Ruth Snyder
| Ruth Brown Snyder | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Ruth Brown March 27, 1895 |
| Died | January 12, 1928 (aged 32) Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Housewife |
| Criminal charge | Murder |
| Criminal status | Executed by electric chair |
| Spouse(s) | Albert Snyder (died 1927) |
| Children | 1 |
Ruth Brown Snyder (March 27, 1895 – January 12, 1928) was an American murderer. Her execution in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison for the murder of her husband, Albert, was recorded in a well-known photograph.
In 1925, Snyder was a housewife from Queens Village, Queens, New York City who began an affair with Henry Judd Gray, a married corset salesman. She then began to plan the murder of her husband, enlisting the help of her new lover, though he appeared to be very reluctant. Her distaste for her husband apparently began when he insisted on hanging a picture of his late fiancée, Jessie Guishard, on the wall of their first home, and named his boat after her. Guishard, whom Albert described to Ruth as "the finest woman I have ever met", had been dead for 10 years.
Ruth Snyder first persuaded her husband to purchase insurance, with the assistance of an insurance agent (who was subsequently fired and sent to prison for forgery) "signed" a $48,000 life insurance policy that paid extra ("double indemnity") if an unexpected act of violence killed the victim. According to Henry Judd Gray, Ruth had made at least seven attempts to kill her husband, all of which he survived. On March 20, 1927, the couple garrotted Albert Snyder and stuffed his nose full of chloroform-soaked rags, then staged his death as part of a burglary. Detectives at the scene noted that the burglar left little evidence of breaking into the house. Moreover, the behavior of Mrs. Snyder was inconsistent with her story of a terrorized wife witnessing her husband being killed.
The police then found the property that Ruth claimed had been stolen. It was still in the house, but hidden. A breakthrough came when a detective found a paper with the letters "J.G." on it (it was a memento Albert Snyder had kept from former lover Jessie Guishard), and asked Ruth about it. A flustered Ruth's mind immediately turned to her lover, whose initials were also "J.G.," and she asked the detective what Gray had to do with this. It was the first time Gray had been mentioned, and the police were instantly suspicious. Gray was found upstate, in Syracuse. He claimed he had been there all night, but eventually it turned out a friend of his had created an alibi, setting up Gray's room at a hotel. Gray proved far more forthcoming than Ruth about his actions. He was caught and returned to Jamaica, Queens and charged along with Ruth Snyder.Dorothy Parker, best known for her wit, told Oscar Levant, an American in Paris, that Gray tried to escape the police by taking a taxi from Long Island to Manhattan, New York, which Levant noted was "quite a long trip." According to Parker, in order "not to attract attention, he gave the driver a ten-cent tip."
...
Wikipedia