American Monsters: Ruth Judd

0:00 Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and

0:04 Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and

0:07 Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now.

0:11 Speaker 2: I'm Zevan Odelberg, and this is kind of murdery. Central

0:25 Speaker 2: to today's story is the question of whether a single woman,

0:28 Speaker 2: five foot tall and of weak constitution, with a bullet

0:32 Speaker 2: embedded in one of her hands, could, on her own,

0:36 Speaker 2: dismembered to adult women, shove them in trunks, drag those

0:40 Speaker 2: trunks out of the house, and get them to the

0:42 Speaker 2: train station. Sounds unlikely, But unlikely isn't the same as impossible.

0:47 Speaker 2: So now please join me as we uncover what truths

0:50 Speaker 2: we can and solve what mysteries we may. Kind of murderies.

0:55 Speaker 2: The sun devils in the details, The bodies are in

0:59 Speaker 2: the trunks. Ruth Judd and the Phoenix Trunk Murders starts now.

1:15 Speaker 2: Winnie Ruth McKinnel, known simply as Ruth, was born in Oxford, Indiana,

1:19 Speaker 2: on January twenty ninth, nineteen oh five, to a stern

1:23 Speaker 2: Methodist minister and his wife.

1:25 Speaker 3: Ruth grew up to be a redhead who stood just

1:28 Speaker 3: five feet tall when she was only seventeen, she married

1:31 Speaker 3: a World War One veteran with an addiction to morphine.

1:34 Speaker 3: Doctor William C. Judd, who was nearly forty, moved Ruth

1:37 Speaker 3: to Mexico, where he tried to find work. His emotional

1:40 Speaker 3: and financial instability led to strain in the marriage, as

1:44 Speaker 3: did Ruth's own failing health. By nineteen thirty, the couple

1:48 Speaker 3: was living separately. By that time, Ruth was twenty five

1:52 Speaker 3: when doctor Judd eventually moved to Los Angeles. Ruth ended

1:55 Speaker 3: up in Phoenix, where she became a governess for a

1:58 Speaker 3: wealthy family. It was during the stint that Ruth meant

2:01 Speaker 3: John J. Hallarin, sometimes referred to as Happy Jack. At

2:05 Speaker 3: forty four years old, Hallarin was a successful businessman with

2:08 Speaker 3: many social connections. The story goes that the two would

2:11 Speaker 3: sit on the front porch and talk about their lives,

2:13 Speaker 3: building a deep connection until they developed a romance in

2:17 Speaker 3: spite of the fact that both were married. Ruth found

2:20 Speaker 3: a position as a medical secretary at the Grunow Clinic,

2:23 Speaker 3: where she met an X ray technician named Agnes Leroy,

2:27 Speaker 3: who went by Anne. Ruth also met Anne's roommate, head

2:30 Speaker 3: Vig Samuelson, a teacher who went by Sammy. Many sources

2:34 Speaker 3: speculate that the two women were romantic partners. Doctors had

2:38 Speaker 3: diagnosed Sammy with tuberculosis after she and Anne lived in Alaska.

2:43 Speaker 3: The duo then moved to Phoenix, hoping the dry climate

2:45 Speaker 3: would ease the symptoms of her illness. As fate would

2:49 Speaker 3: have it, Sammy and Anne were also acquaintances of Hallerin.

2:53 Speaker 3: In fact, the bungalow they rented belonged to him. As

2:56 Speaker 3: fate would have it. Huh, I can't help but guess

2:59 Speaker 3: that that was exactly as happy Jack would have it.

3:02 Speaker 3: He's got a lesbian couple and a young beautiful housewife

3:05 Speaker 3: on the run, all living in a bungalow that he owns.

