The 1922 Salacious Double Murder of the Priest and His Choir Singer.

Salacious murder cases, especially unsolved ones, are hard to forget and even harder to walk away from. They intrigue and thrill us, but most notably, they continue to trouble us for answers.

On the evening of September 14, 1922, the Episcopal Priest Reverend Edward Hall, age 42, and his pretty choir singer, Mrs. Eleanor Mills, age 34, were murdered as they met at a known lovers' tryst spot and under some crabapple trees. The site of the murder was an abandoned farm, and the bodies were discovered a day and a half later.

The slayings were gruesome, particularly so to Eleanor, who suffered three gunshots to the head, one between the eyes. The killer had taken a knife and nearly severed her head off. Later, an autopsy discovered that she had incurred one additional indignity, finding that someone had cut her tongue out. Reverend Hall had been shot once in the head. The brutal torture of Eleanor meant something more.

Initially, the spouses of the dead denied that the two were having an affair. Jim Mills, a school janitor, stated to the newspapers. "My wife was not having an affair with the Rector. I believe it was a woman's deed. It was jealousy, and I think her throat was cut in spite because of her beautiful voice."

Mills might have been on to something, and an article in the evening paper supported his notion, stating: "reports three prominent church ladies are being investigated" and that there may have been a "jealous parish feud."