Lisa Herrick

CNF Staff Writer  October 8, 2023

This is a tale of a young man, Hiram Hall, born February 22, 1878,  thoroughly in love with his new bride Ida Bell Hassler, who resided just four miles away from Hiram in Cumberland County, at the time of their meeting. Nobody could have predicted the intricate and devastating outcome of the joining of these two souls and the part that Hiram’s mother, Malinda Hall ultimately would play in it.

Hiram was just twenty years old when he met his bride to be. She was just 16 years old and he grew quite infatuated with her. He was acquainted with her for just a short time before he married her. After their marriage they went to live with his parents. From the start, Hiram’s mother was not pleased with his choice of a wife, and she continuously tried to turn Hiram against her. After just six weeks the couple separated as a result of the efforts of Hiram’s mother. In July of 1897 the pair made amends and Ida Bell returned to live with Hiram at his home with Hiram’s mother and father.

Image of Hiram Hall by by Bill DeRossett

Image of Ida Bell by Bill DeRossett

After Ida Bell came back, Hiram’s mother tried to run Ida Bell off and when that did not work she decided that Hiram was to murder his new bride suggesting he throw her into a well. Hiram rejected his mother’s persuasions until she at last drove him mad with her efforts and finally he was ready to commit the crime which he would ultimately be hanged for. It would take three attempts before Hiram was finally successful.

In a full confession which he agreed to only after being awarded certain terms Hiram spelled out the details of the crime and what led up to it.  His terms were that his friend, 19 year old Abe Garrison would spend the night in his cell with him the night before he was hanged and go with him in the morning to the scaffold and afterwards take his body down home and be buried quietly.

The following is a recap of Hiram’s confession of his attempts to Kill Ida Bell and a surprising confession of an attempt of murder on another soul’s life that he was unable to carry out. The full confession can be found in Cumberland County’s First Hundred Years by Helen Bullard & Joseph Marshall Krechniak pages 108-110.

FIRST ATTEMPT

On August 12, 1897, Hiram hid near their well and waited for Ida Bell to arrive to gather water.  When she arrived at the well he tried to knock her into the well but his effort failed and he fled before she could see who it was. She returned to the home they shared with his parents and told his mother that someone tried to kill her with a rock.  His mother told Ida Bell that someone was just trying to scare her knowing that it had been Hiram that had actually made the attempt.

 

SECOND ATTEMPT

Two days later Hiram made a second attempt to kill Ida Bell this time following her to the well to push her in but she was too quick for his efforts and again he failed at his attempt to murder her. Ida Bell thought that he was just having fun with her and had no idea his attempt was serious. Just behind the pair his mother had followed and was watching the ordeal. When back at the house Hiram asked his mother why she had been following and she told him that Ida Bell, being the strong active woman that she was might pull him down into the well with her and she was afraid that they both might drown. At that point Hiram told his mother that he “could not and would not try it again” but she once again persuaded him otherwise.

 

THIRD ATTEMPT

On the morning of August 18, 1897 , Ida Bell took a bucket and went to get water from the well. Hiram’s mother ran to him and said “Now is your time” so Hiram grabbed a second bucket and followed her. When they arrived at the well Ida Bell attempted to dip her bucket into the well and Hiram threw all of his weight against Ida Bell and pushed her into the well. Ida caught herself on the side of the well with her hands and feet and it was at this moment she realized that it was her own beloved Hiram that was trying to harm her. She clung to the side of the well she looked up at Hiram with a pleading in her eyes that Hiram said should have melted a heart of stone. But he had gone so far he was void of any feelings and he stooped down and grabbed a large stone and struck her in the head with all of his strength. She quivered for a moment but then dropped down into the water.  Hiram did not want to see if she sank and ran immediately to the house. After just a couple of minutes his mother came running into the house and told him that Ida Bell was trying to climb back out of the well. Hiram returned to the well and found Ida Bell floating on top of the well apparently lifeless. Hiram took a plank and struck her in the face and head several times and then pushed her under the water and held her under until she sank. Hiram then went to the house and informed his mother that “all was ended now and that he was in a prettie fix.” His mother told him to be quiet and it would never be found out but within forty-eight hours he was being guarded by the sheriff to prevent a mob from tearing him apart for the crime he had committed.

 

SOUGHT HIS FATHER’S LIFE

Hiram’s confession did not stop here. Hiram went on to confess that his mother also wished him to kill his father, Samuel Hall. He told her that he could not do it but she insisted that he could be successful if he would just try. She suggested that Hiram shoot him so one day when his father was plowing the field near the house Hiram took his gun and started out to kill him.  He approached a fence with a clear shot and placed his gun through a crack and and had every intention of following through but he stated “his heart failed him”. He again took his gun with the intention to take his father’s life to the place where his father was chopping. He got behind a tree and took aim. Just at the moment when Hiram was going to pull the trigger his father straightened up, placed his hand to the exact place that Hiram had been aiming and “uttered audibly a weary sigh”. That sigh saved his father’s life and the father that he twice intended to kill went on to spend all of his money trying to save Hiram’s life.

Hiram ended his confession by stating “In view of all the horrible crimes which my mother has caused me to attempt, and knowing she is the cause of my doing these horrible things, I love her still and hope to meet her in heaven”.  Hiram Hall, Crossville Tennessee, April 12, 1899.

THE TRIAL

In May 1898, the case was tried in court. Malinda Wyatt Hall, mother of the murderer, was called to the witness stand, but refused to talk and was remanded to jail. There were rumors that Malinda Hall would be indicted as an accomplice in the murder and that the prosecution had secured evidence against her but it never happened. A jury found after an hour of deliberation that Hiram Hall was guilty of murder in the first degree. Judge W.T. Smith ordered the prisoner be brought into court to receive his sentence. Hall looked pale and haggard. He was ordered to stand. The court room was filled almost to capacity. When Hall stood, the entire audience arose en masse.

The court pronounced the sentence in a low and solemn tone, speaking so that few could hear. The record stated, “It is therefore the judgment of this court that the sheriff of Cumberland County, on June 17, 1898, in an enclosure to be erected for the purpose within two miles of the jail, hang the defendant, Hiram Hall, by the neck until dead.”   After the decision of the jury was given, Malinda Hall was released from jail. Hiram Hall was granted an appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which would not convene until December, thus his sentence was delayed.

February 1, 1899, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the lower court in the murder case of Hiram Hall. A date of March 13 was fixed for the execution unless Governor McMillin pardoned him. The Feb. 8 Chronicle reports, “Hiram Hall, who will be hung here Monday, March 13, unless McMillin interferes, was baptized in the Nashville jail last week.”

There are conflicting dates of execution.  The February 1, 1899 story from the Chronicle has the execution date ordered by the Tennessee supreme court on Monday March 13, 1899 however in Cumberland County’s First Hundred years it is written his confession was given on April 12, 1899 and he was hanged April 13, 1899.

At the request of both Hiram and his father on the day of the hanging the hanging from scaffold was completed at 6:53 a.m. with about 30 – 35 people in the enclosure outside the County Jail in Crossville.

So ends the tale of Hiram Hall and the murder of his beloved Ida Bell Hassler and attempted murder of his loving father who gave all until Hiram’s death.

Sources

Cumberland County’s First Hundred Years, Authors Helen Bullard & Joseph Marshall Krechniak pages 108-110.

Old Uncle Gib, Chronicle correspondent, June 17, 2014