3:09 Speaker 3: Sounds to me like he's setting up his own love nest,

3:12 Speaker 3: or maybe the cast of an adult film. The three

3:14 Speaker 3: new roommates, Ruth, Sammy, and Ann likely bonded over the

3:18 Speaker 3: fact that they were all working women earning money in

3:20 Speaker 3: a time when most women weren't. Ruth moved into Sammy

3:24 Speaker 3: and Ann's Second Street bungalow for a short time, but

3:27 Speaker 3: differences erupted between the group, prompting Ruth to move into

3:30 Speaker 3: her own apartment. Supposedly, all three women had romantic relations

3:34 Speaker 3: with Hallerin at some point, leading to some tension. On

3:38 Speaker 3: October sixteenth, nineteen thirty one, An invited Ruth to the

3:41 Speaker 3: bungalow to play bridge. Ruth had moved out about a

3:44 Speaker 3: week prior. According to one of the common theories, Ruth

3:47 Speaker 3: had plans to see Hallerin that night, so she initially declined.

3:51 Speaker 3: When Hallarin didn't show, Ruth went to the bungalow after all. Unfortunately,

3:56 Speaker 3: no clear cut story has emerged detailing the events as

3:59 Speaker 3: they an folded. Even Ruth's story changed over multiple confessions, letters,

4:04 Speaker 3: and retellings. There is one version of the story that

4:07 Speaker 3: is more compelling than the others. However, that's something we'll

4:10 Speaker 3: be getting into a bit later in the show. One

4:13 Speaker 3: story suggests that Ruth, Ann, and Sammy were hanging out

4:16 Speaker 3: when the group began to argue about Hallarin's affections. Sammy

4:20 Speaker 3: allegedly pulled out a twenty five caliber handgun, shooting Ruth

4:23 Speaker 3: in the left hand. Anne grabbed the nearby ironing board

4:26 Speaker 3: and beat Ruth with it. The problem with this story

4:29 Speaker 3: is that Sammy was apparently bed ridden due to her

4:31 Speaker 3: tuberculosis during this time, could she have really put up

4:34 Speaker 3: a fight over a gun? In another version of the story, Ruth,

4:38 Speaker 3: armed with a gun on a knife, appeared at the

4:40 Speaker 3: home in the middle of the night while both women

4:42 Speaker 3: were asleep. Phoenix police maintained the women had been shot

4:45 Speaker 3: in their beds. In fact, both mattresses were missing from

4:48 Speaker 3: the home they'd claimed. Only one mattress was ever found

4:52 Speaker 3: in a vacant lot with no bloodstains. What led to

4:55 Speaker 3: the argument that night stories differ. Some say Ruth was

4:58 Speaker 3: jealous that the other women had said actual relationships with Hallerin.

5:01 Speaker 3: Others believe Sammy and Ann were angry that Ruth had

5:04 Speaker 3: introduced Hallerin to a woman who allegedly had syphilis. Regardless

5:09 Speaker 3: of how it happened, Sammy and Anne both died that night.

5:12 Speaker 3: Ruth dismembered Sammy's body, putting her head, torso and legs

5:16 Speaker 3: in one shipping trunk. Ruth put the upper portion of

5:19 Speaker 3: Sammy's legs in another box and stuffed Anne into yet

5:22 Speaker 3: another trunk. What happened after she'd trunked the corpses well.

5:27 Speaker 3: For the next phase of the story, I'm going to

5:29 Speaker 3: turn to a primary source article I found using my

5:33 Speaker 3: newspapers dot Com account. This from the Fort Worth Star Telegram,

5:37 Speaker 3: published on November one, nineteen thirty one, page eight. It's

5:41 Speaker 3: entitled Missus Judd spends first night in jail with complexion

5:44 Speaker 3: aids while law builds up case. Here we go. The

5:48 Speaker 3: strange murder story of Missus Judd came to light in

5:50 Speaker 3: Los Angeles on Monday, October nineteenth when baggage master Anderson

5:55 Speaker 3: of the Los Angeles Southern Pacific Railroad Station noticed blood

5:59 Speaker 3: oozing from two two trunks. He put the trunks aside

6:02 Speaker 3: and watched for the person calling for them. When a

6:04 Speaker 3: young and very pretty, red headed woman claimed the trunks,

6:07 Speaker 3: Anderson demanded that she opened them in his presence. She

6:11 Speaker 3: made the excuse that her trunk keys were at home

6:13 Speaker 3: and left the station. A baggage room attendant took the

6:16 Speaker 3: license number of the automobile in which a young man

6:18 Speaker 3: drove her away, and then the baggage master summoned police,

6:22 Speaker 3: who opened the trunks, finding the dead bodies of two women.

