SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3362, 29 August 1927, Page 7

SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL.

LOVERS TO DIE IN ELECTRIC CHAIR Found “Guilty of murder in the first degree,” Mrs Ruth Snyder and her corset-salesman lover, Henry Judd Gray, have been sentenced to death at New York for killing Albert Snyder, the woman’s husband, and editor of the popular magazine, “Motor-Boating.” Thus has ended one of tho most sensational dramas of love, iutrijpe, and desperate crime that America has known for some years. The date lias not yet been fixed when the couple will go to tho electric chair. For two hours the jury deliberated on their verdict, and the scene iu court when they solemnly pronounced a verdict of “Guilty” seemed a fitting, if depressing, climax to the grim tale of passion and hate that had been told. In even, unemotional tones, Judge Seuclder asked the foreman of the jury what decision they had reached. Mrs Snyder, pale as death, but with her strong chin set defiantly and her eyes bright witli anxiety, gripped the side of her chair and struggled to keep calm. Gray moistened his dry lips with his tongue and then slowly pushed his left hand into the pocket of his. coat.

“Guilty of murder in tho first degree.” The verdict had come after days of pitiless cross-examination and confession that had left men and women gasping. The judge pronounced sentence of death —tho great trial was over.

Mrs Snyder went almost yellow, she shuddered and then again grew perfectly calm as she walked with steps from the dock to tilt cells. Gray slumped back into his chair, his lips working spasmodically. Then he drew from the pocket of his coat a prayer-book, and, opening it haphazardly, commenced to read, seemingly oblivious of the poignant situation in which lie was a loading actor.

For fully a minute the little corsetsalesman, convicted of a revolting crime, let his eyes rest on the page before him, then he, too, rose and went slowly back to his ceil. Right up to the last Mrs Snyder counted on acquittal. She faced her accusers defiantly, passionately blaming Gray for the murder. Sho received many letters during the trial and laughingly commenting on one, said:— “I’ve got a date to meet a Texas rancher who proposed to me by mail. “I’ll meet him on tho courthouse steps after the verdict. He’s going to wear a chrysanthemum and a checkered suit. ’ ’

lu a final effort to sway tlie jury in their, favour counsel launched into emotional and frenzied speeches. Pathetically Mr William Millard pleaded for Gray. Ho painted a word-picture of weakminded Gray being led into crime by the machinations of a snake-like woman who drew him into her toils, from which he was unable to escape. Until 1925, said counsel. Gray had lived a happy, prosperous life with his wife and child.

Then, suddenly, a sinister, fascinating, unscrupulous woman crossed bis path. Subsequently exhausted by the stormy nature of her love for him, Gray turned for stimulation to whisky, and it was while he was under the influence of drink that she inserted into Ids weakened mind her determination to kill her husband.

Four times, declared Mr Millard, luul that woman tried to kill her husband, and finally, having warped Gray’s mind, she put him to her use. Gray had no motive for crime, whereas the woman stood to win £20,000 insurance money Counsel concluded by asking for a verdict of “Manslaughter.” lie pointed to Gray’s dejection, his abject behaviour in the courtroom throughout the trial, and his impressively frank telling of the gruesome details' implicating himself; all as indicating the weakness of his character and (he likelihood that this fact made Mm susceptible to the control of tlie woman.

He also pointed out Mrs Snyder’s iron will and unflinching fearlessness throughout the trial as evidence that she must have dominated the weak Gray. He first fell under the spell of her physical charms and she “hypnotised” him until he was prepared to do anything to retain her love. Counsel for Mrs (Snyder, Mr Dana Wallace, ridiculed Millard’s poisoning theory, saying Gray from the first had tried to hide behind the woman’s skirts. lie describ’d Gray as the most despicable creature imaginable. Mr Wallace flatly' repudiated the story that the woman had dominated Gray. It was Gray, he contended, who struck the blows at the sleeping man, and it was Euth who rushed to her husband’s aid. It was not till ho had struck her and she had swooned that the murderer was able to complete his task.

Counsel concluded with a stirring plea that Ills client should be found “Not guilty.” Summing-up, Judge Scndder warned the jury that only on the facts of the case’ must they judge the couple and not. on the theories put forward by counsel, lie concluded:

“If you find that Mrs Snyder helped in 1 lie killing of Albert Snyder under compulsion, you are instructed to bring in a verdict 1 of second degree murder; if you believe that Henry Judd Gray was drunk at the time of the murder and did not know what he was doing, yon have Ihe privilege of returning a verdict of second degree murder in ids case.”

“If Gray realised what he was doing ami if Airs Snyder acted not under compulsion, then you must return a verdict of first degree murder, punishable by death by electrocution.” .

The verdict, although expected, was received with a gasp by the crowd in court.

Airs Snyder had established so vivid an impression for charm and grace, albeit of a cold-blooded sort, that the idea that she must bo strapped down in the murder chair and be subjected to the searing of electric currents struck many of the women' present with hor