IN THIS EPISODE: Meet DONNA HALL and enter a world where TRUE CRIME happened nearly every single day. The Halls were a lower tier CRIME FAMILY who lived in and around PHILADELPHIA, PA in the 1980's and 90's. The Halls weren’t the CORLEONE'S, but they made national headlines just the same! Donna's mom Phyllis - went from flirting with criminality to actually sleeping with it. She spent 6 months in prison for CHILD ENDANGERMENT. Her stepdad – John Hall – was the Philadelphia PD’s FAVORITE SNITCH. By the time he was done, he’d insert my family into two of Philly’s biggest UNSOLVED MUURDERS. That didn't end well for anyone! Ah, but first, you have to meet the family!

SHOW NOTES:

I cannot recommend highly enough that you buy and read Tom Lowenstein's "THE TRIALS OF WALTER OGROD". It contains lots of juicy details about John Hall and my family. You can buy it here at Amazon or here at Goodreads.

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS: The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

TikTok: @the.hall.closet.p

WEBSITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: Meet DONNA HALL's mom PHYLLIS, maybe the WORST MOM EVER. If there's a reason The Halls were a TRUE CRIME family, it's mostly because of Phyllis. Surviving one's mother is a universal experience - if one survives. But, how Donna survived growing up with a mom like Phyllis is a truly remarkable story.

SHOW NOTES

Being a mother, I know: parenting is hard work. Not everyone’s good at it. Some people are downright terrible at it. And then there are people like my mom – Phyllis Hall – who was, in fact, criminally bad at being a mom. She literally went to prison for six months for abandoning my younger sister.

I was seventeen at the time – living in a shelter so I could avoid living at home. My mom, Phyllis, had fallen hard for a man named JOHN HALL. He became the love of my mom’s life, more important to her than her 12 year old daughter. Rose had lived pretty much alone in our house for six months – out in Bucks County while Phyllis shacked up with John in Philadelphia.

John needed to stay in Philadelphia because he was a criminal who’d figured out how to manipulate the criminal justice system. He was known around the DA’s office and the Police Department as “The Monsignor” because he got so many people to confess to him. They didn’t really confess, John made up all the confessions. But the authorities didn’t care because they were closing cases thanks to John. That was what mattered to them, not justice.

In this episode, I’ll explain what I think makes my mom tick. What drove her and still drives her to do the things she does be they careless, corrupt, chaotic or criminal? If ever there was a “mom from hell”, it’s Phyllis. And it’s time to meet her!

Donna Hall

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

Threads: @the.hall.closet.p

WEB SITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: It was hard enough that DONNA HALL grew up in a lower tier TRUE CRIME FAMILY where the adults committed one crime or another almost every day. But Donna also grew up feeling deep down inside that SHE DIDN'T BELONG. She learned when she was 40, that she was right: she didn't belong: her actual biological dad was a sperm donor and none of the various men her mom Phyllis told her was her dad. But, the truth wouldn't come until much later. As a kid, Donna would have to figure out for herself how to find safety.

SHOW NOTES

Families can be like icebergs. They seem kind of harmless on the surface. Underneath however? They're massive monsters, always lurking, threatening to rip your guts out. My family was complicated because my mom Phyllis was incapable of sexual fidelity. Something inside her just couldn't tolerate being "loyal" that way. And, so, there were always new and different men coming into and out of our lives as I grew up. My siblings have different fathers.

For the first 12 years of my life, I thought a man named Frank was my father. And though he sexually abused me, I still related to him as "daddy". When Phyllis decided to leave Frank for another man (Miguel), I wanted to stay with Frank despite the sexual abuse. Because, I thought, he was my dad.

As we drove away that night, my mom disabused me of that idea. "He's not your real father anyway," she told me.

As time went on - and I tried to find out who really was my biological father - a few more "suspects" appeared and disappeared. I thought I knew who my dad was when, at 40, I took a 23AndMe DNA test - not expecting any surprises. Not only did I find my actual biological father (well, I found out who he was/is), I found a whole family of donor conceived siblings - "diblings"!

And, can I tell you? It's truly wonderful feeling like you do belong to a family!

Donna Hall

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic and sexual abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

Threads: @the.hall.closet.p

WEB SITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: Every TRUE CRIME family needs a leader. The Halls had JOHN HALL, a veritable MASTER CRIMINAL. When Donna's mom PHYLLIS hooked up with John Hall, The Halls went from being petty criminals to the criminal big time. John Hall would plunge Donna's family into two of Philadelphia's most notorious UNSOLVED MURDERS. But, first, John would change Phyllis from being just a really terrible mom into a flat out criminal one. Or, as the newspapers called her "The HOME ALONE MOM From Buck's County".

