The Dumbbell Trial of the Century

Long Island housewife Ruth Snyder and the also-married Henry “Judd” Gray were having a torrid affair, beginning in 1925. In stereotypical fashion, Ruth suggested they murder her husband Albert for the insurance money. Henry was hesitant at first, but Ruth ultimately convinced him, with Gray later claiming she threatened to tell his wife of their affair if he didn't take part. If the idea of agreeing to murder to avoid one's wife finding out about an affair seems to indicate a lack of intelligence, this wasn't the only instance of this type of stupidity. In the aftermath of the murder, it was immediately obvious neither individual possessed much in the way of foresight or common sense, leading to the whole affair being labeled "The Dumb-Bell Murder Case" by famed newspaperman Damon Runyon. Ruth had previously made several attempts to kill her husband, including twice trying to kill him via disconnecting the gas line on their oven and again trying via running their car in the garage with the garage door closed in hopes of filling the house with carbon monoxide. Another time she poisoned his bootlegged whiskey, but it resulted in it tasting awful, so he dumped it out. (Incidentally, around this same time the U.S. government tried the same trick to stop people from drinking, resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 Americans. When this was revealed, Congress debated whether to ramp the program up to get rid of more undesirables, but better sense ultimately prevailed.)  In one instance while Albert was sick, Ruth also added various drugs to the medicine he was taking, hoping the combination would kill him.  She was unsuccessful in all attempts. So why kill him and not just divorce him?  Beyond the scandal of divorce of the day, and that women at the time had few means to support themselves if they did such a thing, Albert had a total of three life insurance policies (with some encouragement from Ruth on one and a bit of forgery on the others) totaling approximately $80,000 (about $1.1 million today). With her unsuccessful attempts to murder her husband...