May Ruth Brown met Albert Edward Snyder (né Schneider) in 1915 in New York City, when she was 20 years old and he was a 33-year-old artist.

The couple had little in common; Brown, who went by her middle name of Ruth to most people and was known as "Tommy" to close friends, was described as vivacious and gregarious, while Snyder was described as quiet and reserved and very much a "homebody".

Albert Snyder was employed as an art editor for Motor Boating magazine, published for most of its run by William Randolph Hearst, and earned $100 per week.

[2] In 1925, Ruth began an extramarital relationship with Henry Judd Gray, a married corset salesman who lived in the New Jersey suburbs.

claim that Ruth's disdain for her husband apparently began when he insisted on hanging a portrait of his late fiancée Jessie Guischard on the wall of their first home and had named his boat after her.

[5][6] On March 20, 1927, the couple strangled Albert with a picture wire, stuffed his nose full of chloroform-soaked rags, and beat him with a sash weight, then staged his death as part of a burglary.

Moreover, Ruth's behavior was inconsistent with her story of a terrorized wife witnessing the violent murder of her husband.

In his autobiography, Elliott recalled that Ruth Snyder almost fainted when she saw the electric chair and that she had to be seated with the help of the matrons who had taken care of her while on death row.

Warren Schneider, brother of Albert, petitioned to be allowed to appoint a legal guardian who was not a member of Ruth's family.

[12] Lorraine was formally placed by her maternal grandmother in the Catholic institution where she had been residing at the time of her mother's execution.

[18] While incarcerated on death row, Ruth Snyder wrote a sealed letter that she requested be given to Lorraine "when she is old enough to understand".