The Murder of Albert Snyder | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid this is morbid and
I have a tummy ache tummy troubles abound over there Elina made me get Taco Bell today and that was a bad idea and
in in the last episode if you heard that I had a Baja Blast don't worry I don't just have Taco Bell every day this is
the same day bulk recording bulk recording bulk recording party party party so she was very excited about it
in the first episode you'll hear a marked difference yeah the energy has has dwindled a little girlies out there
everybody I feel for you do you guys eat Taco Bell do you do that to yourselves I
feel like people do I can't go to Taco Bell I have IBS I have IBS I do not and I'm sorry that you go through this it is
remarkable that you don't have stomach issues I know I'm my dad I know I got my dad's stomach I don't know that boy is
like almost 80 years old and he can still eat like buffalo chicken in the middle of the night if he wanted to he
does do that I don't know if my dad has a bad stomach or not and I don't know about my mom
either so she I'm Prett she has a bad stomach yeah props got it from from Mom m' m' I
got it from ma she has a bad stomach anyway bad stomach enough about my digestive issues you know I have a very
crazy tail today a very sad tale of course cuz you're listening to morbid this is going to be about the murder of
one Albert Snider oh Albert is such a Albert no it's not Albert Fish I was going to say Albert there's never been
an unkind Albert so this um rumor has it he like wasn't the kindest yeah now that I'm thinking about
it I don't know a kind Albert I don't know an Albert just flipped that switch a little bit Yeah well here's the thing
though like he he said to have not been the kindest by some people who didn't do
the kindest thing to him so take it with a giant grain of salt yeah exactly thing
take it with like half a grain of salt yeah so but if we're going to talk about Albert Snyder first we have to talk
about M Ruth Brown who was later married to Albert Snider so let's do that let's
do it m Ruth Brown was born in New York New York to Harry and Josephine Brown on
March 27th 1895 City so nice they named it twice Harry had moved to New York New
York from Norway he loves places that start with n look it we love a Norwegian yeah this was decades earlier that he
moved there and when he did he met Josephine who had also come to the US but she came from a Coastal Village in
Sweden I'm obsessed with all of that aren't you I also love Swedish people and I want to go to a Coastal Village in
Sweden me too I think I'd be so much better off I think we all would wouldn't even have IBS actually probably I don't
think they have it there they they don't even know what it is that's their claim
to fame we're Sweden we don't have IBS Swedish people do you have stomach problems I feel like you don't probably
not I think that's highly American cuz I feel like you're lovely and like you you
know it's nice there less processed less processed I let us know do you have IBS
us up would like to know I me too well initially the family which included Ruth's older brother Andrew lived in a
small apartment on Manhattan's West Side on Morningside Avenue oh within a few years though they moved North to a less
developed part of the city where they shared a rented house with Harry's nephew and brother-in-law now even
though they had worked to earn enough financial stability to move out of the slums of Morningside Avenue the Browns
had what author Landis MCL describes as a desperately hard life yeah that sounds great no Terry
Brown no no no Harry Brown did have reliable employment as a carpenter and a contractor but he also had a lot of
health issues and most of the time he wasn't able to work at all because of untreated epilepsy ooh yeah so the
family had to rely on borders to help cover the rent and on the occasions when Harry was unable to work Josephine would
have to find temporary work as a sick room attendant or practical nurse kind of just leaving the children defend for
themselves at home H yeah aside from their financial constraints Harry and Joseph always managed to provide the
essentials for their kids they never went without food clothing or shelter like the basics that's good but in
comparison to a lot of other families living in poverty in New York at the time the Browns could have considered
themselves lucky Ruth just never saw it that way ah years later when she was asked about her childhood she recalled
that it was quote dominated by a sense of deprivation and want that's sad I know like she had food she had shelter
but she and her brother never got luxuries of new toys and fancy clothes like a lot of other kids in their
neighborhood did cuz remember they were able to work and like move to a nicer neighborhood but they they couldn't
really keep up with the Joneses yeah and that's sad also a little after her sixth
birthday Ruth was hospitalized and had to have intestinal surgery which was the first of a ton of health problems that
she would go through while she was still pretty young oh man just a few years later at 9 years old she suffered severe
sunstroke and it actually required medic medical attention and after that she started to experience fainting spells
which she actually blamed on her dad's epilepsy but there's no evidence to support that there was a link between
the two she just kind of surmised that maybe there was put that link in there yeah but the most difficult of these
problems by far was an ongoing problem with her appendix that all started with a botched appendectomy when she was 12
oh yeah the thought of a botched one of those no no thanks NOP the thought of that and then of itself and appendectomy
like that's I it's terrifying yeah but a botched one o no that caused years and years of physical and emotional pain and
her health problems left her unable to play with the other children in the neighborhood so that caused her to feel
isolated oh that's sad it's really sad now when she was finished with the eighth grade Ruth decided to quit school
and actually take a job with the New York telephone company it's kind of unclear why she left school but author
MCL who wrote The Double Indemnity murders notes that around the same time Ruth had become romantically involved
with one of her teachers oh and quote unquote the two carried on a romance during vacation
months oh now when the school year resumed in the fall Ruth became intensely jealous of any other girl who
showed any kind of interest in this teacher and on a few occasions that jealousy actually escalated to violence
oh no mcla wrote this would explain the sudden decision to leave school perhaps she was caught fooling around with a
teacher and he was fired and she was expelled or maybe she quit in disgrace oh man yeah yikes very escandalo
escandalo as Jessica I was trying to think of the word yeah whatever her reasons for leaving though Ruth soon
found that full-time work did suit her in a really short time she was making decent money she was able to help
support her family and she also still had money left over for herself and it was actually through her job at the
phone company that she ended up meeting Albert Snyder they met when she accidentally dialed the wrong number in
1915 oh my goodness it's actually unknown who she was trying to reach but she accidentally dialed Snyder's number
who was the editor of motor boating magazine you have to laugh at that that's there for you to laugh it's
called comedic relief thank you motor boating magazine but the the confusion turned out to be lucky Because by the
end of that day Ruth had quit her job at the phone company and accepted Snyder's
job offer as the Magazine's newest proof reer and copyist oh yeah look at that let's talk about Albert let's talk about
it Albert Snider was born October 11th 1882 in Kings County New York to Charles and Mary Snider they were German
immigrants who had moved to Brooklyn several years earlier Charles owned and operated a small uh Bakery and Cafe in
Williamsburg but the family lived in an apartment above the store which like that's adorable that must have also just
smelled good at all times oh yeah by all accounts Albert's early life was fairly
unremarkable but from a very early age he did show a talent and passion for art and creativity that he'd carry into
adulthood and actually it would lead him to a career in publishing when he was finished with high school he attended
the Pratt Institute to study art and when he completed his degree he had really no difficulty finding work as a
commercial artist look at Albert work was his main focus but he also managed to make time for his other passions
Outdoor Sports and voting motor boting maybe both perhaps it would would take a few more years of professional ladder
climbing but eventually he would manage to combine his passion for art with his passion for outdoors and his passion for
motorboating and become the editor of motor boating magazine heyo I said I will never be over this no honestly you
shouldn't H when Al when Albert was in his early 20s his father decided to sell the bakery and retire he had managed to
build a successful business over the years and when he sold the bakery he was able to move the entire family from the
apartment in Williamsburg to a three-story home in the Bedford I think it's stent
neighborhood it was there that Albert met his first serious girlfriend Jesse I think it's guishard her family lived
just a few houses down so they were cute little neighbors adorable they dated very very serious iously for a long time
and Albert was devastated when in the fall of 1912 Jesse died from pneumonia at age 30 oh MCL wrote Snider never
really got over Jesse he treasured his scrapbooks filled with meticulously dated and caption photographs of her and
every day until his death he wore a Keepsake pin inscribed JG oh that's heartbreaking yeah that would they were
that was like real love they were soulmates yeah he may never have gotten over Jesse but for Albert he did want to
have his life continue to move on he knew that he couldn't just like sit around sad all day so a year after her
death in early 1913 Albert started working at motor boating magazine I can't ever say it without laughing never
will I'm sorry and a year later he received that mistaken call from that young woman Ruth at the phone company so
when I first told you about this I was like it was really cute she downed the wrong number and yeah we love that then
she ended up with a job uh at first Albert was actually annoyed by her mistake and he hung up on her before she
even had time to finish apologizing and he usually would have left it at that but for some reason he
ended up feeling guilty and just called her back to apologize for how rude he had been huh now Ruth accepted the
apology and after a few minutes of casual Small Talk he asked her if she wanted to come down to the publishing
company to discuss a job opening H look at that it's kind of like kismi I was going to say what a what a chance
opportunity definitely Ruth accepted the invit ation and by the end of the day she was the newest employee in the
heurst company secretarial pool look at her I know just making her way up Well Albert may have still been heartbroken
over the loss of Jesse but that did not stop him from pursuing Ruth within days of starting the new job he started
making some advances implying that you know maybe he was romantically interested he on her first day of work
he snuck up behind her at her desk and started playing with her hair and then asked her to join him for dinner that
night it was a very different time it was the most different of times because that would not be met with the same kind
of reaction now today you get hga packi yeah don't come play with my hair don't touch me no uh but you know different
time it was such a different time later that day Ruth asked one of her co-workers whether she should go to
dinner with him or not and apparently the cooworker replied don't go stepping out with him brownie you won't come back