6:26 Speaker 3: In the larger trunk was the body identified by letters

6:29 Speaker 3: and personal belongings as that of Missus Leroy. The body

6:32 Speaker 3: was clothed in a pink nightgown and shot through the head.

6:36 Speaker 3: In a smaller hand trunk were dismembered portions of the

6:39 Speaker 3: nude body of Missus Samuelson, shot three times. A missing

6:43 Speaker 3: portion of Missus Samuelson's body, cut off from the lower

6:45 Speaker 3: abdomen to the knees, was recovered in still a third

6:48 Speaker 3: receptacle a suit case in the woman's restroom in the

6:51 Speaker 3: railroad station, tracing the license number of the automobile in

6:55 Speaker 3: which the woman rode away. A Los Angeles police on

6:57 Speaker 3: the night of October nineteenth arrested Burton J. McKinnell and

7:02 Speaker 3: doctor William C. Judd at the Santa Monica home of

7:05 Speaker 3: doctor Judd's sister, miss Caroline Judd, a school teacher. McKinnell

7:09 Speaker 3: admitted that he'd driven his sister, Missus Judd, to the

7:11 Speaker 3: railroad station, and that she left the baggage room greatly

7:14 Speaker 3: perturbed with him. When refused the trunks. She had asked

7:18 Speaker 3: me to throw the trunks in the ocean for her.

7:20 Speaker 3: McKinnel said, I knew there was something wrong. I asked

7:23 Speaker 3: her if there was a man or a woman in

7:24 Speaker 3: the trunks. She grabbed my arm and said, the less

7:28 Speaker 3: you know about it the better for you, McKinnel said,

7:30 Speaker 3: his sister got out of his automobile on a downtown

7:33 Speaker 3: Los Angeles street corner. He further said that he would

7:36 Speaker 3: decline to aid officers to arrest his sister, but issued

7:39 Speaker 3: a statement published in newspapers advising her to give herself up.

7:44 Speaker 3: Doctor Judd issued a similar newspaper plea to his wife,

7:47 Speaker 3: and when two days of widespread search produced no sign

7:50 Speaker 3: of the fugitive woman, doctor Judd retained a firm of

7:53 Speaker 3: attorneys and asked newspapers to print directions giving their telephone

7:57 Speaker 3: number and address so that his wife could call them up. Meanwhile,

8:01 Speaker 3: Los Angeles newspapers posted rewards of one thousand and fifteen

8:05 Speaker 3: hundred dollars for Ruth Judd's capture. On Friday, October twenty third,

8:10 Speaker 3: a call came through from missus Judd to attorneys Louis Russell,

8:13 Speaker 3: Richard Cantillone, and Milan Megdevitch. Arrangements were made by the

8:17 Speaker 3: lawyers to meet the woman, and the meeting was carried

8:20 Speaker 3: out that afternoon by husband, wife and attorneys in front

8:23 Speaker 3: of the Biltmore Hotel in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.

8:26 Speaker 3: The attorneys took missus Judd to the undertaking parlor of

8:30 Speaker 3: Gus Alvarez, not four hundred yards distant from the courthouse,

8:33 Speaker 3: where officers directed one thousand men in a search for her.

8:37 Speaker 3: They hid her there while arranging with police to surrender

8:40 Speaker 3: her to custody. That evening, officers were directed to the

8:44 Speaker 3: undertaking rooms, and they rushed Missus Judd to police hospital,

