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hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid this is morbid and
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I have a tummy ache tummy troubles abound over there Elina made me get Taco Bell today and that was a bad idea and
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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
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the same day bulk recording bulk recording bulk recording party party party so she was very excited about it
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in the first episode you'll hear a marked difference yeah the energy has has dwindled a little girlies out there
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everybody I feel for you do you guys eat Taco Bell do you do that to yourselves I
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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
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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
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like almost 80 years old and he can still eat like buffalo chicken in the middle of the night if he wanted to he
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does do that I don't know if my dad has a bad stomach or not and I don't know about my mom
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either so she I'm Prett she has a bad stomach yeah props got it from from Mom m' m' I
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got it from ma she has a bad stomach anyway bad stomach enough about my digestive issues you know I have a very
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crazy tail today a very sad tale of course cuz you're listening to morbid this is going to be about the murder of
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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
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an unkind Albert so this um rumor has it he like wasn't the kindest yeah now that I'm thinking about
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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
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though like he he said to have not been the kindest by some people who didn't do
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the kindest thing to him so take it with a giant grain of salt yeah exactly thing
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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
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about M Ruth Brown who was later married to Albert Snider so let's do that let's
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do it m Ruth Brown was born in New York New York to Harry and Josephine Brown on
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March 27th 1895 City so nice they named it twice Harry had moved to New York New
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York from Norway he loves places that start with n look it we love a Norwegian yeah this was decades earlier that he
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moved there and when he did he met Josephine who had also come to the US but she came from a Coastal Village in
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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
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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
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think they have it there they they don't even know what it is that's their claim
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to fame we're Sweden we don't have IBS Swedish people do you have stomach problems I feel like you don't probably
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not I think that's highly American cuz I feel like you're lovely and like you you
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know it's nice there less processed less processed I let us know do you have IBS
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us up would like to know I me too well initially the family which included Ruth's older brother Andrew lived in a
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small apartment on Manhattan's West Side on Morningside Avenue oh within a few years though they moved North to a less
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developed part of the city where they shared a rented house with Harry's nephew and brother-in-law now even
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though they had worked to earn enough financial stability to move out of the slums of Morningside Avenue the Browns
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had what author Landis MCL describes as a desperately hard life yeah that sounds great no Terry
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Brown no no no Harry Brown did have reliable employment as a carpenter and a contractor but he also had a lot of
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health issues and most of the time he wasn't able to work at all because of untreated epilepsy ooh yeah so the
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family had to rely on borders to help cover the rent and on the occasions when Harry was unable to work Josephine would
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have to find temporary work as a sick room attendant or practical nurse kind of just leaving the children defend for
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themselves at home H yeah aside from their financial constraints Harry and Joseph always managed to provide the
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essentials for their kids they never went without food clothing or shelter like the basics that's good but in
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comparison to a lot of other families living in poverty in New York at the time the Browns could have considered
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themselves lucky Ruth just never saw it that way ah years later when she was asked about her childhood she recalled
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that it was quote dominated by a sense of deprivation and want that's sad I know like she had food she had shelter
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but she and her brother never got luxuries of new toys and fancy clothes like a lot of other kids in their
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neighborhood did cuz remember they were able to work and like move to a nicer neighborhood but they they couldn't
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really keep up with the Joneses yeah and that's sad also a little after her sixth
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birthday Ruth was hospitalized and had to have intestinal surgery which was the first of a ton of health problems that
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she would go through while she was still pretty young oh man just a few years later at 9 years old she suffered severe
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sunstroke and it actually required medic medical attention and after that she started to experience fainting spells
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which she actually blamed on her dad's epilepsy but there's no evidence to support that there was a link between
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the two she just kind of surmised that maybe there was put that link in there yeah but the most difficult of these
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problems by far was an ongoing problem with her appendix that all started with a botched appendectomy when she was 12
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oh yeah the thought of a botched one of those no no thanks NOP the thought of that and then of itself and appendectomy
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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
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her health problems left her unable to play with the other children in the neighborhood so that caused her to feel
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isolated oh that's sad it's really sad now when she was finished with the eighth grade Ruth decided to quit school
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and actually take a job with the New York telephone company it's kind of unclear why she left school but author
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MCL who wrote The Double Indemnity murders notes that around the same time Ruth had become romantically involved
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with one of her teachers oh and quote unquote the two carried on a romance during vacation
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months oh now when the school year resumed in the fall Ruth became intensely jealous of any other girl who
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showed any kind of interest in this teacher and on a few occasions that jealousy actually escalated to violence
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oh no mcla wrote this would explain the sudden decision to leave school perhaps she was caught fooling around with a
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teacher and he was fired and she was expelled or maybe she quit in disgrace oh man yeah yikes very escandalo
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escandalo as Jessica I was trying to think of the word yeah whatever her reasons for leaving though Ruth soon
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found that full-time work did suit her in a really short time she was making decent money she was able to help
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support her family and she also still had money left over for herself and it was actually through her job at the
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phone company that she ended up meeting Albert Snyder they met when she accidentally dialed the wrong number in
