Ruth Snyder was a suburbanite housewife living in the County of Queens, New York City. Her husband, of rather advanced age was art editor of a sport magazine. They had a nine year old daughter. Ruth was in her thirties, a brunette Nordic beauty, solidly built. It was on the roaring twenties, and she dreamed of a more luxurious life, expensive diversions, cocktail parties, and much money..

RUTH SNYDER



Por Alberto E. Azcona


Ruth Snyder was a suburbanite housewife living in the County of Queens, New York City. Her husband, of rather advanced age was art editor of a sport magazine. They had a nine year old daughter. Ruth was in her thirties, a brunette Nordic beauty, solidly built. It was on the roaring twenties, and she dreamed of a more luxurious life, expensive diversions, cocktail parties, and much money.. The husband, Albert, didn’t pay her much attention, was dedicated to his work, and took her out only in punctually programmed outings.

Under the placid existence of this middle class marriage, lurked the drama, tragedy and notoriety, that was not the aim of the fun loving woman, starved for the cheap and hollow lights and pleasures, proper of this mad twenties, prelude to the sexual revolution of the sixties, an easy money in quantities.

In one of her routinely days, the Nordic housewife decided to enhance her disguised beauty and went shopping for a corset, that she had seen advertised in a fashionable ladies magazine, at a shop in 5th Avenue.

The salesman across the counter, Judd Gray, was handsome in a non-aggressive way, of soft and delicate manners, as his job was to deal with the ladies underclothes, specially the corsets, that he adjusted with tact an precision to the matronly forms of his customers. Married, with children, living also a placid familiar existence, he took in the stroke, as occupational hazard, occasional flings with more than one of the corset buyers.

Ruth seemed to felt instant attraction for the salesman, and let it known to him, that was swift on the uptake. Things happened so fast, that in a few moments they found themselves making love in the couch of the office. One wonders if she was seduced by the nice clothes and polished manners of the womanizer salesman, or the incredible rapid surrender was a part of her plans, and she needed him for some hidden motives.

After that, they started to meet rather frequently, and spend some nights at classy hotels, dancing and drinking cocktails, at the vertiginous rhythm of the crazy years. In the meantime, they wrote each other ardent love letters, with the unquenchable thirst of deep sensual passion.

At this time, Ruth convinced her husband to take life insurance, as he was the only support of the little daughter, and she only knew to keep house, paint lamps, make marmalades and the such; and past the age to obtain a job without special aptitudes.

In some way she managed for Albert to take insurance for a small amount, say $ .1000, but in fact put to him a policy that insured his life with a double-indemnity clause of near $ 100.000 in case of death by accident. If such an accident occurred, Ruth will receive a small fortune.

Now, she took more care to maintain occult her infidelities from her husband, Were he to know, could divorce or go away, leaving the insurance to expire, as the real premium was out of his normal possibilities. She could cover the considerable payments to the insurance agent, out of her house and personal modest budget, but not for long.

Albert proved to be a most unsuspecting and resilient victim. Usually a robust man of good health, started very soon to have strange distempers, but if someone was feeding him poisons, they didn’t produce serious effects. She put some drops in his prune whip and he asked for more. Once, he was working at the garage under his car, with the motor on, and the doors were mysteriously shut, half killing him with the fumes, but he survived. One day he was having his “siesta” in the den, when awakened half asphyxiated; he had conscience enough to open a window, and again survived, discovering that the gas stove was on, without flames. Maybe Ruth accidentally left open the valve, she was so dumb.

All the same, the husband though this sequence of accidents rather strange, at the point that he commented the incidents to her brother, and bought a relvolver, for he, discarding his impassible and to him insipid spouse, suspected some external agent wished him ill. He told her of the revolver, less the little daughter find it and thought it was a new toy.

This news put her on the alert; once raised the undetermined suspicions of Albert he could get wise of the affair with the corset salesman, and he was a determined and strong individual. Action was to be taken immediately if they were to continue the affair, something vital to Judd, who loved his wife and children, but was like putty in the caressing hands of this “femme fatale”, and double vital to her, as a means of capturing the double indemnity and avoid a divorce that will be ruinous to her.