8:48 Speaker 3: where a bullet was extracted from her left hand. She

8:51 Speaker 3: said the bullet had been fired into her hand by

8:53 Speaker 3: Miss Samuelson. Missus Judd then was removed to a hospital

8:57 Speaker 3: ward of the Los Angeles County jail. Missus Judd Judd

9:00 Speaker 3: at first gave a strange and at times highly incoherent

9:03 Speaker 3: account of the deaths of missus Leroy and Miss Samuelson

9:06 Speaker 3: and how she had wandered for four days while evading

9:09 Speaker 3: the murder searchers about Los Angeles. She hinted that she

9:12 Speaker 3: shot the two women to save her own life, and

9:15 Speaker 3: then became silent as to the dissecting and transporting of

9:18 Speaker 3: the bodies of her two former friends while the officers

9:21 Speaker 3: were trying to induce her to talk. A woman attendant

9:24 Speaker 3: in a Broadway department store on Saturday, October twenty fourth

9:27 Speaker 3: brought about the recovery of a torn letter twelve pages long,

9:31 Speaker 3: which Missus Judd had written and thrown down a drain

9:34 Speaker 3: pipe in the store. The letter, for the first time

9:36 Speaker 3: revealed the cause of her fatal quarrel with the two victims,

9:40 Speaker 3: that being an argument the three women had after Missus

9:44 Speaker 3: Leroy became angry with Missus Judd in Phoenix on the

9:47 Speaker 3: night of Friday, October sixteenth, because Missus Judd had introduced

9:51 Speaker 3: a nurse who was ill to JJ Jack halleran wealthy

9:55 Speaker 3: married Phoenix lumberman who'd given presents to all three women. This,

10:00 Speaker 3: of course, being the nineteen thirty's newspaper way of referring

10:04 Speaker 3: to what I mentioned earlier, the fact that Leroy and

10:08 Speaker 3: Samuelson were angry with Judd, who allegedly introduced hallerin to

10:13 Speaker 3: another woman, this ill nurse who had syphilis. Okay, back

10:18 Speaker 3: to the paper. Preliminary hearing on the first of the

10:20 Speaker 3: murder accusations probably will take place within two weeks. Although

10:24 Speaker 3: Missus Judd was brought here on extradition papers charging only

10:27 Speaker 3: the murder of Missus Leroy, the second Phoenix warrant claiming

10:31 Speaker 3: the murder of Miss Samuelson was served yesterday when she

10:34 Speaker 3: crossed from California to Arizona soil. The case would go

10:38 Speaker 3: to trial with much fanfare and lurid coverage by William

10:42 Speaker 3: Randolph Hurst's papers and Winnie Ruth. Judge would be found

10:46 Speaker 3: guilty of first degree murder. On February eighth, nineteen thirty two.

10:50 Speaker 3: Judge Speakerman ordered Ruth to die by hanging, and she

10:54 Speaker 3: was sent to prison in Florence, Arizona, to await her execution,

10:58 Speaker 3: which was scheduled for February seventeenth, nineteen thirty three. She

11:02 Speaker 3: raised an appeal, which was unsuccessful, but then just three

11:07 Speaker 3: days before she was scheduled to be executed, Ruth's behavior

11:11 Speaker 3: became so erratic that she managed to convince the prison

11:15 Speaker 3: warden that she was insane, and after a ten day

11:19 Speaker 3: hearing that found her mentally incompetent, her death sentence was

11:22 Speaker 3: overturned on March thirtieth, nineteen thirty three. She would ultimately

11:27 Speaker 3: be sent to the Arizona State Asylum for the Insane

11:30 Speaker 3: on April twenty fourth, nineteen thirty three, but between the

11:34 Speaker 3: end of the hearing on March thirtieth and when she

11:37 Speaker 3: was sent to the hospital on April twenty fourth, crucial

11:40 Speaker 3: clues to the truth of our story would be revealed.

