NEW HALL WITNESS SAW AUTOS IN CHASE

The New York Times
November 23, 1922

Woman Living Near Phillips Farm Tells Story of Murder Night to Grand Jury.

CHARLOTTE MILLS ON STAND

Her Father Testifies for More Than an Hour—Grand Jury Adjourns Until Monday.

An entirely new story of exciting events on the Easton Avenue road on Sept. 14, the night of the murder of Rev. Edward Wheeler Hall and Mrs. Elenor R. Mills, was told yesterday by a Mrs. Emma Voorhees, who lives on a farm outside New Brunswick. Mrs. Voorhees described a scene that occurred in front of her home about 10 o'clock, when two big automobiles, which she had heard roaring down the road from the direction of New Brunswick, stopped abruptly, as if one car had been chasing the other. According to Mrs. Voorhees, she heard the voices of men and women in a violent wrangle and saw the figures of several persons leave the cars. She also says she heard two shots, quickly followed by the shutting off of the lights of both cars and their swift departure back toward New Brunswick.

The investigating authorities are puzzled as to what significance to attach to Mrs. Voorhees's story and how to make it accord with the circumstantial account of the shooting at the crabapple tree on the Phillips farm at 10:20 o'clock as related by Mrs. Jane Gibson, "eyewitness" of the murder.

Trying to Make Two Stories Fit.

Two theories were advanced last night in an effort to make the stories of the two women fit, assuming that both are true. One theory was that the people in the first car were the murderer and the "woman in gray"; that the occupants of the second car were members of Hall's congregation who had followed them to see what would happen when the rector and Mrs. Mills were caught; that the first car tried to shake off the second and failed, and finally stopped to frighten off the people behind by the two shots. This would accord with a frequently repeated rumor that a vestryman of the church, alleged to have told the "woman in gray" about the love affair, went out in his car that night to see what would happen, but sped back to New Brunswick, frightened by something he had seen or heard. Another theory was that the minister and choir singer may have been caught in front of the Voorhees house after an automobile race, that the two shots may have been to frighten them, and that they may have been taken afterward to the Phillips farm, which is between the Voorhees farm and New Brunswick.

Appears Before Grand Jury.

Mrs. Voorhees was one of the twelve witnesses who appeared before the Somerset County Grand Jury in Somerville yesterday, on the third day of its deliberations, before it adjourned until next Monday. Until she visited the Court House in answer to a subpoena no publicity had ever been given to her identity or her story, although she made a statement to the authorities three days after the bodies were found.

What she told the Grand Jury is a secret, but reporters learned from one of the officials and later from the woman herself what she had seen and heard on the night of the murder. Mrs. Voorhees is about 50 years old and is the wife of Holmes H. Voorhees, a farmer. They live on a sixty-five-acre farm with a small farmhouse two miles west of De Russy's Lane and three-fifths of a mile west of the Marconi wireless station at Franklin Township, in the direction of Bound Brook. On the night of the murder, according to the story she has told the authorities, Mrs. Voorhees was on a room on the front of the house on the second floor, about 100 feet from Easten Avenue; her husband was reading in the living room downstairs, and her three grandshildren, children of her widowed son, were asleep. She fixes the time of the events she describes as a little before 10 o'clock, because he had noticed the time a few minutes earlier in attending to one of the children.

According to one of the detectives, Mrs. Voorhees heard the noise of automobiles speeding along Easton Avenue and ran to the window to watch them. She saw two large touring cars, with the headlights on, racing down from the east. The first car stopped suddenly at the edge of the road in front of her house and the second car, which had been speeding in the middle of the road, swerved to the right and pulled up behind it.

It was very dark, with no moon, and Mrs. Voorhees was unable to identify any of the people in either car or to tell what make the cars were. But she saw the figures of people get out of both cars, and those from the first car run back toward the second car. Then all the figures gathered in a group around the second car, and Mrs. Voorhees heard an angry babel of voices.

Mrs. Voorhees listened as closely as she could, raising the window and leaning out, but she could only hear two questions.

"What are you doing here!" was one of the questions. "What does this mean?" was the other.

A few seconds later, she said, the wrangle was punctuated by two shots in rapid succession. The detective who told the story illustrated the rapidity with which the shots were fired by clapping his hands as quickly as he could. He said Mrs. Voorhees did not see the flashes.

Says Screams Followed Shots.

The shots were followed by the screams of one or more women. Then there was a pause, and one of the figures was seen running between the two cars. Next the lights of both cars were shut off. Mrs. Voorhees then heard the motors of both cars start up, and saw the cars turn around.

The first car, according to her story, shot into De Mott's Lane, a short distance west on Easton Avenue and diagonally across from the Voorhees homestead, then backed out, turned around, and shot back toward New Brunswick. The second car followed it after turning around in Easton Avenue without using the lane. Both cars sped along with their lights out, as far as she could see.

The rest of the article deals with the parts of the case not relating to the automobile chase.