MAN CONFESSES MURDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 334, 20 April 1928, Page 9

MAN CONFESSES MURDER

MYSTERY CLEARED UP NEW JERSEY CRIME (United P.A.—By Tcleyruph Copyright) («ius?r<iiicn Press Associczi^n) NEW YORK. Wednesday. A message from Kansas City says that Elwin Allan, an ex-convict, has confessed that he killed the Rev. E \V. Hall and Mrs. Eleanor Mills. The crime has baffled the New Jersey courts for six years. Allan told the police that lie had murdered the rector and the woman upon receiving a payment ol £I,OOO and a motor-car from relatives t f the woman, who complained that .he had disgraced the family name. In September. 1922. The bodi* -s t*f thRev. Edward Wheeler Hall, a well km*wn Episcopalian clergyman, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Mrs. Eleanor Mills, a member of his churech choir, were discovered under an apple tree in a field outside New Brunswick. Ti e discovery was reported to the authorities by a young man named Raymond Schneider and a 16-years-old girL Pearl Balmier. Suspicion unjustly fell upon the rector's widow. On October 9 SchiMldgr and another youth, Clifford Hayes, were arrested. Schneider told the authorities that he was in love with Pearl Bahmer, whom he suspected of an illicit affair with a middle-aged man. lie said he induced his friend Hayes to come with him and follow the couple into the held, and said they saw them as they supposed under an apple tree. He said Hayes whispered **We will fix them,” pulled out his revolver, and hred two shots. Rushing to the victims, the young men found, said Schneider, that they had shot the rector and the choir singer instead of Pearl Bahmer and her supposed lover. He said they ran home in a panic. Next day. Schneider said, he and Pearl Bahmer strolled in the held and pretended to discover the bodies. When Hayes was informed of Schneider’s statement he vigorously denied its truth. The story turned out to be false, and Haves was released after several days in gaol without a stain on his character.