Imperial Valley press., 1928-01-13
YORK
EXECUTES.
YERS
Mrs. Snyder and Judd
Gray Pay Penalty For
Their Crime.
WOMAN GOES FIRST
State Moves Swiftly In
Exacting Extreme Pen
atty In Chair.
By LOUIS KEEMLE
United Press Staff Correspondent

SING SING PRISON, OSSIN-
ING, n. Y, Jan. 13.-Ruth Snyder
and Henry Judd Gray, lovers and
murderers, have paid the penalty
for their love and murder in the
same electric chair.
They went to death between IL
and lila O'Clock last night with
out a sign of fear and praying to
Goo for mercy.
The first woman to die in this
state in 10 years and one of the
handful ever to suffer capital pun
ishment in this country, met death
with calmness and resignation.
She and Gray, who had been IL
licit lovers, were put to death for
killing her husband, Albert Snyder
in Queens Village, n. Y, last
March. They chloroformed him,
beat him to death with a sash
weight and strangled him with wire.
Their lives were forfeited to the
state in little high ceilinged room
about 40 feet long and 20 feet wide
in which group of 40 persons, in
Guiding two women, had gathered.
Forgive me Father for all my
SINS" Mrs. Snyder said in a low
thin voice just before 2200 volts of
electricity w ere shot into her body.
Then she whimpered and sobbed
ever so family.
In the solemn strained stiffness of
the execution chamber it was plain
ly audible and it sounded like
little child about to be punished.
Then the current was turned on.
She never moved again.
The witnesses who had gathered
in the warden s office were led to
the death chamber in far corner
of the prison by long route under
the open sky. A few stars showed.
1t was cold. They were ushered in :
in single file through the door of
the death chamber and seated i'll
four rows of benches like church
pews in the right hand corner. A
few had to stand.
Action Is Prompt
Warden Lewis f. Lawes stood at
the rear. Guards and doctors ranged
either wall. AT the left rear, oppos-
ite the witness benches was the
closed door of the autopsy chamber.
On the same side next to it and
towards the front was the open al
cove where the executioner stood.
Opposite the executioner, facing
the witness benches and about Is
feet from the front rows, stood the
electric chair. To the right of it
and little behind in the corner
was the door leading to the prison
through which the condemned en-
tered.
The witnesses were issued in a
minute or two before IL o'clock.
All the others were i'll their places.
No one spoke.
There was a second or two of sill
ence as the witnesses eyed the emp
ty chair. 1t was something like an
old fashioned barber's chair with
high back.
With abrupt suddenness the door
to the prison swung back and Ruth
Snyder came in. 1t was IL clock.
A matron was on either side and
the Rev. John p. McCaffrey, Cath
ollie chaplain of the prison, walked
in front holding crucifix before
her eyes and praying in low voiced
Latin. A guard was well in the
rear.
Mrs. Snyder walked slowly and
steadily. Her eyes were straight
ahead and apparently were taking
in the figure of the cross. She adj
vanced to the chair, guided by the
matrons, who then stood in front of
her as though shielding her from
view. She was assisted into the
chair. Mrs. Snyder, her faded
blonde hair hanging straight in a
sort of Buster Brown bob, was
dressed in short, dark skirt of
cheap prison material and light
green smoek. She wore slippers.