The bloody blonde and the marble woman: Gender and power in the case of ruth snyder

Journal of Social History

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 2004, Pages

  Ramey, Jessie ^a,b  

^a CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Department of History ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1942507511     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2004.0020     Document Type: Review

References (124)

1. Sacco and Vanzetti, the Italian anarchists convicted of murder in 1921, were frequently in the news at this time facing the last of their appeals. The pair was electrocuted in August 1927 while Ruth and Judd were in the middle of their appeals process (coincidentally by the same executioner who would take their lives five months later).
2. John Kobler, The Trial of Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray: Edited with a History of the Case (Garden City, New York, 1938), p. 56.
3. Cover pages from the New York Daily Mirror, 1927-1928, reprinted in Leslie Margolin, Murderess! The Chilling True Story of the Most Infamous Woman Ever Electrocuted (New York, 1999).
4. Cover pages from the New York Daily Mirror, 1927-1928, reprinted in Leslie Margolin, Murderess! The Chilling True Story of the Most Infamous Woman Ever Electrocuted (New York, 1999).
5. Contemporary author Leslie Margolin has even argued that the Ruth Snyder trial inspired American film noir and that the genre still resonates with a set of culturally produced themes from the case. [Margolin, Murderess!].
6. "Death Cells House Slayers of Snyder," New York Times, May 17, 1927, p. 1.
7. See, for example, Regina Kunzel, "Pulp Fictions and Problem Girls: Reading and Rewriting Single Pregnancy in the Postwar United States," The American Historical Review (Dec. 1995) and Lisa Duggan, Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence and American Modernity (South Carolina, 2000).
8. See, for example, Regina Kunzel, "Pulp Fictions and Problem Girls: Reading and Rewriting Single Pregnancy in the Postwar United States," The American Historical Review (Dec. 1995) and Lisa Duggan, Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence and American Modernity (South Carolina, 2000).
9. Joan Wallach Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," in Feminism and History, edited by Joan Scott (Oxford, 1996), p. 173.
10. Joan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, (New York, 1999), p. 4.
11. New York electrocuted the first woman, Martha Place, in 1899 and has executed twice as many women over the past century than any other state. The last was Ethel. Rosenberg, a federal prisoner convicted of treason and executed on June 19, 1953.
12. "Far Worse Than Hanging: Kemmler's Death Proves an Awful Spectacle," New York Times, August 7, 1890. For a discussion of the development of the electric chair see: Craig Brandon, The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History (Jefferson, N.C., 1999).
13. "Far Worse Than Hanging: Kemmler's Death Proves an Awful Spectacle," New York Times, August 7, 1890. For a discussion of the development of the electric chair see: Craig Brandon, The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History (Jefferson, N.C., 1999).
14. "2 Dozen to See Execution, But Woman's Hanging Drew 10,000 Just Century Ago," New York Daily News, January 11, 1928.
15. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Alan Sheridan, translator (New York, 1995).
16. Peter C. Marzio, The Men and Machines of American Journalism: A Pictorial Essay from the Henry R, Luce Hall of News Reporting (Washington, D.C., 1973), p. 123.
17. After Ruth's electrocution, newspaper reporters covering executions at Sing Sing were handpicked by the warden and thoroughly searched, and the lighting in the death chamber was dimmed so that cameras could not pick up any images. These efforts represent the on-going struggle of the government (both state and federal) to tightly control information about executions.
18. New York Daily News, January 13, 1928.
19. Elizabeth Bird, For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids (Knoxville, TN, 1992).
20. Bird, p. 207.
21. Jim Grealy, "Notes on Popular Culture," Screen Education 22:5-11, quoted in Bird, p. 209.
22. The paper's final count showed 12,659 votes for the electric chair and 14,948 votes for clemency; 57% of the women voting and 51% of the men favored clemency. [" 'If' Vote Majority 2,299 For Ruth," New York Daily News, January 12, 1928.]
