The Halls-Mills Case Part Two: The Trial

A rushed arrest, a collapsing case, and a sensational trial that put everyone on display.

Part Two picks up immediately after the arrest of Clifford Hayes, the first man charged in the Hall Mills murders. We break down how police built a case on a coerced confession, why it quickly fell apart, and how Hayes was cleared while Raymond Schneider was convicted of perjury instead. From there, the investigation lurches forward through botched evidence, unreliable witnesses, and a courtroom spectacle that culminates in the infamous 1926 trial of Frances Hall and her family. We unpack the prosecution’s theories, the defense’s brutal dismantling of key testimony, and how the trial ultimately left the case exactly where it started, unresolved, controversial, and haunted by what might have been done differently.

Edited by Maxwell Holechek