How I Got the Edwin R. Hall Interview

Edwin R. Hall looked surprised to see me when he walked into his side of the visitation room at the Johnson County Detention Center on July 14. He wasn’t surprised because of who I was – I’d already sent him a letter introducing myself and explaining that I was going to try to come and talk to him – but he was surprised at who I wasn’t. He’d been expecting a visit from his wife, Aletha.

“Is my wife out there?” is the first thing he asked me as he sat down on his side of the glass partition. He was wearing a gray-and-white striped, county-issued shirt and pants.

I was wearing jeans and a high-necked, boyish T-shirt. I mention this only because some authoritative-sounding voices on the Pitch Plog insist that I went looking like a floosy (emphasis mine, spelling theirs), showing lots of leg and cleavage. Usually I wouldn’t be able to remember what I wore on a Saturday four weeks ago, but I remember what I wore to see Hall. Jails require conservative clothes. I didn’t even want to wear anything particularly feminine, because it had crossed my mind that he may not be a big fan of women, given the crime he’s accused of and what we’ve heard about his childhood.

Hall was worried about where his wife was. “If you’re in here and she tries to come see me, they won’t let her in,” he said.