SHOW NOTES

Before my brother Herb met John Hall in prison and introduced him to my mom who, in turn, quickly became infatuated with him, the Hall family were lower tier petty criminals, always in and out of trouble. But, John Hall turned my mom from merely a terrible mother into a criminal one.

You have to remember - in my family, child neglect and child abuse were normalized. Abandonment happened on a regular basis. So, when Phyllis chose to live with John in the city (his legal issues made it better for him there), and my younger sister ended up living alone in the suburbs for six months, the rest of us kids (some were young adults by then) didn't see it as unusual.

To his absolute credit, my brother Herb reported this abandonment to the authorities. But, the reality at the time was, he didn't do it because of my sister. He did it to get back at John Hall - his former prison buddy who'd become his rival for my mom's attention.

Phyllis and John knowing Herb had done this would cause them to declare war on Herb. That's a mother declaring war on her son because he did the right thing (albeit for the wrong reason). That was how it rolled at the Halls.

Our lower tier crime family was moving up in the world!

Donna Hall

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic and sexual abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

Threads: @the.hall.closet.p

WEB SITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: The Hall's TRUE CRIME Saga continues. DONNA HALL's stepdad - MASTER CRIMIINAL John Hall - plunged the Halls into two of Philadelphia's most notorious UNSOLVED MURDERS. The Philly PD's favorite snitch, John Hall concocted his FALSE CONFESSIONS - supposedly made by other prisoners - to lessen his own considerable legal jeopardy. The first confession put an innocent man named WALTER OGROD on DEATH ROW for 24 years. This is how that happened.

STORY NOTES

John Hall didn't turn my family into criminals. More like, he was the accelerant that sent us over the edge. In very little time, he'd plunge my family into two of Philadelphia's most notorious unsolved murders!

The first concerned a murdered little girl named BARBARA JEAN. As you'll hear - with the considerable assistance of journalist TOM LOWENSTEIN (The New Orleans Innocence Project and THE TRIALS OF WALTER OGROD) - a floundering Philadelphia police investigation turned its focus on a neighbor of Barbara Jean's - Walter Ogrod. Poor police work and corruption led the two lead investigators to pressure and coerce Walter into a confession that simply didn't jibe with any of the evidence.

Walter's first jury noticed that. And they were told - and took into account - the fact that Walter is on the autism spectrum and that he was severely sleep deprived at his first interrogation. The one where, after thirteen hours of intense questioning, he confessed (though without ever speaking to or having access to a lawyer!). That first jury was on the verge of acquitting Walt when one of the jurors recanted, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

At Walter's second trial, the prosecution managed to exclude most of Walter's defense while basing their whole case on a brand new jailhouse confession provided by John Hall (run through a second inmate named Jay Walchansky).

Want to know how powerful bullshit can be? In the face of all the logic problems created by Walt's new, bullshit confession, the prosecution insisted that the jury believe the confession at all costs. That confession ultimately put Walt on Death Row for 24 years!

But, wouldn't ya know it? There's a twist!

We cannot recommend highly enough that you buy and read Tom Lowenstein's "THE TRIALS OF WALTER OGROD". You can buy it here at Amazon or here at Goodreads.

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS: The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

TikTok: @the.hall.closet.p

WEBSITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: Not only did MASTER CRIMINAL John Hall change the Halls when he hooked up with DONNA HALL's mom PHYLLIS, he nearly destroyed them. But then, that's life in a lower tier TRUE CRIME family. Because Herb had ratted out my mom as "The HOME ALONE MOM Of Bucks County", John Hall went after Herb with a FALSE CONFESSION that put Herb behind bars for 18 months on a MURDER CHARGE.

SHOW NOTES:

John Hall didn't corrupt Philly, he merely exploited its corruption. The number of confessions John Hall had secured from criminals the authorities couldn’t secure should have sent up red flags.

It’s pretty amazing what a corrupt snitch like John could do to a corrupt DA and police department. Eventually, the rising stink of bullshit permeated every bit of John and the confessions he was peddling to reduce his own considerable legal jeopardy.

To his credit, John was a studious rat. He’d do research in the prison law library (he liked being the law librarian) and then send Phyllis, my mom, to get the right details on the ground.

John took it very personally – more personally than did Phyllis – when Herb called the authorities about our sister and put Phyllis in prison for 6 months. Though John would never stoop to murder – he wasn’t violent in any way – as he told my mom in a letter to her from prison, he had no problem with the state murdering Herb via capital punishment.

As Herb learned the hard way, when you’ve spent your life victimizing people, it’s hard for the system to see you as a victim. Even though Herb, where John Hall was concerned, was very much the victim. Of a crime!

