The Pig Woman

If you took the time to watch the "To Tell The Truth" video clip that was the subject of this blog's previous post you will have heard Kitty Carlisle ask contestant #2 and then #1 "Who was the Pig Woman?"

Clearly they were confused and so might you have been. Personally, I was as delighted.

Shawnee Smith in "Saw"

Since all of the other women mentioned during that segment were murderesses, perhaps you were thinking this Pig Woman was the inspiration for the character in the "Saw" franchise.

Not at all. Jane Gibson aka The Pig Woman was the star witness for the prosecution in the media circus that was the Hall-Mills Murders.

St Louis Dispatch photo

There is no shortage of books and web pages devoted to this celebrated and scandalous double homicide so I won't go too deep in covering it and as I describe it you may realize you've heard of it before.

It's not that the crime isn't interesting, because it is, but my focus here is on Jane Gibson. Absolutely seek out the details of the crime, the other witnesses, the accused and the victims if you want to know more. There's plenty of drama and intrigue to go around.

In Somerset, NJ on September 16, 1922, the bodies of a man and a woman were found in a lover's lane. The man had been shot once in the head. The woman had also been shot in the head but three times, her throat had been slit and her tongue cut out. The bodies were arranged side by side with their feet pointing towards a crap apple tree. Torn up love letters were left between the bodies and by the man's shoes was a calling card...his calling card.

He was Edward Wheeler Hall, an Episcopal Minister and she was Eleanor R. Mills, a member of the church's choir. They were married but not to each other and their affair was an open secret. Suspicion quickly fell on the respective spouses.

photo courtesy of The Courier News

credit: P&A Photos

Curious on-lookers immediately invaded the crime scene and began removing souvenirs (they stripped the bark from the crab apple tree and carved their initials in the trunk) and handling evidence (passing the calling card around). The press made this their top story and rightly so - the public couldn't get enough.

Jane Gibson entered into this drama 6 weeks after the crime when she came forth as an eyewitness. The press dubbed her The Pig Woman because she operated a farm nearby raising pigs and chickens.

According to Jane, she was content to mind her own business until an innocent young man, Clifford Hayes, had been arrested and accused. She could no longer keep silent about what she'd seen and heard that night and how she happened to be there.

Someone had recently robbed Jane of 20 rows of corn and she meant to discover who it was and see that it didn't happen again. When Jane's dog started barking on the night of September 14th, she got on her trusty mule Jenny and started after a rickety cart that was traveling down a road through her field. Despite the late hour (10 PM), there was plenty of moonlight. Worried the mule's braying would alert the thieves to her presence, Jane hopped off at some point and continued on foot. However, a passing automobile, an overheard argument, raised voices, screams and the sound of gunfire and some muzzle flash sent Jane racing back home but not before she'd gotten a look at the people involved. She definitely saw a white-haired lady who she later identified as Frances Hall and by the time of the trial she even more sure of who was there that night.

It would be 4 years before Edward Hall's wife Frances, her brothers Henry and William Stevens, and their cousin Henry de la Bruyere Carpender were formally accused of the crime and brought to trial.
Carpender managed to get himself a separate trial so, although present in the courtroom throughout the 1926 proceedings, his destiny was on hold. The charges against him were later dropped.

In the meanwhile, attorneys for the defense, hoping to shake Jane's credibility, and intrepid reporters, looking for a scoop, started to take a good look at Jane Gibson and neither faction was disappointed with what they saw.

In an article printed on October 22, 1922, Willene Taylor (an INS correspondent) played it safe by describing Mrs.Gibson as someone who "gave every appearance of being a person whose word is reliable."

Another early newspaper article written by Marguerite Mooers Marshall (special staff correspondent of The Evening World) and published on October 27, 1922, cast Jane in a favorable, heroic light. Jane was compared to Abraham Lincoln's mother and the headline announced she was a "Brave, Bible-Reading Farmer Woman."

Marshall's article, with biographical information no doubt provided by the subject herself, described Jane as hailing from Kentucky; she was a woman who had run away with the circus at the age of 16 and worked as a bareback rider. Marriage to a good man took her away from that life but his death in 1906 left her virtually penniless and struggling to raise their young son William. She took quite naturally to the rigors of farm life and has worked the land ever since with her son at her side.