the same way you went out whoa which I just love the idea of like her coworker being like I have all the hot
tea and baby you don't want to do that and also it's like I don't know you made it sound kind of
awesome you won't come back the same way you went out could be so [ __ ] great or it could be so fck bad and that's the
thing and I'm like I don't know that's not a gamble I'd take that's a that's a dice roll right there it is but it's
still a roll of the dice yeah you know you never know they made it sound all right I don't know it's it's kind of
unclear what she was implying cuz like we just said it could have been one of two very extreme things but it was
enough to make Ruth decline the invitation she wasn't ready to roll the die that night no she wasn't ready no
now in the weeks that followed Albert just kept on asking Ruth to go to lunch go to dinner any occasion he could find
as an excuse for a date and she kept refusing his invitations remembering what her cooworker had said but
eventually she relented and was like you know what I'll go to lunch with you according to Ruth Albert's advances were
always made quote in the spirit of good fun and she actually never felt threatened she didn't feel like it was
inappropriate at all well that's good maybe that's why after repeatedly refusing him for weeks she eventually
caved and would occasionally join him for lunch or dinner so they're kind of like casually dating yeah a few months
after starting the job at motor boating magazine always Ruth was offered and accepted a better paying job with a
printing company no longer working at the publisher she expected not to see Albert Snyder but just a few days after
starting her job he showed up at the office was like hey you want to go to lunch yeah Ruth didn't really have much
interest in actually seriously dating Albert before but the more he pursued her the more viable of an option he
became after all he had a stable job he was cultured he had interest in the Arts
and most importantly he lavished her with gifts and nights out constantly so there you go yeah so they started dating
and he made the trip regularly downtown to take her to lunch dinner or to see a show by Christmas night 1914 he actually
proposed to Ruth but given the 13-year age difference between them she was like I don't think so no thanks but at her
20th birthday party a few months later Albert showed up with flowers a box of chocolates and an expensive engagement
ring whoa and the grand gesture was enough to persuade Ruth to this time accept his
proposal look at that that felt like itated quickly wait this is weird the couple married July 24th
1915 whoa what the [ __ ] is that about cuz remember at the top of this I said we
were recording on the same day you remember the Taco Bell day and in your case the murderer birthday born on July
24th and in this case they got married on July 24th which if you don't remember was
yesterday what does that mean that's too weird that is weird of all the days in the year there's 36 five of them there
are you that's weird we didn't do that for that to happen once is weird for that to happen twice is spooky it's like
the owl thing I see one owl I'm like that's fun I see two I'm like I'm a little weirded out exactly what's going
on yeah who who [ __ ] who who I can only handle one who and even that's like just
mystical as [ __ ] yeah I don't love it I don't know about that that's the weird
coincidence but they did get married yesterday but in 1915 in a small cere which was at the Browns family apartment
and a bunch of their friends and family attended and then later they moved to a rented house in Bay Ridge Brooklyn if
Ruth thought that married life was going to be a really you know nice continuation of their relationship up to
that point uh she was pretty quickly disenchanted yeah instead of the long lunches the dinners the nice gifts all
that kind of thing that had characterize most of their time dating Albert immediately went back to the routine of
his Bachelor days he used most of his time outside the office to pursue his own hobbies and put her around the house
like he just wasn't he wasn't putting as much effort in now that he had gotten her yeah you know that makes sense and
on the weekends he could typically be found on his boat which was a 30ft cabin cruiser that he named the Jesse
G oh in a tribute obviously to his late girlfriend okay I know this case and that I forgot about that part and I'm
like oh yeah oh yeah yeah oh after they got married Ruth tried to convince him to change the name to Ruth but he
wouldn't do it and I kind of see both sides here I can too cuz it's like okay the it wasn't like you got married and
then he bought a boat and named it after his ex-girlfriend he already had the boat but then at the same time like I
don't know that I would want to be on my husband's boat named after another girl
even no matter like when it was named yeah but then the fact that she died like it that's tough yeah that's really
tough I can see both sides I can understand him not wanting to change it yeah and I can understand her wanting
him to change it I think you just kind of have to agree to disagree there yeah but but then like do you get on the
boat mm I feel like you need to name it something totally different or just get another boat just buy another boat
Albert Rich yeah you get another boat you work at motor boating magazines you do so I feel like you can have you must
have a boating connection yeah yeah just get another one Nam call your boat guy yeah you know yeah well anyway Albert's
apparent lack of interest in spending time with his wife was a source of many many arguments that'll be a problem too
yeah but the biggest sign of incompatibility was their respective feelings about children since she was
little Ruth had always dreamed of getting married and having kids Albert on the other hand had absolutely no
interest in having children and he was relieved when he found out that Ruth's childhood surgery
made the potential for children pretty unlikely but 2 years into their marriage and without telling him Ruth had a minor
medical procedure that greatly increased her chances of getting pregnant and in the winter of 1917 she did become
pregnant I wonder what that was yeah I don't know I have no idea but I was wondering
the same thing like what you could have to increase your chances yeah I I can't think of anything can you yeah I can't
yeah we I don't want to speculate too much yeah but according to mlar Snyder was enraged at the news of the pregnancy
but comforted himself with the thought that perhaps he would have a son to keep him company or maybe a daughter he
didn't no no they had a daughter named Lorraine she was born in November of that year and Albert was uh described as
inconsolable about having a daughter get the [ __ ] over it is what I have to say
exactly the arrival of the baby didn't make Ruth and Alber relationship any better obviously yeah Lorraine was
described as a difficult child which is so stupid she's a baby it's like yeah she had needs yeah she had needs she
tended to become sick pretty easily so she required additional attention and not long after Lear I know ew yeah oh my
God Lorraine that baby cool it but not long after L Lorraine's birth the family moved from Bay Ridge and bought a house
next door to Ruth's parents so that she could actually have some extra help because yeah you know Lorraine was
sickly and obviously her family knew what that was like unfortunately for unknown reasons within a year they had
developed a really bad relationship with their neighbors and Albert uprooted the
family and moved them to Queens where they would remain for the rest of their marriage ah but you wonder what happened
there it got so bad and contentious with their neighbors they had to move like damn that's serious beef with your
neighbors that's a big old beef yeah it's like the uh what's it The McCoys and the the Hatfields and McCoys yeah
there there you go get out of town haha now later Ruth would repeatedly claim that Albert was quote unquote cruel to
his daughter and abusive towards both of them it's unclear if this is true or not
and you like I said have to take her word with a grain of source remember with a grain of source the grain of
source the grain of sand remember the source but there's no denying that the two of them were unhappy in their
marriage by all accounts Albert was obsessive about order and cleanliness and he would lash out at Ruth and
Lorraine whenever things didn't meet his standards and while they didn't have any
financial trouble and their needs were always met he was constantly complaining to Ruth about expenses and as the
marriage continued to deteriorate Ruth and Albert's intimate life obviously declined rapidly at first Albert tried
to kind of coarse Ruth into you know getting together getting busy getting busy and when that stopped working he
would quote unquote force himself on her oh eventually things got to the point though where he stopped bothering her
altogether oh my this this is awful the whole thing is a wreck yeah as the marriage continued to crumble Albert
started drinking heavily and Ruth started looking for attention elsewhere according to McKeller Ruth quote wasn't
interested in women she'd hardly ever speak to the woman to a woman on the street but every man in the neighborhood
was on speaking terms with her she made it a point to nod to every strange man she saw in the street and would soon
establish a casual relationship with him wow and they I don't he doesn't mean like strange men he means like strangers
yeah just like men she didn't know yeah one man who lived in the neighborhood at
the time and was a little bit younger uh recalled of Ruth most of the folks thought she was pretty fast but us kids
liked her she was a great cut up I I mean damn what a descriptor the adults [ __ ] hated her but we liked her she's
pretty fast she's fun we thought she was great she was a cutup though I love cutup cutup I know that's so 20s it is
now Ruth did her best to keep up appearances for the friends and for the neighbors but by 1925 the Snider's
marriage had completely disintegrated arguments were escalating into screaming matches then her and Albert would go
days without speaking to each other his drinking wow he drinking I just became michaa
drinking his drinking had worsened considerably and his temper was explosive on one occasion when a
neighborhood boy accidentally sent a baseball through the Snider's window Albert was said to have chased the boy
down the street quote into the boy's own living room where he pummeled him within
an inch of his life I'm sorry what so they were playing neighborhood baseball you're like let me
explain and this kid accidentally like threw the baseball through the through the window I'm sure it happened a lot in
the 20s and especially in New York and Albert was very angry and allegedly found that boy and allegedly beat him
almost to death that's wild that's one way to describe that's feral Behavior it is if true if true cuz
obviously he's not around to dispel any of this exactly and he wasn't at the time either exactly but that was that
wasn't even just Ruth saying that that was like somebody's recollection saying yeah if that's somebody's recollection
it's like damn Albert yeah holy [ __ ] and people did also remember that his tendency to blow up at neighbors was bad
but it was no worse than the emotional abuse and manipulation that was directed at Lorraine no once and this is a
trigger warning for pretty much like child abuse once when she refused to eat her morning oatmeal Albert got so angry
that he locked himself in his bedroom and told her he was going to shoot himself with a pistol because she
wouldn't eat her oatmeal for breakfast get it together yeah get it together I think they had just argued themsel into
such a negative space where he was drinking and had become I think he had become somebody entirely different
because he was unhappy and to make that better with alcohol and Ruth was unhappy
and trying to make that better with like stepping out the side woof it was just bad oh that's really bad now I want to
