Raymond Allen Snowden (died October 18, 1957) was an American man who was convicted of the 1956 murder of Cora Lucyle Dean and executed in Idaho. Snowden was noteworthy for being the last person executed in the state before the 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision by the United States Supreme Court led to a nationwide death penalty moratorium. Hewas also the last to be executed in Idaho by hanging, as the state adopted a new execution method, lethal injection, after reinstating the death penalty. Due to the nature of the murder he commitited, Snowden was known as "Idaho's Jack the Ripper."[1]
In July 1956, Snowden allegedly attacked his common-law wife and threatened her with a knife. He was released after spending only one day in the Ada County jail.[4] Soon after, he pleaded guilty to battery charges and was required to repay court costs.[5]
Cora Lucyle Dean was a 48-year-old woman who had just moved to Idaho from Pasadena, California, four months prior to her murder. At the time of her death, she lived with her mother, Lucy Bundy, in Boise.[4]
Murder of Cora Dean
Cora Lucyle Dean, murder victim
On Saturday, September 22, 1956, 34-year-old Snowden went bar-hopping and drank heavily in Garden City,[6] adjacent to Boise. During his time at his final bar, a nightclub, he encountered Cora Dean, who he recognized but had not yet met; after talking, he and Dean left the nightclub. According to Snowden, after he attempted to proposition her, he and Dean had an argument about who should pay for a taxi Dean wanted.[7] Snowden also stated that he hit Dean, and Dean responded by kicking him, after she refused his sexual advances. Snowden pulled out a penknife, which he used to slash Dean's throat. After slashing her throat, Snowden mutilated Dean's body by stabbing her at least 29 times. He then stole Dean's wallet and hailed a ride from a passing motorist, who drove Snowden back to Boise. Snowden changed clothes in a bowling alley, threw his bloodied clothes away, and discarded the murder weapon in a sewer. A boy riding his bicycle discovered Cora Dean's body in a Boise suburb on September 23, and Dean's mother positively identified the body. Snowden was arrested on the morning of September 24.[2][6][7]
Snowden's arraignment took place on the night of September 24. During his interrogation, which lasted at least eight hours,[8] although he initially denied knowing anything about the crime, Snowden eventually confessed to Dean's murder. He told authorities he murdered Dean because he was angry, and that he discarded the murder weapon in a drain, although it took authorities several days to locate the drain where Snowden had left the knife.[4][9]
Authorities described Snowden as a "sex psychopath" and alluded to there being additional grisly details of Dean's murder that they did not wish to disclose until Snowden's trial.[4] An autopsy revealed that Snowden inflicted sexualized cuts on Dean's body.[6]
At one point, Snowden was also a suspect in the murder of a woman from Lynn, Massachusetts, by the name of Frances Cochran. Cochran was murdered 15 years prior to Dean, and after Snowden was in custody for Dean's murder, Idaho officials alerted Massachusetts officials of the possible connection because of Snowden's ties to Massachusetts. Ultimately, the district attorney in Massachusetts felt that the murders were "not comparable" and eliminated Snowden as a suspect in Cochran's murder.[10]
Guilty plea and appeals
While awaiting trial, Snowden was housed in the Ada County jail.[4] On September 28, 1956, Snowden asked for and received a court-appointed attorney. On October 5, 1956, he pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, on October 18, 1956, he changed his plea to guilty. After verifying Snowden understood that his guilty plea would lead to him waiving his right to a trial by jury and could lead to a life sentence or an execution, Judge M. Oliver Koelsch scheduled a hearing for October 23 to determine the degree of murder Snowden committed, as well as a punishment.[9] The court ultimately determined that Snowden's crime was a first-degree murder and that there were no mitigating circumstances they could identify to justify reducing his punishment, so on October 26, Snowden was sentenced to death.[6] His death sentence was initially scheduled to be carried out on December 7, 1956, but Snowden's lawyer filed a notice of appeal on his behalf, causing the initial execution date to be automatically delayed.[11]
In his appeal, Snowden argued that Dean's murder did not meet the criteria of a first-degree murder because he did not exhibit "malice aforethought."[6] Snowden's attorney also requested a commutation of Snowden's sentence based on purported mental illness, as well as based on the argument that the crime more closely resembled second-degree murder or manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder, and that the death penalty was a disproportionately harsh punishment. In a unanimous opinion, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected Snowden's appeal. In September 1957, Judge Koelsch set Snowden's execution date for October 18, 1957.[12][13]
