Re: RARA-AVIS: RE: Double Indemnity

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 07 Jul 2004


Mark, Re your question below:

> Double Indemnity is based on a true story? I didn't
> know that.

Both of Cain's adultery-cum-murder novels, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY, were loosely based on the murder of Albert Snyder by his wife, Ruth, and her lover, Judd Gray, in the '20's. Both of them were caught, convicted, and executed at Sing Sing. An e-book about the case called THE MURDER OF ALBERT SNYDER by Denise Noe is available, free of charge, here:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/albert_snyder/1.html?sect=12

Playwright Sophie Treadwell fictionalized the case several years before Cain in a stage play called MACHINAL.

A photojournalist wha was permitted to witness Ruth Snyder's electrocution managed to smuggle a hidden camera into the execution chamber. He used it to snap a photo of Mrs. Snyder just as the voltage was sweeping through here body. The picture made front pages all over the world. It's reproduced in the above-mentioned e-book.

JIM DOHERTY

                
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