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'Ruth Brown Snyder' (1895 – January 12, 1928) was an American murderer. She was executed for the murder of her husband, Albert. She was executed by electric chair (by "state electrician" Robert G. Elliott) at Sing Sing Prison on January 12, 1928, along with Judd Gray, her lover and co-conspirator.
In 1925, Snyder began an affair with Gray, a corset salesman. She began to plan the murder of her husband, enlisting the help of her new lover.
Snyder persuaded her husband into a $48,000 life insurance policy and began varied attempts to kill him, all of which he survived. On March 20, 1927, the couple garroted Albert Snyder and stuffed his nose full of chloroform-soaked rags. They then staged his death as accident. Upon finding Gray's tie pin at the scene, however, police arrested both of them, and they were tried together. Gray and Snyder were eventually convicted and sentenced to death.
The final moments of her execution were caught on film with the aid of a miniature camera strapped to the ankle of Tom Howard, a ''Chicago Tribune'' photographer working in cooperation with the ''Tribune''-owned ''New York Daily News''. Shortly after the execution of Snyder, Gray was put to death.

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Trivia

See also

External links

Trivia

Sophie Treadwell's play ''Machinal'' was inspired by the life and execution of Ruth Snyder, as was the novel ''Double Indemnity'' by James M. Cain, which was later adapted for the screen by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. The films ''Body Heat'' and ''The Postman Always Rings Twice'' may also have been inspired by the murder. The 1933 movie ''Picture Snatcher'', starring James Cagney as a newspaper photographer, contains an incident inspired by Howard's photo of Snyder in the electric chair.
Ruth Snyder's execution was mentioned as the first female in New York history put to death in Polly Adler's autobiography, ''A House is Not a Home''. However, this is incorrect; Martha Place was executed in 1899 and several black women dating back to the 1700's.
Ruth Snyder's Sing Sing Prison cell was also used for Eva Coo and Lonely Hearts killer Martha Beck.

See also

★ Black Widow (woman)

External links

★ Executions in New York

★ Ruth Brown Snyder at Findagrave.com