S02 Ep. 02: AFTERSHOCK / La Réplica -- the Door Kicker

What does it mean to be haunted? For most people, it does not mean the strange or supernatural, but the all-too real: a scar from childhood, an opportunity missed, a wrong never righted. For the late Charlotte Mills, it was the murder of her mother on September 14th, 1922 on the outskirts of New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her mother's body lay beside that of their Episcopalian parish priest, Edward Hall. Love letters between the two were scattered about the bodies. Edward Hall had been shot once in the face. Her mother, however, had been absolutely brutalized. While the coroner failed to conduct a proper autopsy, he did, out of curiosity, cut open Eleanor to see if she was pregnant. 

Charlotte Mills, just sixteen years old, was interrogated by the police and press corps about all possible suspects to the murder: Was it her father, an impovershed groundskeeper for the church? Was it Edward's wife, the solemn (and wealthy heiress) Frances Hall? Was it Edward's brother-in-law, the eccentric Willie Stevens? Was it the KKK? Was it thieves? Immigrants? Some other scapegoat? Nothing was simple, and nothing could be proved.

Charlotte, of course, could not do the police's job for them. But that didn't mean she didn't try. 

But, by 1926 she had been driven to quit the chase when Frances Hall and her brothers were acquitted at trial. She then moved to New York City, and tried to "make it" as a clerk at a bank.  She told the press that she considered herself a "flapper," but she never had the cash to run with that crowd. 

She never felt safe after her mother's murder, and she died at the age of 45. 

So today, we will be joining Charlotte in her own mind, as she lives and relives the moments surrounding her mother’s murder.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society, Thinkery & Verse and Butch Mermaid Productions. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Once again, today’s play featured talented voice actor Karen Alvarado. It was written, directed, and edited by JM Meyer and you may have recognized my voice for the hymn. As always, I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert, and one final time, thank you for listening.

Today we’ll be taking a trip to The Edison Sanitarium, the site where Charlotte Mills, daughter of murder victim Eleanor Mills, lived out the last months of her tragic life. Today we’ll hear two stories centering Charlotte. The first explores Charlotte’s mental state whilst living and dying in the midst of a media frenzy dedicated to sensationalizing her mother’s death. The second is adapted from an article by a 1950s newspaper reporter who reflects on how and why Charlotte Mills ended up at the Sanitarium.

 This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play was written by Johnny Meyer, Whitney Bolten, and Ashley Bufkin. Ashely also directed this piece and performed alongside Karen Alvarado, who was our editor for this radio play. As always, I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert.

For today’s radio play, we will be joined by the ghosts Frances Hall and Willy Stevens. If you ever care to visit, these siblings can be found in Brooklyn, New York, in the Greenwood Cemetery, lot 10411, section 50. They lie together in the Steven’s Family Crypt, among their other brother Henry Stevens, and the murdered Edward Hall, late husband to Frances. Although, I should note, that none of their names are to be found on the site. As you’ll recall, Mrs. Hall together with Willy and Henry, though acquitted, were all accused of Edward Hall’s murder. Yet, together they remain. For all eternity, I suppose. Let’s take a visit.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society, Thinkery & Verse, and Butch Mermaid Productions. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play featured actual excerpts from the New York Times, followed by a short scene written by Johnny Meyer. It was directed by Ania Upstill, edited by Kendall Perry, and voiced by Ania Upstill and Frank Dolce. The hymn was sung by yours truly, also your host and engineer, Erin Bogert. I’ll see you next time, until then.

Hi, I’m your host, Erin Bogert, and you’re listening to another Ghost Hunt episode. Today I’m bringing you to The Somerset Courthouse of Somerset county, New Jersey, the large, towering marble building that remains as it did when the Hall-Mills trial was held there in 1926. The Hall-Mills trial became the first media circus of the 20th century. In today’s excerpt, we really dig into that theme… you’ll see what I mean. In with the mix of zaniness, you’ll also find disturbing verbatim content. It may not give you a lot of confidence in the justice system, but it does have the virtue of being a true story. So, please join me as we travel inside to hear echoes of voices from the past, reverberating off the courthouse’s cold, hard walls.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society, Thinkery & Verse, and Butch Mermaid Productions. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play was written by Johnny Meyer, directed by Rebecca Servon, and edited by Kendall Perry and JM Meyer. Our talented voice actors include Karen Alvarado, Ashely Bufkin, Celine Dirkes, Frank Dolce, Johnny Kavanagh, Johnny Meyer, Kaitlin Ormerod Hutson, Rebecca Servon, Lazarus Simmons, Joey Sponseller, Reagan Tankersley, and Ania Upstill. I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert. 

Hello everybody and welcome back to another Ghost Hunt episode. I’m your host, Erin Bogert, bringing to you (you guessed it!) another radio play. In the last episode, I mentioned how Frances Hall, a prime suspect in the Hall-Mills double homicide case, took a vacation to Europe not long after the grand jury failed to indict anyone. In today’s radio play, we find Mrs. Hall, joined by her friend Sally Peters, embarking on that journey.