say luckily but it doesn't work out that way luckily Ruth had reached her Breaking Point by the early 1920s and
she had started considering leaving Albert yeah which you wish that she had just done that but the problem was that
if she was going to leave she was only going to do so if she was going to be awarded a large alimony and child
support payment and she wanted full custody of Lorraine given how Albert felt about having a daughter it seemed
pretty reasonable that he would object to giving full custody which is awful but the money part the alimony and the
child support payments were another matter entirely in order to get everything she wanted out of the divorce
Ruth was going to have to prove to a court that Albert had either been unfaithful or that there was a pattern
of cruel treatment now in the later years of their marriage others had witnessed the unkind ways that Albert
treated his family but in the 1920s it wasn't anything that would constitute cruelty I was gonna say it's such a
different barometer what the [ __ ] would back then yeah not a lot like people remember that that he his child wouldn't
eat her oatmeal and he locked himself in a room and told her he was going to shoot himself and that doesn't
constitute cruelty yeah like damn yeah it was the wild west back then I guess so so she couldn't prove that and as for
his infidelity Ruth did suspect that he was carrying on an affair with a woman from his office but she didn't have any
evidence and she wasn't going to be able to prove it so under the circumstances it seemed like a divorce under desirable
conditions was out of the question and if Ruth wanted out of her marriage with full benefits she was going to have to
find another way now it may have been true that she didn't have very many female friends but her life wasn't
completely void of women occasionally she would have lunch with her hairdresser and friend Kitty Kaufman it
was in June of 1925 that kitty and Ruth were sitting together having lunch when they ran into Jud gray a hoery Salesman
an acquaintance of kitties a hoery Salesman his hoery was not bunches his hoery now Jud gray was born in New York
but he spent most of his life in New Jersey actually like Ruth he had been sickly as a child and he also felt
isolated from other kids as a result so they could kind of relate yeah among the
illnesses that he suffered as a child he suffered a particularly bad bout of pneumonia that actually almost killed
him and he had to spend a ton of time in the in the hospital recovering from that
oh wow a few years later he was wrestling with another boy at school and someone threw a fist full of sand in his
face and some of that got into his eye which permanently impaired his vision wa yeah like you think just like one Split
Second little thing yeah it's like don't don't be a dick and throw sand in people's faces yeah it could ruin the
rest of their life but these setbacks in his younger years had left him a pretty
shy introverted child he struggled to make friends with other with other boys and he spent most of his time with his
mother and his sister who he was really really close to he adored them okay his awkward social skills left him with a
lifelong feeling of an inadequacy and a desperate desire to be included by his peers now luckily in 1908 when he was
only 16 he ended up meeting his future wife Isabelle kinach but according to mckel even Gray's falling in love was
motivated by a desire to be one of the gang at the time his sister was engaged to be married so he felt this pressure
that he needed to find a partner or he was risking becoming a third wheel so unfortunately the positive
addition of romance into his life was kind of offset by the fact that his father's attempt to transition from
Jeweler to jewelry manufacture hadn't gone very well and Jud was forced to quit school and become a Salesman to
help support the family oh wow so all of a sudden he's got like a lot of change going on in his life now when jud's
grandfather died in 1914 he actually was offered his grandfather's territory with
the Empire corset company Jud had no experience at that point selling ladies undergarments but the job paid better
and was more reliable than jewelry sales so he accepted it and it was through that job as a Salesman that he met Kitty
Kaufman and it was because of kitty that in the summer of 1925 he found himself talking with Ruth Snider oh that's how
we get there yep and by the time he met Ruth his own marriage was in serious decline he and his wife had had a child
together and using the money from his inheritance after his father's death they bought a house in East Orange New
Jersey but his job as a Salesman meant that he C he had to travel a great deal so they didn't really have a lot of
alone time together yeah and when they did manage to get time alone together it was apparent that they had very
different interests when it came to soci socialization jud's idea of a good time
was going out to nightclubs theaters fancy restaurants and Isabel much preferred to stay home and play cards so
they were just opposite ends of the spectrum apples and ores exactly in fact after their daughter Jane was born
Isabelle regularly discouraged Jud from going out and she also hated the social group that he hung out with so it was
just so you're just kind of yeah what are you gonna do like what do you do at that point what are your choices here
yeah so by the time he was 30 Jud had reached a lot of major Milestones of adulthood marriage family home ownership
but he was completely miserable damn now that afternoon when he joined Kitty and
Ruth uh for lunch at Henry's which was a Swedish restaurant on 34th Street they spent the afternoon just drinking High
balls and chatting and laughing drinking highballs drinking highballs Jud and Ruth enjoyed each other's company so
much that they decided to get another drink together after Kitty left and then another one and another one now when the
afternoon inevitably had come to a close Jud was so reluctant to leave that he insisted Ruth come see him at his office
the next day to accept a free corset and also insisted that she write to him whenever he was out on the road oh yeah
oh the relationship had begun innocently enough I guess you could say sort of It
kind of it happened by like happen stance but soon it became an all-consuming affair for Jud whose
experience with women was literally just limited to his mother his sister and his
wife who he met at 16 Ruth was something of a wild woman remember she's a cutout
or a cut up she she's a cut up she's a cut up she's a cut up she was exciting she was sexually liberated she was
socially uninhibited she was a great time yeah she's cut up man and Jud Ruth found that initial spark that had
actually first drawn her to her own husband Albert he was attentive he lavished her with gifts attention he
loved going out going to shows and restaurants like it was literally like her and Albert's early days yeah so it's
like bringing her back mhm but his sales route kept him away more often than either of them would have liked but
whenever he was in New York they would manage to make some excuse to their respective spouses about why they needed
to be away overnight EK AKA they're having a full-blown Affair yeah I was going to say we we've reached a fair
territory yeah neither of them was particularly public about the affair but at times it seemed like they weren't
really going out of their way to hide it either not long after they started seeing each other Ruth was getting a
large number of letters addressed to one Mrs Jane gray and she Jane gray like Jane Doe but his last name wow yeah Lady
Jane gray oh yeah that's fancy too yeah and she told the postal worker to only deliver these specific letters to her
not to give them to anybody else yeah don't worry about it though it's not suspicious at all don't be suspicious
don't be suspicious but at the same time the Snider's telephone bill ballooned in
size due to all the longdistance calls that Ruth was making to Jud while he was out on the road yikes she told a friend
Al about hit the ceiling once when he saw the longdistance charges Al about hit the ceiling I'm like yeah I bet he
did damn but if he had any idea about the affair Albert never said as much he also had a history of infidelity and was
very likely having his own Affair at the same time Jesus so he's like who gives a
[ __ ] he's like yeah I guess we're both doing that we're very unhappy but more importantly by 1925 when the affair had
begun their marriage was like completely destroyed so neither of them cared they
fought constantly though and their latest subject of of debate was around their daughter Ruth was willing to stay
in the unhappy marriage but she was determined to get Lorraine out of the house as soon as possible and she want
wanted to send her to a boarding school I think because things were so dysfunctional she just didn't want to
around that yeah she thought it would be better uh in fact she actually started working part-time selling stock in a
dental supply company door too trying to save some money to make it so she could
send Lorraine away oh wow but Albert was completely opposed to this he did not want to send Lorraine away which is
shocking I know exactly but according to McKeller shortly after the argument Mrs
Snyder became interested in insurance wow what an unrelated thing yeah that won't have any bearing on this I'm sure
no not at all no at first her curiosity about insurance seemed rather innocuous if Jud carried about $30,000 in life
insurance why did Albert who had two recent brushes actually with accidental death only carry a thousand why I don't
know in late November of 1925 Ruth said the same thing she said I don't know why
he doesn't do this so she invited an insurance agent leave Roy Ashfield to the house to discuss increasing Albert's
life insurance that's I know back then nobody knew that that was a red flag yet we we know better now we definitely know
better 2024 we can all agree your spouse invites an insurance agent over to the house to discuss your life life
insurance and increasing it lock the doors sneak out the back and book a flight somewhere well they'll never find
you you want to go to a safe place yes but with the extra income she was receiving monthly from her father's
estate following his death they could definitely for more insurance and to her surprise Albert agreed oh my a few days
later he called ashfield's office and told them to write up a new policy for $50,000 with Ruth Ruth listed as the
beneficiary whoa the policy also included a double indemnity clause meaning that the company would pay
double that in the event of an accidental death oh so if he died by accident she would actually get
$100,000 oh man yes on the morning of March Mar 20th 1927 9-year-old Lorraine Snider was
awoken by a strange sound at her bedroom door she's only nine I know she's a little baby the family had uh been out
at a party the night before and she stayed up later than midnight so she was grogger than usual and it took her a few
seconds before she realized it was actually a light tapping that she was hearing at her door so she called out
for her mom and dad but got no answer so she got out of bed and opened the door and lying on the floor with her wrists
and ankles bound together and a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth was her mother Ruth who had been tapping at
the door Lightly for some time that's so terrifying mhm so Lorraine removed the gag uh and Ruth told her to run to the
phone and call their neighbor Mr Mouser for help Mr Mouser arrived a few moments
later and helped Ruth undo the rest of the bindings while she gave her best recollection of what had happened she
told him they hit me over the head and tied me up I'm afraid for Albert uhoh so Mouser went to the couple's
bedroom and found that on one of their twin beds quote the covers were piled in a heap Blood Stained in two or three
places he pulled back the covers and discovered a badly beaten Albert Snider who had two large gashes in his head and
a picture hanging wire wrapped tightly around his neck oh that's awful yeah when the police arrived Ruth gave them
