Moonlight Murder on Lovers' Lane (8 page)

Somerset Courtroom

The jury took three separate votes (10-2, 11-1, and then unanimous) over the five hours and eight minutes of deliberations. None had believed the Pig Woman’s story, but they had worried over the fingerprint evidence. Both sides had presented compelling experts.

Finally, they made their way through the muddle to reach a verdict: They acquitted all three defendants.

Frances, greatly relieved, shook her attorneys’ hands, Henry teared up and asked for his wife, while Willie grinned as if he’d never had a doubt.

Mrs. Frances Hall

Soon the other charges were dismissed and the men, including Carpender, were released from custody. They went home and prepared to sue the
New York Daily Mirror
for its over-the-top coverage. (The paper settled.)

The Pig Woman learned the news in her hospital bed. “Well, can you beat that?” she said. (She died from cancer three years later.)

Simpson said it was what he’d expected, and made several excuses, including the need to move such a trial to another venue. He also thought they should have tried the defendants for Edward Hall’s murder first, as if that might have made a difference.

The New York Times
dismissed both legal teams for their disgraceful “ends justifies the means” approach.

No one else was ever accused of these crimes. No murder weapon was ever found, and the alleged handkerchief evidence never became a solid lead. De Russey’s Lane is now a broad, busy boulevard that goes by a different name.

Many people still study this double homicide with a modern eye and propose why their own favorite suspect was the most likely perpetrator. Recently, there was reason to revisit one of them.

Chapter 23: New Evidence?

Julie Nomides, Vicinage Assistant Chief Probation Officer in Middlesex County, has offered lectures and displayed the few enduring items of evidence collected from the Hall-Mills crime scene, still held in the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. Wayne Guinn and his wife Debbie attended two of these lectures.

“Our interest in the case is multi-faceted,” Guinn said, “The intrigue of a local unsolved murder, my scientific background in laboratory medicine, and as an amateur forensic investigator. The literature available provides a provocative case replete with elements of circumstance that make for a great mystery with numerous plausible theories. It’s so darn intriguing!”

Like most, he believes that the murders were planned. “I also believe that a vengeful murderer could not resist leaving behind a prideful and taunting ‘calling card,’ having adequate detail to link but not enough to convict.”

Guinn is not referring to the infamous calling card at the minister’s feet. He means that the killer left something at the scene that only he could identify it as a personal signature. Guinn was looking at photos one day when something jumped out at him.

“There is an image of Hall’s bloodstained tie with a tie clasp attached. Note that the clip is inscribed with a single letter. The letter is not an ‘H,’ as you would expect that a man named Hall would wear. Rather, it appears to be inscribed with an upper-case cursive ‘G.’”

Tie pin
Photo courtesy of Wayne Guinn

“What does it mean?” Guinn and his wife wondered. “Why would Hall be wearing a tie clasp having a letter other than his first or last name? Why this was never noticed over a period of 89 years? Did it belong to Ralph V. Gorsline?”

Gorsline, the aforementioned lying vestryman from St. John’s, was also a member of several secret patriotic fraternal orders that were popular during the early 1900s. Despite his womanizing, he prided himself on his upstanding character. He had also served in the Army during the Spanish-American War and was captain of a local militia for two years.

“Thus, we know that he was familiar with guns and had been trained to kill,” said Guinn. Even if he did not intend to shoot, he might have done so, anyway, especially if Hall tried to wrest away his gun.”

Guinn can’t understand why no one from any of the investigations noticed the tie clasp. “If I were investigating, I would have been all over this finding, since it simply does not fit. If basic psychology was applied, after learning about Gorsline’s related interactions and the fact that he was known as a womanizer (and perhaps megalomaniac), and having had the requisite military experience to de-humanize, he easily fits the profile of someone with motivation and the capability to commit such a heinous act.”

Guinn also considers the deep slice across Eleanor’s neck that had nearly decapitated her.

“The wound was obviously caused by a blade capable of causing a deep slash without a sawing motion. Gorsline was military-trained in hand-to-hand bayonet fighting. It was common for guys to keep these knives as souvenirs after the war. A bayonet is capable of causing this type of deep slash—It has a sharp edge and the necessary length (a 12-inch blade) to do so in one continuous motion at a depth of five or more inches. I have only speculation, but it certainly fits with Gorsline’s background and the type of wound described in the autopsy findings.”