Donna Hall

We cannot recommend highly enough that you buy and read Tom Lowenstein's "THE TRIALS OF WALTER OGROD". It contains lots of juicy details about John Hall and my family. You can buy it here at Amazon or here at Goodreads.

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS: The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

TikTok: @the.hall.closet.p

WEBSITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: It's TRUE CRIME served up FAMILY STYLE! You've heard DONNA HALL's side of what it was like growing up in a lower tier CRIME FAMILY. Now Donna's brother HERB tells his side of the John Hall story - and in incredible detail, too. It's a story about deep CORRUPTION in the PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT and DA's office.

SHOW NOTES

We've told the John Hall Story from my perspective. We've told it from a journalistic perspective - thanks to our friend, the journalist Tom Lowenstein. Now we get to tell it from my brother Herb's perspective.

And Herb's perspective is particularly insightful because, like our friend Walter Ogrod, Herb was one of John Hall's victims.

John had lots of legal liability. At the very same time that he was destroying Walter Ogrod's life (as we described in episode 5) and destroying the life of a man named David Dickson (a security guard accused of murdering a Drexel University student), he set out to destroy my brother Herb's life - in large part as payback for Herb preventing our younger sister from freezing to death.

As we described in episode 4, Herb ratted out my mom for abandoning our younger sister. The cops showing up made John angry. The press showing up made it worse. With Herb's case, John seems to have reached a kind of snitch's critical mass. Except, rather than explode, John's snitching career imploded. Most importantly, what happened to Herb broke the hold John Hall had on our family. This wasn't the end of our dance with John, but we could see now that the music was going to end. And John was going to be the one getting kicked to the curb.

Donna Hall

We cannot recommend highly enough that you buy and read Tom Lowenstein's "THE TRIALS OF WALTER OGROD". It contains lots of juicy details about John Hall and my family. You can buy it here at Amazon or here at Goodreads.

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS: The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

TikTok: @the.hall.closet.p

WEBSITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IN THIS EPISODE: John Hall was a MASTER CRIMINAL. And yet, DONNA HALL's mom, PHYLLIS managed to break him and turn him from the PHILLY PD's favorite SNITCH into a homeless dead guy. If there's really a master criminal here, it might just be PHYLLIS. How this bonkers TRUE CRIME family saga became a podcast - and what will happen in season two!

SHOW NOTES

In season one of The Hall Closet, I wanted to give you an overview of The Halls - a family that seemed compelled to live outside the law. And, I wanted to introduce you to the principle players - my mom Phyllis and John Hall in particular.

It turns out that telling the truth does set you free! I have wanted - perhaps even needed - to tell this story for a long time. The process of telling it - and the way we've told it - has been incredibly therapeutic. I'd even say cathartic.

As my storytelling partner in this podcast would put it, how you tell a story IS the story. We've all listened to people massacre a joke. Even a great story can die if not told the right way. Alan Katz has been telling stories for a long time. Back before he was a podcaster, he wrote and produced movies and TV shows like HBO's iconic "TALES FROM THE CRYPT". In fact, Alan CO-CREATED THE CRYPT KEEPER!

Alan's approach to storytelling - and I really do hope you've enjoyed that approach here - is to try and see the world through his storytelling subject's eyes. To make the audience feel everything I felt.

In Season Two of The Hall Closet, I'll tell you even more stories about John and Phyllis and the rest of the Halls. In the mean time, please connect with us via our PATREON PAGE (follow the link below).

Subscribers will be the first to know when Season Two is ready to drop. But subscribers will get sooooo much more! There's my DAILY DIARY and EXCLUSIVE VIDEO AND AUDIO CONTENT created just for SUBSCRIBERS.

And, once a month, I'll invite subscribers INTO The Hall Closet - so they can ask me questions about my life and family and how I survived growing up in a lower tier crime family in the 1980's outside of Philly.

I really do look forward to seeing you there!

Donna Hall

I cannot recommend highly enough that you buy and read Tom Lowenstein's "THE TRIALS OF WALTER OGROD". It contains lots of juicy details about John Hall and my family. You can buy it here at Amazon or here at Goodreads.

The Hall Closet is written by Donna Hall and A L Katz. Costard & Touchstone Productions produced it. Donna Hall and A L Katz are the executive producers.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS: The Hall Closet is not intended for sensitive audiences. Domestic abuse, violence, child endangerment, adultery, explicit language.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: @THEHALLCLOSETPODCAST

Instagram: @THE_HALL_CLOSET_PODCAST

TikTok: @the.hall.closet.p

WEBSITE

www.thehallclosetpodcast.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Please visit our Patreon Page: patreon.com/TheHallClosetPodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.