the full account of what happened the night before she said they had been out at the home of their friend George Hugh
and Albert and George actually got into an argument that eventually caused the sniders to leave she said around 2:00
a.m. right as she was getting ready for bed she heard a bored squeak in the hallway and she went to check which is
when she said two men came into the house she said they were both strangers one man a giant seized her by the throat
and hid her over the head after that she said she could remember nothing until she woke up on the floor in the hall
several hours later wow yeah crazy so Mr Mouser called another neighbor gey uh George GE
gey George George and the two men helped Ruth into L rain's room before they called the
police the first two arrive at the house were patrolman Robert Tucker and Edmund
schulties who immediately evacuated no they immediately evaluated the scene they evacuated the area I have Taco Bell
IBS indigestion and brain it's I have evacuation on the brain you they immediately evaluated the scene
as a robbery gone wrong they briefly questioned Ruth who just kept telling them the same story that she told the
neighbors and they started searching the home later both men would recall uh at no time during her original questioning
did Ruth ask about her husband or even seem remotely interested in how he was doing she forgot forgot that part yeah
she forgot that part of the script she should have wrote that on her hand she too focused Albert yeah too focused on
the story and not focused enough on like also act like a human yeah also worry about your husband sister a short time
later an ambulance arrived along with local physician Dr Vincent Jer the doctor made a quick evaluation of
Albert's body and estimated he'd been dead about 6 hours he placed his uh time of death right about the time that Ruth
claimed they got home from the party Jer examined Ruth and despite what she'd claimed about being hit on the head he
could not find a single injury anywhere on her head or anywhere else on her body
and could find nothing that would have caused her to lose Consciousness for an extended period of time like she had
claimed did you forget that part too yeah she did not knock her nogin the fact that she was like I got hit in the
head and passed out for several hours hours and didn't think that she should probably get herself a head wound no
okay she said how would they know yeah how how are they going to know how are they going to know won't know rather
than being disoriented also like you would expect uh from somebody who had been hit over the head and lost
Consciousness for multiple hours perhaps he noted that Ruth seemed calm and collected cuz she wasn't him over the
head pretty much Albert's body though was transferred to the medical examiner's office where the autopsy was
conducted by Dr Howard uh Neil the first observation that he noted was that Albert had two wounds on his head one on
the back of the skull and the other on the right near the forehead uh both about an inch long and about half an
inch wide both had been inflicted with a blunt heavy OB object and although they
did look superficial they were the cause of death o another Serious injury was caused by manual
strangulation the picture hanging wire that had been wrapped tightly around his neck had strangled him skin yeah finally
and most curiously there was a cotton rag stuffed into his mouth and the strips of the same cotton fabric had
been balled up and show uh shoved into both of his nostrils oh my God a chemical analysis would determine that
the substance on the rag was chloroform wow the same substance found on a blue handkerchief that was found on the bed
at the crime scene whoa yeah so he had been chloroformed like a ton yeah Dr Neil also evaluated Ruth at the hospital
and came to the same conclusion that Jer had it was very unlikely that she had ever lost Consciousness at all let alone
for five or six hours like she'd claimed and Neil also pointed out that her wrists didn't show any signs that you
would expect from a person who had been bound for an extended period of time and
also had struggled to free themselves like she said she had the fact that they were already up on these little like
nuances in 1920 like these kind of things interesting yeah was no chafing no rash no irritation on her wrists and
when he heard the story that she had given the police he laughed and said 5 hours five minutes would be more like it
oh you can't get past the forensic pathologist the medical examiners are going to get you every time just like in
your case just like in my case yeah it was only a few hours since investigators had arrived at the Snider's house and
already the cracks and Ruth's story were starting to show her injuries didn't match the story that she was telling at
all and neither did the condition of Albert's body it wasn't uncommon for someone to be killed during the
commission of a robbery but when it did happen it didn't look like what detectives had discovered in the
Snider's bedroom in botched robberies the victims might be stabbed or shot before somebody runs away but in this
case the killer not only hit Albert in the head they also tried to render him unconscious with a large amount of
chloroform then they also violently strangled him with wire yeah that I was going to say that was a lot of stuff a
lot for them claim that they were just robbing yeah like if somebody had actually come into the SNY house to Rob
them in the middle of the night it seemed way more likely that no they didn't come to Rob they came to kill
yeah finally there was also the house itself that seemed all wrong to investigators in robberies obviously uh
detectives fully intended to find the Home rans sacked but in this case the house had been quote unquote this is my
favorite systematically turned Topsy Turvy I love that they can always tell I just love the way that they describe
it like that's so 1920s like Topsy tury tosy Turvy and it's systematically Topsy
tury yes it appeared that whoever had searched the house had gone room by room tearing everything apart from the
drawers and the cabinets to the closets and the couch cushions but among the mess there was a ton of valuable items
like Albert's Gold's watch with a platinum chain just lying about but still Ruth claimed that her most
valuable jewelry was missing and she said also I have a fur coat and $110 in cash was stolen from Albert's wallet so
obviously all of those things are gone yeah and the thing was though that it was very telling to the detectives
whoever had torn through the house also tore through the kitchen oh there's your
tell one detective later told reporters no professional burglar or Thief ever even touches the kitchen cuz what the
[ __ ] are they going to find in there nothing it's by chance if they find something in there and they're not going
to waste time that you've already passed by all those like a a gold watch you're
not going to waste time in the kitchen no there were other things about the seam that also seemed very strange and
very convenient Ruth had described the man who attacked her as Italian or at least Italian looking she said and on
the floor in the master bedroom they discovered scraps of an Italian language newspaper so not only did this person
supposedly Rob them they also sat down and read the newspaper and then ripped it up RI and left it on the floor yeah
and then it gets better that was so convenient of him it really was to do that it was super duper convenient was
so nice also on the table in the living room detectives discovered a full glass of whiskey beside a newly opened bottle
and beside that was a halfs smoked cigarette and an ashtray okay neither Albert or Ruth
smoked cigarettes and according to her story they came home from the party and immediately went to bed so if what she
was saying was true that meant that at some point or another before committing a brutal murder
the killer sat down in the living room perhaps read that Italian newspaper smoked half a cigarette and then poured
a glass of whiskey for themselves but never took a sip of it what's your point I don't see anything wrong with that
this is CRA just kidding what's your point that's that's wild that's what Ruth said that's a wild
yeah they sat Ruth down and and told her all of that she said said what's your's
your point yeah what are you talking about I don't see what you want me to say here she said I can't read Italian
sounds like a time she said I also don't like whiskey yeah she's like sounds like
a time was had I don't know okay I was there sleep yeah I was unconscious I was unconscious for five or six hours with
no headwind to be seen I have a strong skull yeah it's just the way it is I heal really fast I'm the Slayer I am the
chosen one I just heal really fast I have superpowers don't worry about it yeah but yeah um according to MCL in
mcll excuse me investigators quote did not give Mrs SNY Story the slightest Credence wow it sounds like she really
she went in like with a strong story at first fully confident man that fell apart quick yeah confidence doesn't
always sell your story you got doesn't it does in the in the beginning but once they start poking holes that fell apart
and she made it really easy for them to do that she did but all three doctors who evaluated her that morning concluded
she didn't have any injuries that would explain her story but that was only one of the details that didn't make sense if
her hands had been Loosely Bound in front of her as they had been when The Neighbor found her why hadn't she at
least untied the the uh binding around her ankles yeah they were like why didn't stay bound like that and nothing
at the scene at the scene made it seem like it was a robbery at all what criminal would risk having to kill a man
so brutally for a pretty meager payoff yeah that's the thing it's like he would have if what you're saying was true he
would have bonked you both in the head ran around grabbed what he could and defitely taken that gold watch yeah now
goes and he wouldn't have stopped in the kitchen I can tell you that much and he
definitely wouldn't be not drinking a whiskey pouring it pouring it smoking half a cigarette and then ripping up an
Italian newspaper no no I don't think so there was literally also nothing about Albert Snider's public profile or their
home that would imply wealth so whoever was said to have broken in there would have been completely desperate and
Reckless like it it just didn't make any sense was some planned crazy thing and like you were just saying if they were
so desperate why would they take the time to pour a glass of whiskey not drink it and only smoke half a cigarette
before they left and why would they leave behind those valuables which were in plain view the answer is they would
not yeah no it was clear to literally anyone with eyes or ears that Ruth was not being honest with detectives and
within a few hours of having called the police she went from acting suspicious to being a full-blown suspect yeah when
the most important part of her story turned out to be an outright lie uh oh because initially like you remember she
claimed that some of her most valuable jewelry was gone rings necklaces brooches she said they'd all been stolen
and so had her expensive fur coat yeah uh within a few hours investigators who were searching the home found all of
that jewelry stuffed under a mattress in the bedroom come on man like she just put it
under a mattress why why when confronted with this she said her memory had failed
her and that she had forgot hiding them there oh yeah yep that's the correct answer and then that coat that she
claimed had been stolen was found in the back of a closet I mean The Jig Is up it's up you
I'm I mean I'm glad you couldn't but like you couldn't do better than hiding that coat you couldn't even bring them
out of the house at any point you couldn't just throw them in the trash downstairs literally do anything else
she hid the coat in a closet that's the first place literally anyone is going to