23. Editorial, "Ruth Snyder," New York Daily Mirror; January 9, 1928.
24. Quoted in Margolin, p. 291.
25. Bird, p. 21.
26. Cultural studies scholars have debated for the past twenty years over the extent to which readers are empowered by their own interpretations of a text, providing a source of potential resistance to oppression (whether that oppression is gender, class, racial, etc.) But, as Elizabeth Bird cautions, with "enthusiasm for the power of the audience, it is easy to invest too much in an empowerment that may be illusory." [Bird, p. 207.] In the end, she argues, most printed discourse contains a limited set of possible interpretations and most conventional and tabloid papers deliver a consistently conservative message that seeks to maintain the status quo.
27. New York Daily News, April 20, 1927.
28. The Evening Graphic and New York Law Journal quoted in "Gray is Examined by Four Alienists," New York Times, April 15, 1927, p. 10.
29. "Takes Dr. Straton to Task," New York Times, April 25, 1927, p. 12.
30. "Bars Press at Executions," New York Times, February 8, 1928, p. 17.
31. "Threat in Snyder Case," New York Times, June 2, 1927, p. 27.
32. "Nurses Thumbs Down' for Ruth," New York Daily News, January 9, 1928.
33. "Convict Votes Chair for Ruth," New York Daily News, January 7, 1928.
34. New York Daily News, reprinted in Margolin, Murderess!
35. Thomas L. Kilgallen, "Mrs. Snyder, Gray Go To Death With Prayers On Lips," Citizen Sentinel (Ossining, New York), January 13, 1928.
36. Frank Dolan, "Ruth Asks for Silken Shroud," New York Daily News, January 10, 1928.
37. "Art Editor is Slain in Bed; Wife Tied, Home Searched; Motive Mystifies Police," New York Times, March 21, 1927, p. 1.
38. "Slayers Indicted; Snyder Case Trial Sought for April 4," New York Times, March 24, 1927, p. 1.
39. "Widow on Stand Swears Gray Alone Killed Snyder as She Tried to Save Him," New York Times, April 30, 1927, p. 1.
40. For an excellent discussion of the unions and working people in this period, see Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty, From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend (New York, 2001).
41. Grace Robinson, "Ruth's Eyes Halt Talesmen," New York Daily News, April 19, 1927.
42. "Orders Mrs. Snyder to Trial with Gray Despite Her Plea," New York Times, April 12, 1927; "Slayers of Snyder Hear Doom Unmoved; Put Hope in Appeals," New York Times, May 14, 1927, p. 1.
43. "Orders Mrs. Snyder to Trial with Gray Despite Her Plea," New York Times, April 12, 1927; "Slayers of Snyder Hear Doom Unmoved; Put Hope in Appeals," New York Times, May 14, 1927, p. 1.
44. "Snyder was Tricked into Big Insurance, State Witness Says," New York Times, April 26, 1927, p. 1.
45. "Ruth's Eyes Halt Talesmen," New York Daily News, April 19, 1927.
46. Frank Dolan, "Ruth Asks Silken Shroud," New York Daily News, January 10, 1928.
47. New York Daily News, October 16, 1927 (left) and New York Daily Mirror, April 29, 1927 (right).
48. New York Daily News, October 16, 1927 (left) and New York Daily Mirror, April 29, 1927 (right).
49. "7 on Snyder Jury; Full Box Today Ordered By Court," New York Times, April 22, 1927, p. 1.
50. As reported in "Snyder Trial Headlines," New York Times, April 19, 1927, p. 26.
51. "Widow on Stand Swears Gray Alone Killed Snyder as She Tried to Save Him," New York Times, April 30, 1927, p. 1.
52. "Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Haddon Gray; Find No Perjury in Efforts to Aid Slayer," New York Times, May 19, 1927, p. 29.
53. "Privilege for Mrs. Snyder," New York Times, May 22, 1927, p. 16.
54. Many fine histories have been written about this philosophical dilemma of the women's movement. For an excellent summary, see Sara Evans, Born for Liberty (New York, 1989) or Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven, CT, 1987).