11:44 Speaker 3: Ruth hired a new attorney named H. G. Richardson, and

11:47 Speaker 3: on April first, nineteen thirty three, she had Richardson file

11:51 Speaker 3: an appeal with the Arizona Superior Court, requesting a new

11:55 Speaker 3: trial based on her criminal trial attorney Paul Shank's failure

11:59 Speaker 3: to claim self to de fire defense on Ruth's behalf,

12:01 Speaker 3: or to allow her to take the stand in her

12:03 Speaker 3: own murder trial. After filing the appeal and asserting self defense,

12:08 Speaker 3: Richardson asked Ruth to write him a confidential letter explaining

12:12 Speaker 3: the whole truth of the murders so that he could

12:14 Speaker 3: build a new defense on her behalf should the appeal

12:17 Speaker 3: to the higher court be approved. Ruth wrote that letter

12:21 Speaker 3: to Richardson on April sixth and April eighth, but nearly

12:24 Speaker 3: everything in it contradicted the story Ruth had just told him,

12:28 Speaker 3: on which he'd subsequently included in his appeal to the

12:31 Speaker 3: Superior Court. The week before, Ruth had persuaded her new

12:35 Speaker 3: attorney to help her claim self defense, but then she

12:39 Speaker 3: confided in him that she'd meant to kill Anne and

12:41 Speaker 3: cut up Sammy herself. After he read it. HG. Richardson

12:45 Speaker 3: locked Ruth's quote first and only confession unquote letter away

12:49 Speaker 3: in a safety deposit box, where it remained for the

12:52 Speaker 3: next sixty eight years. The contents of the confession would

12:57 Speaker 3: not be revealed until two thousand and two. Later, on

13:00 Speaker 3: the same day that she completed her confession letter, Ruth

13:04 Speaker 3: Judd tried to take her own life by swallowing a

13:07 Speaker 3: razor blade. Perhaps she thought that attempting to kill herself

13:10 Speaker 3: would bolster an insanity plea if self defense failed, or

13:14 Speaker 3: perhaps it was because someone else now knew the real

13:18 Speaker 3: version of events. So what was that quote real unquote version. Well,

13:24 Speaker 3: let's hear it from the trunk Murderess's own penn dated

13:29 Speaker 3: April sixth, nineteen thirty three. I am writing the absolute

13:32 Speaker 3: truth of this case in full confidence that you will

13:35 Speaker 3: use it as you see fit in your best judgment.

13:38 Speaker 3: Mister Richardson, I have full confidence in you and trust you.

13:42 Speaker 3: This is my first and only confession of the case

13:45 Speaker 3: of the homicide of Anne Leroy and head Big Samuelson.

13:48 Speaker 3: Anne was used to the world. I truly was not.

13:51 Speaker 3: Jack Hallerin was the only man I'd gone with since

13:53 Speaker 3: my marriage. I was ashamed of things I'd done. I

13:56 Speaker 3: could not openly compete with her. I was married and

13:59 Speaker 3: ashamed to Day after day she lorded it over me,

14:02 Speaker 3: always smiling and fresh and sweet, well knowing she was

14:06 Speaker 3: hurting me with her taunts. Many evenings, Anne would kiss

14:10 Speaker 3: Jack and caress him in our presence, and after he

14:13 Speaker 3: was gone, gloat over not caring a thing for him,

14:16 Speaker 3: but merely working him for money. It was not what

14:19 Speaker 3: Jack did, but the continual taunts made by Anne which

14:22 Speaker 3: drove me beside myself. I could not stand the taunts.

14:26 Speaker 3: I just went crazy. Those taunts kept me awake. I

14:29 Speaker 3: could not sleep. I cried. I even prayed. I wrote

14:32 Speaker 3: my parents to please come to me. I was losing

14:34 Speaker 3: my mind. Wild ideas kept me awake. I took sleeping

14:37 Speaker 3: sedatives luminol. Luminol is barbituous, a stronger precursor to xanax

14:43 Speaker 3: or valiant. I wrote my doctor that my nerves were breaking.

14:46 Speaker 3: I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. I loved Anne still,

14:49 Speaker 3: but those taunts. I would take more medicine to quiet

14:53 Speaker 3: my nerves. Cried to please get things off my mind.