How much of that tale is true? None of it. Why, her name wasn't even Jane Gibson.

Public records and ultimately members of Jane's own family would tell a different story about Jane's background.

During the 1926 trial, Jane's mother Salome Cerenner sat right up front in the gallery and announced to anyone who would listen that her daughter was "a liar" and that she was "ashamed to be her mother."

The press ate it up and people couldn't get enough of The Pig Woman. Soon, reporters would no longer be welcome at her farm.



The Pig Woman
Central NJ Home
News photo



A 1925 silent film called "the Goose Woman" borrowed heavily from the story of Jane Gibson. It wasn't an entirely flattering portrait. Picture an alcoholic woman who is a cross between Ma Kettle and Norma Desmond. It's actually a very good movie on it's own but it can be appreciated on a whole other level when you know what inspired the writers.

Louise Dresser as "The Goose Woman"

 

There's no doubt that Jane reinvented herself and lied in open court about her personal history but does this mean she lied about what she saw the night of the murders? As the state's star witness, Jane's believability was key to the entire prosecution strategy.

Hers is definitely a confusing backstory, filled with lies and inconsistencies.

"Jane Gibson" was born Mary Jane Eisleitner in Hoboken, New Jersey not Kentucky. The year was 1873.

Jane had not always been a simple pig farmer either. Her work history included working at a pencil factory, running a rooming house, working at a dressmakers shop, owning and operating a second-hand furniture store and later she managed a poultry store. She was never a bareback rider with the circus.

State records show that Mary Jane Eisleitner married Frederick G. Kesseling on August 13, 1890. Together they had three children, two were stillborn and one died in infancy. On November 18, 1926, during the cross-examination from the defense team, Jane was confronted with the fact that she and her husband hadn't lived together as man and wife since February 16, 1892 and that Frederick had filed for divorce, with claims of adultery on Jane's part; the divorce was finalized on January 4, 1899. Jane's family responded to reports that Frederick hadn't been heard from since the separation by revealing he was living on Long Island.

However, in court Jane refused to admit she was married to anyone but William H. Easling. Pre-trial she told reporters she was a widow and that William was just a relative. Even William appeared confused as to his status.

On the very same day (October 21, 1922), the public heard two different truths. The Asbury Park Press has Jane denying William is her husband and that those are her children while the Central New Jersey Home News interviewed William at his work and quoted him as saying his wife Jane Gibson "has a brilliant mind."

In that same Central New Jersey Home News article (October 22, 1922), the state's Chief Investigator, James Mason, is quoted as believing "I knew there was something about her personal life that Mrs. Gibson was not telling, but I did not press her because I did not feel that her private affairs had anything to do with what she saw and heard that night."

And that's the crux of it. Can you believe her testimony with regards to the crime when she's clearly lying about her own life.

Jane Gibson told the press "I have told the truth as I saw it and my past had nothing to do with it."

The 1910 US Census shows William H. Easton and his wife of 17 years, Jesse M., to be the parents of 2 living children - William Jr and Alice Easton. Both children are recorded as being 8-years-old, which indicates twins. Jesse had given birth to 7 children total, only 2 were still living.

The 1920 US Census shows Jane Gibson as being a (business?) "partner" to William H. Easton Sr., aged 55. William Easton, Jr., aged 18, and William Whitaker, aged 32, are listed as a "boarders." Jane's status is now "single" and she's shaved 9 years off her age. She's suddenly 38 again. 

Depending on who she was talking to at the time, William and Alice Easton were either children that Jane adopted between the years 1906-1910, her own biological children or the children of her sister Jesse May Eisleitner Easton who was a trained nurse and away most of the time. So this would make William her brother-in-law? Only Jane didn't have any sisters named Jesse while the real Jesse Easton was born in Spain and emigrated to America in 1890.

By the time of the 1926 Hall-Mills murder trial there was now another person living at the farm - little 3-year-old June Gibson.

Jane would either tell people June was her own daughter or that she was the daughter of her "ward" Alice.

