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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.
Judd’s wife, Isabel, was shy and
self-effacing. Several of Judd’s 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 “mama’s 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
Judd’s 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 Buick’s underside and escaped.
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| 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 Albert’s
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.
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