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Authors: Katherine Ramsland
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dressed in a dark gray suit with polished black shoes. A white Panama hat had been placed atop his face. When Garrigan moved it he saw a pair of brown-spotted glasses. It was not yet clear whether the spots were from blood or flies.
The man’s right hand was extended partly under the dead woman’s shoulder, and their clothes were so neat they might have merely lay down to rest.
Although the girl who’d discovered this scene had mentioned a watch, the officers didn’t see one. They wondered if she’d taken it.
The victims had clearly been murdered and then positioned to resemble a lovers’ embrace. It was a crass gesture, seemingly aimed at mockery. The grass around them looked flattened, as if someone had spent a lot of time there, working on them. The attention to detail suggested that the killer had been confident about not being seen.
The woman’s head, her wide eyes staring upward, rested on the man’s right arm. Her left hand had been placed on his right knee. Her legs were modestly closed. A brown silk scarf, swarming with maggots, was loosely wound around her neck. Scattered pieces of torn paper with penciled handwriting lay in the narrow gap between the bodies.
The killer had shot the male just once in a close-range execution over his right ear, but the female had taken three bullets. This discovery indicated the killer was angry at her. He, she, or they had probably known her, or had known them both. She had been shot under the right eye, straight into the right temple, and over the right ear.
Despite the obvious violence, the victims appeared to be at peace, as if comforting each other. In fact, they looked as if they’d been prepared for burial.
The whole thing had been contrived for effect. The scene looked like someone’s morbid idea of a joke.
The officers noticed a small business card leaning against the heel of the male victim’s left shoe. It seemed to have been carefully placed. This, too, bore dark speckles.
They looked around and found a man’s leather card case, lying open on the ground. It contained a driver’s license. The name was Edward Wheeler Hall of Nichols Avenue. Hall was likely the male victim.
The killer had taken no pains to hide the victims’ identities, so the cops believe it would be easy to discover who Hall’s companion had been. Curran left the scene to call it in.
Albert Cardinal, a reporter from the New Brunswick Daily Home News , entered the area with a camera. He asked if he could pick up the card at the foot of the male corpse. Garrigan nodded. Without taking precautions, Cardinal picked it up and looked on both sides.
This error would be the first of many in handing the scene and the evidence. No one had roped it off the crime scene, and no one seemed to realize that touching something might corrupt its value for solving the case. Fingerprints were the primary source of identification in those days, but investigators had relied on them for less than two decades.
Chapter 3: The Minister
Cardinal noticed the name on the card, Reverend Edward W. Hall. He knew that Hall was the pastor of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in New Brunswick. He realized that this man lying on the ground was an Episcopalian minister. He’d been just 41 years old. Cardinal took pictures and made several notes. Then Cardinal lifted the dead female’s scarf to see what had drawn the maggots. He was startled. In a special news edition that day, he would describe the woman’s ear-to-ear neck wound as “a great open gash.”
In the meantime, Curran had arrived on Easton Avenue. He had someone summon a relative of Rev. Hall for identification and then stopped a driver, Dr. E. Leon Loblein, and asked if he knew the minister on sight. Loblein said that he did, and he accompanied Curran to the crime scene. Bending over the male corpse as Garrigan raised the hat, Loblein affirmed that the dead man was indeed Reverend Hall. They noticed that someone had closed his
The man’s right hand was extended partly under the dead woman’s shoulder, and their clothes were so neat they might have merely lay down to rest.
Although the girl who’d discovered this scene had mentioned a watch, the officers didn’t see one. They wondered if she’d taken it.
The victims had clearly been murdered and then positioned to resemble a lovers’ embrace. It was a crass gesture, seemingly aimed at mockery. The grass around them looked flattened, as if someone had spent a lot of time there, working on them. The attention to detail suggested that the killer had been confident about not being seen.
The woman’s head, her wide eyes staring upward, rested on the man’s right arm. Her left hand had been placed on his right knee. Her legs were modestly closed. A brown silk scarf, swarming with maggots, was loosely wound around her neck. Scattered pieces of torn paper with penciled handwriting lay in the narrow gap between the bodies.
The killer had shot the male just once in a close-range execution over his right ear, but the female had taken three bullets. This discovery indicated the killer was angry at her. He, she, or they had probably known her, or had known them both. She had been shot under the right eye, straight into the right temple, and over the right ear.
Despite the obvious violence, the victims appeared to be at peace, as if comforting each other. In fact, they looked as if they’d been prepared for burial.
The whole thing had been contrived for effect. The scene looked like someone’s morbid idea of a joke.
The officers noticed a small business card leaning against the heel of the male victim’s left shoe. It seemed to have been carefully placed. This, too, bore dark speckles.
They looked around and found a man’s leather card case, lying open on the ground. It contained a driver’s license. The name was Edward Wheeler Hall of Nichols Avenue. Hall was likely the male victim.
The killer had taken no pains to hide the victims’ identities, so the cops believe it would be easy to discover who Hall’s companion had been. Curran left the scene to call it in.
Albert Cardinal, a reporter from the New Brunswick Daily Home News , entered the area with a camera. He asked if he could pick up the card at the foot of the male corpse. Garrigan nodded. Without taking precautions, Cardinal picked it up and looked on both sides.
This error would be the first of many in handing the scene and the evidence. No one had roped it off the crime scene, and no one seemed to realize that touching something might corrupt its value for solving the case. Fingerprints were the primary source of identification in those days, but investigators had relied on them for less than two decades.
Chapter 3: The Minister
Cardinal noticed the name on the card, Reverend Edward W. Hall. He knew that Hall was the pastor of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in New Brunswick. He realized that this man lying on the ground was an Episcopalian minister. He’d been just 41 years old. Cardinal took pictures and made several notes. Then Cardinal lifted the dead female’s scarf to see what had drawn the maggots. He was startled. In a special news edition that day, he would describe the woman’s ear-to-ear neck wound as “a great open gash.”
In the meantime, Curran had arrived on Easton Avenue. He had someone summon a relative of Rev. Hall for identification and then stopped a driver, Dr. E. Leon Loblein, and asked if he knew the minister on sight. Loblein said that he did, and he accompanied Curran to the crime scene. Bending over the male corpse as Garrigan raised the hat, Loblein affirmed that the dead man was indeed Reverend Hall. They noticed that someone had closed his
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