Captain James Tappen Hall was fatally shot in Rockville, Maryland, in 1971. On Wednesday, police reported that they have discovered and captured a suspect who confessed to the crime earlier this month.
Officers from the Montgomery County Police Department identified Larry David Smith, formerly Larry David Becker, as the suspect in the 51-year-old cold case, the bureau’s oldest and only unsolved homicide case involving law enforcement, which is now closed, during a press conference attended by some of Hall’s family members.
The Montgomery County Police Department’s photograph of Captain James Tappen Hall. Hall passed away in 1971. Police Department for Montgomery County
Hall, a Montgomery County special deputy sheriff, was shot on October 23, 1971, according to the police department. Officers were reportedly dispatched to the parking area of Rockville’s Manor Country Club around 10:40 that morning, where they discovered Hall with a gunshot wound to the head. Three days later, he died of his injuries at a neighboring hospital.
According to Montgomery police, investigators believe the deceased captain “interrupted a house burglary in progress.” On the 50th anniversary of the homicide, the county’s major crimes division and cold case section reopened their investigation for examination in October of last year.
Becker was identified as a suspect by Detective K. Leggett and Corporal L. Killen of the cold case team after a review of case files and interviews with witnesses.
Becker, who is now 71 years old, was interrogated by police in 1973, but he was not named a suspect at the time. Upon reviewing the case, detectives discovered that Becker had changed his name to Larry David Smith and relocated to Little Falls, New York, where he lived for over 45 years.
Police said the man admitted to shooting Hall during an interrogation with Leggett and Killen in New York on Thursday. Before the end of the week, he will return to Maryland after waiving his extradition.
The case will be transferred to the office of the state’s attorney, who will “see it through to the end,” Lt. Kenneth Sanger of the department’s major crimes branch said Wednesday afternoon.
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