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1915 oh my goodness it's actually unknown who she was trying to reach but she accidentally dialed Snyder's number
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who was the editor of motor boating magazine you have to laugh at that that's there for you to laugh it's
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called comedic relief thank you motor boating magazine but the the confusion turned out to be lucky Because by the
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end of that day Ruth had quit her job at the phone company and accepted Snyder's
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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
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it Albert Snider was born October 11th 1882 in Kings County New York to Charles and Mary Snider they were German
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immigrants who had moved to Brooklyn several years earlier Charles owned and operated a small uh Bakery and Cafe in
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Williamsburg but the family lived in an apartment above the store which like that's adorable that must have also just
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smelled good at all times oh yeah by all accounts Albert's early life was fairly
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unremarkable but from a very early age he did show a talent and passion for art and creativity that he'd carry into
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adulthood and actually it would lead him to a career in publishing when he was finished with high school he attended
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the Pratt Institute to study art and when he completed his degree he had really no difficulty finding work as a
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commercial artist look at Albert work was his main focus but he also managed to make time for his other passions
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Outdoor Sports and voting motor boting maybe both perhaps it would would take a few more years of professional ladder
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climbing but eventually he would manage to combine his passion for art with his passion for outdoors and his passion for
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motorboating and become the editor of motor boating magazine heyo I said I will never be over this no honestly you
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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
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build a successful business over the years and when he sold the bakery he was able to move the entire family from the
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apartment in Williamsburg to a three-story home in the Bedford I think it's stent
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neighborhood it was there that Albert met his first serious girlfriend Jesse I think it's guishard her family lived
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just a few houses down so they were cute little neighbors adorable they dated very very serious iously for a long time
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and Albert was devastated when in the fall of 1912 Jesse died from pneumonia at age 30 oh MCL wrote Snider never
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really got over Jesse he treasured his scrapbooks filled with meticulously dated and caption photographs of her and
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every day until his death he wore a Keepsake pin inscribed JG oh that's heartbreaking yeah that would they were
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that was like real love they were soulmates yeah he may never have gotten over Jesse but for Albert he did want to
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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
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death in early 1913 Albert started working at motor boating magazine I can't ever say it without laughing never
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will I'm sorry and a year later he received that mistaken call from that young woman Ruth at the phone company so
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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
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she ended up with a job uh at first Albert was actually annoyed by her mistake and he hung up on her before she
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even had time to finish apologizing and he usually would have left it at that but for some reason he
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ended up feeling guilty and just called her back to apologize for how rude he had been huh now Ruth accepted the
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apology and after a few minutes of casual Small Talk he asked her if she wanted to come down to the publishing
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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
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opportunity definitely Ruth accepted the invit ation and by the end of the day she was the newest employee in the
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heurst company secretarial pool look at her I know just making her way up Well Albert may have still been heartbroken
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over the loss of Jesse but that did not stop him from pursuing Ruth within days of starting the new job he started
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making some advances implying that you know maybe he was romantically interested he on her first day of work
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he snuck up behind her at her desk and started playing with her hair and then asked her to join him for dinner that
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night it was a very different time it was the most different of times because that would not be met with the same kind
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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
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time it was such a different time later that day Ruth asked one of her co-workers whether she should go to
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dinner with him or not and apparently the cooworker replied don't go stepping out with him brownie you won't come back
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the same way you went out whoa which I just love the idea of like her coworker being like I have all the hot
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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
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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
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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
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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
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unclear what she was implying cuz like we just said it could have been one of two very extreme things but it was
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enough to make Ruth decline the invitation she wasn't ready to roll the die that night no she wasn't ready no
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now in the weeks that followed Albert just kept on asking Ruth to go to lunch go to dinner any occasion he could find
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as an excuse for a date and she kept refusing his invitations remembering what her cooworker had said but
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eventually she relented and was like you know what I'll go to lunch with you according to Ruth Albert's advances were
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always made quote in the spirit of good fun and she actually never felt threatened she didn't feel like it was
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inappropriate at all well that's good maybe that's why after repeatedly refusing him for weeks she eventually
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caved and would occasionally join him for lunch or dinner so they're kind of like casually dating yeah a few months
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after starting the job at motor boating magazine always Ruth was offered and accepted a better paying job with a
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printing company no longer working at the publisher she expected not to see Albert Snyder but just a few days after
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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
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interest in actually seriously dating Albert before but the more he pursued her the more viable of an option he
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became after all he had a stable job he was cultured he had interest in the Arts
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and most importantly he lavished her with gifts and nights out constantly so there you go yeah so they started dating
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and he made the trip regularly downtown to take her to lunch dinner or to see a show by Christmas night 1914 he actually
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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
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20th birthday party a few months later Albert showed up with flowers a box of chocolates and an expensive engagement
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ring whoa and the grand gesture was enough to persuade Ruth to this time accept his
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proposal look at that that felt like itated quickly wait this is weird the couple married July 24th
