Ruth Snyder

Born on the 27th March 1895, Ruth Snyder was a mother and housewife from Queen’s village, New York. She took out a $48, 000 life insurance policy on her husband Albert Snyder, then murdered him, with the help of her lover, Gary Gray, acting as accomplice.

On the 20th March 1927, Ruth and Gary Gray garrotted Albert, stuffing his nose with chloroform-soaked rags, to help stage his death as part of a burglary. Investigating detectives noted that the burglar had left little evidence of a break in. Snyder’s subsequent execution by electrocution was surreptitiously photographed by Tom
Howard at the moment the electricity was running through her body. The photograph was taken with the aid of a customised miniature camera which was strapped to his ankle. It was famously published in the New York Daily Times.

Ruth Snyder was executed in Sing Sing Prison on the 12th January1928.