14:56 Speaker 3: To sleep. Never did I have the slightest dream of

14:58 Speaker 3: hurting Sammy. She simply never entered my mind except to

15:02 Speaker 3: get Anne stopped those taunts so I could sleep. Nothing

15:06 Speaker 3: more did I think of. I took the gun and

15:08 Speaker 3: a knife. How I would do it? I was not sure,

15:10 Speaker 3: but I had no intention of harming Sammy. Jack was

15:13 Speaker 3: as intimate with Sammy as Anne. But it was Anne's

15:15 Speaker 3: cruel taunts that haunted me. And it seems that by

15:18 Speaker 3: cruel taunts, she's talking about Anne laughing and saying that

15:21 Speaker 3: she's only with Jack for the money and doesn't actually

15:25 Speaker 3: care for him. There's nothing more specific about what those

15:28 Speaker 3: taunts might have been. All right, back to Ruth's story.

15:31 Speaker 3: I hid in the house next door. Anne and Sammy

15:34 Speaker 3: returned to the bedroom after they retired. I went to

15:37 Speaker 3: the back door, laid the knife and my shoes outside

15:40 Speaker 3: the door. Then I crept in the unlocked front door.

15:42 Speaker 3: I sat down on the couch in the same dark

15:44 Speaker 3: room and soon fell asleep, clutching the gun. I awakened

15:49 Speaker 3: Sammy had gone to the bathroom. That insane desire that

15:52 Speaker 3: power led me on. I started for Anne. My stomach

15:55 Speaker 3: was turning inside out, really twitching jumping out of me

15:59 Speaker 3: outside a tremor, but my stomach jumping like convulsions. I retreated,

16:03 Speaker 3: curled up and went to sleep again. Oh and again

16:06 Speaker 3: and again all night. I don't know how many times

16:08 Speaker 3: Sammy kept going to the bathroom. I started for the

16:11 Speaker 3: bedroom and then retreated each time. So exhausted, I immediately

16:14 Speaker 3: went to sleep. Morning, I heard the milkman. Sammy went

16:17 Speaker 3: to the bathroom again. I started to call to her,

16:20 Speaker 3: tell her I was there. I really did. Then I

16:22 Speaker 3: began shaking inside and remembered what I had come to do.

16:26 Speaker 3: So this time I crept past the bathroom door shot Anne.

16:30 Speaker 3: It was a low shot. Sammy called, what fell? Anne?

16:33 Speaker 3: I was hurrying past the door. Sammy came out and

16:35 Speaker 3: demanded to know what was the matter. I was limp.

16:38 Speaker 3: She completely took the gun from my hands. I was

16:41 Speaker 3: non resistant. I said, Sammy, I am crazy. I have

16:44 Speaker 3: lost my mind. Give me that gun and I will

16:46 Speaker 3: blow my brains out right here in this door. She

16:48 Speaker 3: held the gun and said, you get out of here

16:50 Speaker 3: right this minute. I then picked up the knife and

16:52 Speaker 3: went back after her. With the knife. As I grabbed

16:55 Speaker 3: for the gun, I stabbed her in the shoulder, the

16:57 Speaker 3: fight with Sammy in that breakfast room door, her own

17:00 Speaker 3: finger on the trigger when the shot went through her chest.

17:02 Speaker 3: Our fight is all about, as I have always related,

17:05 Speaker 3: she shot me through the hand as I grabbed for

17:07 Speaker 3: the gun. The gun jammed. We fell to the floor, struggled,

17:09 Speaker 3: and I finally got the gun and shot her. And

17:11 Speaker 3: in my wild state, I really do not remember where

17:14 Speaker 3: in the head. I pulled Sammy into the bathroom, I

17:17 Speaker 3: cleaned up the floor. I pulled in the trunk from

17:19 Speaker 3: the garage. It was now about six thirty or seven am.

17:23 Speaker 3: I tugged and pulled, and finally got ann from the

17:25 Speaker 3: bed into the trunk. Now it doesn't sound possible, but

17:28 Speaker 3: this all took about two hours. I left for the office.

17:32 Speaker 3: I'd pulled the trunk with Anne's body into the living room,

17:34 Speaker 3: but the trunk was unlocked. Sammy was on the bathroom

17:37 Speaker 3: floor all day Saturday. This all happened in the morning.