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1915 whoa what the [ __ ] is that about cuz remember at the top of this I said we
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were recording on the same day you remember the Taco Bell day and in your case the murderer birthday born on July
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24th and in this case they got married on July 24th which if you don't remember was
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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
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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
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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
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on yeah who who [ __ ] who who I can only handle one who and even that's like just
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mystical as [ __ ] yeah I don't love it I don't know about that that's the weird
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coincidence but they did get married yesterday but in 1915 in a small cere which was at the Browns family apartment
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and a bunch of their friends and family attended and then later they moved to a rented house in Bay Ridge Brooklyn if
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Ruth thought that married life was going to be a really you know nice continuation of their relationship up to
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that point uh she was pretty quickly disenchanted yeah instead of the long lunches the dinners the nice gifts all
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that kind of thing that had characterize most of their time dating Albert immediately went back to the routine of
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his Bachelor days he used most of his time outside the office to pursue his own hobbies and put her around the house
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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
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on the weekends he could typically be found on his boat which was a 30ft cabin cruiser that he named the Jesse
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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
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like oh yeah oh yeah yeah oh after they got married Ruth tried to convince him to change the name to Ruth but he
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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
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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
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don't know that I would want to be on my husband's boat named after another girl
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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
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tough I can see both sides I can understand him not wanting to change it yeah and I can understand her wanting
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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
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boat mm I feel like you need to name it something totally different or just get another boat just buy another boat
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Albert Rich yeah you get another boat you work at motor boating magazines you do so I feel like you can have you must
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have a boating connection yeah yeah just get another one Nam call your boat guy yeah you know yeah well anyway Albert's
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apparent lack of interest in spending time with his wife was a source of many many arguments that'll be a problem too
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yeah but the biggest sign of incompatibility was their respective feelings about children since she was
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little Ruth had always dreamed of getting married and having kids Albert on the other hand had absolutely no
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interest in having children and he was relieved when he found out that Ruth's childhood surgery
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made the potential for children pretty unlikely but 2 years into their marriage and without telling him Ruth had a minor
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medical procedure that greatly increased her chances of getting pregnant and in the winter of 1917 she did become
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pregnant I wonder what that was yeah I don't know I have no idea but I was wondering
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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
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yeah we I don't want to speculate too much yeah but according to mlar Snyder was enraged at the news of the pregnancy
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but comforted himself with the thought that perhaps he would have a son to keep him company or maybe a daughter he
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didn't no no they had a daughter named Lorraine she was born in November of that year and Albert was uh described as
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inconsolable about having a daughter get the [ __ ] over it is what I have to say
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exactly the arrival of the baby didn't make Ruth and Alber relationship any better obviously yeah Lorraine was
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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
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tended to become sick pretty easily so she required additional attention and not long after Lear I know ew yeah oh my
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God Lorraine that baby cool it but not long after L Lorraine's birth the family moved from Bay Ridge and bought a house
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next door to Ruth's parents so that she could actually have some extra help because yeah you know Lorraine was
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sickly and obviously her family knew what that was like unfortunately for unknown reasons within a year they had
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developed a really bad relationship with their neighbors and Albert uprooted the
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family and moved them to Queens where they would remain for the rest of their marriage ah but you wonder what happened
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there it got so bad and contentious with their neighbors they had to move like damn that's serious beef with your
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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
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there there you go get out of town haha now later Ruth would repeatedly claim that Albert was quote unquote cruel to
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his daughter and abusive towards both of them it's unclear if this is true or not
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and you like I said have to take her word with a grain of source remember with a grain of source the grain of
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source the grain of sand remember the source but there's no denying that the two of them were unhappy in their
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marriage by all accounts Albert was obsessive about order and cleanliness and he would lash out at Ruth and
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Lorraine whenever things didn't meet his standards and while they didn't have any
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financial trouble and their needs were always met he was constantly complaining to Ruth about expenses and as the
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marriage continued to deteriorate Ruth and Albert's intimate life obviously declined rapidly at first Albert tried
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to kind of coarse Ruth into you know getting together getting busy getting busy and when that stopped working he
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would quote unquote force himself on her oh eventually things got to the point though where he stopped bothering her
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altogether oh my this this is awful the whole thing is a wreck yeah as the marriage continued to crumble Albert
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started drinking heavily and Ruth started looking for attention elsewhere according to McKeller Ruth quote wasn't
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interested in women she'd hardly ever speak to the woman to a woman on the street but every man in the neighborhood
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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
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establish a casual relationship with him wow and they I don't he doesn't mean like strange men he means like strangers
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yeah just like men she didn't know yeah one man who lived in the neighborhood at
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the time and was a little bit younger uh recalled of Ruth most of the folks thought she was pretty fast but us kids
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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
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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
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now Ruth did her best to keep up appearances for the friends and for the neighbors but by 1925 the Snider's