look that's where coats live yeah yeah so all things considered that scene of a supposed burglary was starting to look
like somebody had staged it you don't say and very badly at that when she was cleared by the doctor Ruth was taken to
the Jamaica precinct for further questions which went on all day and well into the evening most interesting to the
detectives uh asking the questions was how Ruth spoke of her now dead husband as though he was someone she didn't care
for oh no when asked what kind of man he was she replied why he was just the opposite from what I am I'm young and I
like to have a good time and go out to parties and dance he liked to stick around the house like that that's what
we wanted to know uh we were more asking like a little deeper than that does he know anybody that would ransack your
house essentially she said he doesn't like to party and he's old and he's old they were like that's not what we were
asking that's it thank you for that though now while she was being interviewed at the precinct other
officers started talking with the F of the Snider's friends and neighbors to get a more accurate picture of their
relationship of greatest interest to them was a fight that Albert had supposedly got to on the night of the
murder but that turned out to be a dead end when they learned that it was kind of just a petty squabble between friends
reports of a suspicious quote unquote feeble-minded man seen in the area days before the murder were also investigated
and quickly ruled out and like we said nothing about that scene suggested that any kind of break-in had occurred the
doors and the windows were all still locked from the inside and none of the entrances appeared to have been tampered
with this was not well thought out which I'm glad it wasn't cuz they got caught but yeah but like wow it's it's actually
appalling how little they planted because also Albert's 32 caliber pistol which he kept beside the bed for
protection was still undisturbed in its holster so if he'd seen the attacker at all it hadn't been alarming enough for
him to reach for his gun that's interesting yeah as detectives inside the Jamaica Precinct continued
questioning Ruth into the early hours of the morning they were like really going
for her reporters had started to assemble outside the station trying to await a statement from the commissioner
mlin which always makes me think of John oh yeah you're right or district attorney Thomas Thorton however much to
their disappointment when mclin finally emerged at 1:30 in the morning his statement was brief and vague he said
the investigation has not yet progressed far enough for me to make it definite statement to the point and if I was a
reporter I would have said boring boring or if you were my youngest you would say
that yeah boring now mclin might not have had anything to say about the investigation
at 1:30 a.m. but just a few hours later the case broke wide open when Ruth broke
down and confessed to playing a role in her husband's death woo however she blamed the actual murder itself on her
lover uh Jud I was going to say Jude it's Jud according to Ruth she secreted gray in the house early Saturday evening
then accompanied her husband and daughter to the home of friends where they had a bridge party until after
midnight once they returned home and Albert had fallen asleep gray emerged from his hiding place snuck into the
master bedroom where he struck Albert twice in the head with a sash weight and then stuffed the chloroform Rags into
his mouth and nose before wrapping the wire around the man's neck and strangling him to death damn
it's like why did you guys do all of that yeah once Albert was dead Jud and Ruth went from one room to another rans
sacking the house to make it seem like the place had been robbed and then after hiding what few valuables Ruth would
claim had been stolen Jud used the picture wire to gently bind her wrists and ankles and made sure she was
comfortable in her bed before leaving the house wow yeah based on Ruth's confession detective searched for Jud
gray and eventually located him at a hotel in Syracuse New York York where he was arrested on the afternoon of March
21st with both suspects now in custody it wasn't long before Ruth and Jud turned on each other and started
accusing one another of being the killer of course as that literally always happens in her confession Ruth claimed
things became unbearable and I was looking for a way out and in talking with Mr Gray whereby we were talking
about getting rid of him wow it's like wow that just happen so casually we were just getting really close and we were
talking and then I said what if we got rid of my husband you know what if according to Ruth by February of 1927
Albert had become intolerably abusive and on multiple occasions actually even threatened to kill her and when she told
Jud about the threats she said his response was that they should quote get Snyder before he got her wow yeah when
he was first arrested Jud claimed he actually never even met Albert snd and had no idea what the detectives were
talking about when the charges against him were read he said do you think I'm crazy why I've never even met Snider the
woman must be crazy when she involves me in this thing bad person to set this up with
yeah exactly according to Jud his relationship with Ruth was flirty and friendly but they never or they only
ever possibly had lunch four or five times at the most to say you possibly did something
five times is batshit crazy maybe possibly I did that five times yeah possibly like I don't know like say oh possibly I
might have done that once that's very believable possibly I did that five times you know like a whole handful of
times maybe you did that you did but he said so maybe I might have done that but
I never ever met her husband never and he also claimed he had been in Syracuse the whole night that the murder even
happened and he also presented letters and phone records that supposedly proved he was at that hotel when when Albert
was killed H unfortunately for him detectives quickly determined that those letters had been mailed in advance and
the phone calls had been pre-arranged to support his Alibi ah so wrong there's that with his Alibi rapidly crumbling he
decided to confess but of course he blamed Ruth according to him he did not want to kill Snyder but he was coerced
by Mrs Snyder that makes it better yeah he said that she threatened to reveal their Affair to his wife unless he
helped her with the murder whoa now both Ruth and jud's confessions were very similar and that they each detailed how
they'd met how Ruth had been suffering in her relationship with an abusive man and that one of the motives for the
murder was the insurance payout she was going to get if Albert died of course where they differed though obviously was
who was ultimately responsible for Albert's death according to Jud he hit Albert once with the weight but then
Ruth quote picked up the weight and struck him over the head again wa so he was like I only did it once yeah and I
wasn't the kill shot yeah he explained that the plan had started months earlier but he never believed they would
actually go through with it you were just talking about murdering husband ever talking casually about murdering
someone that they are close to and also it's never casual you're inputting casually and you just don't think it's
ever going to happen like what you guys shouldn't be talking about this in a real way he told investigators they
began by saying things like quote wouldn't it be great if the old man would only pass away wow but that the
idea quote unquote remained in the wish state for a long time that's actually a a fairly pretty sentence in another in
another context yeah remained in the wish state is beautiful that's good writing but it's in a different context
yeah anyway the idea eventually did turn into a kind of half joke that they shared until they finally started to
quote talk about Ways and Means of making that wish come true wow sir yeah if only it had remained in the wish
yeah in his statement to the Press Queen's District Attorney Richard Nukem said a more coldblooded crime has never
been conceived and he vowed to prosecute both to the fullest extent of the law I
feel like they always say that it's very hyperbolic it is I mean crime for sure very cold blooded but among up there in
in the in the bad ones for sure definitely but also like Jack the Ripper had I was going to say Jack the rer had
been around so but he announced that he planned to convene the grand jury soon as humanly possible and he was expecting
indictments for first-degree murder in the meantime Jud and Ruth were arraigned on March 22nd and despite both having
confessed they entered please of not guilty according to Ruth's lawyer quote the confession was rung from her by uh
duress and jud's lawyer quote hinted that a plea of insanity might be entered later I feel like we're coming across
that so often lately according to the New York Times while Jud had also recanted his confession he almost
immediately contradicted himself when he saw his wife later that day you don't say his imagine being that poor woman
yeah not only do you learn that your man has been cheating on you but that he is
now involved in a murder case because he murdered his mistress's husband for her
yeah but when Mrs Gray asked her husband whether or not he had done what he'd been accused of he quote hung his head
then nodded and said yes oh that's got wrenching yeah it's like out of a movie yeah yeah on March March 24th just 2
days after being charged district attorney newcom's prediction came true when the grand jury handed down
indictments for first-degree murder for both Ruth and Jud in total the grand jury heard testimony from eight
Witnesses and uh viewed the full extent of the physical evidence and they also heard full confessions from both of the
accused when the indictments were returned Nukem asked for a trial date of April 4th which was less than 2 weeks
away whoa he said this will allow ample time for the defense to prepare and there's no reason for any longer delay
he's like shut up he's like we're doing this we need to get it done let's go get
done after the indictments were returned Ruth and Jud both gave interviews to the
Press where they both reasserted their defenses Jud repeated his claim that he had only participated in the murder
because Ruth threatened to expose their Affair but it was Ruth who struck the killing blow with the sash weight he did
not kill the man he only participated no way I did the first one not the second one like does that really make it that
much better you're still bad yeah Ruth on the other hand denied any responsibility and stuck to her story
that her confession had been coursed when a reporter asked her directly whether she participated in the murder
of her husband she said God no and insisted that Albert was her first and only love wow fake wow she also gave a
somewhat dishonest description of her relationship with Jud claiming that for more than a year their friendship had
been purely platonic also wrong doubt it she said it never would have been otherwise if my husband loved me but
Albert ceased to care for me and then she paused for a moment before adding oh I'm awfully sorry about this I bet you
are but in the days leading up to the trial her lawyer desperately tried to get the trial separated likely knowing
that being tied to Jud would only make his client look more guilty in fact when the Press considered Ruth's culpability
alone there was a growing consensus that it was quote Unthinkable that a jury of
men will condemn pretty Ruth Snyder to death they won't they won't find her guilty she's Gorge not that H not that
hot cut up up there no never yeah jud's defense team on the other hand was determined to prevent that from
happening given that no Queen's jury had ever sentence a woman to death he stood
a much better chance of avoiding the death penalty if he were to be tried alongside Ruth I love that they had
opposite reasons for it yeah exactly in the end Ruth lost her bid to have the cases separated and the two went on to
