News about Ruth Snyder

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The imminent execution of killer Kenneth Eugene Smith with untested nitrogen has brought America's turbulent capital punishment system into sharper focus. After the US Supreme Court denied his appeal, Smith will be gassed to death with nitrogen hypoxia tomorrow in Atmore, Alabama. It will be the first known nitrogen execution in the United States and the first known nitrogen execution in the world. However, Smith's demise would be the first in a long line of legally sanctioned killings in the United States. The hit film version of Stephen King's book The Green Mile, which included a horrific electric chair execution scene, was loosely based on George Stinney, a 14-year-old boy who was electrocuted for the murders of two girls in 1944. Ruth Snyder, a housewife in 1928, was executed by the same method after murdering her husband with her lover. A photographer took a strange snapshot of the moment of her death with a camera strapped to his ankle. Bottom right: In Huntsville, Texas, the execution chamber is on display.