Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-01-13


! to supervise the 1928 national cleo
tions.
switch.
/, It seemed to waccners that death
was SO sudden it must have been
entirely painless. There was no
struggle and no outcry.
Gray Immediately followed and the
process was repeated.
! When he was asked If he had any
word, however, he made no response,
merely continuing his SoundlesS pray
ers, an dthe mask was strapped in
place.
Warden Lawes stood about ten feet
to one side of the chair during both
electrocutionS, but he kept his head
bowed and so far as could be told
he did not once look at either
prisoner.
| AS soon as Gray had been pro-
nounced dead, Warden LaWes opened
the door into the walled court and
the solemn procession OF witnesses
back to the warden's office began.
When the office was reached the
main door was thrown open.
"All right boys" a guard called
/, to the reporters among the witnesses,
and all dashed to their waiting cars.
There was a mad race OF roaring
engines then for half mile to the
rcadhouse where two score telegraph
wires had been installed to carry the
news reports OF the executions
! The roadhouse was alive with light
and noise in striking contrast to the
solemnity OF the scene so recently
enacted in the prison close by.
Mrs. Snyder was the eighth woman
to be executed for murder in this
state and the third to be electrocuted
~F.very possible legal step was taken
| to save the two from the chair but
/ in their last hours both realized that
all hope was gene.
Their attorneys were the last out
siders to see both prisoners and when
these men admitted they could do
nothing more, the condemned pair
sought last solace in religion.
Both were quoted by the lawyers
as having borne no malice toward
anyone connected with sending them
to their doom.
In her last conversation Mrs,
Snyder was said not to have men
i toned Gray. but the latter'S lawyer
said the little former corset salesman
spoke "in the kindest terms" OF the
Queens Village housewife.
Gray and Mrs. Snyder were secret
lovers for months before their asSo-
citation finally led to their murder
of the woman's husband, but at their
joint trial they were aligned against
each other, each blaming the other.
eff ever there was penitent it
! is IT, the Rev. Francis Murphy,
Catholic prison chaplain, who con-
verted Mrs. Snyder to Catholicism,
said she told him shortly before her
death. He heard her last confession
mad gave her absolution.
NEW DIRK, jan II tP)-Frenzied
last minute efforts were made to
stave Off the execution OF Mrs. Ruth
Snyder and Henry Judd Gray, but
they failed.
4 Their last day on earth was marked
by a series OF desperate moves by
their lawyers to postpone their exc
:, Cul1OIl. 41AC 1dSU OIlC 1clA4CO W4ACA
Federal Judge Goddard denied WritS
of habeas corpus, Gray's signed BY
his mother, and Mrs. Snyder's by
herself, The attempts to delay exc
cution began early in the morning
when Warden LaWes of Sing Sing
prison was served with a stay o1
execution granted by Supreme Cour
Justice Levy That effort ended late
in the afternoon when Justice Levy
vacated his own order.
In the meantime uncertainty hov
cred over the condemned pair uI
II to the moment when Justice Lev,
rescinded his order for stay. Ever
prison authorities were not, sure tina
Mrs. Snyder and Gray would b.
! executed as scheduled.
Gray's lawyers wheeled into actor
) lin an effort to obtain a reprieve TO