S03 E07: Courthouse Carnival

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. 

Transcript

Episode 7 - Courthouse Carnival

Intro - 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.

CHARLOTTE

In 1926 there is a new inquiry. I want to see the guilty in the chair. I want them to feel the constraints. I want to see them in the electric chair.

SCENE 1.           Special Prosecutor

[GOVERNOR MOORE walks by and takes the Butterscotch out of her hand and places it in a bowl of Butterscotch candies then sits. ALEXANDER SIMPSON sitting across the desk from him. Both putting on clown makeup.] 

MOORE

[offering a candy from the dish]

Butterscotch, Senator Simpson. Take one. They’re good.

SIMPSON

Thank you, Governor.

MOORE

Special prosecutor?

SIMPSON

Thank you, governor. New evidence?

MOORE 

Same evidence. New politics. Butterscotch for the road?

[SIMPSON takes another candy.]

SIMPSON

Butterscotch. I won’t let our side down.

[He exits. MOORE helps himself as well.]

[CHARLOTTE takes a Butterscotch candy out of her pocket.]

CHARLOTTE

Butterscotch.

SCENE 2.           Indictment

[SIMPSON on the steps of the courthouse in front of a throng of reporters.]

SIMPSON

The grand jury has indicted the following individuals for the murders of Mr. Edward Hall and Mrs Eleanor Mills.

FRANCES

Frances Noel Stevens Hall.

WILLIE STEVENS

William Stevens. 

SIMPSON

Henry Carpender, and Henry Stevens. There will be no further questions at this time. Thank you. 

[Reporters clamor for SIMPSON’S attention he exits.] 

CHARLOTTE

(Relieved) (Closing her eyes) That might have been my one moment of relief. Hearing of their arrest. I wanted to savor it. Like trying to make the sweetness of candy last forever. Butterscotch.

FRANCES

I want

WILLIE STEVENS

To be smart. 

FRANCES

I don’t want. 

WILLIE STEVENS

To talk to the press.  

FRANCES

I want.

WILLIE STEVENS

To visit the shore.

FRANCES

I don’t want. 

WILLIE STEVENS

Frances to go away.

FRANCES

I want.

WILLIE STEVENS

To go to the firehouse.

FRANCES

I don’t want. 

WILLIE STEVENS

To die.

[Lights warm, a hint of carnival ride music.]

FRANCES
 We arrive at the Somerville courthouse. Warm Vanilla lighting glances off white paint. Gold leaf Corinthian columns sprout from yellow limestone pillars, black paint splashed against a cracked egg. The dome is capped with stained glass peering over three floors of marble. As clean as a Puritan meeting house. No murals, no paintings, no depictions. 

CHARLOTTE

Charlotte thinks it would be instructive if they painted a mural of the Hall-Mills trial on one of the blank walls. 

SCENE 3.           Courtroom, Money-fed Justice Is Diabetic Blind

[In courtroom. The animatronics clown show truly begins. The bailiff puts a blindfold on an actor holding two sock-puppets representing the judges. Simpson pushes Charlotte through the ‘ride’ on a rolling chair.]

BAILIFF

Court is now in session. The Honorable Judge Charles W. Parker and the Honorable Judge Frank L. Cleary Presiding. Order, order, order.

ENSEMBLE

Begin!!!

[The following lines all stack up on top of each other, as indicated by the ‘/’ mark.]

BAILIFF

$40,000. Frances Hall is released  / on bail for $40,000. 

FRANCES

1926, people. / That’s a lot of money. 

SIMPSON

So, the state seems to be missing several boxes of evidence and grand jury testimony, which Simpson cannot point out to the present jury, though he wishes that he could. No one in Sommerville seems to know what happened to it. / Oh God, Central New Jersey, you tax cutting fucks.

DR. SHULTZE

Shultze illustrates how the bullets penetrated the victims skulls, and how they / likely died. 

FRANCES HALL

Frances Hall looks through her pocketbook.

DR. SHULTZE

A writhing swarm of maggots / devoured the savagely opened throat of Eleanor Mills. 

RALPH GORSLINE

Ralph Gorsline takes the stand, he changes his story for a third time. He heard gunshots. / That’s it. Nothing else. Yeah. He was with Rastall. She still goes to Saint John’s. He doesn’t. He’s divorced. 

CHARLOTTE

On the business card, the  prosecution demonstrates that Willie Steven’s / fingerprint is on the calling card. 

WILLIE STEVENS

The defense demonstrates that many people / handled the calling card prior to analysis.

BAILIFF

(Bailiff will quietly and directly recite love letters to someone who looks like a male lawyer.)

The love affair between Edward and Eleanor is established through male lawyers reading the love letters into the court record. My heart aches for you. I am fiery today, burning, flaming love. / I could fling my arms about you and pour kisses on my babykins’ head and face. I want to fondle and caress you, oh so much. I want to hold you close in my arms and know that you are safe and happy and warm. I am holding my sweet babykins’ face in my hands and looking deep into his heart. I am on my knees, darling, looking up at my noble man, worshipping, adoring.

CATHERINE RASTALL

Church women describe deteriorating / relationship between Frances Hall and Eleanor Mills.

MINNIE CLARKE

Attendees at the reverend’s funeral saw scratches on the face of Mrs. Hall. I saw scratches on the face of Mrs. Hall. 

[Shultze drags Jane Gibson into the play space on a stretcher.]

JANE GIBSON

Jane Gibson, stricken with cancer, is brought in on a stretcher. Jane Gibson’s voice is so weak.

CHARLOTTE

Jane Gibson’s voice is so weak.

JANE GIBSON

That the stenographer has to repeat / everything she says.

CHARLOTTE

That the stenographer has to repeat everything she says. 

