WEBVTT - Stranger Than Fiction 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.760 You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:17.160 Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey Clement for 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.000 Lendingham was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, in eighteen twenty. 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.759 He received his education through home schooling until he attended 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:29.040 Jefferson College in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. After an argument with the 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.280 school's president, he left the college without finishing his degree. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.120 At the time, aspiring lawyers didn't need a degree to practice. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.440 All they had to do was past the bar exam. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.840 Lendingham passed the bar and set up his law firm 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.280 in Dayton, Ohio. His lack of the college degree also 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.200 didn't prevent him from being elected to the Ohio Legislature 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.280 in eighteen forty five, or from being elected into the 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:55.280 House of Representatives shortly before the Civil War. Although Lendingham 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.200 lived in a pro Union state, he was staunchly pro slavery. 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.640 His beliefs on the subject were so strong that he 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.959 looked for any way to oppose President Abraham Lincoln on 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.560 every military bill, and frequently accused the President of prolonging 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.920 the war for his own gain. As the leader of 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.360 the copper Heads, a group of like minded politicians. The 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.760 lending Him believed that the president and the abolitionists were 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:26.080 destroying the nation. In their opinion, the war was completely unjustified. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.760 Though landing Him lost his bid for reelection in eighteen 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.800 sixty two, he remained popular with anti war factions and 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.960 was considered a candidate for the presidency. Those aspirations ended 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.000 when he entered the public sector and continued his anti 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.400 war rhetoric. His rants violated Ohio's General Order thirty eight, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.720 which banned anyone from declaring sympathy for the enemy. Thus, 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.520 he was arrested in eighteen sixty three. During the trial, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.520 he voiced his opinions in sympathy for the Confederacy. As 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:02.160 a result, the court ordered lending Him held to the South. However, 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.240 despite the court order, his strong opinions and his affiliation 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.720 with the copper Heads, but Confederates didn't exactly give him 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.680 a warm welcome. It took some time for them to 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.560 trust him, even after he ran for governor of Ohio 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.760 and Absentia. Blending Him lost the election, but managed to 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.840 return to Ohio quietly. After the war, he continued his 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.440 crusade against the rights of black Americans. He ran for 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.360 the Senate and then the House of Representatives, losing both times. 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.560 He returned to practicing law, taking on a murder case. 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.400 His client, one Thomas the Gean, had been accused of 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.239 murdering a man by the name of Thomas Myers. Lending 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.280 Him's defense was simple. His client couldn't possibly be guilty 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.560 since Myers had accidentally shot himself. The witnesses stated the 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.120 two men had been enemies, They had been gambling, and 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.880 though the details were murky, Myers wound up dead and 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.680 everyone pointed to m age In blending him insisted that 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.920 the evidence was weak. He fired rounds into a piece 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.919 of fabric to demonstrate the placement of gunpowder residue a 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.160 close range, matching the powder formation on Myer's clothing. After 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.280 the demonstration, a companion reminded him that there were still 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.840 three live rounds and the gun's chambers. Of Lending Him 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.120 shared him that his knowledge and comfort around firearms would 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.840 prevent him from accidentally discharging it. Lending Him found a 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.400 package containing Myer's unloaded pistol waiting for him at the 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.119 hotel and placed it on his nightstand alongside his own gun. 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.080 Then he summoned the rest of the lawyers to his 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.880 room for one last reenactment. He grabbed a pistol from 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.880 the nightstand and placed it in his pocket. As he 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.040 withdrew it, he demonstrated how Myers had held the gun, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.960 then pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, he had grabbed the loaded 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.320 gun and cried out that had shot himself. The shot 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:59.280 proved fatal. The court acquitted, and aghe in blending him, 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.920 had proved in his client's innocence. It might not have 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:07.160 been the most intelligent of defenses, but it certainly wasn't 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:19.920 the worst. