1931: Winnie Ruth Judd and the 'Trunk Murders'

TRUNKS HIDE TWO TORSOS OF WOMEN
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Shipped From Phoenix To Los Angeles by Woman
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CONSIGNEE UNNAMED
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Employe of Clinic Is One Victim, Other Not Known
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PHOENIX, Ariz., Oct. 19.—(AP)— Backed by a chain of circumstantial evidence found in letters seized in a Phoenix apartment from which the bodies of two women were taken in trunks yesterday and in a constantly growing hoard of other details, police tonight broadcast requests for arrest of Mrs. Ruth M. Judd, a secretary at Lois Grunow Memorial Clinic, Phoenix, and her husband, Dr. William C. Judd, former first lieutenant, medical corps, U. S. army.

H. U. Grimm, owner of the apartment, who told the Associated Press he took the trunks to the Phoenix railroad station for shipment to Los Angeles, said he carried the occupants of the apartment on his books only as "Dr. and Mrs. Judd." He had been told they were employed at Grunow Clinic. He was told, Grimm said, the trunks contained books. Mrs. Judd, he said, to the best his knowledge, accompanied them.

Records at the United States Veterans hospital at Whipple Barracks, Prescott, Ariz., show Dr. William C. Judd to have entered there September 10, 1930, and to have been discharged January 13, 1931. He gave his address at that time as 823 Seventeenth street, Santa Monica, Calif., but asked that in case of emergency "Mrs. Ruth Judd, 510 W. Linwood street, Phoenix," be notified.

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19.—(AP)— B. J. Kinnell, said by police to be a brother of Mrs. Ruth Judd, wife of a Los Angeles physician, was arrested here late tonight in connection with the slaying of two women, whose bodies were found in two trunks at a railway baggage station here tonight. The authorities said they were searching for Mrs. Judd.

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PHOENIX, Oct. 19.—(AP)— H. U. Grimm told the Associated Press tonight he carried two trunks which Southern Pacific officials said were checked to Los Angeles and which were found to contain the bodies of two women, to the railroad station in Phoenix Sunday afternoon.

Grimm said the trunks belonged to a Mrs. Judd, and that Mrs. Judd accompanied him to the station and checked them. She told him, Grimm related, that she was going to Los Angeles to join her husband whom, Grimm said, he understands is a physician.

Mrs. Judd told Grimm, he continued, that the reason the trunks were so heavy was that they contained books.

Mrs. Judd, he said, was employed as secretary to a physician at the Grunow clinic.

Mrs. Judd had lived in an apartment belonging to Grimm for about a month. She called him yesterday afternoon to tell him she was leaving for Los Angeles, and asked him to come to the apartment and take her trunks to the station. Grimm and his young son loaded the trunks on the Grimm automobile.

Identity Wrong

The woman Grimm said he knew as Mrs. Judd signed her name, railroad officials said, to slips giving the value of the trunks as "B. J. McKinnell, 201 Pinchot street," leaving the blank for the city not filled. The baggage clerk said he asked her "What city?" and she replied "Phoenix."

There is no Pinchot street in Phoenix.

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NAME OF CONSIGNEE NOT MADE PUBLIC

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19.—(AP)— Dismembered bodies of two women of undetermined age and identity were found tonight by police at the Southern Pacific Railroad station. One of the trunks was large, the other small. They had been shipped yesterday morning from "the Southeast," police said.

The headless torso of one of the women was in the small trunk. The two heads, the other torso and the amputated arms and legs were in the other.

Police said the trunks came from Phoenix, Ariz.

The trunks were consigned to a Los Angeles man whose name the police refused to reveal pending an arrest.

A woman called at the baggage room at noon today to claim the trunks, but employes had become suspicious because of a strong odor and refused to yield them. The man and woman walked away, and it was several hours before the trunks were open.

One of the slain women apparently was in the early thirties, with dark hair. Her face had been beaten in and was unrecognizable.

The other, whose body had been hacked into pieces, was younger, apparently about 20 years old, and had red hair. She had been shot and her face also had been crushed as though in a deliberate attempt to prevent identification.

Clothing had been packed down on the bodies and photographs believed to be those of the victims were found. Physicians said they believed the women had been dead 48 hours.

"Do Not Deliver"

On the tag of the small trunk was a note saying "don't deliver until you see me personally."

The numbers of the baggage checks were 663,165 and 405,749, and the trunks were marked with the name of the claimant and "will call."

As law forces were marshalled here and at Phoenix to solve the mystery, it was announced that the envelope containing the letters bore the address "Hedwig Samuelson, 529 Portland street, Phoenix."

Both women, it was determined at the county morgue, died from bullet wounds. Preliminary examination showed the younger woman had been shot at least three times in the breast, the shoulder and the temple. The middle portion of the body, from the waist to the knees, was missing.

The other woman had been shot in the temple.

Railroad officials said both trunks left Phoenix at 8:10 p.m. Sunday and a railroad message from Phoenix said the person sending them gave a ficticious name and address.

The older woman's body was in the larger trunk and had not been dismembered. The body lay on its side, the knees doubled back.

Police said the condition of the bodies indicated the women had been slain within the last two days.

The trunks arrived on Southern Pacific train No. 3, which reached Los Angeles at 7:40 a.m. today.

In the larger trunk was a picture of a young man taken by Photographer Otto N. Hartness of Portland, Ore., and bearing the penciled notation, "Hugh Angle, Christmas 1928, 20 years old." The trunk contained several other photographs and an envelope.

There was also a long bread knife, bent, but not bloodstained and a woman's purse in which several cartridges and empty cartridge shells were found.

In one of the trunks was found a picture of an attractive brunette girl with "Hedvig Samuelson, Lands, N. D.," penciled on the back. A diploma bearing the same name and issued July 24, 1925, from the North Dakota state normal college at Minot, N. D., also was found.

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WORKER IN PHOENIX CLINIC IS MISSING

PHOENIX, Ariz., Oct. 19.—(AP)— Officials of the Grunow Memorial clinic of Phoenix said tonight Mrs. Agnes Anne Leroi, clinic X-ray technician, has been missing from her home at 2929 North Second street since Saturday night, and expressed belief one of the bodies found in a trunk in Los Angeles tonight may be her.

Miss Hedvig Samuelson, who maintained her home with Mrs. Leroi, could not be located by newspapermen who called at the North Second street address. Neighbors said they ahd not seen either of the women since Saturday.

The two women recently moved to the Second street address from 529 West Portland street.

Southern Pacific officials said one of their baggage clerks reported to them trunks bearing the check numbers given by Los Angeles authorities as containing the bodies were brought to the station late Sunday afternoon by a man and woman. The woman purchased a ticket to Los Angeles and checked the trunks.

The trunks were brought to the station on the running boards of the couple's car.

The clerk said the man did not get out of the car. He described the woman as being about 25 years old, and said she had a bandage on her head and another on her wrist.

After the train on which the trunks left had pulled out employes noticed a pool of blood on the station floor near where the trunks had been, but did not connect the blood with the trunks, they said.