JANE’S MOTHER

Jane Gibson’s mother, guided into the front row by the defense, sees her daughter stricken with cancer and calls Jane Gibson a liar. Liar! Liar!

CHARLOTTE

Everyone waits for Jane Gibson to testify. 

JANE GIBSON (CHARLOTTE REPEATS.)

A dog begins to bark. I went outside. I listened. I sat on the swing and I listened. Last week I lost twenty rows of corn were lost, I lost. I hear a wagon rattle in the field. I will not send my son. It’s dark. I saddle the mule. Uphill towards Easton. An automobile goes by. I see a man and a woman within.

[The repetition stops.]

CHARLOTTE and SIMPSON

Do you know who the woman was? 

JANE GIBSON

Frances Hall.

CHARLOTTE and SIMPSON

Have you learned who the man was?

JANE GIBSON

Willie Stevens. I lost the thieves. I lost the corn. I could not find the wagon. Did it go back across the fields? Down De Russey’s red mud lane, I tether my mule, I walk afoot, I hear voices, I hear a fight.

[Jane and Charlotte switch: Shultze drags Charlotte in the stretcher, and Simpson pushes Jane in the chair.]

ALL

‘Explain these letters!’ 

JANE GIBSON

Somebody is beating, beating, beating. I can hear someone’s wind go out. Someone says ‘God damn it, let go!’ I see something glitter and I see a man and I see another man, like they were wrestling together. One was Henry Stevens. A shot shatters the night air. 

(To Charlotte.)

I’m frightened. 

CHARLOTTE

You’re frightened.

JANE GIBSON

Jane Gibson runs back to her mule. There are two women. One says ‘Oh Henry’ very, very, very easy, and the other began to scream, scream, scream so loud, ‘Oh my! Oh my!’ So terrible loud. I ran for the mule after the first shot, but that woman was screaming, screaming, trying to run away—and I just about got my foot in the stirrup when. Bang—bang—bang! Three quick shots. Jenny does not gallop, but she did her best, and I returned home. She sat there, I sat there, thinking about all sorts of things. 

CHARLOTTE

What kind of things?

JANE GIBSON

All sorts of things.

CHARLOTTE

What kind of things?

JANE GIBSON

Jane Gibson’s moccasin is missing. So several hours later she goes back to get it. She sees Frances Hall crying over the bodies. It is the middle of the night. And Frances Hall cries, and cries, and cries. 

BAILIFF

A pause. A cross examination. 

[The ensemble will divide up the following questions. Ask Jane Gibson and then Charlotte Mills, such that while the second person asks Jane Gibson a new question, the first person quietly asks Charlotte the retiring question.]

ENSEMBLE

Do you remember testifying at the preliminary hearing held in August 1926?  Is your name Jane Gibson? Is your name Jane Easton? How many times have you been married? Are you married to William Easton? Weren’t you married to Frederick Kesserlring? Do you know Harry Ray? Do you know Stumpy Gillan? Why did you wait two weeks to come forward? Why do you raise pigs? Why don’t people like you? Why don’t people like your pigs? Who are you covering for? Is the truth worth a lie? Is a lie worth the truth? Are you listening to me? Are you awake? Where is your son? Why are you a bad mother? Where is your mother? Why are you a bad daughter? Did you have cancer? Did you have cancer? Are you in 1922? Are you in 1926? Is it 1941? By 1941 have you expired? 

[The ensemble, while speaking, returns Jane Gibson to her bed.]

ALL

The jury is white. A jury is agéd. 

FIRST JUROR

At least one juror is a member of the KKK. 

ALL

A juror thinks to himself—

SECOND JUROR

I wouldn’t convict anyone on her testimony. I won’t send them to the electric chair. 

FIRST JUROR

At least one juror thinks to himself, ‘It wasn’t just adultery, it was a rich priest and a class-breaking bitch.’

JANE GIBSON (To Frances.)

 “I have told the truth, so help me God, and you know I have told the truth.”

ENSEMBLE (one at a time.)

The Prosecution rests.

Henry Stevens presents his alibi; 

Several of his friends affirm that he was fishing in Lavallette.

Willie Stevens takes the stand.

WILLIE STEVENS

He does rather well, actually. 

FRANCES HALL

Frances Hall takes the stand. She can’t explain it. She can’t explain anything. 

SENATOR CASE

The defense rests. 

SIMPSON

Special Prosecutor Simpson focuses on Mrs. Frances Hall and attacks her relentlessly, because “Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn,” as Byron says, and the fires of hate and jealousy are raging in this woman’s heart, people. 

SENATOR CASE

Senator Case attacks the state’s witnesses. 

One name, Jane Gibson. 

One word: 

ENSEMBLE

Liar!

FRANCES

A defense attorney defends the character of the defendants. 

“Have they been thugs? Have they criminal records? Are they thieves? 

No! They are refined, genteel, people, the very highest type of people.”

WILLIE STEVENS

The jury finds the defendants 

 ENSEMBLE

Not guilty. 

WILLIE STEVENS

All other charges dropped. 

CHARLOTTE

Charlotte Mills, in 1926, cannot stand one more word.

Outro - Thanks for joining me on today’s rollercoaster. If you want to experience this radio play again, or others like it, might I suggest downloading the Geocache app where you can do some real life Ghost Hunting by traveling to the locations mentioned (in this case, the Somerset Courthouse) and searching for our caches. You can also purchase tickets to Thou Shalt Not 2022, our real-life play that is coming back to the stage for the centennial of the murders this September, available through our website at thinkeryandverse.org. 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. 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 (Tang-ker-slee), and Ania Upstill. I’m your host and engineer, Erin Bogert. I hope you’ll accompany me on the next ride. See you then.