The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd: The Truth about an American Crime Legend Revealed at Last - Softcover

Bommersbach, Jana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 145965594X ISBN 13: 9781459655942

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2013

Synopsis

If history is right, a 26 year - old beauty named Winnie Ruth Judd murdered her two best girlfriends one hot Phoenix night in 1931. Then she hacked up their bodies, stuffed the pieces into a trunk, and took them by train to Los Angeles as her baggage. If history is right, she was sentenced to die but ''cheated the gallows'' by acting insane. She spent nearly 40 years in Arizona's insane asylum - flummoxing officials by escaping six times. If history is right, she only got her freedom at age 66 - after serving more time than any other convicted murderer in the history of the nation - because Arizona was finally tired of punishing her. But if history is wrong, Winnie Ruth Judd's life was squandered in a horrible miscarriage of justice. Award - winning journalist Jana Bommersbach reinvestigates the twisted, bizarre murder case that has captivated the nation for decades. She not only uncovers evidence long hidden, but gets Winnie Ruth Judd to break her life - long silence and finally speak. In telling the story of this American crime legend, Bommersbach also tells the story of Phoenix, Arizona - a backwater town that would become a major American city - and the story of a unique moment in American history filled with social taboos.But most of all, she tells the story of a woman with the courage to survive.

About this title

About the Author:

Jana Bommersbach is one of Arizona's most respected and acclaimed journalists. She has earned numerous national, state and regional awards, including the prestigious Don Bolles Award for investigative reporting for the newspaper series on Winnie Ruth Judd that led to this book. She lives in Phoenix.

From Publishers Weekly:

In one of the most sensational cases of the 1930s, Judd was accused of killing two women with whom she had previously shared an apartment in Phoenix, hacking up one of the bodies and taking all the remains in two trunks and a suitcase to L.A., where they were discovered. She confessed to various acts in connection with the murders, was found guilty and sentenced to die; on the eve of her execution she was judged insane, and she spent the years from 1932 to 1971 in confinement, escaping seven times but always being recaptured. Even at the time of her arrest and trial there were doubts that the petite, slight defendant had acted alone-doctors had quickly deduced that the hacked-up corpse had been dismembered with a surgical skill she did not possess-but the identity of her lover, a prominent businessman, Happy Jack Halloran, was kept out of the trial and the local papers. Phoenix-based journalist Bommersbach skillfully recaps the entire story, including suppression of evidence by the police, an inept courtroom defense and a vindictive juror. Those interested in women's causes will want to read her account, as will Arizona residentsalthough the portrait of 1930s Phoenix as the center of hypocrisy in the Southwest is unflattering. Photos not seen by PW. First semal to Phoenix magazine; Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: ReadHowYouWant
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 145965594X
• ISBN 13: 9781459655942
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 444