solved Homicide in America,” The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, 1984. The case has also inspired novels and plays, most recently Thou Shall Not, performed at St. John the Evangelist Church by Thinkery & Verse. Blood & Ink is unique in placing the case in the context of the rise of tabloid journalism and the popularity of true crime in the 1920s.
Joe Pompeo is a correspondent at Vanity Fair who previously worked at publications including Politico and The New York Observer. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Columbia Journalism Review, and many other outlets. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife and children.
