Murder Victim. He received notoriety in American newspaper headlines as the victim in the “Dumbbell Murder” of 1927. Snyder was an art editor for the magazine “Motor Boating.” He was very successful as a professional artist for Hearst Publications. His heart had been broken when his fiancee, Jessie Guischard died on November 21, 1912 of pneumonia shortly before their marriage. At the age of 32, he met a tall, blue-eyed blond telephone operator, Ruth Brown. He was thirteen years older than Brown. On July 23, 1915, he married Ruth Mae Brown using his birth name of “Albert Schneider” on the marriage certificate. “Schneider” was documented on his death certificate and will, whereas his World War I draft application and the newspaper clippings reporting his murder have “Snyder.” After his marriage to Brown, he attempted to change his surname to sound less German. Three years after their marriage, the couple had a daughter. His wife claimed that she was her husband's second choice as the love of her husband's life died years before. This reasoning was supported with him hanging a portrait of his first love in their home, keeping memorabilia such as scrapbooks of their vacations, and naming his boat in honor of her. Daily, he worn a lapel pin with the initials “JG” inscribed on the back. After their daughter was born, he spent his free-time alone on the boat. His wife wanted out of her loveless ten-year marriage and had found interest outside of their marriage. Unknown to him, his wife planned to murder him. With seven attempts over a year's time, which included giving him rat poison to cure his hiccups, sleeping pills in his cocktail, and by gassing him, his wife coerced her lover Henry Judd Gray, a women's underwear salesman, to help her. On March 20, 1927 thecouple attacked him while he was sleeping, and by putting a rope around his neck to hold him still, his wife stuffed chloroform-soaked rags up his nose, then his wife hit him in the head with a window weight. The cause of his death was listed as suffocation. The window weight was called a dumbbell during the trial, hence the “Dumbbell Murder.” The couple poorly staged a burglary, which with little investigation, the police soon realized did not happen. The morning of the murder, his daughter woke to find this confusion in the home. The trial, which became a carnival event, began with many noted celebrities attending and souvenirs sold on the Queens County Courthouse steps. The newspapers labeled his wife and her lover as “The Granite Woman and the Putty Man.” After Gray confessed, the lovers turned on each other during the trial, contending the other was responsible for the murder. The jury took only 98 minutes before returning with a verdict of "guilty". With both convicted of first degree premeditated murder, the couple was sentenced to death in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison. At 11:06 PM on January 12, 1928 Snyder's wife was the first woman to be executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison since 1899. With the hidden camera strapped to the reporter's ankle, a photograph was taken by a newspaper reporter as his wife was actually being executed. The following morning's headlines of all major newspapers flashed this photograph with the headline of “Dead.” The caption on this photograph documents the times of the executions. This camera is on exhibition in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. At 11:14 PM Henry Judd Gray was executed in the electric chair. Snyder's daughter, Lorraine, was nine at the time of his death. The day of his murder, she was sent to live with her maternal grandmother, who was awarded guardianship after a legal battle as his brother Warren Schneider fought for custody but lost the case. Unknown to him, his wife had taken a large life insurance policy on him with a forged signature. The policy would pay extra, "double indemnity,” if an unexpected act of violence killed him. Under the circumstances of his death, the insurance policy was declared invalid in 1930.∼Birth and Death Records attached