WINNIE RUTH JUDD: THE TRUNK MURDERS
It didn’t rain on October 16th,1931 in Phoenix, Arizona. It almost never rained. The climate was dry and the air was cooler than many other Octobers in Phoenix, both before and since.
At approximately 10:25 that evening, gunfire rang out from a house on the east side of town. Three women were shot: Winnie Ruth Judd, Agnes Anne LeRoi, and Hedvig Samuelson. The events that took place afterwards sparked a media circus that the one survivor, Winnie Ruth Judd, would run from for the rest of her life.
Winnie Ruth McKinnell started her life in Indiana, where she was born on the 29th of January, 1905. Before the age of eighteen, Winnie, who preferred her middle name, Ruth, was already engaged to be married. William C. Judd was a medical doctor more than twice her age, who had fought for the United States in the first world war. Injuries sustained during the war caused him to require opioid medications in order to keep his pain under control. He developed a severe addiction to morphine after consuming large quantities on a daily basis for more than a decade.
The early years of their marriage were rough, and William struggled to hold down employment. By 1930, the two were living apart. Ruth moved to Phoenix, where she began working as a medical secretary at Grunow Medical Clinic, a building that still stands today. After moving to the southwest, Ruth Judd was introduced to a local businessman and public figure: Jack Halloran. Although both Halloran and Judd were married, they began a romantic relationship soon after meeting.
At the Grunow Medical Clinic, Ruth developed a friendship with a co-worker: Agnes Anne Leroi, who worked in radiology. She and her roommate, Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson, had recently moved to Phoenix from Alaska. Samuelson suffered from tuberculosis, and like many others, migrated to the southwest in search of relief in a dry climate. Phoenix was a very popular destination for people suffering from TB. In fact, much of its current population consists of descendants of migrants looking for a place with low humidity. The advertisements aimed at “health seekers” ended up being responsible for much of Phoenix’s early urban growth.
No one living really knows what happened the night of October 16th. Both Agnes and Sammy were very close with Halloran, so police initially suspected that the shootings were initiated during a fight the women got into over their jealousy for Halloran’s affections. Ruth Judd was shot in the hand with a .25 caliber handgun. Judd shot Leroi and Samuelson fatally. Who shot whom and in what order is still a mystery, and Judd’s own statements about the evening in question changed every time she told the story.
For two days, Ruth laid low. Then, on the morning of the 18th, Ruth Judd fled the state of Arizona. Judd boarded a train set for Los Angeles, checking quite a bit of luggage, including two large trunks. Judd stayed in the passenger car overnight as they travelled. While she rode comfortably, railroad personnel began to get suspicious. The trunks smelled foul and some sort of repulsive fluid was leaking from the cracks. Employees approached Judd, asking for the key. She told them she didn’t bring it with her.
Ruth’s brother Burton picked her up in Los Angeles the next day, and Ruth got into his car, leaving the train station without her luggage. After several hours, police were called. Officers picked the locks on the trunks and opened them, finding the bodies of Agnes LeRoi and Sammy Samuelson inside. Leroi’s body was intact, but Samuelson’s body had been dismembered to fit in the suitcase.
Back in Phoenix, police contaminated the crime scene beyond any hope of evidence preservation. But honestly, in 1931, it’s hard to say what they would have found. They certainly would find Ruth’s fingerprints whether she was guilty or not, as she was a friend of Agnes and regularly visited her home. Police, members of the press, and random strangers were allowed to come and go from the crime scene as they pleased. There have even been reports of tour groups being led inside.
Even with a seriously compromised crime scene, the authorities still had enough to bring Ruth Judd to trial in early 1932. She faced a charge of first-degree murder against Agnes LeRoi, for which she tried to argue self-defense. That’s right, I said she, because her lawyer went a different direction. He argued that she was not guilty by reason of insanity, not providing any evidence for her self-defense claim. The prosecution argued that she shot herself in the hand to give her grounds for a self-defense claim.