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marriage had completely disintegrated arguments were escalating into screaming matches then her and Albert would go
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days without speaking to each other his drinking wow he drinking I just became michaa
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drinking his drinking had worsened considerably and his temper was explosive on one occasion when a
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neighborhood boy accidentally sent a baseball through the Snider's window Albert was said to have chased the boy
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down the street quote into the boy's own living room where he pummeled him within
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an inch of his life I'm sorry what so they were playing neighborhood baseball you're like let me
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explain and this kid accidentally like threw the baseball through the through the window I'm sure it happened a lot in
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the 20s and especially in New York and Albert was very angry and allegedly found that boy and allegedly beat him
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almost to death that's wild that's one way to describe that's feral Behavior it is if true if true cuz
00:24:01
obviously he's not around to dispel any of this exactly and he wasn't at the time either exactly but that was that
00:24:07
wasn't even just Ruth saying that that was like somebody's recollection saying yeah if that's somebody's recollection
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it's like damn Albert yeah holy [ __ ] and people did also remember that his tendency to blow up at neighbors was bad
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but it was no worse than the emotional abuse and manipulation that was directed at Lorraine no once and this is a
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trigger warning for pretty much like child abuse once when she refused to eat her morning oatmeal Albert got so angry
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that he locked himself in his bedroom and told her he was going to shoot himself with a pistol because she
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wouldn't eat her oatmeal for breakfast get it together yeah get it together I think they had just argued themsel into
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such a negative space where he was drinking and had become I think he had become somebody entirely different
00:24:56
because he was unhappy and to make that better with alcohol and Ruth was unhappy
00:25:01
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
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say luckily but it doesn't work out that way luckily Ruth had reached her Breaking Point by the early 1920s and
00:25:16
she had started considering leaving Albert yeah which you wish that she had just done that but the problem was that
00:25:23
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
00:25:29
support payment and she wanted full custody of Lorraine given how Albert felt about having a daughter it seemed
00:25:35
pretty reasonable that he would object to giving full custody which is awful but the money part the alimony and the
00:25:40
child support payments were another matter entirely in order to get everything she wanted out of the divorce
00:25:47
Ruth was going to have to prove to a court that Albert had either been unfaithful or that there was a pattern
00:25:53
of cruel treatment now in the later years of their marriage others had witnessed the unkind ways that Albert
00:25:58
treated his family but in the 1920s it wasn't anything that would constitute cruelty I was gonna say it's such a
00:26:06
different barometer what the [ __ ] would back then yeah not a lot like people remember that that he his child wouldn't
00:26:15
eat her oatmeal and he locked himself in a room and told her he was going to shoot himself and that doesn't
00:26:21
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
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his infidelity Ruth did suspect that he was carrying on an affair with a woman from his office but she didn't have any
00:26:35
evidence and she wasn't going to be able to prove it so under the circumstances it seemed like a divorce under desirable
00:26:42
conditions was out of the question and if Ruth wanted out of her marriage with full benefits she was going to have to
00:26:47
find another way now it may have been true that she didn't have very many female friends but her life wasn't
00:26:53
completely void of women occasionally she would have lunch with her hairdresser and friend Kitty Kaufman it
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was in June of 1925 that kitty and Ruth were sitting together having lunch when they ran into Jud gray a hoery Salesman
00:27:07
an acquaintance of kitties a hoery Salesman his hoery was not bunches his hoery now Jud gray was born in New York
00:27:16
but he spent most of his life in New Jersey actually like Ruth he had been sickly as a child and he also felt
00:27:22
isolated from other kids as a result so they could kind of relate yeah among the
00:27:26
illnesses that he suffered as a child he suffered a particularly bad bout of pneumonia that actually almost killed
00:27:32
him and he had to spend a ton of time in the in the hospital recovering from that
00:27:36
oh wow a few years later he was wrestling with another boy at school and someone threw a fist full of sand in his
00:27:43
face and some of that got into his eye which permanently impaired his vision wa yeah like you think just like one Split
00:27:50
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
00:27:56
rest of their life but these setbacks in his younger years had left him a pretty
00:28:00
shy introverted child he struggled to make friends with other with other boys and he spent most of his time with his
00:28:06
mother and his sister who he was really really close to he adored them okay his awkward social skills left him with a
00:28:12
lifelong feeling of an inadequacy and a desperate desire to be included by his peers now luckily in 1908 when he was
00:28:21
only 16 he ended up meeting his future wife Isabelle kinach but according to mckel even Gray's falling in love was
00:28:29
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
00:28:36
that he needed to find a partner or he was risking becoming a third wheel so unfortunately the positive
00:28:44
addition of romance into his life was kind of offset by the fact that his father's attempt to transition from
00:28:50
Jeweler to jewelry manufacture hadn't gone very well and Jud was forced to quit school and become a Salesman to
00:28:57
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
00:29:03
grandfather died in 1914 he actually was offered his grandfather's territory with
00:29:08
the Empire corset company Jud had no experience at that point selling ladies undergarments but the job paid better
00:29:16
and was more reliable than jewelry sales so he accepted it and it was through that job as a Salesman that he met Kitty
00:29:23
Kaufman and it was because of kitty that in the summer of 1925 he found himself talking with Ruth Snider oh that's how
00:29:31
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
00:29:39
together and using the money from his inheritance after his father's death they bought a house in East Orange New
00:29:45
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
00:29:51
alone time together yeah and when they did manage to get time alone together it was apparent that they had very
00:29:57
different interests when it came to soci socialization jud's idea of a good time
00:30:02
was going out to nightclubs theaters fancy restaurants and Isabel much preferred to stay home and play cards so
00:30:08
they were just opposite ends of the spectrum apples and ores exactly in fact after their daughter Jane was born
00:30:15
Isabelle regularly discouraged Jud from going out and she also hated the social group that he hung out with so it was
00:30:22
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
00:30:27
yeah so by the time he was 30 Jud had reached a lot of major Milestones of adulthood marriage family home ownership
00:30:35
but he was completely miserable damn now that afternoon when he joined Kitty and
00:30:39
Ruth uh for lunch at Henry's which was a Swedish restaurant on 34th Street they spent the afternoon just drinking High
00:30:46
balls and chatting and laughing drinking highballs drinking highballs Jud and Ruth enjoyed each other's company so
00:30:54
much that they decided to get another drink together after Kitty left and then another one and another one now when the
00:31:01
afternoon inevitably had come to a close Jud was so reluctant to leave that he insisted Ruth come see him at his office
00:31:08
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
00:31:17
oh the relationship had begun innocently enough I guess you could say sort of It
00:31:24
kind of it happened by like happen stance but soon it became an all-consuming affair for Jud whose
00:31:32
experience with women was literally just limited to his mother his sister and his
00:31:35
wife who he met at 16 Ruth was something of a wild woman remember she's a cutout
00:31:41
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
00:31:48
socially uninhibited she was a great time yeah she's cut up man and Jud Ruth found that initial spark that had
00:31:54
actually first drawn her to her own husband Albert he was attentive he lavished her with gifts attention he
00:32:00
loved going out going to shows and restaurants like it was literally like her and Albert's early days yeah so it's
00:32:07
like bringing her back mhm but his sales route kept him away more often than either of them would have liked but
00:32:14
whenever he was in New York they would manage to make some excuse to their respective spouses about why they needed
00:32:19
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
00:32:27
territory yeah neither of them was particularly public about the affair but at times it seemed like they weren't
