Ruth Snyder

Ruth Brown Snyder was a housewife from Queens, a borough of New York City, who began an affair with Henry Judd Gray, a married corset salesman, in 1925. She began to plan the murder of her husband Albert, enlisting Gray's help, though he appeared to be very reluctant. Ruth's distaste for her husband apparently began when he insisted on hanging a picture of his late fiancée Jessie Guischard on the wall of their first home, and named his boat after her. Guischard, whom Albert described to Ruth as "the finest woman I have ever met," had been dead for ten years.[1]

Ruth first persuaded Albert to purchase insurance, and, 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 if an unexpected act of violence killed the victim. According to Gray, Ruth had made at least seven attempts to kill Albert, all of which he survived.[2][3] On March 20, 1927, the couple garrotted Albert and stuffed his nose full of chloroform-soaked rags, then staged his death as part of a burglary.[3] Detectives at the scene noted that the burglar left little evidence of breaking into the house. Moreover, Ruth's behavior was inconsistent with her story of a terrorized wife's witnessing her husband being killed.[2]

Police discovered that the property Ruth had claimed had been stolen 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 had kept from former lover Guischard), and asked Ruth about it. A flustered Ruth's mind immediately turned to Gray, whose initials were also "J.G.," and she asked the detective what Gray had to do with the murder. It was the first time Gray had been mentioned, and the police instantly became suspicious. Gray was found upstate in Syracuse. He claimed he had been there all night, but it was eventually found out a friend of his had set up Gray's room at a hotel to support his alibi. Gray proved far more forthcoming than Ruth about his actions. He was caught and returned to Queens and charged along with Ruth.[2][3] Dorothy Parker told Oscar Levant that Gray tried to escape the police by taking a taxi from Long Island to Manhattan, 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."[4]

The trial

Ruth Snyder's mid-execution photo taken by Tom Howard and published the next day in the New York Daily News

Ruth and Gray turned on each other, contending the other was responsible for killing Albert; both were convicted and sentenced to death.[5]

Lorraine Snyder.

Albert and Ruth had one child, a daughter named Lorraine, who was nine at the time of her father's murder. Following the pronouncement of the death sentence on her mother in May 1927, legal disputes arose between the relatives of both parents regarding the care of the child. Warren Schneider, brother of Albert, petitioned to be allowed to appoint a legal guardian who was not a member of Ruth's family. Josephine Brown, mother of Ruth, also petitioned for custody of the girl.[9] Lorraine had been in the care of Mrs. Brown since the murder.[10] Lorraine was formally placed by her maternal grandmother in the Catholic institution where she had been residing at the time of her mother's execution. Ruth requested that her daughter not be brought to the prison for a final visit.[11]

On September 7, 1927, Josephine Brown was awarded guardianship of the girl.[11][12] During this time, there were disputes with the insurance company Ruth had used to insure her husband's life. Although one policy, worth US$30,000, was paid without contest,[13] they filed suit to void two other policies, worth $45,000 and $5,000 (the three combined policies worth $1.18 million in 2019). By May 1928, the insurance company made available $4,000 for the maintenance of Lorraine. In November 1928 a ruling in the case was reached, with a court finding the policies could not be collected because they had been issued fraudulently.[14] At the time of the judgment, the lawyer acting on behalf of Ruth's family asked the court to allow them to appeal without a printed record on the basis that the family was destitute and unable to sell the house due to the notoriety of the case. By May 1930, it was ruled on appeal that the two policies were invalid.[15]

The grave of Ruth Brown Snyder in Woodlawn Cemetery

While incarcerated on death row, Ruth Snyder wrote a sealed letter which she requested be given to Lorraine "when she is old enough to understand".[16] One year after her mother's execution, Lorraine was apparently aware that her parents were both dead, but not of the manner of either of their deaths.[17]

• The drama Machinal (1928), by playwright Sophie Treadwell, is based on Snyder's trial.
• The movies Blessed Event (1932) and Picture Snatcher (1933) make references to Snyder's execution.[18]
• A fictionalized version of the trial was the basis of scenes in State's Attorney (1932) with John Barrymore as the prosecutor.
• The case was the inspiration for the novella Double Indemnity (1936) by James M. Cain,[19] which was later adapted for the screen (1944) by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler.
• Cain also mentioned that his book The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) took inspiration from the crime [20]
• Raymond Chandler's 1949 novel The Little Sister alludes to the Ruth Snyder photograph (Chapter 16)
• Near the end of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, a reporter, Scotty, mentions that Snyder's execution was the first he ever covered. When another character asks Scotty if he was able to get a picture, Scotty answers, "No, they didn't allow cameras, but one guy . . . ." The approach of "The Thing" interrupts him, but Scotty is seemingly referring to Howard's photo of Snyder in the electric chair.
• In The Bad Seed, William March based his depiction of Bessie Denker's execution upon that of Ruth Snyder.
• Guns N' Roses' 1991 Use Your Illusion albums feature, as part of their enclosed artwork, a photo of the band posing in front of an oversized reproduction of the Daily News' headline/photograph announcing Ruth Snyder's execution.
• The novel A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion (2011), by Ron Hansen, is based on the murder case.[21]

• Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters
• Capital punishment in New York (state)
• Capital punishment in the United States
• List of people executed in New York

• Bryson, Bill. (2013). One Summer: America, 1927. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-767-91940-8.
• MacKellar, Landis. (2006). The "Double Indemnity" Murder: Ruth Snyder, Judd Gray, & New York's Crime of the Century. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0824-1.
• Ramey, Jessie: "The Bloody Blonde and the Marble Woman: Gender and Power in the Case of Ruth Snyder", in: Journal of Social History Vol. 37, No. 3 (Spring, 2004), pp. 625–650

• Mug shot of Ruth Snyder (high-resolution) from Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
• Snyder/Gray murder case details, from The People's Almanac by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace
• Ruth Snyder at Find a Grave