BY Bruce Gain
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A Grim Confession
unidentified object before Mr. Hall countered the attack with a blow of his own, but Mrs. Hall also
allegedly fell at one point, leaving open the possibility that her death was an accident.
After burning his wife's body and putting her charred remains in the wet concrete, Hall called at least
one of his adult children, who then alerted the authorities. Pending Hall's trial for aggravated murder,
the French authorities would not communicate additional details about the case.
"Things remain confusing, yet [Hall] is managing to explain what went down," Christian Borie, a
gendarme from Vitr said during the press conference. "He remains in a very deranged state."
The tabloid press was quick to infer that drunkenness and imminent financial ruin drove Mr. Hall to
desperation and, finally, madness before he committed such a heinous act. According to local
townspeople, though, Hall's gruesome deed did not reflect the person they thought they knew. Hall did
not exactly blend into the local community and hardly spoke French, yet he never went out of his way
to cause trouble with the locals, either. However, there were troubling signs that all was not well in the
idyllic setting of Chateau de Fretay prior to Mrs. Hall's death.
bilingual, unlike Mr. Hall, who spoke very little French, and Mrs. Hall, who barely spoke the language,
according to a employee at the Le Chatellier mayor's office.
"The children attended school here locally and I can confirm that all three had plenty of friends in the
region," the mayor of Le Chatellier said.
In the small village of Le Chatellier where most of the townspeople know each other, Mr. and Mrs.
Hall were definitely outsiders. They mostly kept to themselves, driving around town in Jaguars and
BMWs, and remaining very discreet in their comings and goings. The only memorable incident the
mayor of Le Chatellier could recall at all was when Mr. Hall's horse strayed onto a neighbor's property.
"He went and got his horse, and that was the end of the affair," Sourdin said.
Mrs. Hall, 49 at the time of her death, stood out in that she was, according to several people truTV
interviewed, a remarkably attractive woman. "She was what you call 'une belle femme,'" the owner of
the local bar Mauduit Francois, told truTV.
Le Kasteller restaurant
But in contrast to his beautiful wife and aside from his taste for fancy cars, nothing about Mr. Hall's
personal demeanor was flashy, and he certainly did not act like someone who would later kill his wife,
the bar owner said. "He would come in occasionally and drink a beer like anybody else," he said. "He
was absolutely no trouble at all."
Mr. Hall would dine occasionally at a nearby restaurant called Le Kasteller, sometimes with friends
from the UK, all the while remaining very discreet. For the restaurant owner, he was even too quiet. "I
sometimes felt like coming up to him and shaking him, he was so calm," she said.
Mr. Hall had recently suffered a stroke, yet it was mild enough for Mr. Hall to continue driving himself
to local bars and restaurants. Hall's stroke became common knowledge in the town, the owner of
Mauduit Francois said. Yet, the bar owner said he did not see any noticeable changes in Mr. Hall's
behavior. After the stroke, he would still come in and have a few beers at the bar, keeping to himself as
usual, and then leave.
However, during the years leading up to the death of his wife, all was not well. Indeed, the reserved
Englishman was facing pressures relating to the financial viability of his estate, despite the calm
demeanor of his public face. Kept mostly out of sight beyond the estate's walls, the problems remained
hidden to neighbors and the townspeople.
Renovated chapel
The price to rent the "luxury-vacation villas": up to 5,745 or the equivalent of $9,114.50 for a sevenday stay. Comparative, luxury-class villa rentals in the Brittany area of France can be had for less than
half of this amount.
But for several guests who paid more than the equivalent of $9,000 to stay at one of the villas, the
accommodations were not only sup-par without any working go-karts nor a nine-hole golf course, they
were in such a state of disrepair that some guests feared for their safety.
"The place was lethal," a former guest, who wished to remain anonymous, told truTV. "There were
electrical wires and uncovered wells. We had to make sure that our children stayed away [from the
hazards]."
No one interviewed for the article that lived near the Halls in France, including Sourdin, claimed to
know of any financial problems Mr. Hall might have had, either in France or in England. In the local
townspeople's eyes, the Halls were in for the long haul to convert the chateau grounds into a golf
vacation complex.
Pierre Sourdain
However, Mr. Sourdin conceded that Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall's estate was a work in progress when
queried about complaints from guests who had rented out some of the houses on the estate. "I think
that the guests showed up before the renovations were finished," he said. "But when I go on vacation
and I don't like the place I rent, I go elsewhere."
But in the town from which the family came in Holmfirth, England, reports surfaced that said Mr. Hall
had "fled" the English town in 1998, leaving behind enormous debts.
A person familiar with Mr. Hall's dealings in Holmfirth said the local bank had repossessed Hall's
house just before the family moved to France. The source said it would be difficult to find people to go
on record to comment on what he said were Mr. Hall's "scams" for fear of reprisals if or when he got
out of prison for the death of his wife. "People are going to be scared that someone will bang on their
doors in the middle of the night. He hung around with heavy people," the source said. "But it will be a
shame if French authorities do not find out what kind of man he really is, either."
According to a report in the local newspaper The Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Mr. Hall left behind a
string of debts and was a well-known con man. Mr. Hall reportedly told a bank that he had invented a
building material and received a loan for several hundred thousand dollars with which to start a
business to sell the material. However, the loan was never paid back, the newspaper reported.
Robert Hall
Citing local townspeople, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner also reported a long list of other
wrongdoings Mr. Hall had allegedly committed, including illegally operating a retail outlet and
threatening someone with a baseball bat.
The owner of J W Kaye Ironmongers, a hardware store in Holmfirth, Dave Earnshaw, told truTV that
Mr. Hall was part con man, part feckless businessman. "He was a very amiable sort of bloke, to be
truthful. He could sell smoke to the Eskimos if he wanted," Mr. Earnshaw said. "My personal opinion
is that he got himself into a cul-de-sac and couldn't get himself out of it. Some of his projects worked,
and some of them didn't, and there were more projects that didn't work than did."
Mr. Earnshaw also alleged Mr. Hall owed him money.
"He didn't owe me a huge amount that rocked the boat, but it was annoying at the time because he just
disappeared to France," Mr. Earnshaw said.
Mr. Hall had had a reputation in Holmfirth similar to that he acquired in Le Chatellier as someone who
was usually calm and collected, despite any allegedly shady business dealings. Mr. Hall had been
known to drink, yet he had never appeared to be visibly intoxicated.
"He was a calm sort of bloke," Mr. Earnshaw said. "I knew he liked to drink, but I never once saw him
drunk."
As for the construction of the golf course, the project was moving along well at the time of Mrs. Hall's
death, Andrew Booth, Hall's architect, told truTV. "The deal was happening. We got approval last
month," Mr. Booth said. "The idea that the project was dead in the water is not true at all."
Mr. Booth conceded that there was "some frustration" that it took five years for the plan to go through,
but, during the days leading up to Mrs. Hall's death, the project's outlook was better than it had been.
After getting the green light from town officials, plans were also in place to sell plots of land that could
generate over 2.5 million ($4.0 million), more than enough to fund the golf course and hotel, Mr.
Booth said. "With things put into place, the land value will go up," Booth said.