17:40 Speaker 3: I stayed in my office until four pm. I then

17:43 Speaker 3: took the bag home with me, with the gun, the knife,

17:46 Speaker 3: the pajamas in a dress. I fed my cat and

17:49 Speaker 3: went back to the twenty nine to twenty nine North

17:51 Speaker 3: Second Street house. At around six pm. I really had

17:54 Speaker 3: nothing definite in my mind, no plans made. In fact,

17:57 Speaker 3: except for an irresistible impulse to get an I had

18:00 Speaker 3: no other plans. I entered the house through the bathroom window,

18:04 Speaker 3: getting a chair from next door to climb in. I

18:06 Speaker 3: pulled the trunk back into the hall and tried to

18:09 Speaker 3: lift Sammy into it, but that was utterly impossible. I

18:12 Speaker 3: couldn't lift her. She was too heavy, her body was stiff.

18:15 Speaker 3: I then got two cheap knives from the kitchen and

18:18 Speaker 3: severed her body into portions I could lift. I was

18:21 Speaker 3: hours doing this, and then inch by inch pulling the

18:24 Speaker 3: trunk back into the living room. The baggage man, after

18:27 Speaker 3: taking the trunk to the truck, informed me it was

18:30 Speaker 3: too heavy to ship as baggage. I told them to

18:33 Speaker 3: take the trunk to eleven thirty Brille Street then, which

18:36 Speaker 3: they did. I also left the mattress from Anne's bed,

18:38 Speaker 3: rolled up right there in front of these baggage men

18:40 Speaker 3: a second street. Blood soaked in the living room. Sunday noon,

18:44 Speaker 3: I started getting ready to go to Los Angeles again.

18:46 Speaker 3: I transferred portions of Sammy's body to the smaller trunk

18:49 Speaker 3: and suitcase. Then I washed the gun in the laboratory.

18:52 Speaker 3: While it was under the water, a bullet remaining in

18:54 Speaker 3: the gun went off and the leads smashed in a sheet,

18:57 Speaker 3: which part of it I threw in the toilet and

18:59 Speaker 3: the other went down on the basin. From here, I

19:01 Speaker 3: think most everything has already been known, And the everything

19:04 Speaker 3: that's already been known is what you heard earlier from

19:07 Speaker 3: the newspaper about her arrival in Los Angeles and the

19:11 Speaker 3: discovery of the bloody contents of the trunks, as well

19:14 Speaker 3: as her being on the lamb from the law, her

19:17 Speaker 3: eventual capture and incarceration, and of course trial. Ruth was

19:22 Speaker 3: sent to the Arizona State Asylum for the Insane on

19:25 Speaker 3: April twenty fourth, nineteen thirty three. There she became quite popular,

19:30 Speaker 3: styling patients hair and befriending guards. And although Ruth was

19:34 Speaker 3: meant to spend the rest of her life at the hospital,

19:37 Speaker 3: four walls could not keep Ruth inside. Over the course

19:41 Speaker 3: of her stay, Ruth escaped from the Arizona State Hospital

19:46 Speaker 3: seven times. In fact, she had a key to the

19:49 Speaker 3: front door. Now remember the confession letter that I just read.

19:53 Speaker 3: While thanks to Richardson's safety deposit box, no one ever

19:57 Speaker 3: knew that that letter existed until it was donated to

20:01 Speaker 3: the collection of Arizona State University in two thousand and two.

20:05 Speaker 3: No one, no one ever knew well Winnie Ruth Judd knew,

20:09 Speaker 3: and leading up to a parole hearing in nineteen fifty three,

20:13 Speaker 3: she wanted that letter back in the worst way. In fact,

20:17 Speaker 3: that is probably the most damning proof that Ruth's April

20:20 Speaker 3: sixth and April eighth letter is more than just another

20:23 Speaker 3: crazed confession. It isn't so much what she wrote in

20:26 Speaker 3: the letter, it's the amount of time she spent trying

20:29 Speaker 3: to get it back. In a half a dozen letters

20:32 Speaker 3: written between June and November of nineteen fifty three and

20:35 Speaker 3: now on file at the Arizona Historical Society Archives in Tucson,

20:40 Speaker 3: Ruth pleads with H. G. Richardson's widow, Fern, to return

20:44 Speaker 3: the incriminating letter to her. In nineteen fifty three, Ruth

20:47 Speaker 3: was preparing, after twenty years, for a new sanity hearing.