00:32:32
really going out of their way to hide it either not long after they started seeing each other Ruth was getting a
00:32:38
large number of letters addressed to one Mrs Jane gray and she Jane gray like Jane Doe but his last name wow yeah Lady
00:32:49
Jane gray oh yeah that's fancy too yeah and she told the postal worker to only deliver these specific letters to her
00:32:58
not to give them to anybody else yeah don't worry about it though it's not suspicious at all don't be suspicious
00:33:05
don't be suspicious but at the same time the Snider's telephone bill ballooned in
00:33:10
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
00:33:17
Al about hit the ceiling once when he saw the longdistance charges Al about hit the ceiling I'm like yeah I bet he
00:33:23
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
00:33:31
very likely having his own Affair at the same time Jesus so he's like who gives a
00:33:34
[ __ ] he's like yeah I guess we're both doing that we're very unhappy but more importantly by 1925 when the affair had
00:33:40
begun their marriage was like completely destroyed so neither of them cared they
00:33:45
fought constantly though and their latest subject of of debate was around their daughter Ruth was willing to stay
00:33:51
in the unhappy marriage but she was determined to get Lorraine out of the house as soon as possible and she want
00:33:57
wanted to send her to a boarding school I think because things were so dysfunctional she just didn't want to
00:34:02
around that yeah she thought it would be better uh in fact she actually started working part-time selling stock in a
00:34:08
dental supply company door too trying to save some money to make it so she could
00:34:12
send Lorraine away oh wow but Albert was completely opposed to this he did not want to send Lorraine away which is
00:34:19
shocking I know exactly but according to McKeller shortly after the argument Mrs
00:34:25
Snyder became interested in insurance wow what an unrelated thing yeah that won't have any bearing on this I'm sure
00:34:33
no not at all no at first her curiosity about insurance seemed rather innocuous if Jud carried about $30,000 in life
00:34:41
insurance why did Albert who had two recent brushes actually with accidental death only carry a thousand why I don't
00:34:49
know in late November of 1925 Ruth said the same thing she said I don't know why
00:34:54
he doesn't do this so she invited an insurance agent leave Roy Ashfield to the house to discuss increasing Albert's
00:35:01
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
00:35:08
better 2024 we can all agree your spouse invites an insurance agent over to the house to discuss your life life
00:35:14
insurance and increasing it lock the doors sneak out the back and book a flight somewhere well they'll never find
00:35:19
you you want to go to a safe place yes but with the extra income she was receiving monthly from her father's
00:35:24
estate following his death they could definitely for more insurance and to her surprise Albert agreed oh my a few days
00:35:32
later he called ashfield's office and told them to write up a new policy for $50,000 with Ruth Ruth listed as the
00:35:39
beneficiary whoa the policy also included a double indemnity clause meaning that the company would pay
00:35:46
double that in the event of an accidental death oh so if he died by accident she would actually get
00:35:53
$100,000 oh man yes on the morning of March Mar 20th 1927 9-year-old Lorraine Snider was
00:36:02
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
00:36:08
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
00:36:15
seconds before she realized it was actually a light tapping that she was hearing at her door so she called out
00:36:20
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
00:36:26
and ankles bound together and a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth was her mother Ruth who had been tapping at
00:36:33
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
00:36:42
phone and call their neighbor Mr Mouser for help Mr Mouser arrived a few moments
00:36:48
later and helped Ruth undo the rest of the bindings while she gave her best recollection of what had happened she
00:36:54
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
00:37:00
bedroom and found that on one of their twin beds quote the covers were piled in a heap Blood Stained in two or three
00:37:07
places he pulled back the covers and discovered a badly beaten Albert Snider who had two large gashes in his head and
00:37:16
a picture hanging wire wrapped tightly around his neck oh that's awful yeah when the police arrived Ruth gave them
00:37:25
the full account of what happened the night before she said they had been out at the home of their friend George Hugh
00:37:31
and Albert and George actually got into an argument that eventually caused the sniders to leave she said around 2:00
00:37:37
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
00:37:44
when she said two men came into the house she said they were both strangers one man a giant seized her by the throat
00:37:51
and hid her over the head after that she said she could remember nothing until she woke up on the floor in the hall
00:37:57
several hours later wow yeah crazy so Mr Mouser called another neighbor gey uh George GE
00:38:05
gey George George and the two men helped Ruth into L rain's room before they called the
00:38:11
police the first two arrive at the house were patrolman Robert Tucker and Edmund
00:38:16
schulties who immediately evacuated no they immediately evaluated the scene they evacuated the area I have Taco Bell
00:38:25
IBS indigestion and brain it's I have evacuation on the brain you they immediately evaluated the scene
00:38:36
as a robbery gone wrong they briefly questioned Ruth who just kept telling them the same story that she told the
00:38:42
neighbors and they started searching the home later both men would recall uh at no time during her original questioning
00:38:51
did Ruth ask about her husband or even seem remotely interested in how he was doing she forgot forgot that part yeah
00:38:58
she forgot that part of the script she should have wrote that on her hand she too focused Albert yeah too focused on
00:39:04
the story and not focused enough on like also act like a human yeah also worry about your husband sister a short time
00:39:12
later an ambulance arrived along with local physician Dr Vincent Jer the doctor made a quick evaluation of
00:39:19
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
00:39:26
claimed they got home from the party Jer examined Ruth and despite what she'd claimed about being hit on the head he
00:39:34
could not find a single injury anywhere on her head or anywhere else on her body
00:39:40
and could find nothing that would have caused her to lose Consciousness for an extended period of time like she had
00:39:46
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
00:39:52
head and passed out for several hours hours and didn't think that she should probably get herself a head wound no
00:40:01
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
00:40:07
than being disoriented also like you would expect uh from somebody who had been hit over the head and lost
00:40:12
Consciousness for multiple hours perhaps he noted that Ruth seemed calm and collected cuz she wasn't him over the
00:40:18
head pretty much Albert's body though was transferred to the medical examiner's office where the autopsy was
00:40:24
conducted by Dr Howard uh Neil the first observation that he noted was that Albert had two wounds on his head one on
00:40:32
the back of the skull and the other on the right near the forehead uh both about an inch long and about half an
00:40:38
inch wide both had been inflicted with a blunt heavy OB object and although they
00:40:43
did look superficial they were the cause of death o another Serious injury was caused by manual
00:40:50
strangulation the picture hanging wire that had been wrapped tightly around his neck had strangled him skin yeah finally
00:40:59
and most curiously there was a cotton rag stuffed into his mouth and the strips of the same cotton fabric had
00:41:06
been balled up and show uh shoved into both of his nostrils oh my God a chemical analysis would determine that
00:41:13
the substance on the rag was chloroform wow the same substance found on a blue handkerchief that was found on the bed
00:41:20
at the crime scene whoa yeah so he had been chloroformed like a ton yeah Dr Neil also evaluated Ruth at the hospital
00:41:28
and came to the same conclusion that Jer had it was very unlikely that she had ever lost Consciousness at all let alone
00:41:35
for five or six hours like she'd claimed and Neil also pointed out that her wrists didn't show any signs that you
00:41:42
would expect from a person who had been bound for an extended period of time and
00:41:47
also had struggled to free themselves like she said she had the fact that they were already up on these little like
00:41:52
nuances in 1920 like these kind of things interesting yeah was no chafing no rash no irritation on her wrists and
00:42:01
when he heard the story that she had given the police he laughed and said 5 hours five minutes would be more like it
00:42:07
oh you can't get past the forensic pathologist the medical examiners are going to get you every time just like in
00:42:13
your case just like in my case yeah it was only a few hours since investigators had arrived at the Snider's house and
00:42:20
already the cracks and Ruth's story were starting to show her injuries didn't match the story that she was telling at
00:42:25
all and neither did the condition of Albert's body it wasn't uncommon for someone to be killed during the
00:42:30
commission of a robbery but when it did happen it didn't look like what detectives had discovered in the
00:42:36
Snider's bedroom in botched robberies the victims might be stabbed or shot before somebody runs away but in this
00:42:43
case the killer not only hit Albert in the head they also tried to render him unconscious with a large amount of
00:42:49
chloroform then they also violently strangled him with wire yeah that I was going to say that was a lot of stuff a