55. Many fine histories have been written about this philosophical dilemma of the women's movement. For an excellent summary, see Sara Evans, Born for Liberty (New York, 1989) or Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven, CT, 1987).
56. "Not a Juror Picked for Snyder Trial Out of 50 Examined," New York Times, April. 19, 1927, p. 1.
57. I b i d
58. "Judge Warned Jury to Avoid Sympathy," New York Times, May 10, 1927, p. 1.
59. Frank Dolan, "The Application for Executive Clemency is Therefore Denied," New York Daily News, January 11, 1928.
60. "Widow on Stand Swears Gray Alone Killed Snyder as She Tried to Save Him," New York Times, April 30, 1927, p. 1.
61. Ironically, Ruth converted to Catholicism just after her trial in what many speculated was an effort to save herself, assuming Catholic Governor Al Smith would not condemn a fellow member of the faith. However, Smith was battling for votes in his losing 1928 presidential race against Herbert Hoover when he was forced to make his clemency decision in the case and wished to downplay his religion as much as possible. As Smith "confided some years later, Ruth's patent opportunism rendered it impossible for him to intervene without causing the familiar outcry against dark, papist influences at work in the land." [Kobler, p. 57.]
62. "Widow on Stand Swears Gray Alone Killed Snyder as She Tried to Save Him," New York Times, April 30, 1927, p. 1.
63. I b i d.
64. Photo caption, New York Daily News, May 7, 1927.
65. "Widow on Stand Swears Gray Alone Killed Snyder as She Tried to Save Him," New York Times, April 30, 1927, p. 1.
66. Elliott, p. 187.
67. Ibid., p. 185
68. Ibid. This incident provides further evidence of the contested space around gender definitions in the 1920s. Just as this woman offered to pull the switch on Ruth, dozens of women wrote to Warden Lawes asking to be execution witnesses and the Daily News wished to send a female reporter to cover the event. Lawes refused to allow women in the death chamber, however, presumably because it would be inappropriate for a "real" woman to witness an execution.
69. Elliott, p. 187.
70. Unnamed tabloid columnist quoted in Margolin, p. 74.
71. "Widow on Stand Swears Gray Alone Killed Snyder as She Tried to Save Him," New York Times, April 30, 1927, p. 1.
72. I b i d.
73. "Gray Describes Murder; Spares no Detail of Crime; Insists Woman Led Him On," New York Times, May 5, 1927, p. 1.
74. "Judge Warned Jury to Avoid Sympathy," New York Times, May 10, 1927, p. 1; Kobler, p. 349.
75. "Judge Warned Jury to Avoid Sympathy," New York Times, May 10, 1927, p. 1; Kobler, p. 349.
76. Peggy Hopkins Joyce, New York Daily Mirror, quoted in Kobler, pgs. 54-55.
77. New York Daily Mirror, quoted in Margolin, p. 74. Emphasis added.
78. "Not a Juror Picked for Snyder Trial Out of 50 Examined," New York Times, April 19, 1927, p. 1.
79. "Ruth, Steel Nerve Gone, Cringing Fury in Cell," New York Daily News, January 7, 1928.
80. Irene Kuhn, "Ruth Meets Cross-Quiz, Cold, Hard, Glib," New York Daily Mirror, May 3, 1927; Irene Kuhn, "Judd's Story Electrifies Court," New York Daily Mirror, May 5, 1927.
81. Irene Kuhn, "Ruth Meets Cross-Quiz, Cold, Hard, Glib," New York Daily Mirror, May 3, 1927; Irene Kuhn, "Judd's Story Electrifies Court," New York Daily Mirror, May 5, 1927.
82. Irene Kuhn, "Judd's Story Electrifies Court," New York Daily Mirror, May 5, 1927.
83. "Mrs. Snyder Faces Long Ordeal Today," New York Times, May 2, 1927, p. 1.
