The Murder of Albert Snyder

Judd Gray

Judd Gray was born in Cortland, New York, in 1882. His family moved to New Jersey when Judd was a toddler. Both parents loved him, but Judd developed a tight bond with his mother. He developed a fondness for reading and for sports, especially, tennis and football. He regularly went to church with his family.

He went to high school for two years, then dropped out because he had a bad bout with pneumonia. He did not want an education. He wanted a job. At first, he worked with his father in the jewelry business. Dissatisfied, he found a job with the Bien Jolie Corset Company.

At the age of 22, Judd married Isabel. She had been his girlfriend since he was 16. The couple had one child, a daughter.

Most people thought of Judd Gray as a nice, ordinary man and a good citizen. He liked to play golf and bridge and drive his automobile. Judd was a good and reliable worker for the Red Cross in World War I. The Grays regularly attended a First Methodist Church where Judd worked for the Sunday school. He belonged to the Orange Lodge of Elks. He was also a member of the Corset Salesmen of the Empire Club.

Judds wife, Isabel, was shy and self-effacing. Several of Judds work colleagues were surprised to learn that he was married.

Judd later wrote of Isabel, and how she could never replace his mother:

"Isabel, I suppose, one would call a home girl; she had never trained for a career of any kind, she was learning to cook and was a careful and exceptionally exact housekeeper. As I think it over searchingly I am not sure, and we were married these many years, of her ambitions, hopes, her fears or her ideals -- we made our home, drove our car, played bridge with our friends, danced, raised our child -- ostensibly together -- married. Never could I seem to attain with her the comradeship that formed the bond between my mother and myself . . . "

It was not terribly long after Ruth and Judd met that they were having an affair. Realizing that Judd was a classic mamas boy, Ruth asked him to call her momie or momma something he was delighted to do. For Judd, Ruth provided the emotional connection and the physical passion sorely lacking in his marriage with Isabel. For Ruth, Judd was a sympathetic ear on whom she could unburden herself of her frustrations at living with a man who nagged and belittled her and kept his most tender feelings for a dead woman.

The couple usually met at the Waldorf Astoria hotel where they registered as Mr. and Mrs. Gray. They were such frequent guests that they kept a small suitcase in a hotel locker that included bathrobes, brushes, cards, condoms, pajamas, and slippers.

When Judd and Ruth had been drinking, the talk sometimes turned to murder. There are two incompatible versions of how murder first became a topic. Ruth claimed that it was Judds idea. Judd insisted that Ruth related to him her solitary and unsuccessful attempts to do away with her husband.

According to the tale spun by the corset salesman, Ruth confided that she had engineered several accidents for Albert. Once, Albert was in the garage jacking up the Buick to change a tire when the jack slipped. The car fell and Albert barely missed injury or death. Then he was hit by the crank, knocking Albert unconscious. A third garage accident when his wife bought him some whiskey. The booze made Albert strangely and suddenly sleepy. Very soon he realized that the garage door was closed and he was breathing carbon dioxide. Panicked, he fled from the Buicks underside and escaped.

Albert Snyder, 1926

Ruth had three different life insurance policies on her husband. One was for $1,000, another for $5,000, and a third for $45,000. The last had a double indemnity clause, meaning that the insurance company would pay $90,000 if Alberts death was accidental. According to Judd, Ruth tricked Albert into signing all three documents by telling him the least expensive policy had to be signed in triplicate. 

The reason she took out the policies, Ruth claimed, was because Judd suggested it and threatened to tell Albert about their affair if she did not comply. Ruth feared that her husband would get custody of their daughter, Lorraine, because the courts would look harshly on an adulteress. She also said that Albert was fully aware of the policies and how much they were worth. She did not want to murder Albert and did not believe Judd would ever do it even though he talked about it whenever he had been drinking heavily.

On the other hand, Judd claimed that Ruth attempted murder three more times on her own. Twice she tried to kill him by turning on the gas tap and once by giving him bichloride of mercury to drink.

And on top of all the claims and counterclaims, Judd had one more: he was compelled to shoot Albert because Albert was threatening to shoot Ruth.