00:42:56
lot for them claim that they were just robbing yeah like if somebody had actually come into the SNY house to Rob
00:43:01
them in the middle of the night it seemed way more likely that no they didn't come to Rob they came to kill
00:43:07
yeah finally there was also the house itself that seemed all wrong to investigators in robberies obviously uh
00:43:15
detectives fully intended to find the Home rans sacked but in this case the house had been quote unquote this is my
00:43:22
favorite systematically turned Topsy Turvy I love that they can always tell I just love the way that they describe
00:43:29
it like that's so 1920s like Topsy tury tosy Turvy and it's systematically Topsy
00:43:35
tury yes it appeared that whoever had searched the house had gone room by room tearing everything apart from the
00:43:42
drawers and the cabinets to the closets and the couch cushions but among the mess there was a ton of valuable items
00:43:49
like Albert's Gold's watch with a platinum chain just lying about but still Ruth claimed that her most
00:43:54
valuable jewelry was missing and she said also I have a fur coat and $110 in cash was stolen from Albert's wallet so
00:44:03
obviously all of those things are gone yeah and the thing was though that it was very telling to the detectives
00:44:10
whoever had torn through the house also tore through the kitchen oh there's your
00:44:15
tell one detective later told reporters no professional burglar or Thief ever even touches the kitchen cuz what the
00:44:21
[ __ ] are they going to find in there nothing it's by chance if they find something in there and they're not going
00:44:25
to waste time that you've already passed by all those like a a gold watch you're
00:44:31
not going to waste time in the kitchen no there were other things about the seam that also seemed very strange and
00:44:36
very convenient Ruth had described the man who attacked her as Italian or at least Italian looking she said and on
00:44:43
the floor in the master bedroom they discovered scraps of an Italian language newspaper so not only did this person
00:44:50
supposedly Rob them they also sat down and read the newspaper and then ripped it up RI and left it on the floor yeah
00:44:56
and then it gets better that was so convenient of him it really was to do that it was super duper convenient was
00:45:02
so nice also on the table in the living room detectives discovered a full glass of whiskey beside a newly opened bottle
00:45:09
and beside that was a halfs smoked cigarette and an ashtray okay neither Albert or Ruth
00:45:15
smoked cigarettes and according to her story they came home from the party and immediately went to bed so if what she
00:45:22
was saying was true that meant that at some point or another before committing a brutal murder
00:45:27
the killer sat down in the living room perhaps read that Italian newspaper smoked half a cigarette and then poured
00:45:35
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
00:45:41
this is CRA just kidding what's your point that's that's wild that's what Ruth said that's a wild
00:45:48
yeah they sat Ruth down and and told her all of that she said said what's your's
00:45:52
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
00:45:58
sounds like a time she said I also don't like whiskey yeah she's like sounds like
00:46:02
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
00:46:08
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
00:46:15
chosen one I just heal really fast I have superpowers don't worry about it yeah but yeah um according to MCL in
00:46:22
mcll excuse me investigators quote did not give Mrs SNY Story the slightest Credence wow it sounds like she really
00:46:29
she went in like with a strong story at first fully confident man that fell apart quick yeah confidence doesn't
00:46:35
always sell your story you got doesn't it does in the in the beginning but once they start poking holes that fell apart
00:46:42
and she made it really easy for them to do that she did but all three doctors who evaluated her that morning concluded
00:46:47
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
00:46:53
her hands had been Loosely Bound in front of her as they had been when The Neighbor found her why hadn't she at
00:46:59
least untied the the uh binding around her ankles yeah they were like why didn't stay bound like that and nothing
00:47:07
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
00:47:13
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
00:47:20
would have bonked you both in the head ran around grabbed what he could and defitely taken that gold watch yeah now
00:47:27
goes and he wouldn't have stopped in the kitchen I can tell you that much and he
00:47:29
definitely wouldn't be not drinking a whiskey pouring it pouring it smoking half a cigarette and then ripping up an
00:47:35
Italian newspaper no no I don't think so there was literally also nothing about Albert Snider's public profile or their
00:47:43
home that would imply wealth so whoever was said to have broken in there would have been completely desperate and
00:47:50
Reckless like it it just didn't make any sense was some planned crazy thing and like you were just saying if they were
00:47:56
so desperate why would they take the time to pour a glass of whiskey not drink it and only smoke half a cigarette
00:48:03
before they left and why would they leave behind those valuables which were in plain view the answer is they would
00:48:08
not yeah no it was clear to literally anyone with eyes or ears that Ruth was not being honest with detectives and
00:48:15
within a few hours of having called the police she went from acting suspicious to being a full-blown suspect yeah when
00:48:22
the most important part of her story turned out to be an outright lie uh oh because initially like you remember she
00:48:28
claimed that some of her most valuable jewelry was gone rings necklaces brooches she said they'd all been stolen
00:48:35
and so had her expensive fur coat yeah uh within a few hours investigators who were searching the home found all of
00:48:42
that jewelry stuffed under a mattress in the bedroom come on man like she just put it
00:48:49
under a mattress why why when confronted with this she said her memory had failed
00:48:55
her and that she had forgot hiding them there oh yeah yep that's the correct answer and then that coat that she
00:49:04
claimed had been stolen was found in the back of a closet I mean The Jig Is up it's up you
00:49:12
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
00:49:18
out of the house at any point you couldn't just throw them in the trash downstairs literally do anything else
00:49:24
she hid the coat in a closet that's the first place literally anyone is going to
00:49:28
look that's where coats live yeah yeah so all things considered that scene of a supposed burglary was starting to look
00:49:36
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
00:49:43
the Jamaica precinct for further questions which went on all day and well into the evening most interesting to the
00:49:50
detectives uh asking the questions was how Ruth spoke of her now dead husband as though he was someone she didn't care
00:49:56
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
00:50:03
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
00:50:08
we wanted to know uh we were more asking like a little deeper than that does he know anybody that would ransack your
00:50:15
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
00:50:22
asking that's it thank you for that though now while she was being interviewed at the precinct other
00:50:27
officers started talking with the F of the Snider's friends and neighbors to get a more accurate picture of their
00:50:33
relationship of greatest interest to them was a fight that Albert had supposedly got to on the night of the
00:50:38
murder but that turned out to be a dead end when they learned that it was kind of just a petty squabble between friends
00:50:45
reports of a suspicious quote unquote feeble-minded man seen in the area days before the murder were also investigated
00:50:52
and quickly ruled out and like we said nothing about that scene suggested that any kind of break-in had occurred the
00:50:59
doors and the windows were all still locked from the inside and none of the entrances appeared to have been tampered
00:51:06
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
00:51:13
appalling how little they planted because also Albert's 32 caliber pistol which he kept beside the bed for
00:51:19
protection was still undisturbed in its holster so if he'd seen the attacker at all it hadn't been alarming enough for
00:51:26
him to reach for his gun that's interesting yeah as detectives inside the Jamaica Precinct continued
00:51:31
questioning Ruth into the early hours of the morning they were like really going
00:51:34
for her reporters had started to assemble outside the station trying to await a statement from the commissioner
00:51:40
mlin which always makes me think of John oh yeah you're right or district attorney Thomas Thorton however much to
00:51:47
their disappointment when mclin finally emerged at 1:30 in the morning his statement was brief and vague he said
00:51:53
the investigation has not yet progressed far enough for me to make it definite statement to the point and if I was a
00:51:58
reporter I would have said boring boring or if you were my youngest you would say
00:52:03
that yeah boring now mclin might not have had anything to say about the investigation
00:52:10
at 1:30 a.m. but just a few hours later the case broke wide open when Ruth broke
00:52:16
down and confessed to playing a role in her husband's death woo however she blamed the actual murder itself on her
00:52:24
lover uh Jud I was going to say Jude it's Jud according to Ruth she secreted gray in the house early Saturday evening
00:52:32
then accompanied her husband and daughter to the home of friends where they had a bridge party until after
00:52:37
midnight once they returned home and Albert had fallen asleep gray emerged from his hiding place snuck into the
00:52:43
master bedroom where he struck Albert twice in the head with a sash weight and then stuffed the chloroform Rags into