In addition, Guinn finds Gorsline’s claims to be suspicious. “Four years after the murders, Gorsline admits being 300 yards away at the time of the killing, and that he heard the shots, screams and moaning. Imagine this: Hearing moaning three football fields away! The reason he has to come clean is because there is new testimony that his green Apperson Jackrabbit was seen in the vicinity. So now he needs a story to cover a reason for being there
and
an excuse for why he never reported it and lied when he was questioned by investigators earlier. So he comes up with the perfect alibi—a reason for which an upstanding civic leader and a God-fearing vestryman would hide facts. He develops an elaborate story that gives him a shameful reason [infidelity with a young churchgoer] for being there, and he has a person to corroborate it. This, in turn, provides him with a plausible rationale to hide the facts, since it would become a scandal to his marriage and to the community.”

Guinn doubts that Rastall was actually there. “He got Rastall to lie for him. It took her a while before her story matched his and his story kept changing. In fact, one juror asked if Gorsline wasn’t a perjurer and why he gets away with it. If the prosecutor had been more of a thinking sort, he would have pressed that issue with the judge in effort to force Gorsline to get hard time, and would then attempt to strike a leniency deal with him in exchange for what he knew. Imagine if Gorsline had sung. It would have been all over with.”

If we re-examine Gorsline in light of what we know these days about jealous stalkers, it’s not improbable that he was the fatal instigator. In fact, in this context, he becomes even more viable.

Chapter 24: What They Didn’t Know Then

It’s quite possible that Ralph Gorsline was a stalker. Just how fixated he might have been is anyone’s guess, but he certainly was angry enough to talk about Edward’s indiscretion to others and to threaten Eleanor. He’d reportedly been sexually involved with Eleanor at one time, and perhaps she’d thrown him over for Edward.

Gorsline was seen spying on the two. It seems an unlikely coincidence that he would have been at De Russey’s Lane on the very night that Edward and Eleanor were meeting there without knowing it. He was alert to their movements. Could this jealous stalker have taken things too far? Just how cold-blooded might he have been?

People who suffer from erotomania develop the delusion that another person—usually a celebrity or someone of higher social status—loves them. They envision their entwined destiny and feel a persistent need to contact or see their objects of affection triggering episodes of stalking. No amount of resistance thwarts them.

Only about 10 percent of stalkers are considered erotomanic, but they’re usually aggressive. They may send unwanted letters or packages, make numerous phone calls, or take up a determined pursuit. Sometimes they purposely endanger the object of their affection so they can offer rescue and be a hero. No matter what the target person says, and even if that person is married, erotomanics “know the truth.” Every gesture is a “signal” of affirmation.

We don’t have enough background information about Gorsline to know if he might have been this intensely fixated on Eleanor. We do know he wanted to end her affair with Edward. If he knew about their plans to elope, he might have decided that the night of September 14 was the right time to make his move. He would also have saved his most savage acts for the person he wanted most to punish or humiliate: Eleanor. He could have felt an intense mix of love and hate for her and might have felt inclined to leave his mark in some obscure manner—a secret in plain sight.

In 2008, the Department of Justice reported that in a 12-month period from 2005-2006, an estimated 3.4 million Americans were stalked. More than one-third were followed or monitored, and over 75% knew their stalker, usually from a troubled romantic association. Most victims were between 18 and 24, and many had to leave a job—even their residences—to elude the disturbing attention.

One in four stalkers who threaten harm do carry out the threat—including damage to property or injury to pets. The people most likely to be murdered have been in a prior romantic relationship with their stalkers. Studies reveal that stalkers are generally smarter than other types of criminals. In certain cases, only an act of violence has ended a fixation.

The tie clip is certainly suggestive. If Gorsline purposely left it on the reverend, it’s also a stunningly arrogant act. Gorsline was not viewed as a primary suspect during either investigation (at best, he was a co-conspirator in a confrontation gone wrong), but he had the means and motive. The main question involves his opportunity, because he had a young woman with him that night who accounted for his whereabouts to investigators.

However, Rastall had kept a secret for four years and had successfully lied on several occasions. We cannot be certain that she hadn’t lied yet again. Perhaps she was paid to do so when the case was reopened.

Gorsline might also have been involved in the murders without being the perpetrator. Perhaps he alerted Frances to the secret stash of letters and supplied information about the rendezvous that night. Maybe he was parked on De Russey’s Lane because he knew what was going down and he wanted to ensure that the lovers got their due… or just to gloat. He might have been spying on them, getting closer than he’d admitted, and inadvertently dropped his tie clasp. Then some mindless investigator placed it with Edward’s tie.

In any event, the tie clasp with the “G” deserves to be added to the clues in this enduring mystery. It gives us a new way to view this incident, which is often how cold cases are solved.

Some people call the Hall-Mills murder the perfect crime.

Photo Index

All photographs, unless otherwise attributed, are in the public domain.

Lovers’ Lane

De Russey’s Lane

Bodies of victims

Crabapple tree