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. It 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.080 was the Roaring twenties. Ruth Snyder was a blonde, pretty, 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.960 thirty two year old homemaker and described as having a 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.120 playful personality. It had been married to Albert for twelve years, 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.560 and the two had a young daughter, Lorraine, and an 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.920 eight room home in Queens Village, New York. A forty 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.080 two year old Albert worked as an art editor for 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.440 a magazine about motor boats and did not share his 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:49.400 wife's playful personality. Most women dreaded him. His idea of 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.000 fun was to slap his wife and nine year old 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.760 daughter around. He took every opportunity to let Ruth know 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.279 he had never forgiven her for not giving him a son. 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.200 When he did out compliments, they were about his late 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.400 ex fiancee, Jesse was shard. He kept a picture of 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.919 his beloved on a wall in the home and frequently 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.120 mentioned that Jesse had been the finest woman had ever known. 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.440 To add insult to injury, when Albert purchased a boat, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:21.400 he named it Jesse. Understandably, Ruth's love and devotion toward 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:26.440 her husband turned sour. On top of being verbally, emotionally 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:31.400 and physically cruel, he drank a lot, so much so 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.640 that Albert took to brewing beer in his basement, which 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.200 wasn't exactly legal during the Prohibition era. When he tired 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.840 of beer, he visited the local bootlegger for stronger stuff. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:47.600 In women like Ruth didn't have many options. Women were 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.880 considered property of sorts, first belonging to their fathers and 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.880 then to their husbands. They had little to know rights 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.960 to their own finances. In the US, it wouldn't be 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.160 until the nineteen sixties before women were allowed to open 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.159 a bank account on their own. They weren't allowed to 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.120 have a credit card, without a husband's signature. Until nineteen 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:12.120 seventy four, single women need not apply. The men earned 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.919 more of the same jobs. Companies openly overlooked women in 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.680 favor of men when it came to hiring, until President 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.520 Kennedy signed a law prohibiting such tactics in nineteen sixty four. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.640 Until nineteen twenty, women hadn't been allowed to vote for 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.840 those who worked. Any paycheck that they brought home immediately 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.239 belonged to their husband. The only financial wealth a woman 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.039 had was her jewelry. For many women, marriage meant a 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:41.920 lifetime of love and financial security. For others, marriage was 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.960 a prison. In the twenties, society frowned on divorce, which 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:51.440 usually entailed proof of adultery or abandonment, and in society's view, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:55.719 if Ruth filed, she was breaking the family apart. The 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.960 words till death do us part had real meaning. For Ruth. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.360 She was stint for a lifetime of misery and abuse, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.080 and like other women in her shoes, she did her 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.440 best to occupy her time outside the home when possible, 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.280 since having lunch with her friends in Manhattan had become 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.240 her only escape. Once she dropped Lorraine off at school, 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.040 she caught a train to the city to spend the day. 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.440 In the afternoon, she boarded another train back home, and 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.600 during those lunches at the counter in a Fifth Avenue restaurant, 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:32.520 Ruth met Judd Gray, another regular, and my most accounts, 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.880 Judd wasn't the most memorable man. He was short, curly haired, 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.400 and wore thick horn rimmed glasses that gave him an 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.000 owlish appearance. And Judd worked as a traveling salesman for 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.120 a corset and brawl company, although we conducted most of 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:51.080 his work from the Waldorf Storia Hotel. He spent his 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.200 spare time as a member of an Elks lodge in 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.000 New Jersey, and he taught Sunday school. The two quickly 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.760 struck up a friendship. They talked to family and life, 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.520 and before long, jud confided that he was also in 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.120 an unhappy marriage. Over several weeks, the growing attraction and 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:14.640 tension between them increased. They began to flirt. By the 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.560 end of the summer, Ruth and Jed took the flirtations 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.760 even further and started a fiery and all consuming affair. 