The crime
Ruth Snyder married her older boss, Albert, in 1915, but a decade later, Ruth had tired of him – she liked to go out, he didn't; Albert didn't "like" much of anything, it seems, except decorating the marital home with keepsakes from his dead fiancée, and not letting Ruth and their daughter Lorraine have pets – and of quiet domesticity in Queens, NY.

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She embarked on an affair with milquetoast corset salesman (...you heard me) Judd Gray, and with the aid of bootleg cocktails, they worked themselves up to kill Albert, in such a way that the insurance policy Ruth had tricked Albert into signing up for would pay double upon his demise.