be tried together so not good for her Jud thought it was going to be good for him it wasn't good for Ruth and I'll let
you know right here that it's actually not good for either of them woof after a week of difficult jury selection the
trial began on Monday April 25th with a court room full of celebrities and locals all eager to get a glimpse of
these killers wow yeah what a different time outside the courthouse vendors sold
popcorn and hot dogs while the Overflow crowd attempted to see through door doors and windows wow at one point a guy
even arrived with a load of wood and tried to build a foot riser to see in the windows now that's just Innovative
that is innovative that's just that's just putting your skills to good use but eventually they told him to go away yeah
I mean you can't do that but like could you somebody must have like patted him on the back and been like in another
situation this was pretty good absolutely this was pretty smart I would have in his opening statement district
attorney Nukem laid out the case in pretty simple terms he said Ruth Snider and Jud gray had been involved in an
affair for over a year and eventually they decided to murder Albert in order to one avoid the stigma and problems of
a divorce and also to access that large life insurance payout that Ruth was going to get upon his death Nukem
assured the jury that the state would prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that the death was not an impulsive act but was
the result of constant and repeated planning that went back many months and that both of the accused were equally
responsible for this murder bam yeah in the days that followed the prosecution called a number of witnesses they
presented considerable evidence in support of their theory that Albert Snyder's death had been the result of a
conspiracy perpetrated by his wife and Jud gray among the most damning evidence was the insurance policy which Nukem
claimed Snyder had been quote tricked into signing without reading it studying it or knowing what it was about how did
that even happened according to Leroy Ashfield the agent from the credential life insurance company Ruth convin her
husband to sign the document in which the amounts had been left blank and Ashfield filled in the highest amounts
once it had been signed and once it had been signed Ruth quote paid all the premiums herself and gave instructions
that all mail relating to this policy be sent only to her and no one thought that
was a little strange imagine the poor postal worker that worked for her or like like had her on his route yeah
yikes the insurance documents and testimony from Ashfield were definitely the most compelling evidence of a
conspiracy but by far the most damning evidence was the written confessions that both of these [ __ ] made when
they were arrested it always is and both of those were read aloud for the jury in
jud's confession he claimed with some veiled threats and intense love making she reached the point where she got me
in such a whirl that I didn't even know where I was at like wow okay like we that's just saying we had good sex and
she convinced me to murder her husband exactly that's the worst excuse ever not very sympathetic to his no and he
admitted that he played some role in Snider's murder but he said he only had done so because Ruth quote hounded him
into the crime he went on to say that Ruth had actually already tried to kill Albert six times prior to the Final Act
and when he first learned of her plans he was horrified and told her so it's like but you still showed up to take
part in this so that doesn't matter like Ruth is like I tried it six times and he's like what I'm shocked that you
would kill your husband that's great what after the prosecution rested their case Ruth's defense team took over and
called their first witness Ruth Snider oh in the week since her arrest she had gone from confessing to the murder to
now not only claiming that she played no part in it but that she had actually tried to save her husband from Jud gray
wow according to Ruth she quote found Jud gray kneeling on the back of the sleeping man hitting him with a sash
weight and she dragged him off I bet yeah totally I bet that's what happened she claimed at that point he threatened
her with a pistol and told her not to interfere or he would kill her she told the jury I was mortally afraid of him I
saw what a terrible man he was I couldn't see any other way out than to do what he asked me to do this is so
real it's like well what did he ask you to do cuz you just said you played no part in this other than trying to stop
him so you just contradicted yourself so H so what is it you saying ma'am throughout her hours of testimony the
Press noted the attitude of the courtroom was gener not one which would commun which would communicate Sympathy
for the witness you know what say and if she wasn't getting much sympathy from the men on the jury she was going to get
even less from Nukem on Cross Examination for hours he went Point by point in her testimony and called into
question every inaccuracy and every conflict and she mostly responded with I don't know or I don't remember which is
definitely translates to you got me yeah exactly the trial finally came to a close on May
9th 1927 when the jury retired for deliberations before sending the jury out Justice Townson Scutter reminded the
jury of their charge the defendant gray contends that the suggestion to murder Albert Snyder was first made by the
defendant Snyder the defendant Snyder contends that the suggestion to murder Albert Snyder was first made by the
defendant gray he says she proposed it she says he proposed it it is your duty to ascertain and declare the facts Act
without fear or favor without sympathy or Prejudice find the truth in the evidence follow it and apply the the law
the court has given you and bring in a just verdict Somebody went booya don't you just picture them in like a group
huddle yes like on the sideline that was like a coach's like you know pump up speech before the big game at the end he
just said like hands in yeah absolutely no they all went hurah hurah just before
700 p.m. on May 10th the jury emerged from deliberation to find Ruth and Jud both guilty of first deegree murder that
I was actually a little shocked by that just because of like how messy this whole thing was yeah you know like it
could have easily gone another way where like one of them got out of it I know and you would usually think that it
would be Ruth just because of the time period And the fact that like she was pretty so they thought she might be able
to kind of sway the jury but I think it was them together I think it did not work I mean I think she was guilty also
but like I don't I think it worked in her favor I think it together yeah two the them being together and just the
evidence at the house like I mean you can't get her saying all her [ __ ] was missing and then them finding it hidden
oh yeah and then her having no injuries even though she claimed she was beaten over the head that's the thing it was
like I it would probably be Jud who would get out of it or get lesser I don't think either one of them are going
to get out of were going to get out of it but like whenever there's two you always think one of them might get out
of it and this one nope well and this is actually interesting and it's funny that
you say this right now because in the case of Jud 11 of the 12 jurymen voted guilty and one juror left his decision
blank interesting they actually believed that Jud had been telling the truth but
they couldn't ignore the fact that he had voluntarily participated in the murder so they didn't really have a
choice but to find him guilty yeah that sense they believed what he was saying like that he was saying he didn't intend
to or that he wasn't going there to do that or that yeah but that like she had kind of like swindled him into it but in
Ruth's case the jurors were unanimous in disbelieving the story that Ruth had told the court and all 12 of them voted
to find her gu so I think even if she had been tried on her own I think the only one who might have benefited from
being tried separately was Jud which is what I thought yeah yeah I agree with you there now four days later on May
14th Ruth Snyder and Jud gray were back before Justice Scutter where they were both sentenced to die by the electric
chair and remember no woman in a queen's jury had ever been sentenced like this the hearing took 15 minutes from the
time they entered the courtroom until they learned their Fates as she was led out of the courtroom after hearing the
verdict Ruth loudly announced this is only a formality I have just as good of a chance now of going free as I had
before the trial started survey says that's a lie survey says you're dulu yeah that's a no like this is a
formality no [ __ ] this is a literal trial this is a literal sentencing like you don't get more official no Ruth and
Jud had definitely put a great deal of Hope into the appeals process and they were determined if nothing else they
would be able to avoid the death penalty but unfortunately by January 1928 both of them had exhausted their appeals and
every attempt at clemency or stay of execution had been rejected by the governor I mean yeah they tried
everything and it was like nope nope nope no absolutely not so on the evening of January 12th Ruth Snyder and Jed gray
were both LED to to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison Ruth first followed by gray as she was led to the chair Ruth
reportedly quote prayed without ceasing and stared with eyes from which all human intelligence had fled whoa at 11
descriptor I know at 11: PM the Executioner threw the switch ending Ruth's life in a matter of moments at
the moment that the switch was thrown Tom Howard a photographer from Daily News this is wild snapped a photo of
Ruth using a camera that he stuck into the prison strapped to his ankle he literally like Bonkers like that is
commitment on another level that is journalism that is that's journalism baby like that is some commitment to the
journalism cause we'll post the picture that he got and it was literally plastered on the front page of the D
news the next morning and when you see this picture you're like imagine getting your newspaper and that
front page and doesn't didn't it just say dead yes it literally just said dead on the front like whoa intense now jud's
execution quickly followed ruths and when asked whether he had anything to say on his behalf he said I was carried
forward by some power outside myself but I had made my peace with God and am now
prepared to die at 11:13 the Executioner threw the switch sending thousands of volts of electricity through his body
and a cloud of smoke Rose through the air at 11:4 14 the prison doctor announced Jud gray was
dead wow and that is the story of the murder of Albert Snyder and the fact that it ends with a an ankle photo
of somebody as the switches flicked getting electrocut like the electric chair to me is so barbaric like it's
just the look of it the idea the methodology of it is so barbaric to me like it just black and white terms like
that is a barbaric thing no I completely agree so seeing it is just so jarring like it's very very jarring like the and
just you can you can see the electricity in the photo like it's yeah you can like
feel it yeah it's weird it's very gar and the fact that they just popped it on the front page it's like damn yeah what
a time what a [ __ ] time and the fact that obviously like nobody had ever snuck a camera in before and he did it
with his ankle and you know that can never happen like with the with technology and like metal detectors and
[ __ ] no way that's wild yeah it's a crazy story damn so we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
honestly keep it so weird that you have that much dedication to your journalism yeah that's a lot of dedication I like
that I don't have to tell you not to keep it so weird that you shouldn't murder your husband you should know that
by now yeah you know not to keep it that weird bye bye [Music] [Music]