00:52:50
his mouth and nose before wrapping the wire around the man's neck and strangling him to death damn
00:52:57
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
00:53:04
sacking the house to make it seem like the place had been robbed and then after hiding what few valuables Ruth would
00:53:09
claim had been stolen Jud used the picture wire to gently bind her wrists and ankles and made sure she was
00:53:16
comfortable in her bed before leaving the house wow yeah based on Ruth's confession detective searched for Jud
00:53:22
gray and eventually located him at a hotel in Syracuse New York York where he was arrested on the afternoon of March
00:53:29
21st with both suspects now in custody it wasn't long before Ruth and Jud turned on each other and started
00:53:36
accusing one another of being the killer of course as that literally always happens in her confession Ruth claimed
00:53:42
things became unbearable and I was looking for a way out and in talking with Mr Gray whereby we were talking
00:53:48
about getting rid of him wow it's like wow that just happen so casually we were just getting really close and we were
00:53:56
talking and then I said what if we got rid of my husband you know what if according to Ruth by February of 1927
00:54:03
Albert had become intolerably abusive and on multiple occasions actually even threatened to kill her and when she told
00:54:09
Jud about the threats she said his response was that they should quote get Snyder before he got her wow yeah when
00:54:17
he was first arrested Jud claimed he actually never even met Albert snd and had no idea what the detectives were
00:54:22
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
00:54:29
woman must be crazy when she involves me in this thing bad person to set this up with
00:54:36
yeah exactly according to Jud his relationship with Ruth was flirty and friendly but they never or they only
00:54:44
ever possibly had lunch four or five times at the most to say you possibly did something
00:54:50
five times is batshit crazy maybe possibly I did that five times yeah possibly like I don't know like say oh possibly I
00:55:01
might have done that once that's very believable possibly I did that five times you know like a whole handful of
00:55:09
times maybe you did that you did but he said so maybe I might have done that but
00:55:14
I never ever met her husband never and he also claimed he had been in Syracuse the whole night that the murder even
00:55:20
happened and he also presented letters and phone records that supposedly proved he was at that hotel when when Albert
00:55:26
was killed H unfortunately for him detectives quickly determined that those letters had been mailed in advance and
00:55:32
the phone calls had been pre-arranged to support his Alibi ah so wrong there's that with his Alibi rapidly crumbling he
00:55:40
decided to confess but of course he blamed Ruth according to him he did not want to kill Snyder but he was coerced
00:55:48
by Mrs Snyder that makes it better yeah he said that she threatened to reveal their Affair to his wife unless he
00:55:54
helped her with the murder whoa now both Ruth and jud's confessions were very similar and that they each detailed how
00:56:01
they'd met how Ruth had been suffering in her relationship with an abusive man and that one of the motives for the
00:56:07
murder was the insurance payout she was going to get if Albert died of course where they differed though obviously was
00:56:14
who was ultimately responsible for Albert's death according to Jud he hit Albert once with the weight but then
00:56:21
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
00:56:26
wasn't the kill shot yeah he explained that the plan had started months earlier but he never believed they would
00:56:32
actually go through with it you were just talking about murdering husband ever talking casually about murdering
00:56:38
someone that they are close to and also it's never casual you're inputting casually and you just don't think it's
00:56:44
ever going to happen like what you guys shouldn't be talking about this in a real way he told investigators they
00:56:50
began by saying things like quote wouldn't it be great if the old man would only pass away wow but that the
00:56:55
idea quote unquote remained in the wish state for a long time that's actually a a fairly pretty sentence in another in
00:57:05
another context yeah remained in the wish state is beautiful that's good writing but it's in a different context
00:57:11
yeah anyway the idea eventually did turn into a kind of half joke that they shared until they finally started to
00:57:19
quote talk about Ways and Means of making that wish come true wow sir yeah if only it had remained in the wish
00:57:26
yeah in his statement to the Press Queen's District Attorney Richard Nukem said a more coldblooded crime has never
00:57:32
been conceived and he vowed to prosecute both to the fullest extent of the law I
00:57:37
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
00:57:45
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
00:57:52
been around so but he announced that he planned to convene the grand jury soon as humanly possible and he was expecting
00:57:58
indictments for first-degree murder in the meantime Jud and Ruth were arraigned on March 22nd and despite both having
00:58:04
confessed they entered please of not guilty according to Ruth's lawyer quote the confession was rung from her by uh
00:58:11
duress and jud's lawyer quote hinted that a plea of insanity might be entered later I feel like we're coming across
00:58:17
that so often lately according to the New York Times while Jud had also recanted his confession he almost
00:58:23
immediately contradicted himself when he saw his wife later that day you don't say his imagine being that poor woman
00:58:31
yeah not only do you learn that your man has been cheating on you but that he is
00:58:37
now involved in a murder case because he murdered his mistress's husband for her
00:58:42
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
00:58:49
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
00:58:58
days after being charged district attorney newcom's prediction came true when the grand jury handed down
00:59:03
indictments for first-degree murder for both Ruth and Jud in total the grand jury heard testimony from eight
00:59:09
Witnesses and uh viewed the full extent of the physical evidence and they also heard full confessions from both of the
00:59:17
accused when the indictments were returned Nukem asked for a trial date of April 4th which was less than 2 weeks
00:59:23
away whoa he said this will allow ample time for the defense to prepare and there's no reason for any longer delay
00:59:29
he's like shut up he's like we're doing this we need to get it done let's go get
00:59:33
done after the indictments were returned Ruth and Jud both gave interviews to the
00:59:37
Press where they both reasserted their defenses Jud repeated his claim that he had only participated in the murder
00:59:44
because Ruth threatened to expose their Affair but it was Ruth who struck the killing blow with the sash weight he did
00:59:49
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
00:59:54
much better you're still bad yeah Ruth on the other hand denied any responsibility and stuck to her story
01:00:00
that her confession had been coursed when a reporter asked her directly whether she participated in the murder
01:00:06
of her husband she said God no and insisted that Albert was her first and only love wow fake wow she also gave a
01:00:15
somewhat dishonest description of her relationship with Jud claiming that for more than a year their friendship had
01:00:21
been purely platonic also wrong doubt it she said it never would have been otherwise if my husband loved me but
01:00:29
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
01:00:36
are but in the days leading up to the trial her lawyer desperately tried to get the trial separated likely knowing
01:00:43
that being tied to Jud would only make his client look more guilty in fact when the Press considered Ruth's culpability
01:00:50
alone there was a growing consensus that it was quote Unthinkable that a jury of
01:00:54
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
01:01:02
hot cut up up there no never yeah jud's defense team on the other hand was determined to prevent that from
01:01:08
happening given that no Queen's jury had ever sentence a woman to death he stood
01:01:13
a much better chance of avoiding the death penalty if he were to be tried alongside Ruth I love that they had
01:01:20
opposite reasons for it yeah exactly in the end Ruth lost her bid to have the cases separated and the two went on to
01:01:26
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
01:01:33
you know right here that it's actually not good for either of them woof after a week of difficult jury selection the
01:01:39
trial began on Monday April 25th with a court room full of celebrities and locals all eager to get a glimpse of
01:01:46
these killers wow yeah what a different time outside the courthouse vendors sold
01:01:51
popcorn and hot dogs while the Overflow crowd attempted to see through door doors and windows wow at one point a guy
01:01:58
even arrived with a load of wood and tried to build a foot riser to see in the windows now that's just Innovative
01:02:05
that is innovative that's just that's just putting your skills to good use but eventually they told him to go away yeah
01:02:10
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
01:02:16
situation this was pretty good absolutely this was pretty smart I would have in his opening statement district
01:02:22
attorney Nukem laid out the case in pretty simple terms he said Ruth Snider and Jud gray had been involved in an
01:02:27
affair for over a year and eventually they decided to murder Albert in order to one avoid the stigma and problems of
01:02:33
a divorce and also to access that large life insurance payout that Ruth was going to get upon his death Nukem
01:02:40
assured the jury that the state would prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that the death was not an impulsive act but was
01:02:46
