Suspect Confesses to 1971 Slaying of Maryland Deputy Sheriff: Police

Detectives closed the 51-year-old homicide of a Montgomery County special deputy sheriff last week.

Capt. James Tappen Hall was found face down in a parking lot at the Manor Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, at about 10:40 p.m. Oct. 23, 1971, police said. Hall was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound and died three days later.

Police believe Hall interrupted a home burglary in progress while moonlighting as a security guard, but the case never was solved.

Hall’s daughter Carolyn Hall Philo said she just knew somebody was out there and kept after police year after year.

“I’ve been calling, I probably call every six months,” she said. “’You know, guys, you’ve got to do something. I know he’s out there. I may be old, but he may be younger, and he’s out there. You keep looking.’”

Last October, Montgomery County police’s Cold Case Unit took up the case on the 50^th anniversary of Hall’s homicide.

Investigators reviewed the case files and recordings and interviewed witnesses for almost a year before setting their sites on Larry David Becker, who had been interviewed by police in 1973 but never named a suspect, police said.

Becker began using the name Smith in 1975, police said, and had been living in New York for 45 years.

Smith confessed to the homicide Thursday during an interview with investigators in New York, police said. He said he shot Hall by accident and didn't know he had died. Police arrested Smith and charged him with first-degree murder.

“I was shocked, absolutely shocked, because I thought after 50 years, this case would never be solved,” Hall’s son Melvin Hall said. “We never gave up hope; we just didn’t know what would happen.”

Smith asked police to pass along an apology to the family.

"I hope he had a miserable life, I really do,” Melvin Hall said.

He said the loss of his father still cuts deep.

“The thing I miss most is that I was never able to have a relationship with him like I do with my sons,” he said.

Smith waived extradition and is expected in Maryland by the end of the week, police said. He likely will have his first court appearance next week.

Hall’s homicide is the oldest cold case Montgomery County police have ever solved.

Correction (Sept. 7, 2022 4:48 p.m.): A previous version of this article spelled the suspects name as Beckett. The correct name is Becker.