An accident was needed. After all –they connived- to be killed by an intruder was an accident. The adulterous pair planned the faked entry of a nocturnal thief and the murder of Mr. Snyder. The planning was all from Ruth’s cold and implacable criminal mind. Se called the shots and Judd, trained by her to be a sex slave, no less criminally contributed some details of execution with a touch of finesse, proper of his delicate profession as salesman and fitter of lady’s undergarments.

One night Ruth, Albert and the girl had to attend a neighbor’s party. She left the front door of their home unlocked. When the house was alone, Judd gained entrance and hid in the guest-room, well provided with a window sash weight, piano wire and a bottle of chloroform.

The family came back and soon everybody slept, except Ruth, who gave Judd a prearranged signal and left open the master bedroom. The false burglar
Struck with the sash weight toward the headboard of the bed, but missed. Albert awoke an started fighting with the intruder, who was getting the worst part till Ruth came to help, grabbed the sash weight and battered Albert unconscious. Then one of them, or both, streaked again with the sash weight, and for good measure strangled him against the chloroform soaked bedclothes. Then, they tied his writs and ankles

The deed done, they stuck carefully to the unbeatable planning. First, burned their bloody clothes, she a nightdress and he the suit and tie, in the cellar furnace. Then opened drawers and scattered clothes al over the floor. Ruth hid her most valuable jewels to make believe that the intruder had stolen them. Also left on the floor an Italian newspaper, to give the idea that some unemployed immigrant was the burglar and assassin. Judd tied now Ruth in the guest-room and gagged her, taking care that her ankles were left a little loose.

The corset salesman have a reinforced alibi. He left himself be noticed for a policeman near his own home: took a cab around there and caught the hatred and memory of the taxi driver, under tipping him; took reservations in a hotel, and wrote a letter to her wife, postmarked that night far from Queens.

At eight in the morning, Ruth started making noises, til her daughter heard them, took out her gag, and both gave the alarm to the neighbors and police. The police that came was a veteran of the force, looked carefully the evidence and listened to the story, that the grieving widow, Ruth, told about been awakened when a foreign looking thug attacked them. The weathered policeman did more than that, taking nothing for granted. Searched the premises and found, under a mattress the jewels Ruth said were taken for the intruder. In the floor, he also detected a tie pin with the initials “J.G.”. In her address book there were around twenty male names. One of them was Judd Gray. Also the police found the insurance policy, making Ruth beneficiary of more than $ 90.000. She was taken to the police station.

She kept to her story, till one detective showed her a paper that said “Judd Gray”, and his address. “Has he confessed”? she asked trembling. “Yes, that he murdered Mr Snyder”, they lied to her. “Poor Judd. I promised not to tell”, she commented, and told now a new story. He was madly in love with her and wanted to kill her husband, She did everything she could to prevent it, but actually he murdered poor Albert.

When Judd was detained and told that she had confessed, he started to talk, and gave the police a complete and detailed story, telling he was like putty in the caressing hands of these seductress of Queen’s Village, that he was out of his mind and she manipulated him, graduating more or less lovemaking as he did or not her biding.

At the trial she only said that she and Judd were lovers, and he was the dominant partner in the relationship, planned the whole thing and she was forced to take the insurance for her husband and plant the evidence, under his threats of exposing their illicit affair.

Judd took the stand against his lawyers advice and gave damning evidence against both of them, telling the whole story of the illicit conspiracy and the sinister plan that concluded in the premeditated murder of Mr. Snyder by the two of them.

The famous periodist, Damon Runyon, that covered the trial for a newspaper, saw her like a “chilly looking blonde with frosty eyes”, and Judd as “ an inert scare-drank fellow that you couldn’t miss among any hundred
As a dead set-up for a blonde”.

The jury convicted them of murder and both were condemned to deat. The double execution took place in June 12th 1928, and Ruth Snyder had an infamous notoriety as the second woman to be electrocuted in the jail of Sing Sing.

This case became the basis of James M. Cain novel “Double Indemnity”; which was made into a film by Holywood director Billy Wilder, with a script by Raymond Chandler and protagonized by Barbara Stanwick and Fred Mc Murray. In the history of newspapers the case is famous also because in the group of witnesses of the Ruth Snyder execution, there was a periodist that tied a camera to his ankle, and took a photography at the moment she was electrocuted.

