In 1914, state and federal agencies relied on private firms for special police work. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency were the two main contractors in Virginia. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway had their own detectives as did the Virginia State Bureau of Insurance. Since Victor Hall was station master and express agent, his murder invoked railroad and state jurisdictions. On poor advice, Mrs. Hall hired her own Pinkerton man. The astounding array of investigators working in a politically pressurized atmosphere conferred with each other and reached consensus.
Detectives misinterpreted the wound described in the coroner’s report, assumed the victim was shot in bed and, thus, fingered Mrs. Hall. They then justified subterfuge to convict; after all, “everyone knew she did it.”
Technorati Tags:Pinkerton National Detective Agency, Baldwin-Felts, Chesapeake and Ohio, Virginia State Bureau of Insurance, detectives, railroad detectives
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Green Springs Depot
The little flag stop with the pleasant name was the most notorious site in Louisa County. In the thirteen years prior to the Hall Case, it was the site of multiple murders, a smallpox epidemic, deaths from other illnesses and a state Supreme Court case. In 1913, the depot consisted of a railway station, two stores, two residences and a broom factory. By mid 1914, all but the Hall store/residence had been destroyed by arsons. Most trouble occurred specifically at Hall’s store, and its private cemetery held only victims of sicknesses and murder. The Hall shooting was the third sensation at that store to make statewide headlines!
Technorati Tags:Green Springs, Virginia State Supreme Court, Hall Case
Technorati Tags:Green Springs, Virginia State Supreme Court, Hall Case
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Rediscovery of the Hall Case
McCue, Beattie, Allen and Hall were the four sensational murder trials in Virginia in the decade before the First World War. Books were written about the three men, but the record of Mrs. Hall was swept under a rug. Even the transcript was discarded contrary to law. And no wonder, the Commonwealth of Virginia had allowed public opinion to convict an innocent widow.
The family sought to hide the shame from the next generation. Their secret was safe until a slip of the tongue in 1982. For the next eighteen years, I listened to discoveries gleaned from old Times-Dispatch issues and declarations that "Grandma Hall could not have done it, but even if she did, she must have had good reason." Yeah. Right. So I dismissed the Hall murder as just a curiousity in the in-laws' closet.
In 2001, I viewed Mrs. Hall's parole. A multitude of letters from prominent people urged her release, even a petition from the state legislature. Yes! The woman had been framed!
How could this have happened? Indeed, politics and yellow journalism were key factors. But there was never a place like Green Springs Depot!
Technorati Tags:Samuel McCue, Henry Beattie, Floyd Allen, Claude Allen, Times-Dispatch, Green Springs, Green Springs Depot
The family sought to hide the shame from the next generation. Their secret was safe until a slip of the tongue in 1982. For the next eighteen years, I listened to discoveries gleaned from old Times-Dispatch issues and declarations that "Grandma Hall could not have done it, but even if she did, she must have had good reason." Yeah. Right. So I dismissed the Hall murder as just a curiousity in the in-laws' closet.
In 2001, I viewed Mrs. Hall's parole. A multitude of letters from prominent people urged her release, even a petition from the state legislature. Yes! The woman had been framed!
How could this have happened? Indeed, politics and yellow journalism were key factors. But there was never a place like Green Springs Depot!
Technorati Tags:Samuel McCue, Henry Beattie, Floyd Allen, Claude Allen, Times-Dispatch, Green Springs, Green Springs Depot
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