On this day, Oct. 16, in 1931, Phoenix secretary Winnie Ruth Judd shot and killed two women, cut one up and stuffed both inside steamer trunks.
The story had everything: adultery, murder, mystery and gore. The media dubbed Judd the “Trunk Murderess.”
Three days after the killings, a railroad employee discovered blood seeping from luggage outside Central Station in Los Angeles.
Inside one trunk was Agnes LeRoi, 32. The dismembered pieces of Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson, 24, were in other suitcases. A hatbox held surgical tools and a pistol.
The victims were best friends of Judd, who had ridden the same train as the trunks.
Prosecutors said the women were vying for the same man, a voracious playboy named Jack Halloran. Judd shot the women in their sleep, they said.
Judd was convicted of murder in 1932, and her hanging was commuted to life in prison. She was paroled in 1971.
Later, Judd admitted to killing Samuelson in self-defense but said Halloran shot LeRoi. She denied chopping anyone up.
Judd died in 1998.
– Scott McCabe
