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from . I went back to my professor , Andie Tucher , who taught the �ournalism history course , and we spit-balled crimes . She mentioned the Hall-Mills murder , and I was immediately drawn to that . I know the area where it happened super-well , since I lived in New Brunswick for four years asanundergraduate atRutgers .
The fact that the crime took place during the birth of tabloid media was important . They were way more outrageous than tabloids are today . Telling the story of this murder through the birth of the tabloids felt to me like the makings of abook . To sell a big commercial book , you have to have a bigger idea .
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COURTESY OF NEW MOON �HOTOGRA�HY |
THE BOOK IS FILLED WITH INTIMATE DETAILS�HOW THEY DRESSED , WHATTHEYSAID �FROM EVENTS THATTOOK PLACE ACENTURY AGO . HOWDID YOU UNEARTH THAT INFORMATION ? I reconstructed the mystery using primary sources — hundreds of news articles and court documents . I also got lucky .
The main archive for the Hall-Mills case is at Rutgers . At the Somerset County prosecutor ’ sof�ce , Ifound physical evidence : the reverend ’ s broken wire-rimmed glasses , the stockings his lover was wearing , autopsy and morgue reports , witness lists , love letters , lots of really good stuff . But much of the testimony and depositions from the trial were missing . I thought they must have been destroyed . While Iwas �nishing up my book proposal in �ebruary of ���� , Isaw online that the New Brunswick �ublic Library has a Hall-Mills archive . The �rst thing Idid after Isold the book was to go down tothe library . It was a gold mine — thousands of pages of court documents . The archivist had acquired the papers when a man who was downsizing invited her to look over some boxes in his basement . It informs a lot of the book , and helped me develop the characters and write really detailed passages in addition to providing some really interesting facts about the investigation .
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JOE POMPEO
WHATROLE DID THE TABLOIDS PLAY IN THIS CASE ? The tabloid wars directly influenced the outcome of this case . When they were founded , beginning with the �ail� �e�� in ���� , they were very competitive . The Hall-Mills case had gone cold , but ��e �ail� Mirror went to New Brunswick and turned up new evidence , some circumstantial and some quite �uicy . The editors were wellconnected to New �ersey politicians and convinced them to reopen the case .
The trial became a national media spectacle , part of the ballyhooed ����s . The tabloid media had an outsized influence onamega-crime ina decade �lled with mega-crimes .
�hil �ayne , the editor of the �ail� �e�� , became one ofmymain characters . He was willing to try
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anything , employing new techniques , really stunt-y things that the tabloids are still known for . Not unlike when the �ational �n��irer got into the territory of blackmailing inthe �eff Bezos affair . This approach traces back to the lawless tabloid culture of the ’ ��s .
WOMEN�S ROLES WERE CHANGING FAST IN THE���S . HOW DOES THIS CASE , AND YOUR BOOK , CAPTURE THATSEISMIC SHIFT ? The wife of the murdered minister , �rances Hall , represents the dying �ictorian world . Her upbringing makes her very much a woman of the American gilded age , gentry inclined to privacy . Her worldview clashes with the mores of the looser , roaring ���s , when women ’ s roles are changing and things becoming more sexualized . She ’ s also a
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