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.520 Albert never came home during the day, providing the couple 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.040 with a convenient place to meet. Other times, Ruth met 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:33.120 her new lover at the Waldorf. Meanwhile, little Lorraine entertained 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.439 herself by riding along with the elevator operators until her 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.199 mother returned for her. Jed was smitten with Ruthe whoop 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.080 seemingly couldn't get enough of him either. She called him Loverboy, 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.360 among other pet names. Over the next year and a half, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.120 the affair turned riskier and the lovers grew bolder in 0:08:51.160 --> 0:09:06.720 their liaisons. On Sunday, March, Loreen Snyder made a frantic 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.920 phone call to the next door neighbor, Missus Harriet Mulhouser. 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.600 Lorrain's cries that her mother was sick urged Harriet hurry 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.800 to the Snyder home. When Harriet entered, she had no 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.439 idea what to expect. Moans from an upstairs bedroom met 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.920 her at the door. She ran up the stairs to 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.760 find Ruth lying on a bed with a loosened gag 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.760 around her neck. Her feet had been bound, but her 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.160 hands were free. Ruth moaned that she had been hit 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:35.920 on the head. Unsure of what had happened or where 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.959 Albert was, Harriet told Lorraine to go and get Mr. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:44.040 Mulhauser and then to wait outside. Lewis Mulhouser arrived moments later. 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.240 He found Albert in another room, lying face first under 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.240 a pile of blankets on a twin bed. His hands 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.320 and feet had been bound. The blood on the pillows 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.320 and the wire around his neck made it clear someone 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.559 had strangled him. Lewis also noted a revolt he lay 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.120 next to the body. He covered Albert with a sheet 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.760 and called for the police and doctor for Rufe. The 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.760 doctor examined Rufe while she told him what had happened. 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.440 Though she insisted she had been hit on the head, 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.640 he couldn't find any evidence of an injury. Two officers 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.720 arrived shortly afterward. The house appeared to have been ransacked, 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.600 and the officers thought the Snyders had been victims of 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.560 a burglary gone wrong. There had been reports of a 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.640 strange man prowling around the neighborhood and Snyder House in particular. 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.400 Detectives Frank Hainer and Harry Krauss arrived shortly after eight 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.280 am to take over the case. The doctor had finished 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.079 his exam of Ruth and Albert and gave the detectives 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:48.240 his findings. Ruth's calm demeanor seemed off, and he couldn't 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.640 find any signs of injury. Albert had been dead for 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.560 about six hours. He noted heavy bruising on his face, 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.839 which indicated blunt force trauma. The doctor wasn't sure whether 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.400 Albert had died due to that trauma or to strangulation. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.520 While an ambulance took Albert to the more, the detectives 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.320 questioned Ruth. They also noted how calm she seemed given 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.040 her account of what had happened. The Ruth claimed she 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.640 had been knocked out. The detectives had more questions than answers. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.280 Why had someone bound Ruth's feet but not her hands 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.880 and they couldn't find an injury. Why hadn't she gone 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:29.319 for help herself? And something wasn't right? Detectives Hayin and 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:34.560 Krauss called for assistance while other detectives began a thorough 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.040 search of the house and property. Hayner and Krauss took 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.920 Ruth to the police station for further questioning. She repeated 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.280 the story that she and Albert had attended a bridge 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.280 party lad into the night. When they arrived home, they 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.240 immediately went to bed. Some time in the middle of 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.040 the night, she heard a noise and went to investigate 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.840 the Ruth told them that an enormous Italian thug attacked 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:58.800 her and hit her on the head before she could 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.520 scream for Albert. Ruth claimed that the man must have 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.760 robbed them and killed Albert. She took the time to 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.520 describe valuable pieces of jewelry and expensive fur coats she owned. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.360 Given the doctor's findings, the detectives thought that the attackers 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.800 description played too heavily on the general racism against Italian 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.120 immigrants of the time, and it didn't take the detectives 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.960 long to find more problems with Ruth's story. Albert's gold 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.079 pocket watch had been found next to his deathbed. They 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.160 also found Ruth's jewelry wrapped in a rag and stuffed 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.920 under the mattress, and her fur coat tucked away in 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.440 a trunk in the basement. But most damning was the 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:40.199 toolbox that had found A large iron sash weight had 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.360 been married beneath an assortment of hammers and screwdrivers, and 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.440 the weight had blood on it. To say Ruth was 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:51.200 the number one suspect would be an understatement. They told 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.640 her what they had found and prompted her to confess. 