Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal is coming to our stage this April, directed by Richard Jones and starring Rosie Sheehy. We explore the 1920s true crime case that inspired the play. 

Although Ruth Snyder may not be a household name anymore, in 1928 America, this murder case sent shockwaves throughout the country after a photo of her execution was published on the front page of a newspaper. Sophie Treadwell, who was covering the trial as a journalist, refused to write about the trial, instead writing the play Machinal as a way to reclaim Ruth’s story.

Story timeline

1915: May Ruth Brown meets Albert Snyder

In 1915, at age 20, May Ruth Brown (who went by her middle name Ruth) meets Albert Snyder, age 33, an artist who works as an editor for Motor Boating magazine. It was said that the two were an odd pairing, with Ruth being gregarious while Albert was more reserved.  

Ruth knew quickly that marriage was not for her and is reported as saying ‘I don’t know what possessed me to marry him. His interests were not mine.’ 

Albert had a previous fiancé, Jessie Guishard, who died ten years earlier, who he described to Ruth as ‘the finest woman he ever met.’ This, alongside Albert naming his boat after Jessie and hanging a picture of her in their house, causes further tension within the relationship. 

However, the pair remained married, and in 1918 Ruth gives birth to their only child, a daughter named Lorraine. It has been noted that Albert was emotionally and physically abusive towards both Ruth and Lorraine, blaming Ruth for the birth of a daughter rather than a son. 

1925: Ruth begins an affair with Henry Judd Gray

In 1925, Ruth meets Henry Judd Gray, a travelling corset salesman from New Jersey who is also married and has a family. The two fall into a passionate affair and devise a plan to commit insurance fraud. They will murder Albert and stage it as a robbery, claiming the insurance money for themselves.  

Ruth persuades Albert to purchase life insurance with a clause that specifies an additional $48,000 (worth over half a million dollars today) if the insurance holder dies by an unexpected act of violence. Snyder later says she prevented Albert from discovering the changes she made to his life insurance policy by telling the postman to ring the doorbell twice when these arrived, delivering them only to her. This is said to have inspired the title for James M. Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.  

20 March, 1927: Ruth and Henry kill Albert Snyder

According to Henry, Albert survives seven murder attempts before Ruth and Henry finally succeede. In March 1927, the couple strangle Albert with a picture wire, stuff chloroform soaked rags in his nose and beat him with a sash weight. The pair stage the murder as a burglary, however, police find little evidence of a break in and discover the ‘missing’ items reported by Ruth hidden within the house.  

May 1927: The trial takes place

During the trial, Ruth and Henry turn on each other, with each blaming the other for conceiving of the plan. Both are found guilty and sentenced to death.  

The trial captured the public imagination, fuelled by a tabloid press war between the Daily Graphic, Daily News and Daily Mirror. The tabloids sensationalised the murder, terming Ruth a ‘femme fatale’ and giving her the nickname ‘Ruthless Ruth’. Henry also frequently spoke to the press, painting himself as Ruth’s victim in the scenario. 

The trial was packed with 1,500 people every day, with up to 2,000 people gathering in the streets outside the courthouse. Hawkers sold fake tickets to the trial for $50 and people sold souvenir pins representing a sash weight in the street.  

12 January, 1928: Ruth is executed

At 11pm on 12 January 1928, Ruth becomes the third woman to be executed in the state of New York at Sing Sing prison, 10 minutes before Henry was executed in the same electric chair. When asked for her last words, she said ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’  

There were strict rules against photographers in execution rooms. Knowing that local photographers would be recognised, the Daily News recruit Tom Howard, a young reporter from Chicago. He straps a hidden camera to his ankle beneath his trousers and sets off the shutter with a hidden switch in his jacket at the moment of execution.  

13 January, 1928: The execution photo is published on the front page  

Overnight, the photograph was published on front pages across America under a headline that read ‘DEAD!’. New York State attempts to prosecute both Tom Howard and the New York Daily News but has no success. For years afterwards, witnesses at executions underwent searches and were asked to hold up their hands so they could not operate any hidden switches.  

7 September, 1928: Machinal premieres

Although Sophie Treadwell attended the trial throughout, she did not report on it for a newspaper. Instead, she wrote her play Machinal, positioning Ruth as an everywoman character who is pushed to breaking point by society’s expectations of women. The play premiered just six months after the execution.  

Critics praised Treadwell for her ability to transcend the sordid details of the trial as had been the fascination of the press for months, instead creating a nuanced character study of a woman while making no excuses for the tragedy.  

Machinal is being performed from 11 Apr–01 Jun with tickets available from £13.