20:51 Speaker 3: Should she be found sane, Ruth knew she'd be taken

20:54 Speaker 3: back to Florence Prison, after which she could appeal her case,

20:57 Speaker 3: and she hoped be sent home with time served. A

21:01 Speaker 3: twenty year old letter in which she confessed to her

21:03 Speaker 3: attorney that she'd killed her friends had cut up one

21:05 Speaker 3: of their bodies unassisted by another person, would mess up

21:08 Speaker 3: her plans for freedom, said Ruth. It is so important

21:12 Speaker 3: to have everything ready if my sanity hearing comes up

21:14 Speaker 3: this month, she explains in the last of the letters.

21:17 Speaker 3: In each she implores missus Richardson to bring the documents

21:20 Speaker 3: to her personally or allow her brother to come pick

21:23 Speaker 3: them up, explaining her intention to destroy anything in Richardson's

21:26 Speaker 3: file that she quote might not need unquote. She is

21:29 Speaker 3: insistent that neither her new attorney nor anyone else see

21:33 Speaker 3: the letter. Despite six letters from Ruth and one from

21:36 Speaker 3: her new attorney requesting the return of the confession, Berne

21:39 Speaker 3: Richardson did not comply. Ruth's insanity was not overturned, and

21:44 Speaker 3: she returned to her Many remember seven escape attempts. During

21:50 Speaker 3: Ruth's last escape in nineteen sixty two, she made it

21:52 Speaker 3: all the way to northern California and established a new

21:55 Speaker 3: identity as Marian Lane. There she stayed for seven years

21:58 Speaker 3: and began to work as a housekeeper and caregiver. According

22:02 Speaker 3: to some accounts, Ruth worked for a wealthy woman who

22:04 Speaker 3: left her some money upon her death. Upon her return

22:07 Speaker 3: to Arizona in nineteen sixty nine, Ruth hired a famous

22:11 Speaker 3: San Francisco criminal defense attorney, Melvin Belly, and an Arizona

22:15 Speaker 3: criminal defense attorney, Larry Debis, to handle her case for parole.

22:19 Speaker 3: In spite of the fact that the Arizona Governor, Jack Williams,

22:22 Speaker 3: agreed to release Ruth if the entire ordeal went over

22:25 Speaker 3: in a hushed manner, Belly held a press conference in

22:28 Speaker 3: which he boldly and quite publicly called for her release.

22:31 Speaker 3: As a result, Debas fired Belly. Ruth spid for parole

22:35 Speaker 3: was successful, and she moved to stock in California after

22:38 Speaker 3: her release, and in nineteen eighty three she was released

22:42 Speaker 3: from parole. Winnie Ruth Judd finally died in nineteen ninety

22:46 Speaker 3: eight of natural causes at her home in Sunny Slope, California.

22:50 Speaker 3: She was ninety three. By then, she was known as

22:52 Speaker 3: Marian Lane, and most people who knew her true identity

22:56 Speaker 3: chose to believe her long ago story about killing her

22:59 Speaker 3: friends in self defense. And of course, she died four

23:04 Speaker 3: years before anyone would have been able to see her

23:07 Speaker 3: quote one and only unquote confession letter said a friend

23:11 Speaker 3: named Jerry Lukawitz of Ruth's last days, she was a

23:14 Speaker 3: little old lady, but she was still gorgeous. When I

23:17 Speaker 3: visited her in Sunny Slope. She was always beautifully dressed,

23:20 Speaker 3: with her hair coifed. She said something once about how

23:24 Speaker 3: she was sorry she wasn't going to live long enough

23:27 Speaker 3: to see the day when people would finally stop remembering

23:31 Speaker 3: Winnie Ruth Judd, the Phoenix Trunk Murderess until next time.

23:37 Speaker 3: I'm Zevanodleberg, and this has been kind, murdery