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.640 After a couple of hours of intense questioning, Ruth slipped 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:02.199 and gave them a name, Jed Ray. Then she refused 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:07.040 to answer any more questions. Police quickly arrested jud They 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.720 were not surprised to hear that he had a different story. 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.880 He was innocent, he claimed. In fact, like Albert, he 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.200 also claimed to be one of Ruth's victims. She had 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.800 seduced him and made him an unwilling accomplice to the 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:24.000 murder plot. Within hours, the detectives had their killers, but 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.200 the two lovers weren't done with the details just yet. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.640 Judd claimed that Ruth had been the mastermind. She had 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.800 taken out an insurance policy with a double indemnity clause. 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.160 If Albert died from an act of violence, Ruts stood 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.280 to get twice the money. While Ruth had bought the 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.319 iron weight, he had been seduced into buying chloroform. He 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.720 told the detectives that Ruth had told him to smash 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.440 Albert's head with the weight, but he was so frightened 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.800 that he couldn't do it, he said. Ruth grabbed the 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.400 way and eagerly did the job herself, striking Albert on 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.400 the side of the head of The blow knocked Albert unconscious, 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.040 and jud admitted dragging him to the bed, and he 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.120 also admitted to using the wire to ensure he was dead. 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.160 The entire murder seemed to happen in a daze. He 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.120 told the detectives he had been entirely under Ruth's spell. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.560 Prosecutors decided to try the pair together instead of individually. 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.760 Reporters flocked to the courtroom. While wives killing abuse of 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:32.080 husbands for money wasn't exactly new, competing newspapers saw a 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:36.520 sensational story. The tabloids were quick to add creative details, 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.320 and they're retelling. As they put it, Ruth the Ruthless 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.400 was a fem fatale who had it all a house 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.160 car money before taking on a lover and seducing him 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.480 into killing her husband. Journalist Damon Runyan thought the two 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.560 killers were about as dumb as any had ever seen, 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.920 and began calling the incident the Dumbbell Murder. The New 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.440 York Times kept the story on the front page as 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.080 the trial continued. It began on April eighteenth of n 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.880 and became nothing less than a circus. Fifteen hundred people 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.680 crammed themselves into the courtroom outside vendors sold sash weight 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.160 replica pins, and food vendors hiked up prices to the 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:23.240 thousands of people waiting outside the courtroom. The celebrities, from 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.360 renowned historians and film producers to the nation's elite, reserved 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:32.760 seating inside. Among them were songwriter Irving Berlin and mystery 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.640 novelist Mary Roberts Reinhardt. Though Jed and Ruth were tried 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.960 together and were at the same table, they each retained 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.480 their own lawyer. For hours, each lawyer worked to sway 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:45.760 the all male jury that the other defendant in the 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:50.600 case was the more guilty party. Most felt sympathetic toward 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:55.640 Jed's confessions. He told the courtroom that Ruth completely seduced him, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.160 earning him the nickname the putty Man. He said that 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.120 he was helpless whenever she drew his face close to 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:06.240 hers and looked deeply into his eyes. Judd sobbed when 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.520 he told the Jerry how she had pressured him into 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.400 doing her dirty work. The plot went sideways when he 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.600 arrived that night and he had struck Albert in self defense. 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.160 In turn, Ruth fainted whenever the prosecution brought out the 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.600 most gruesome of the details her attorney told the courtroom 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.120 that such gore made his client faint easily, and jud 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.160 and Ruth exchanged barbs and accusations, dividing the court on 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.720 who had been ultimately responsible for Albert's death, until the 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:38.160 prosecution brought a toxicologist to the stand. Using only the 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:43.600 facts from pathology and chemistry, Alexander Getler systematically laid out 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.200 what had happened to Albert that night. The police had 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.720 found a bottle of whiskey on Judd on the night 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.920 of his arrest. He had told detectives that Ruth asked 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.000 him to dispose of the bottle. A lab results showed 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.440 that the whiskey contained so much bichloride of mercury that 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.440 it was undrinkable, and, knowing Albert's penchant for drinking heavily, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.000 had given Ruth the idea to poison her husband. However, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:11.399 the acrid, foul taste would have undoubtedly made Albert spit 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.199 the drink out. Albert had already been drinking, and he 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.040 had consumed so much bootleg whiskey that it would have 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.560 been unlikely that he could stand much less attack Judd. 