The prosecution argued that Ruth Judd came into the bungalow on October 16th while Agnes and Sammy were sleeping. They argued she shot them while they were unconscious, so any claim of self defense was completely false. Judd insisted that this wasn’t true in every interview she gave, although her story did keep changing each time she told it.
The jury found her guilty of first-degree murder on February 8, 1932. She was sentenced to death by hanging.
A grand jury indicted Jack Halloran on charges of being an accomplice to murder. Judd tried to place the blame squarely on Jack, stating, “I am going to be hanged for something Jack Halloran is responsible for ... I was convicted of murder, but I shot in self- defense. Jack Halloran removed every bit of evidence. He is responsible for me going through all this. He is guilty of anything I am guilty of.” Judd also implied that he was responsible for the dismemberment of Sammy Samuelson.
Halloran was exonerated after his defense attorneys complained that the only evidence against him were the rantings of an “insane” woman. This was an easy argument to make, especially seeing as how Ruth Judd’s death sentence was overturned based on a hearing that deemed her “mentally incompetent” that April.
In other cases, this might be where I start wrapping things up. Where I offer theories for the unexplained aspects of the case, but the story isn’t over yet.
Rather than remaining in prison, Judd was moved to the Arizona State Asylum for the Insane, where she remained for the next thirty years … kind of.
Ruth Judd escaped the asylum six times in the three decades she was there. She often left on foot, walking down railroad tracks for miles and miles. Her seventh escape was the big one. Nobody figured out where she was for six years. She had been able to assume a new identity and was working as a live-in servant for a wealthy family in a mansion overlooking the ocean.
After returning to custody, Melvin Belli, a prominent Bay Area attorney, aided in her case. He and his team were able to convince the authorities to let Judd out on parole. She was a free woman. Her parole ended in the 1980s, and she didn’t end up dying until 1998, so she got to spend quite a few years of her life completely free from the troubles she faced in the 1930s.
What mysteries remain?
Well, The biggest mystery is exactly what went on in that bungalow on October 16. Did Agnes or Sammy shoot Ruth first, prompting her to fire at them in self defense? Or did it happen like the prosecution argued? Did Ruth Judd sneak into their rooms in the middle of the night and shoot them as they slept? We’ll never know because we have no evidence to look to. Both of the women’s mattresses were missing by the time the police arrived. One was found some time later, free of any blood stains. The other was never seen again.
I’ve also heard a lot of curious information on Ruth’s childhood that I haven't been able to verify. Some of these stories include her falsely believing she was pregnant several times, even though she was a virgin. I don’t know if this is true, but if it is, it’s quite strange. Ruth Judd never gave birth to any children and was biologically unable to do so.
Another big question that remains is: did this all really happen over a man? Were all three women so enamored with Jack Halloran that all their rational thinking flew out the window? Or was it more complex than that? Some have suggested that these women actually had relations and feelings for each other, causing even more jealousy and adding fuel to the fire. Were Agnes and Sammy in a relationship with each other, and one of them disliked the constant presence of Ruth? Were they involved in a sex-work ring with local businessmen, and were worried about new women Ruth was bringing in? Did Ruth introduce Jack to someone they didn’t approve of? I’ve heard multiple versions of the story. We’ll probably never be sure. So, although this case is technically closed, there are many mysteries that are still, and will probably always be, unsolved.
This case has made appearances in pop culture over the years, in television, movies, books, and even plays. In 2007 a feature-length film was made where Ruth Judd’s story is told by an all-marionette cast. They screen the film every year in Phoenix on October 16th.
Last but not least, one of my favorite books, Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott, was inspired by this case. It is fictionalized, and names have been changed out of respect for the real lives that were affected. Abbott captures something crucial about the period, as she always does in her historical fiction—something about the hopelessness of TB and especially having it during the depression. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy fictionalized accounts of true crime.