The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd

This fascinating story tells of Winnie Ruth Judd, 26-years-old in 1931, and of the aftermath of the murder of her two best friends one Saturday night. Two days later, she and two heavy, leaking trunks boarded a train for Los Angeles. She disappeared, but when her trunks were examined, the bodies of her best friends, one cut into four pieces, were discovered inside.

Winnie turned herself in days later, and then began forty years of sensational news, trials, appeals, insane asylums, escapes and possibly some VERY gross miscarriages of justice.

Bommersbach is an Arizona journalist and first began digging into Judd's story for an article. However, the more she dug, the more she found that pointed to a coverup - transcripts and evidence that show more was never mentioned during trial, for example.

Having lived in AZ all my life, I found this so interesting! Some of the names mentioned rang bells, but I had never heard Judd's name before, so this was eye-opening, to say the least.

Recommended - I read it for a book group, and we had a great time discussing the circumstances, the ridiculous (and often false) news coverage and all the conspiracies... show less

This was not riveting. At times it seem repetitive. It was well researched and she uncovered some facts that might not have come to light. It would probably be more interesting to someone familiar with the case.

I read this book because it was chosen for the 2010 onebook arizona book. I enjoyed reading it, not so much for the mystery, but more for the history of Phoenix in the 30's. The book kept my interest and the last chapter brings up quite a bit of interesting perspectives on the incident that rocked the nation.