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.840 And if the whiskey wasn't enough, the chloroform they found 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.400 in his system was though the iron weight had fractured 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:33.240 Albert's skull and the wire had cut off his last breadths. 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:38.000 Albert was already a dying man. That bootleg whiskey combined 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.680 with the heavy amount of chloroform had been fatal. Getler 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.840 testified that Ruth and Judd might have gotten away with 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.840 murder if they had just let the whiskey and chloroform 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.680 run their course. Ninety minutes later, the jury returned a 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.960 guilty verdict for jud and Ruth. Both were sentenced to 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:07.920 death at Sing Sing. The story continued to dominate headlines 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.800 for weeks. One reporter noted that, in an odd twist, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:16.680 Albert's beloved ex fiance, Jesse Guischard and Ruth's affair partner 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.679 Judd Gray shared the same initials. It turned out that 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.240 this twist had helped the detectives with the case. They'd 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.679 come across some papers with the initials j G, but 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:32.040 they didn't belong to Judd. Before her death, Jesse had 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.920 sent Albert love letters on monogram stationary. Albert had kept 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:40.000 letterhead from his beloved Jesse. Of course, the detectives didn't 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.320 know that when they showed it to Ruth and asked 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.720 who j G was. In a moment of panic, she'd 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.280 asked why they were looking at Judd in connection with 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.880 her husband's death. On the day of Ruth's execution at 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:56.119 sing Sing Prison, photography was prohibited in the execution chamber. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.440 One creative reporter rigged a camera under his clothing. At 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.000 the moment of Ruth's execution, he snapped a single photo. 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.320 The Daily News used the image and the headline dead. 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.399 The paper sold out in fifteen minutes. The Dumbell murder 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.760 had been a sensational story, but with the case over 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.640 and jud and Ruth executed, the papers returned to other 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.720 news Over time, the story faded from most people's memories. 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:29.000 Murder for money was hardly new or unheard of, and 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:33.680 true crime stories have seemingly fascinated us. All while plenty 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.280 of reporters covering the trial simply looked for enough headline 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.920 worthy material before moving on to their next assignment. One 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.920 of those reporters never forgot it. James M. Caine said 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.199 the trial had been larger than life and stranger than fiction. 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:50.560 He had always wanted to write a novel like f 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.520 Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway, and the murder gave him 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.320 an idea. Over the years, he had written a few 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.480 plays and novels without much success, but the betrayals and 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.880 murder in this case inspired him to try once more. 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.520 In nineteen thirty four, he made the best seller's list 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:13.240 with The Postman Always Rings Twice. Characters Frank and Cora 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.400 begin an affair and soon plot the murder of Cora's 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:20.159 older husband, Nick. The lover's first attempt, striking Nick with 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:25.119 a blunt object, fails. He recovers but has amnesia. The 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.879 second attempt, a fake car accident, works. The two killers 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.600 stand trial, each blaming the other. Kine wrote a twist 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.280 to the ending, which I won't divulge here in case 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.720 you haven't read it or seen the films based on it. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.520 At the height of the book's popularity, Boston banned it 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.960 due to the amount of sex and violence it contained 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.040 for the time, and as popular as this book was, 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.639 another became an even larger success. Using the case and 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:56.840 trial again as inspiration, he wrote Double Indemnity, first publishing 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.479 it as a serialized story in Liberty Magazine in nineteen 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.920 thirty six, and then as a novel in nineteen forty three. 