(THE TRUNK MURDERESS) A group of approximately 75 photograph

Sale 2443 - Lot 298

Price Realized: $ 2,250

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

(THE TRUNK MURDERESS)
A group of approximately 75 photographs pertaining to the 1931-32 murder trial of Winnie Ruth Judd.
Comprised of portraits of Judd, the victims, the jury, and trial witnesses, as well as crime scene photographs. Ferrotyped silver prints, the images measuring 4 3/4x3 3/4 to 7x10 1/4 inches (12.1x9.5 to 17.8x26 cm.), and the reverse, the sheets slightly larger, approximately 25 with period painting and retouching, on recto, and most with typed press captions, handwritten notations, and various press agency hand stamps, on verso. 1931-32

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Additional Details

WITH--Approximately 165 later photostatic copies of images and documents pertaining to the case. Circa 1970s.

Winnie Ruth Judd was a secretary from Phoenix, Arizona who was accused of murdering two of her friends, Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson, with a .25 calibre handgun in 1931. Judd's apparent motive was jealousy over John J. Halloran, a local businessman with whom Judd was having an extramarital affair, and her two friends' friendliness towards him. With an unknown accomplice, Judd dismembered Samuelson's body, placed both bodies in a pair of shipping trunks, and brought them with her to Los Angeles by train two days later. The baggage agent suspected her luggage of containing contraband due to an odor; Judd fled with her brother, after which the LAPD discovered the crime.

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