Evening star., 1951-11-30
Winnie Ruth Judd,
Trunk Murderer of'31,
Escapes tor 4th Time
By the Associated Press

PHOENIX, sAriz.. Nov. 30
Winnie Ruth sudd, the graying
red-haired trunG murderer of 1881
escaped from Ele State hospital
for the insane for the fourth time
last night.
Twenty years ago she shot two
girl friends to etath, dismembered
their bodies AMI shipped the re-
mains to Los Angeles in trunk
and a suitcase. She was convicted
and sentenced to be hanged. but
was adjudged insane and COM
mitted to the asylum.
Mrs. Judd, 48, climbed out of a
second story window about 1890
pm. on ladder fashioned from
rags and scraps of cloth.
Just before her disappearance
she had been visiting in the room
OF her 84-year-old mother. Mrs.
Carrie B. McKinnell, also patient
at the State hospital. Earlier,
Mrs. Judd had been at a dance
for patients.
Tied to Mothers Bed.
Hospital attendants said it must
have taken her weeks to weave
the ladder of yarn, rags and part
OF a heavy ironing cord. They
said she used a screw driver and
pliers to open the heavy window
screen, and that they must have
been smuggled to her.
Mrs. Judd tied the ladder to
the head of her mothers bed in
room adjoining her own.
Attendants said Mrs. Judd had
been upset for the last week after
another patient told her she would
be taken away from her mother
and put in a criminal ward.
Efforts to convince her there
was nothing to the story failed
attendants said.
Mrs. Judd said she would COM
NIT suicide if they tried to take
her away from her mother" an
attendant said.
BioOdhOunds on Trail.
Searchers reported Mrs. Judd
apparently went over the west
gate. Some of her personal eff
tects were found 200 yards distant.
Sherlf L. c. Boies put blood
mounds on the trail.
When last seen Mrs. Judd was
wearing blue silk dress and a
green coat with fur cuffs.
Winnie Ruth. the tiger woman"
OF 20 years ago. had lived in
quiet secluSlon since her last break
from the hospital in 1947.
She had spent her time dress
ing the hair of fellow patients and
caring for her aged mother.
On May II. l947, she unlocked
two doors of the hospital ward and
got away.
Then. in contrast to last night,
she said the inability to see her
mother caused her to leave.
She surrendered quietly the next
when sheriff's deputies
found her in an orange grove.
Mrs. Judd killed her roommates
Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig
Samuelson, on October 16, 1881.
Their bodies expertly cut into
pieces, were crammed into a trunk
and a suitcase and shipped to Los
Angeles by train. The contents
were discovered when a baggage
room employe noticed blood seep-I
ing out.
Mrs. Judd eluded capture for a
week, hiding one night behind
rugs IN a Los Angeles department.
store and spending the rest of the
time in vacant cottage at sub
urban sanitorium cottage. She
surrendered to police in an under.
taking parlor. ]
Beats Hanging Sentence. |
She was convicted OF murder
February 8, 1882, and was SEN
fenced to be hanged. The prose-
cution. contended she killed Miss
Lerol and Miss Samuelson in a
Jealous rage over the attentions of
a Phoenix businessman.
Her execution was set for May
IL but she obtained a stay of exc
cution by appealing to the State
Supreme Court. The court re-
iected the appeal in 1888. Within
q hours of the execution date the
warden Of the State prison ordered
/ sanity hearing for the woman.
A jury of ranchers and cowboys at
Ariz., found her insane
and she was transferred to the
asylum at Phoenix.
Mrs. Judd escaped twice in the
fall Of 1889. remaining at liberty
six days the first time and IL days
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