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.600 The plot revolves around a woman who seduces an insurance 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:10.560 salesman to help her kill her husband alike jud The 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.640 man becomes so entangled in the fog of the affair 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.840 he feels compelled to help commit the murder, and just 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.080 like the Dumbbell murder, the plan backfires, pitting the couple 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:27.199 against each other. There's more to this story. Stick around 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.640 after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.800 Every once in a while, a new story stands out 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.159 far from the rest. Such is the case of the 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:48.159 Denver spider Man. Helen and Philip Peters had lived in 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:52.320 their Denver, Colorado neighborhood for a long time. The neighbors, 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.520 young and old alike, loved them. During the fall of 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.320 nineteen forty one, sixty four year old Helen spent five 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.120 weeks for ring in the hospital after breaking her hip. 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.879 Every morning, after breakfast, Philip went to visit, returning in 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.800 time for dinner each night. And to keep Philip from 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.160 eating alone and in sure he didn't have to cook, 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.640 neighbors took turns inviting him to dinner, and when Philip 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:17.080 failed to arrive at a neighbor's house on October sevent 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:21.920 they began to worry. The neighbor checked on Philip, knocking 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.240 and trying the door. Soon more neighbors gathered outside the 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.080 dark house. All windows and doors were locked, but a 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.000 young girl found a loose window screen and managed to 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:36.600 pry the window open and climb inside. After a couple 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:40.200 of moments, the neighbors heard her screams. The girl threw 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.920 the door open and ran out inside. Among the blood 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:48.720 spladder lay Philip's body. The police arrived, confident the killer 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:53.880 was still inside, except the house was empty. Whoever killed 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:58.119 Philip Peters bludgeoned him to death using two cast iron shakers. 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:00.800 The killer took the time to wash one of the 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:04.280 shakers and left behind the damp, blood stained dish towel. 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:08.640 The attack had been merciless. It appeared Philip had tried 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:12.280 to flee his attacker. Blood splatter was found throughout the home, 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:16.000 and they estimated he had been struck thirty seven times. 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.320 As the weeks went on, the investigation stalled, and when 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:23.840 Helen returned home, the housekeeper and neighbors stayed with her 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:28.280 as much as possible. They couldn't stay forever, though, Helen 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:31.920 was uncomfortable in the house, not just because of the murder. 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.440 The strange things kept happening even before Helen arrived home 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.360 from the hospital, and neighbors noticed the lights would come 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.879 on in the house. One saw a ghostly face in 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.080 the window. The residence along the street began to whisper 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.959 that the house was haunted. Helen frequently called the police 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:52.879 to check up on the case and to report missing food, 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.919 strange sounds in the walls, objects out of place. Oh 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:02.400 one night, she fell again, fracturing her leg. Being home, 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:06.600 nurse also heard rattling in the walls. Once a specter 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:10.280 appeared on the backstairs. It chattered its teeth at the nurse, 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:14.159 scaring her off. She promptly quit, leaving Helen in the 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:17.560 care of a neighbor. The neighbor spotted the ghost standing 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:20.000 at the base of the stairs one night. It vanished 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:22.879 when she screamed. Police kept watch on the house but 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:28.600 never saw anyone or anything strange. Eventually, Helen left, despite 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:31.399 having lived much of her life in the home. On 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:36.040 July two, a couple of police officers saw a pale 0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:39.480 face looking out of a window and ran inside to investigate. 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:42.440 When the men reached the top of the stairs, closet 0:24:42.480 --> 0:24:46.040 door swung shut. Unwilling to let the intruder escape, they 0:24:46.080 --> 0:24:48.840 opened the door in time to see two feet disappear 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:52.439 into a tiny trap door in the ceiling. They grabbed 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:54.600 the legs and pulled the man out of his hiding place. 0:24:55.359 --> 0:24:57.639 One of them commented that a human would need to 0:24:57.680 --> 0:24:59.919 be a spider to fit into such a small opening. 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:04.560 The pale, gray skinned man wore tattered clothing. He was 0:25:04.680 --> 0:25:08.120 impossibly thin, which explained how he fit into a hole 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:12.520 too small for most adults. During questioning, the officers learned 0:25:12.560 --> 0:25:15.560 that Theodore Coneys had been living in the Peters house 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:19.480 since nineteen forty one. Coney said that when he was 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:22.760 a teen, he took guitar lessons from Philip Peters and 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:26.920