04/09/2026
In the early hours of April 9, 1886, Tillie Smith, an 18-year-old domestic who lived and worked at Centenary Collegiate Institute, was r***d and strangled. Most people still think the janitor did it.
The murder of Tille Smith not only shocked Victorian Hackettstown, it quickly became a sensational, closely followed trial covered by many major market newspapers, including New York City, Trenton and Philadelphia. The papers carried the details of the story as it unfolded, and it was this sensation...