the result of constant and repeated planning that went back many months and that both of the accused were equally
01:02:52
responsible for this murder bam yeah in the days that followed the prosecution called a number of witnesses they
01:02:59
presented considerable evidence in support of their theory that Albert Snyder's death had been the result of a
01:03:05
conspiracy perpetrated by his wife and Jud gray among the most damning evidence was the insurance policy which Nukem
01:03:12
claimed Snyder had been quote tricked into signing without reading it studying it or knowing what it was about how did
01:03:19
that even happened according to Leroy Ashfield the agent from the credential life insurance company Ruth convin her
01:03:26
husband to sign the document in which the amounts had been left blank and Ashfield filled in the highest amounts
01:03:32
once it had been signed and once it had been signed Ruth quote paid all the premiums herself and gave instructions
01:03:39
that all mail relating to this policy be sent only to her and no one thought that
01:03:43
was a little strange imagine the poor postal worker that worked for her or like like had her on his route yeah
01:03:50
yikes the insurance documents and testimony from Ashfield were definitely the most compelling evidence of a
01:03:56
conspiracy but by far the most damning evidence was the written confessions that both of these [ __ ] made when
01:04:03
they were arrested it always is and both of those were read aloud for the jury in
01:04:08
jud's confession he claimed with some veiled threats and intense love making she reached the point where she got me
01:04:13
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
01:04:21
she convinced me to murder her husband exactly that's the worst excuse ever not very sympathetic to his no and he
01:04:28
admitted that he played some role in Snider's murder but he said he only had done so because Ruth quote hounded him
01:04:34
into the crime he went on to say that Ruth had actually already tried to kill Albert six times prior to the Final Act
01:04:40
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
01:04:47
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
01:04:54
would kill your husband that's great what after the prosecution rested their case Ruth's defense team took over and
01:05:01
called their first witness Ruth Snider oh in the week since her arrest she had gone from confessing to the murder to
01:05:07
now not only claiming that she played no part in it but that she had actually tried to save her husband from Jud gray
01:05:15
wow according to Ruth she quote found Jud gray kneeling on the back of the sleeping man hitting him with a sash
01:05:21
weight and she dragged him off I bet yeah totally I bet that's what happened she claimed at that point he threatened
01:05:27
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
01:05:34
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
01:05:40
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
01:05:45
him so you just contradicted yourself so H so what is it you saying ma'am throughout her hours of testimony the
01:05:53
Press noted the attitude of the courtroom was gener not one which would commun which would communicate Sympathy
01:05:59
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
01:06:05
even less from Nukem on Cross Examination for hours he went Point by point in her testimony and called into
01:06:13
question every inaccuracy and every conflict and she mostly responded with I don't know or I don't remember which is
01:06:21
definitely translates to you got me yeah exactly the trial finally came to a close on May
01:06:28
9th 1927 when the jury retired for deliberations before sending the jury out Justice Townson Scutter reminded the
01:06:35
jury of their charge the defendant gray contends that the suggestion to murder Albert Snyder was first made by the
01:06:41
defendant Snyder the defendant Snyder contends that the suggestion to murder Albert Snyder was first made by the
01:06:47
defendant gray he says she proposed it she says he proposed it it is your duty to ascertain and declare the facts Act
01:06:54
without fear or favor without sympathy or Prejudice find the truth in the evidence follow it and apply the the law
01:07:01
the court has given you and bring in a just verdict Somebody went booya don't you just picture them in like a group
01:07:08
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
01:07:16
just said like hands in yeah absolutely no they all went hurah hurah just before
01:07:22
700 p.m. on May 10th the jury emerged from deliberation to find Ruth and Jud both guilty of first deegree murder that
01:07:30
I was actually a little shocked by that just because of like how messy this whole thing was yeah you know like it
01:07:37
could have easily gone another way where like one of them got out of it I know and you would usually think that it
01:07:43
would be Ruth just because of the time period And the fact that like she was pretty so they thought she might be able
01:07:48
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
01:07:54
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
01:08:00
evidence at the house like I mean you can't get her saying all her [ __ ] was missing and then them finding it hidden
01:08:07
oh yeah and then her having no injuries even though she claimed she was beaten over the head that's the thing it was
01:08:12
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
01:08:17
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
01:08:22
of it and this one nope well and this is actually interesting and it's funny that
01:08:26
you say this right now because in the case of Jud 11 of the 12 jurymen voted guilty and one juror left his decision
01:08:33
blank interesting they actually believed that Jud had been telling the truth but
01:08:38
they couldn't ignore the fact that he had voluntarily participated in the murder so they didn't really have a
01:08:43
choice but to find him guilty yeah that sense they believed what he was saying like that he was saying he didn't intend
01:08:48
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
01:08:54
Ruth's case the jurors were unanimous in disbelieving the story that Ruth had told the court and all 12 of them voted
01:09:02
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
01:09:10
being tried separately was Jud which is what I thought yeah yeah I agree with you there now four days later on May
01:09:15
14th Ruth Snyder and Jud gray were back before Justice Scutter where they were both sentenced to die by the electric
01:09:22
chair and remember no woman in a queen's jury had ever been sentenced like this the hearing took 15 minutes from the
01:09:29
time they entered the courtroom until they learned their Fates as she was led out of the courtroom after hearing the
01:09:35
verdict Ruth loudly announced this is only a formality I have just as good of a chance now of going free as I had
01:09:42
before the trial started survey says that's a lie survey says you're dulu yeah that's a no like this is a
01:09:48
formality no [ __ ] this is a literal trial this is a literal sentencing like you don't get more official no Ruth and
01:09:55
Jud had definitely put a great deal of Hope into the appeals process and they were determined if nothing else they
01:10:01
would be able to avoid the death penalty but unfortunately by January 1928 both of them had exhausted their appeals and
01:10:09
every attempt at clemency or stay of execution had been rejected by the governor I mean yeah they tried
01:10:16
everything and it was like nope nope nope no absolutely not so on the evening of January 12th Ruth Snyder and Jed gray
01:10:24
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
01:10:31
reportedly quote prayed without ceasing and stared with eyes from which all human intelligence had fled whoa at 11
01:10:38
descriptor I know at 11: PM the Executioner threw the switch ending Ruth's life in a matter of moments at
01:10:46
the moment that the switch was thrown Tom Howard a photographer from Daily News this is wild snapped a photo of
01:10:53
Ruth using a camera that he stuck into the prison strapped to his ankle he literally like Bonkers like that is
01:11:03
commitment on another level that is journalism that is that's journalism baby like that is some commitment to the
01:11:11
journalism cause we'll post the picture that he got and it was literally plastered on the front page of the D
01:11:19
news the next morning and when you see this picture you're like imagine getting your newspaper and that
01:11:26
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
01:11:34
execution quickly followed ruths and when asked whether he had anything to say on his behalf he said I was carried
01:11:40
forward by some power outside myself but I had made my peace with God and am now
01:11:44
prepared to die at 11:13 the Executioner threw the switch sending thousands of volts of electricity through his body
01:11:52
and a cloud of smoke Rose through the air at 11:4 14 the prison doctor announced Jud gray was
01:11:58
dead wow and that is the story of the murder of Albert Snyder and the fact that it ends with a an ankle photo
01:12:09
of somebody as the switches flicked getting electrocut like the electric chair to me is so barbaric like it's
01:12:18
just the look of it the idea the methodology of it is so barbaric to me like it just black and white terms like
01:12:27
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
01:12:35
just you can you can see the electricity in the photo like it's yeah you can like
01:12:39
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
01:12:46
a time what a [ __ ] time and the fact that obviously like nobody had ever snuck a camera in before and he did it
01:12:52
with his ankle and you know that can never happen like with the with technology and like metal detectors and
01:12:59
[ __ ] 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
01:13:08
honestly keep it so weird that you have that much dedication to your journalism yeah that's a lot of dedication I like
01:13:14
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
01:13:17
by now yeah you know not to keep it that weird bye bye [Music] [Music]