1“DEAD! ” is the title of the newspaper article that features the historical, very first picture of a woman being executed in the electric chair. The picture was taken by Tom Howard using his smuggled ankle camera that is now held in the Smithsonian Museum. The woman was Ruth Snyder, wife to Albert Snyder whom she murdered with the help of Judd Gray, a man with which she was having an affair with. 2Ruth Snyder was a house wife that lived in Queens Village, Queens, New York. Judd Gray was a corset salesman (MacKeller).
In 1927 Ruth Snyder and her lover, Judd Gray, murdered Snyder’s husband, Albert Snyder who was a New York magazine editor (Shahid). Snyder and Gray were convicted in a triangle murder (Cheli). In the trial, it was said that Snyder and Gray strangled Albert Snyder with a picture frame wire and struck him in the head with a window sash weight. (Shahid). The trail was held at the Long Island City Courthouse. The case was nicknamed the “Dumb-bell murder” case and the “Cut Throat” case (MacKeller).
Snyder and Gray’s execution was set for January 12, 1928 at the Sing Sing prison in New York (Shahid). 3Before the murder, Ruth Snyder convinced her husband, Albert, to purchase insurance. It was a $48,000 life insurance policy that paid extra if an unexpected act of violence killed the victim. The insurance agent who “signed” the Snyder’s insurance was fired and sent to prison for forgery. Ruth Snyder made multiple unsuccessful attempts to murder her husband before and on March 20, 1927 she finally succeeded. Snyder and Gray set up the murder of Albert to look like a burglary.
Snyder and Gray did not succeed in getting away with the murder because detectives noted that there was little evidence showing that the house was broken into and Ruth’s behavior did not resemble a distraught wife who watched her husband die. Later, “stolen” property started showing up in the Snyder’s home. 4At first the detectives had no knowledge of a second murderer being involved in Albert Snyder’s case but Albert had dated a woman named Jessie Guischend who had died before he had met Ruth. A detective found a paper with the letters J. G. n it and asked about it to Ruth.
Ruth then asked what Judd Gray had to do with the crime and that was the first time Judd Gray was ever mentioned at all. Judd Gray tried to escape the police by taking a taxi from Manhattan to Long Island. In order to not draw attention, Judd gave his taxi driver a ten cent tip due to the length of the drive. Judd was found upstate in Syracuse and was returned to Jamaica, Queens and charged with Ruth Snyder. He claimed to be there all night but it was later discovered that he had an alibi that set up a hotel room for him (MacKeller). Tom Howard was a photojournalist that worked for the Daily News that took a picture of Ruth Snyder being executed on an electric chair on January 14, 1928. He smuggled his camera into the “death house” under his trousers (Newspaperarchive).
Tom had moved to New York a month before the execution. He stayed in a hotel practicing using the ankle camera (Americanhistory). The Daily News purchased wide-bottom collegiate trousers so Tom could easily smuggle his camera into the prison. The warden at the death house called the newspaper men in around 10:30 p. . but did not search them for cameras. Tom was seated twelve feet away from the electric chair. Tom’s camera had been focused beforehand to twenty feet by guess so that the picture would come out clear. Tom was awarded a $100 bonus for obtaining the picture of Ruth. Tom was afterwards assigned to go to Havana to assist in covering President Coolidge’s visit there. James Sullivan, circulation manager of the News said that the picture of Ruth went to approximately 1,556,000 editors covering the execution story (Newspaperarchive).
The Dailey News put the photo on the front page the day after the execution with the headline “DEAD! ”. The Dailey News sold one million extra copies double its normal sales (Shahid). The New York Dailey News later donated Tom Howard’s ankle camera to the Smithsonian in 1963 (Newspaperarchive). 6The electric chair that was used to execute Ruth Snyder was signed authorization to be used by Governor Daniel B. Hill on June 4, 1888. Ruth Snyder was given a marked grave and was buried in the Woodland Cemetery, Bronx, New York.
A victim of the electric chair would become unconscious in less than a second, before any pain could be felt. Twelve witnesses were required to be present at the execution, including two doctors, the prison chaplain, the executioner, seven guards, and the warden. The building that housed the electric chair was called the “death house”. The section where the prisoners spent their last day was called the “dance hall. ” (MacKeller). 7The story of Ruth Snyder was later used in a lot of popular media. Sophie Treadwell’s play Mechanical (1928) was inspired by the life and execution of Ruth Snyder.
James M. Cain’s novel, Double Identity was also inspired by Ruth’s case. James M. Cain’s novel was later created into a movie in 1944 by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. James M Cain also had another book The Postman Always Rings Twice that was also inspired by Ruth Snyder’s Case. The 1933 Movie, Picture Snatcher starring James Cagney as a news paper photographer contains an incident inspired by Tom Howard’s picture of Ruth on the electric chair. And in the film Blesses Event, staring Lee Tenley as a gossip columnist, Tray frightens Allan Jenkins by reminding him of the electric chair. Regarding Ruth Snyder, whose execution he mentioned watching). Also, Snyder’s cell at Sing Sing was used for “Eva Coo” and Lonely Hearts killer Martha Beck. (MacKeller). 8Tom Howard’s ankle camera is an important historical object because it revolutionized photojournalism. The picture widely affected newspaper readers as the increase of sales of the Daily News’s article “DEAD! ” shows. The picture created a famous moment in history that can, because of Tom Howard, be remembered now and even further in the future.
