The new book ‘Trunk Murderess’ has a shocking new twist

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There is one crime in every state that has never gone away over the decades. This issue is revisited again and again as new evidence comes to light and is passed on to the next generation at the family table, in a new podcast episode, documentary, or book.

In Arizona’s case, that case is “stump murderer,” Winnie Ruth Judd.

For the past 10 years, author Laurie Notaro has lived and breathed the Judd case – delving into every detail, uncovering new facts, and getting inside the head of Judd herself.

The fruit of this 10 years of research is a book titled “Murderer: A Novel,” told from Judd’s perspective and containing the actual facts of the case, including new evidence that sheds new light on some of the most famous aspects.

What happened to Winnie Ruth Judd?

On October 16, 1931, Winnie Ruth Judd allegedly murdered her two best friends by stuffing one body into a trunk and dismembering the other to fit into another trunk. These trunks followed Judd from Phoenix to Los Angeles, with blood seeping from the cracks.

Judd, 26, was traveling on the Golden State Limited passenger train from Union Station in Phoenix to Los Angeles with trunks of meat that police initially believed was deer meat. To their horror, they found the bodies of Agnes “Anne” LeRoi and Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson.

The story that unfolded was one of confusion, plot holes, prison escapes, and a lunatic asylum that ended with Judd being paroled. She died quietly in her sleep on October 23, 1998, at the age of 93.

“I always felt there was a story… that we didn’t know.”

Phoenix native and Arizona State University graduate Laurie Notaro is best known for her 12 books of humorous personal essays. In The Murderess: A Novel, she immersed herself in the facts and tried to get into the mind of Winnie Ruth Judd.

“I always felt there was a story behind Ruth Judd that we didn’t know,” Notaro said. “I started looking at the evidence, going into the archives and doing some research. I actually went to the archives thinking she wasn’t guilty, that it was all in self-defense.”

Like many others, Notaro couldn’t believe that the beautiful, petite Judd was able to murder two of her closest friends in cold blood. Some have speculated that there is an underlying jealousy in Judd’s relationship with Phoenix businessman Jack Halloran. At the time, he and Judd were married to other people.

Judd always claimed she acted in self-defense, claiming she shot LeRoi and Samuelson after an argument. She then stuffed LeRoi’s body into a transport trunk and dismembered Samuelson’s body to fit into a smaller travel trunk and hat box.

Judd was found guilty of first-degree murder and her death sentence was overturned after she was found mentally incompetent. She completed her stay at an insane asylum in Arizona.

“I wanted to find the person behind the legend”

After just 15 minutes of searching the Arizona State Archives, Notaro concluded that Judd was “totally guilty.”

“It wasn’t what I wanted to find, but it put me on the path where I wanted to get into her head. I wanted to find the person behind the legend, the narrative we already knew, because I knew there had to be more to it than just jealousy.”

Notaro’s research included analyzing Judd’s personal letters, diary entries and court transcripts to create a dialogue that presented the story from Judd’s perspective.

“This is not historical fiction,” Notaro said. “It’s a true crime story, similar to ‘In Cold Blood.’ It’s a novel that has a narrative but is also very, very close to the facts.”

“I think that’s as close as it gets.”

As Notaro was putting her story together, her friend and co-author Robrt Pela found the letter containing Judd’s confessions in the Arizona State Archives in 2014. This confessional letter, hidden in a box of documents belonging to Judd’s lawyer, Larry Debus, never saw the light of day.

“It proved that it was indeed planned, but it also showed that she was crazy,” Notaro said.

Hedvig “Sammy” Samuelson’s niece, Sunny Worel, was a research librarian who spent 30 years searching for and meticulously archiving evidence of the murders in the trunk. Worel’s mother knew Pela and gave him the entire archive that Worel had collected after Worel’s death in 2014.

“A lot of our research overlapped, but Sunny had a 30-year head start on me and had things I would never have been able to find, even on the Internet,” Notaro said.

Worel’s documentation included Judd’s letters to her mother and her husband, Dr. William C. Judd, diaries and oral histories, all placed on a timeline.

“It took me 10 years to analyze all of this and find what actually fit the narrative of each of these women and the evidence that I found about the murders,” Notaro said. “I think it’s as close as it gets.

“But the thing is, it’s an open secret. Can I tell you what I think happened? What indicates this? But they’re all dead, and Ruth kept a good secret. She always denied it until the day she died. “

What Winnie Ruth Judd’s confession letter revealed

Although Judd changed her story many times, she ultimately stuck to it until her death, claiming self-defense. The newfound creed tells a different story.

“The story she stuck to doesn’t match the evidence,” Notaro said. “The proof is in this letter of confession – the first one that has never seen the light of day.”

Judd was sentenced to death by hanging, and her lawyers pleaded insanity to exonerate her. At the insanity hearing, her lawyer asked her for a written and signed confession, but Judd’s confession contained too much truth to win an insanity plea.

The letter was hidden in her lawyer’s files and a new confession letter was written.

“Ruth spent the rest of her life trying to get that letter back from her lawyer’s widow, who never returned it,” Notaro said. “It was in a safe and eventually at the Arizona Historical Society.”

Laurie Notaro signs book ‘Murderwoman: A Novel’

That’s not all Notaro discovered while researching and writing her book. But for the rest, you’ll have to wait until October 8, when “The Murderess: A Novel” is released.

Notaro will host a panel with Pela on October 20 at the Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix; Phoenix historian Steve Schumacher; Phoenix Police Historian Vinnie Cole; Ben Tyler, playwright of “The Truth About Guilty Ruth Judd”; and Robert Warnicke, who purchased and restored the infamous “murder house” where Judd murdered LeRoi and Samuelson. The house is a duplex on the corner of Second Street and Catalina Drive in Phoenix.

You will be able to buy books and have them signed.

All ticket sales will be donated to Preserve Phoenix, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and protect the city’s historic buildings, neighborhoods and neighborhoods.

Details: 12:30 Sunday, October 20. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $5; the book is $16.99 in paperback and $28.99 in hardcover. 602-716-2222, www.creescentphx.com.

Meredith G. White covers entertainment, arts and culture for the Arizona Republic azcentral.com. He writes the latest news about video games, TV and the best things to do in metro Phoenix.