In a November 1926 newspaper article, Jane's mother Salome would announce that June was born on June 18, 1923 and that her name was "June Whitaker." Wait - where have we heard that surname before? Oh yes, William Whitaker was a farmhand in 1920. Hmmm.....

In court, Jane admitted she was born Eisleitner but later dropped the "Eis" and went by the name "Mary Leitner."  

Mrs. Gibson denied using either the name Anna King or Janet Hilton. Despite being shown a theatrical poster containing a photo of "Anna King," which the defense maintained Jane bore a healthy resemblance to, Jane denied she was ever that sweet-voiced, buxom singer.

The witness revealed she called herself "Jane Gibson" because she had purchased the farm from William and Mary Gibson and folks were used to the name so she adopted it.

When asked in court who "Jesse Easton" was she said that was her too. Her husband was the only one that called her that because he liked the name.

But what happened to the real Mrs. Easton between 1910 and 1920?

Of course, the thing that made Jane Gibson's testimony all the more dramatic is she told it from her sick bed.

Photo courtesy of The Heritage Trail Association

By late 1926, it was known that Jane Gibson was dying from cancer and her doctors said they were worried about her "septic kidneys." They advised that she not be moved from the hospital but Jane demanded to be heard. On November 18, 1926 Jane was transported to the courthouse via ambulance. 

Her mother Salome said, "Jane's not so sick. A lot of sympathy is wasted on her." Charlotte Mills, daughter of the murdered woman apparently had flowers delivered to Jane's hospital room every other day.

Before being removed from the courtroom, after three hours of testimony, Jane raised herself up on one elbow, pointed at the three defendants and shouted "I've told the truth, so help me God and you know it, and you know it, and you know it."

In the end, whether it was Jane Gibson's sketchy past, the lack of untainted physical evidence, the excellent defense, the believability of the accused or any number of factors - on December 3, 1926 a jury found the defendants not guilty. The case remains unsolved.

Jane Gibson would rally post trial and switch to raising skunks and goats but she would finally succumb to the cancer and die on February 7, 1930. In her will she left everything to her husband William H. Easton. The newspaper reports she is survived her son William Jr and daughter June. No mention of Alice.

Yet when William Easton Sr died on December 25, 1945, his obituary notes he is survived by his children William, Alice and Irene.

Some interesting side notes -


This was not the first time Jane Gibson had come forward with information she considered crucial to the police. On December 3, 1912, Trenton NJ resident Miss Luella Marshall was assaulted, her skull fractured. Luella never regained consciousness and she died a week later. Jane was operating a rooming house on south Broad Street at that time and she happened to overhear a conversation about the crime which she thought police should be made aware of. I don't know what information Jane had but the police felt it wasn't relevant and the murder went unsolved.

William Kunstler wrote a book, published in 1964, asserting his belief that the Ku Klux Klan killed the adulterous couple simply because they disapproved of such behavior.

The hat that covered Reverend Hall's face was featured in "Mysteries at the Museum," - S4, Ep 7.

And what of the animosity Salome had for her daughter? According to an article in the November 11, 1926 edition of the Central New Jersey Home News, Jane had not paid her back the entirety of a loan in the amount of $1285.00 and Salome was not on good terms Jane simply because her daughter gave her "a bad reputation" in the neighborhood.

In November 1926, Salome Cerenner was having a little trouble trying to cash in on a Prudential Life Insurance policy for $1,114.00 because her only proof that the insured, her son John Eisleitner, was dead was that he was appearing to her in spirit form. He apparently revealed himself to her several times, wearing a silk dressing gown and asking for 50 cents for ice, which she gave him. Salome had collected $100 from the Metropolitan Life Insurance two years prior after her daughter Margaret disappeared.


Check the As Close to Crime YouTube Channel for a scene from "The Goose Woman" which reflects her tempestuous relationship with the press (https://youtu.be/_30wUxuvxKg).
I've also uploaded the aforementioned segment from "Mysteries at the Museum." (https://youtu.be/R8Uui0iJrDE). Good news for some, bad news for others though as copyright laws prevent this latter clip from being shown in certain countries. Fair enough. However, the episode is available for purchase through Amazon and the older seasons are always being rebroadcast so check your local listings.