It’s early February, 1923, and at Manhattan’s Pier 55, a band of newspaper photographers are swarming the S.S. Mauretania (MORE-EH-TAY-NIA), an ocean liner setting out for Europe. They had been tipped off that Mrs. Frances Hall would be aboard, but when they searched the ship with the help of the passengers, no sign of her could be found. Instead, Mrs. Hall is forty blocks to the north of Pier 55, on the steam liner “America'' bound for Genoa (JEN-O-UH) and Naples in Italy. Her and Sally Peters had asked that their names be left off the guest list in order to avoid those same reporters. And so, the two are able to enjoy a peaceful departure… 

Tale as old as time, isn’t it? Money talks so the wealthy don’t have to. The murders of Eleanor and Edward happened in September of 1922. By the end of that November, the grand jury had failed to indict anyone. While the Mills, especially Eleanor’s daughter Charlotte remain desperate for answers, for justice, wealthy Frances Hall, a prime suspect, travels abroad to Europe, where she remains for months. How would this case have been different if Eleanor Mills and her family had been wealthy? If Frances Hall and hers had been poor? I wonder, I wonder…

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play was written by Ania Upstill and performed and edited by Karen Alvarado. I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert. 

 Hello folks, and welcome back once again to another episode of Ghost Hunt: the podcast where I, your host, Erin Bogert, bring you short and not-always-so-sweet radio plays that delve into the details surrounding the Hall-Mills murders. Today’s radio play brings us into the home of Edwin R. and Elovine Carpender. The affluent Edwin R. Carpender was the first cousin of Mrs. Frances Hall. According to Middlesexcreates.com, his wife, Elovine Carpender was one of the founders of the Urban League in New Brunswick and the first female member of the Federal Housing Authority; prominent among Republican women in New Jersey. She was elected a delegate to the convention for the repeal of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution repealing the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. On September 16, 1922, Elovine was the family member who first informed Mrs. Hall of her husband’s death. Edwin had been the family member who identified the body of Rev. Edward Hall when it was found on DeRussey’s Lane, and was in charge of the funeral arrangements for the rector. The couple lived caddy-corner and across the street from Frances Hall and her mansion at 23 Nichol Ave. In the 1920s, the Carpenders were one of New Brunswick’s wealthiest families. Today, however, we will not be joining them in the great room for this radio play. Instead, we find ourselves in the kitchen, eavesdropping on the internal dialogue of their gossipy maid, Anne...

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play was written by Ania Upstill and performed and edited by Karen Alvarado. I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert. Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you’ll join me again soon.

Hi, I’m Erin Bogert, your host, welcoming you back to Ghost Hunt. Today we visit a ghost near and dear to my heart, Pearl Bahmer, and I think you’ll see why once we get started.

In the summer and fall of 1922, New Brunswick teenager Pearl Bahmer was sexually assaulted by her father. To escape his abuse, Pearl sought the companionship of a young man named Raymond Schneider. But this didn’t make things better. Raymond proved manipulative, jealous, and violent. On the morning of September 16th, 1922, Raymond pressured Pearl to go to DeRussy’s lane, a so-called “Lover’s Lane” outside of town. The details of what happened next are disputed. But what is known is that they saw the maimed corpses of the Reverend Edward Hall and the choir singer Eleanor Mills. At Pearl’s insistence, they reported the bodies to the police. The political and criminal circus that became known as the Hall-Mills investigation had begun. And Pearl was at the center of it all. As more and more details came to light, Pearl began to receive death threats from Schneider’s ex-wife, his friends and his family. Her father was arrested, and the newspapers tore apart every piece of her tragic life. She then tried to drown herself in the Raritan River. The police got her out and incarcerated her in a reform school. 

If you are experiencing suicidal ideation, going through difficulties, or just need someone to talk to, please call the New Jersey Hope line at 1-855-654-6735. Don’t face it alone.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play used actual transcripts of the testimony that Pearl delivered to the detectives in the course of their investigation. These original 1922 depositions were provided by The New Brunswick Free Public Library. The episode was directed by Johnny Meyer, and edited by Karen Alvarado. It was performed by Erin Bogert. Audio engineering and audio editing for Season 3 also provided by Erin Bogert. 

Welcome back to Ghost Hunt. I’m your host, Erin Bogert, and today’s radio play brings you the ghost of Augusta Tennyson. Augusta was Eleanor Mills younger sister, the aunt to Eleanor’s children, Charlotte and Daniel Mills. In fact, on the very night of their mother’s infamous murder, Charlotte and Daniel happened to be visiting their aunt in her home. But we won’t be joining them. Insead, we will  join Augusta the morning of Sept 16, 1922 when she and Eleanor’s husband, James Mills, first learned that two bodies were discovered on the outskirts of town. We find Augusta speaking to her husband, Edward Tennyson, from their home in New Brunswick. So please, do come in.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play was written, performed, and edited by Karen Alvarado. Thank you again for listening; I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert. 