On the morning of March 20, 1927, nine-year-old Lorraine Snyder was awakened by the sound of gentle knocking at her bedroom door and when she opened it, she found her mother bound and gagged on the floor. According to the girl’s mother, Ruth Snyder, someone had broken into the house in the middle of the night, knocked her unconscious and tied her up, then murdered her husband, Albert. Ruth claimed the motive was robbery, but investigators were immediately suspicious of her. Not only was there no sign of forced entry, but Albert’s murder had been particularly brutal and appeared personal. A day later, when police found Ruth’s supposedly stolen items hidden in the house, her story started to fall apart.

The murder of Albert Snyder had everything depression-era Americans were looking for in a media distraction—sex, extramarital affairs, fraud, and murder. From the moment Ruth and her boyfriend, Judd Gray, were arrested for the murder of her husband, they were thrust into the spotlight and would remain fixtures on the front pages of the papers across New York up to and including the final moments of their lives.

Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!

References Beckley, Zoe. 1927. "Ruth Snyder to escape chair, is Zoe Beckley's forecast." Times Union, April 19: 1.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1927. "Suspect is held after cops grill dead man's wife." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 21: 1.

Brooklyn Times Union. 1927. "Hid lover in her home, then went to party." Brooklyn Times Union, March 21: 25.

—. 1928. "Ruth and Judd die, she first, in sobs; each is forgiving." Brooklyn Times Union, Janaury 13: 1.

