16 Facts About Ruth Snyder

May Ruth Brown met Albert Edward Snyder in 1915 in New York City, when she was 20 years old and he was a 33-year-old artist.

In 1918, Ruth gave birth to their only child, a daughter named Lorraine.

Albert Ruth Snyder was employed as an art editor for Motor Boating magazine, published for most of its run by William Randolph Hearst, and earned $100 per week.

In 1925, Ruth Snyder began an extramarital relationship with Henry Judd Gray, a married corset salesman who lived in the New Jersey suburbs.

Ruth Snyder began planning the murder of her husband Albert, enlisting Gray's help, but he was reluctant.

Ruth Snyder first persuaded Albert to purchase insurance, and with the assistance of an insurance agent, "signed" a $48,000 life insurance policy with a double indemnity clause, paying extra if an unexpected act of violence killed the victim.

Detectives discovered that the property Ruth Snyder had claimed had been stolen in the burglary had been hidden in the house.

Ruth Snyder asked the detective what Gray had to do with the murder; it was the first time Gray had ever been mentioned, and the police immediately became suspicious.

Ruth Snyder claimed he had been there all night, but it was determined that a friend of Gray's had obtained a hotel room in Gray's name to support his alibi.

Ruth Snyder was imprisoned at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York.

Ruth Snyder went to the electric chair 10 minutes before Judd Gray, her former lover.

Ruth Snyder's execution was surreptitiously photographed at the moment electricity was running through her body with the aid of a miniature plate camera strapped to the ankle of Tom Howard, a Chicago Tribune photographer working in cooperation with the Tribune-owned New York Daily News.

Ruth Snyder was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Josephine Brown, mother of Ruth Snyder, petitioned for custody of the girl.

Ruth Snyder requested that her daughter not be brought to the prison for a final visit.

At the time of the judgment, the lawyer acting on behalf of Ruth Snyder's family asked the court to allow them to appeal without a printed record on the basis that the family was destitute and unable to sell the house due to the notoriety of the case.