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Criminal Cases: Ruth Snyder By Alberto E Azcona    Last edited: Saturday, April 27, 2002 Posted: Saturday, April 27, 2002      Download this Article

RUTH SNYDER Por Alberto E. Azcona Ruth Snyder was a suburbanite housewife living in the County of Queens, New York City. Her husband, of rather advanced age was art editor of a sport magazine. They had a nine year old daughter. Ruth was in her thirties, a brunette Nordic beauty, solidly built. It was on the roaring twenties, and she dreamed of a more luxurious life, expensive diversions, cocktail parties, and much money..             RUTH SNYDER Por Alberto E. Azcona Ruth Snyder was a suburbanite housewife living in the County of Queens, New York City. Her husband, of rather advanced age was art editor of a sport magazine. They had a nine year old daughter. Ruth was in her thirties, a brunette Nordic beauty, solidly built. It was on the roaring twenties, and she dreamed of a more luxurious life, expensive diversions, cocktail parties, and much money.. The husband, Albert, didn’t pay her much attention, was dedicated to his work, and took her out only in punctually programmed outings. Under the placid existence of this middle class marriage, lurked the drama, tragedy and notoriety, that was not the aim of the fun loving woman, starved for the cheap and hollow lights and pleasures, proper of this mad twenties, prelude to the sexual revolution of the sixties, an easy money in quantities. In one of her routinely days, the Nordic housewife decided to enhance her disguised beauty and went shopping for a corset, that she had seen advertised in a fashionable ladies magazine, at a shop in 5th Avenue. The salesman across the counter, Judd Gray, was handsome in a non-aggressive way, of soft and delicate manners, as his job was to deal with the ladies underclothes, specially the corsets, that he adjusted with tact an precision to the matronly forms of his customers. Married, with children, living also a placid familiar existence, he took in the stroke, as occupational hazard, occasional flings with more than one of the corset buyers. Ruth seemed to felt instant attraction for the salesman, and let it known to him, that was swift on the uptake. Things happened so fast, that in a few moments they found themselves making love in the couch of the office. One wonders if she was seduced by the nice clothes and polished manners of the womanizer salesman, or the incredible rapid surrender was a part of her plans, and she needed him for some hidden motives. After that, they started to meet rather frequently, and spend some nights at classy hotels, dancing and drinking cocktails, at the vertiginous rhythm of the crazy years. In the meantime, they wrote each other ardent love letters, with the unquenchable thirst of deep sensual passion. At this time, Ruth convinced her husband to take life insurance, as he was the only support of the little daughter, and she only knew to keep house, paint lamps, make marmalades and the such; and past the age to obtain a job without special aptitudes. In some way she managed for Albert to take insurance for a small amount, say $ .1000, but in fact put to him a policy that insured his life with a double-indemnity clause of near $ 100.000 in case of death by accident. If such an accident occurred, Ruth will receive a small fortune. Now, she took more care to maintain occult her infidelities from her husband, Were he to know, could divorce or go away, leaving the insurance to expire, as the real premium was out of his normal possibilities. She could cover the considerable payments to the insurance agent, out of her house and personal modest budget, but not for long. Albert proved to be a most unsuspecting and resilient victim. Usually a robust man of good health, started very soon to have strange distempers, but if someone was feeding him poisons, they didn’t produce serious effects. She put some drops in his prune whip and he asked for more. Once, he was working at the garage under his car, with the motor on, and the doors were mysteriously shut, half killing him with the fumes, but he survived. One day he was having his “siesta” in the den, when awakened half asphyxiated; he had conscience enough to open a window, and again survived, discovering that the gas stove was on, without flames. Maybe Ruth accidentally left open the valve, she was so dumb. All the same, the husband though this sequence of accidents rather strange, at the point that he commented the incidents to her brother, and bought a relvolver, for he, discarding his impassible and to him insipid spouse, suspected some external agent wished him ill. He told her of the revolver, less the little daughter find it and thought it was a new toy. This news put her on the alert; once raised the undetermined suspicions of Albert he could get wise of the affair with the corset salesman, and he was a determined and strong individual. Action was to be taken immediately if they were to continue the affair, something vital to Judd, who loved his wife and children, but was like putty in the caressing hands of this “femme fatale”, and double vital to her, as a means of capturing the