Welcome back for our second Ghost Hunt episode. I’m your host, Erin Bogert. In this episode, we’re jumping back to 1921, and we’re just shy of backstage at Daly’s 63rd Street Music Hall, at 22 West 63rd Street, between Broadway and Central Park West. A performance of “Shuffle Along” ended about thirty minutes ago, and the Reverend Edward Hall and his date, Mrs. Eleanor Mills, stayed behind to grandstand the fact that Edward Hall knows (in passing) the already famous Rutgers alum Paul Robeson, here making his Broadway debut in the choir while attending law school. The stars of our little story are not the doomed lovers or the great Paul Robeson, but two other choir singers, Nelly and J.E.B. are waiting for the theater patrons to leave the theater so that they can get on with their evening. Oh, and for those who don’t know, Shuffle Along was the first Broadway smash hit with an entirely Black cast: it not only changed who belonged on Broadway’s biggest stages, it also introduced an entirely new sound and feel to the music and rhythm of American popular music. But in both 1921 and now, success on the stage did not result in equal treatment, a dichotomy reflected in the thoughts of our radio play’s protagonist, J.E.B.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society and Thinkery & Verse. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org, and our closing jazz loop is by Anechoix. Today’s radio play was written by Johnny Meyer and James Edward Becton, and edited by Johnny Meyer and Karen Alvarado. It featured voice actors Ashley Bufkin, James Edward Becton, Joey Sponseller, J Meyer, and Kaitlin Omerod Hutson,  and songs from Shuffle Along.  

Welcome back to another season of That’s How the Story Goes, this time: Ghost Hunt edition. I’m your host, Erin Bogert, and in this ten episode series, I will be bringing you short radio plays through which the events of the Hall-Mills murders of 1922 will be brought back to life, so to speak.

Now, if you’re new here, don’t worry, because before we really begin, I want to spend just a little bit of time going back to the beginning. So let’s start with the Hall-Mills murders.

In the early 1920s, in New Brunswick, NJ, Reverend Edward Hall and choir singer Eleanor Mills were having an extra-marital affair. Police would later discover that there were few members of their church--the church of Saint John the Evangelist--who were not aware of the torrid romance occuring in the tiny Episcopal parish. In September of 1922, the priest and choir singer were murdered in a ruthless double homicide that was never solved. Obviously, their respective spouses became the prime suspects. Edward had been married to the fabulously wealthy Frances Stevens Hall, while Eleanor had married Edward Hall’s sexton (a sort of grounds-keeper for the church), a lanky, somewhat dim fellow named James Mills. The police quickly ruled James Mills out as a suspect--he had a locktight alibi. Frances Stevens Hall, however would eventually be put on trial for murder, along with her brothers, by a special prosecutor. But the star witness--a woman the press referred to as ‘‘the pig lady,’ failed to persuade the jury. And the case remains open to this day with little hope of ever being solved. 

A few years ago, this compelling true crime story caught the eye of local theater group Thinkery & Verse, when artists  JM Meyer and Karen Alvarado had their son baptized at the church of St. John the Evangelist. Yes, the very church where Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills worked and worshipped when they were alive. And when theater makers are presented with an interesting story? Well, they tell it.

It started with Thou Shalt Not, an immersive, site-specific play that reimagined the events of the Hall-Mills murders in theater-form. (This was my first involvement with the story too, when I was cast as one of the ensemble members of the show, primarily playing Pearl Bahmer, who’ll meet in this iteration of the project, too.)

In this first episode, we will be traveling to Lake Hopatcong, the last known location where Edward Hall, Eleanor Mills, and Frances Stevens Hall were seen alive together. Along with Sunday school teacher Minnie Clark they had all traveled together to this lake on September 13th, 1922, the day before Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills became the two victims in the Hall-Mills double homicide. The ostensive reason for the trip was to reward Eleanor Mills and Minnie Clarke with a day-trip for their hard work of holding together the parish while the wealthy Edward and Frances Hall had vacationed in Maine for the entire month of August.  At the lake, the (supposedly) secret lovers intended to enjoy a day trip on what turned out to be their last full day alive. Wonder what was said and unsaid? Well, keep listening to hear whispers of these voices from the past.

This episode was brought to you by the New Brunswick Historical Society, Thinkery & Verse, and Butch Mermaid Productions. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County board of chosen freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. Our theme music this season comes from Blimp66 of Freesound.org. Today’s radio play was edited by Kendall Perry, written by Johnny Meyer, and directed by Kaitlin Ormerod Hutson and Karen Alvarado. Our featured voice talent include Rebecca Servon, Kaitlin Ormerod Hutson, Ania Upstill, Joey Sponseller, and Karen Alvarado.