MacKellar, Landis. 2006. The Double Indemnity Murder: Ruth Snyder, Judd Gray, and New York's Crime of the Century. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

New York Times. 1927. "Cross-examination of Mrs. Ruth Snyder on her last day on the stand." New York Times, May 4: 16.

—. 1927. "Girl finds mother bound." New York Times, March 21: 1.

—. 1927. "Gray's first story was full of denial." New York Times, March 22: 3.

—. 1927. "Judge warned jury to avoid sympathy." New York Times, May 10: 1.

—. 1927. "Mrs. Snyder and Gray found guilty in the first degree in swift verdict; both to get death sentence Monday." New York Times, May 10: 1.

—. 1927. "Not a cruel killer, Gray writes in cell." New York Times, April 8: 25.

—. 1927. "Says Gray was hypnotized." New York Times, March 26: 9.

—. 1927. "Slayers indicted; Snyder case trial sought for April 4." New York Times, March 24: 1.

—. 1927. "Slayers of Snyder face speedy trial; racant confession." New York Times, March 23: 1.

—. 1927. "Slayers of Snyder hear doom unmoved; put hope in appeals." New York Times, May 14: 1.

—. 1927. "Snyder jury hears Gray's confession accusing woman." New York Times, April 28: 1.

—. 1927. "Snydwer was tricked into big insurance, state witness says." New York Times, April 26: 1.

—. 1927. "Widow on stand swears Gray alone killed Snyder as she tried to save him." New York Times, April 30: 1.

—. 1927. "Wife betrays paramour as murderer of Snyder, and he then confesses." New York Times, March 22: 1.

Sutherland, Sidney. 1928. "Ruth and Judd die in chair, asking for forgiveness for sin." Daily News, January 13: 1.

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Brief Summary

Ruth Snyder and Jud Gray conspired to murder Albert Snyder for insurance money, leading to their execution.

Key points

Taco Bell Troubles. Ash shares her experience with Taco Bell and its aftermath.
Ruth's Hard Childhood. Ruth reflects on her upbringing marked by deprivation.
A Spooky Coincidence. The couple's wedding date matches the murderer's birthday, raising questions.
The Snider Family's Turmoil. Ruth and Albert's marriage deteriorates amidst conflict and abuse, leading to a chaotic home life.
Ruth's Interest in Insurance. Ruth's curiosity about increasing Albert's life insurance raises eyebrows as tensions mount.
A Shocking Discovery. Ruth is found bound and gagged, leading to the discovery of Albert's brutal condition.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The thought of a botched appendectomy is terrifying.

Discussion about Ruth's health issues.

6:30WatchAug 12, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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