If Winnie shot her two friends in self defense as she later claimed, why did she hide their bodies in trunks and attempt to take them as luggage with her on a train to L.A.?
It's October 16, 1931. Winnie Ruth Judd, a pretty 26 year old secretary, gets off work and goes home. When her lover--wealthy Phoenix businessman with a wife & familiy of his own--fails to come at the appointed hour, she accepts an invitation from her girl friends Anne & Sammy to come over and spend the night. On Saturday morning, Winnie reported to work with her left hand in a bandage ("I burned it ironing," she said when asked). But Anne, who also worked at the clinic as an X-ray technician, failed to show up. "I don't know where she could be" Winnie told the Doctors. Back at the girls' house, all was silent. A large steamer trunk in the middle of the living room contained their bodies, Sammy's dissected to fit. When Winnie showed up at L.A.'s Union Station on Monday morning, the trunk had been repacked into a number of smaller pieces of luggage. Who was she there to meet? How was she planning to dispose of the bodies? Those questions remain unanswered, for the large trunk was leaking blood and smelled so foul that officials refused to hand over the trunks to Winnie until she opened them to explain their condition. But resourceful Winnie, claiming she was leaving to get the key, simply walked out the door and vanished into the streets of Los Angeles. One week later--the bullet wound in her hand already gangrenous--she surrendered to authorities. So began one of the first sensationalistic trials of the 20th Century involving a woman murderer. But did Winnie really shoot the girls in self defense as she claimed? Why didn't her lawyers let her testify? And who was John Doe--the man authorities believed must have helped her with the coverup and handling of the bodies? Would a jury find Winnie innocent by self defense? Guilty of premeditated murder? Or simply insane?