84. New York Daily News, March 24, 1927.
85. Sidney Sutherland, "Ruth and Judd Die in Chair, Asking Forgiveness for Sin," New York Daily News, January 13, 1928. Emphasis added.
86. "Snyder Jury Hears Gray's Confession Accusing Woman," New York Times, April 28, 1927, p. 1.
87. Kobler.p. 29.
88. "Governor Smith Indicates He Will Deny Pleas of Snyder Slayers," New York Times, January 6, 1928, p. 1.
89. Kobler.p. 17.
90. "Money and Sex Main Causes in Snyder Murder/Woman Was Dominant," New York Daily Mirror, January 13, 1928.
91. "Poison a Mystery in the Snyder Case," New York Times, March 29, 1927, p. 23.
92. Margolin, p. 137. Emphasis added.
93. New York Daily News, reprinted in Margolin, Murderess!
94. "Two Will Accuse Each Other on Stand," New York Daily News, April 18, 1927.
95. "Slayers of Snyder Hear Doom Unmoved; Put Hope in Appeals," New York Times, May 14, 1927, p. 1.
96. "Gray Denies Wish to Kill; Insists Woman Dominated; Jury May Get Case Today," New York Times, May 6, 1927, p. 1.
97. "See Murder Bred if Ruth's Spared," New York Daily News, January 11,1928.
98. "Gray Swears Mrs. Snyder Broached Murder Plot; Her Story Wavers at End," New York Times, May 4, 1927, p. 1.
99. "Child to Testify After Mrs. Snyder Faces State's Fire," New York Times, May 1, 1927, p. 1.
100. "Gray Describes Murder; Spares no Detail of Crime; Insists Woman Led Him On," New York Times, May 5, 1927, p. 1.
101. lone Quinby, Murder for Love (New York, 1931), p. 20.
102. "Nurses 'Thumbs Down' for Ruth," New York Daily News, January 9, 1928.
103. Micheline Keating, "1,000 Site Unmoved by Ruth's Agony in the Shadow of Death," New York Daily News, May 3, 1927.
104. New York Daily News, reprinted in Margolin, Murderess!
105. For example, writing just a few years after the Snyder case, John Kobler comfortably adopts classic Freudian psychology to explain Judd's behavior: "Examined under the Freudian microscope, weak, timid little Judd Gray presents a magnificent clinical study of the Oedipus complex." Kobler, p. 13.
106. "New Snyder Trials Asked of High Court," New York Times, October 23, 1927, p. 31. Emphasis added.
107. "Asks 30-Day Stay for Mrs. Snyder," New York Times, January 4, 1928, p. 27.
108. Frank Dolan, "Smith Dashes Ruth's Hope," New York Daily News, January 6, 1928.
109. "Poisoned Whiskey in Snyder Home Bares Early Plot," New York Times, March 25, 1927, p. 1.
110. "Won't Let Alienist See Mrs. Snyder," New York Times, November 30, 1927, p. 27.
111. "Kieb Calls Penalty Just," New York Times, January 13, 1928. Emphasis added.
112. "A Model Murder Trial," New York Times, May 11, 1927, p. 24.
113. "A Governor Does His Duty," New York Times, January 7, 1928, p. 16.
114. "The End of the Show," New York Times, January 14, 1928, p. 16.
115. "Commenting on Editorial," New York Times, January 19, 1928, p. 22.
116. "Judge Warned Jury to Avoid Sympathy," New York Times, May 10, 1927, p. 1.
117. "Kieb Calls Penalty Just," New York Times, January 13, 1928. Emphasis added.
118. "The End of the Show," New York Times, January 14, 1928, p. 16.
119. I b i d.
120. I b i d.
121. Sidney Sutherland, "Ruth and Judd Die in Chair, Asking Forgiveness for Sin," New York Daily News, January 13, 1928.
122. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 47.
123. Statistics compiled by Death Penalty Information Center and published on 〈http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org〉, n.d. (October 2003). Sources include DeathrowUSA, published by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
124. Sing Sing death chamber, courtesy of the Ossining Historical Society.