double indemnity and avoid a divorce that will be ruinous to her. An accident was needed. After all –they connived- to be killed by an intruder was an accident. The adulterous pair planned the faked entry of a nocturnal thief and the murder of Mr. Snyder. The planning was all from Ruth’s cold and implacable criminal mind. Se called the shots and Judd, trained by her to be a sex slave, no less criminally contributed some details of execution with a touch of finesse, proper of his delicate profession as salesman and fitter of lady’s undergarments. One night Ruth, Albert and the girl had to attend a neighbor’s party. She left the front door of their home unlocked. When the house was alone, Judd gained entrance and hid in the guest-room, well provided with a window sash weight, piano wire and a bottle of chloroform. The family came back and soon everybody slept, except Ruth, who gave Judd a prearranged signal and left open the master bedroom. The false burglar Struck with the sash weight toward the headboard of the bed, but missed. Albert awoke an started fighting with the intruder, who was getting the worst part till Ruth came to help, grabbed the sash weight and battered Albert unconscious. Then one of them, or both, streaked again with the sash weight, and for good measure strangled him against the chloroform soaked bedclothes. Then, they tied his writs and ankles The deed done, they stuck carefully to the unbeatable planning. First, burned their bloody clothes, she a nightdress and he the suit and tie, in the cellar furnace. Then opened drawers and scattered clothes al over the floor. Ruth hid her most valuable jewels to make believe that the intruder had stolen them. Also left on the floor an Italian newspaper, to give the idea that some unemployed immigrant was the burglar and assassin. Judd tied now Ruth in the guest-room and gagged her, taking care that her ankles were left a little loose. The corset salesman have a reinforced alibi. He left himself be noticed for a policeman near his own home: took a cab around there and caught the hatred and memory of the taxi driver, under tipping him; took reservations in a hotel, and wrote a letter to her wife, postmarked that night far from Queens. At eight in the morning, Ruth started making noises, til her daughter heard them, took out her gag, and both gave the alarm to the neighbors and police. The police that came was a veteran of the force, looked carefully the evidence and listened to the story, that the grieving widow, Ruth, told about been awakened when a foreign looking thug attacked them. The weathered policeman did more than that, taking nothing for granted. Searched the premises and found, under a mattress the jewels Ruth said were taken for the intruder. In the floor, he also detected a tie pin with the initials “J.G.”. In her address book there were around twenty male names. One of them was Judd Gray. Also the police found the insurance policy, making Ruth beneficiary of more than $ 90.000. She was taken to the police station. She kept to her story, till one detective showed her a paper that said “Judd Gray”, and his address. “Has he confessed”? she asked trembling. “Yes, that he murdered Mr Snyder”, they lied to her. “Poor Judd. I promised not to tell”, she commented, and told now a new story. He was madly in love with her and wanted to kill her husband, She did everything she could to prevent it, but actually he murdered poor Albert. When Judd was detained and told that she had confessed, he started to talk, and gave the police a complete and detailed story, telling he was like putty in the caressing hands of these seductress of Queen’s Village, that he was out of his mind and she manipulated him, graduating more or less lovemaking as he did or not her biding. At the trial she only said that she and Judd were lovers, and he was the dominant partner in the relationship, planned the whole thing and she was forced to take the insurance for her husband and plant the evidence, under his threats of exposing their illicit affair. Judd took the stand against his lawyers advice and gave damning evidence against both of them, telling the whole story of the illicit conspiracy and the sinister plan that concluded in the premeditated murder of Mr. Snyder by the two of them. The famous periodist, Damon Runyon, that covered the trial for a newspaper, saw her like a “chilly looking blonde with frosty eyes”, and Judd as “ an inert scare-drank fellow that you couldn’t miss among any hundred As a dead set-up for a blonde”. The jury convicted them of murder and both were condemned to deat. The double execution took place in June 12th 1928, and Ruth Snyder had an infamous notoriety as the second woman to be electrocuted in the jail of Sing Sing. This case became the basis of James M. Cain novel “Double Indemnity”; which was made into a film by Holywood director Billy Wilder, with a script by Raymond Chandler and protagonized by Barbara Stanwick and Fred Mc Murray. In the history of newspapers the case is famous also because in the group of witnesses of the Ruth Snyder execution, there was a periodist that tied a camera to his ankle, and took a photography at the moment she was electrocuted. - - -