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Winnie Ruth Judd (January 29, 1905 – October 23, 1998), born Winnie Ruth McKinnell, also known as Marian Lane, was a medical secretary in Phoenix, Arizona, who was accused of murdering her friends, Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson, in October 1931. The murders were discovered when Judd transported the victims' bodies, one of which had been dismembered, from Phoenix to Los Angeles, California, by train in trunks and other luggage, causing the press to name the case the "Trunk Murders". Judd allegedly committed the murders to win over the affections of Jack Halloran, a prominent Phoenix businessman. Judd was tried for LeRoi's murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death. However, the sentence was later repealed after she was found mentally incompetent, and she was committed to the Arizona State Asylum for the Insane (later renamed the Arizona State Hospital). Over the next three decades, Judd escaped from the asylum six times; after her final escape during the 1960s, she remained at large for over six years and worked under an assumed name for a wealthy family. She was ultimately paroled in 1971 and discharged from parole in 1983. Judd's murder investigation and trial were marked by sensationalized newspaper coverage and suspicious circumstances suggesting that at least one other person might have been involved in the crimes. Her sentence also raised debate about capital punishment in the United States. Background Winnie Ruth McKinnell was born on January 29, 1905, to the Reverend H.J. McKinnell, a Methodist minister, and his wife, Carrie, in Oxford, Indiana. At age 17, she married Dr. William C. Judd, a World War I veteran more than twenty years her senior, and moved to Mexico with him. William was reportedly a morphine addict as a result of war injuries and had difficulty keeping a job, forcing the couple to move frequently and live on an uncertain income. The marriage was further strained by Winnie Ruth Judd's health problems and inability to bear children. By 1930, the couple were mostly living separately, although they remained in constant communication. Judd, called by her middle name of "Ruth", moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she worked as governess to a wealthy family. During this time, she met John J. "Happy Jack" Halloran, a 44-year-old Phoenix businessman who was active in the city's political and social circles. Although married, Halloran was a known playboy and philanderer. Judd and Halloran became friendly and eventually had an extramarital affair. After a few months, Judd began working as a secretary at the Grunow Medical Clinic in Phoenix. There, she met Agnes Anne LeRoi, an X-ray technician, and her roommate, Hedvig Samuelson, who had moved together from Alaska after Samuelson contracted tuberculosis. The two women were also friendly with Halloran. Judd became friends with LeRoi and Samuelson, and even moved in with them for a couple of months in 1931, but differences developed between the women and Judd soon returned to her own apartment, located a short distance away from the rented bungalow shared by LeRoi and Samuelson. At the time of the murders, Judd was 26 years old, LeRoi 27, and Samuelson 24. Murders According to police, on the night of October 16, 1931, LeRoi and Samuelson were murdered by Judd after an alleged fight among the three women over Halloran's affections. The prosecution at Judd's murder trial would suggest that quarrels over men and the relationship between LeRoi and Samuelson broke up the friendship of the three women, and that jealousy was the motive for the killings.The two victims were killed with a .25 caliber handgun in their bungalow, located at 2929 (now 2947) N. 2nd Street. According to prosecutors, Judd and an accomplice then dismembered Samuelson's body and put the head, torso, and lower legs into a black shipping trunk, placing the upper legs in a beige valise and hatbox. LeRoi's body was stuffed intact into a second black shipping trunk. Flight to Los Angeles Two days after the murders, on Sunday, October 18, 1931, Judd, with her left hand bandaged from a gunshot wound, boarded the overnight Golden State Limited passenger train from Phoenix's Union Station to Los Angeles, California, along with the trunks and luggage containing the bodies. En route to Los Angeles Central Station, Judd's trunks came under suspicion from baggage handler H. J. Mapes due to their foul odor, as well as the fluids escaping from them. Mapes alerted the district baggage agent in Los Angeles, Arthur V. Anderson, that the trunks may have contained contraband deer meat. In those days, deer meat was frequently smuggled aboard trains running to the West Coast. Anderson tagged the trunks to be held until they could be opened for inspection. He asked Judd for the key, but she stated she didn't have it with her. Burton McKinnell, Judd's brother and a junior at the University of Southern California, picked her up from the train station unaware of the murders or the bodies. Judd departed with her brother, leaving her trunks behind. At around 4:30 pm that afternoon, Anderson called the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to report the suspicious trunks. After picking the locks of each trunk, the police discovered the bodies. Meanwhile, Burton had dropped his sister off somewhere in Los Angeles, where she proceeded to disappear. Judd hid out for several days until she surrendered to police in a funeral home the following Friday, October 23, 1931.The murder became headline news across the country, with the press calling Judd the "Tiger Woman" and the "Blonde Butcher". Eventually, the case came to be known in the media as the "Trunk Murders", and Judd as the "Trunk Murderess". Original police investigation On the evening of Monday, October 19, 1931, Phoenix police first entered the bungalow where LeRoi and Samuelson had resided; neighbors and reporters were also allowed in and destroyed the original integrity of the crime scene. The following day, the bungalow's landlord placed newspaper ads in The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Evening Gazette offering tours of the three-room bungalow for ten cents per person, attracting hundreds of curiosity seekers. During the trial, Judd's defense protested, stating, "By the advertisements in the newspapers, the entire population of Maricopa County visited that place."The police maintained that Judd's victims were shot while asleep in their beds. The mattresses from the two beds were missing the night the police entered. One mattress was later found with no blood stains on it miles away in a vacant lot; the other remained missing. No explanation was ever offered as to why one was found so far away, nor what became of the other mattress. Trial and conviction Judd's trial began on January 19, 1932, at the Maricopa County Courthouse, with Judge Howard C. Speakman presiding. The dismemberment aspect of the double slaying was never addressed in court because Judd was tried only for the murder of LeRoi, whose.... Discover the Anne Mckinnell popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Anne Mckinnell books.

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