Execution
Snowden did not complete his last meal of lobster, although he invited the chaplain of the prison, who attended to him in his last eight hours of life, to eat the last meal with him. The warden described Snowden as being in "good spirits" on the day of his death.[3]
Shortly before midnight on October 17, 1957, guards escorted Snowden to the death chamber at the Old Idaho State Penitentiary. They allegedly restrained him to a gurney or spinal board for the short journey from his cell to the room containing Idaho's gallows, and Snowden allegedly remained restrained to the board even as he was dropped through the trap door. In order to carry out Snowden's sentence, Idaho officials enlisted in the help of an experienced executioner from another state.[14] When asked for a last statement, Snowden said, "I can't put into words what I want to say." The trap door opened at 12:05 am on October 18, and Snowden was pronounced dead at 12:20 am.[3] Snowden's execution was the only one to occur in the penitentiary's so-called "Gallows Room," which was constructed by convicts between 1954 and 1955; all previous executions occurred either on a gallows constructed in the penitentiary's Rose Garden, or on a gallows constructed near a gate in the prison.[14][15]
A newspaper published the day after Snowden's execution stated that the only witnesses to the execution were Snowden's spiritual advisor, the penitentiary doctor, two other physicians, the Ada County coroner, the executioner, and the executioner's assistant.[16] A 1981 account of Snowden's execution, based on the recollection of a correctional officer, stated that there were two or three reporters present who refused to enter Idaho's newly constructed "observation room" for witnesses to view the hanging, but that a dozen witnesses were in that room and did witness the hanging.[17] Snowden's execution was allegedly botched when the rope failed to break his neck as intended. Snowden's purportedly botched execution led to ghost stories being formed about him haunting the penitentiary where his execution took place.[1]
Prior to the execution, Snowden's brother, who lived in Boston, wrote to the prison to tell authorities that the Snowden family did not wish to claim his body, so he was buried in the prison's cemetery.[7][16]
More than 36 years passed between Snowden's execution and the next execution in Idaho, that of Keith Wells by means of lethal injection, on January 6, 1994.[18]
A condemned prisoner's last meal is a customary ritual preceding execution. In many countries, the prisoner may, within reason, select what the last meal will be.
The Idaho Statesman is the daily newspaper of Boise, Idaho, in the western United States. It is owned by The McClatchy Company.
KNIN-TV is a television station licensed to Caldwell, Idaho, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Boise area. The station is owned by Marquee Broadcasting. KNIN-TV's transmitter is located at the Bogus Basin ski area summit in unincorporated Boise County, with its technical and news operations based out of the studios of Sinclair Broadcast Group–owned KBOI-TV on North 16th Street in Boise under a facilities and services agreement.
The New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, is a state men's prison in Trenton, New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. It is the oldest prison in New Jersey and one of the oldest correctional facilities in the United States. It is the state's only completely maximum security institution, housing the most difficult and/or dangerous male offenders in the inmate population. NJSP operates two security units and provides a high level of custodial supervision and control. Professional treatment services, such as education and social work, are a priority at the facility. The Bureau of State Use Industries operated the bedding and clothing shops that were once located in Shop Hall at the facility. These industries have been relocated to South Woods State Prison.
Eagle Island State Park is a public recreation area on the southwest outskirts of the city of Eagle, Idaho. The state park covers 545 acres (221 ha) that are bordered by the north and south channels of the Boise River. The park's recreational facilities include swimming beach, picnic area, equestrian trails, and a water slide.
Ralph Fielding "Hutch" Hutchinson was an American football, basketball, and baseball player. He served as the head football coach at Dickinson College (1901), the University of Texas at Austin (1903–1905), the University of New Mexico (1911–1916), Washington & Jefferson College (1918), the University of Idaho (1919), and the Idaho Technical Institute (1920–1927), compiling a career college football record of 62–55–6. Hutchinson was also the head basketball coach at New Mexico (1910–1917), Idaho (1919–1920), and Idaho Technical (1926–1927), amassing a career college basketball record of 56–18, and the head baseball coach at Texas from 1904 to 1906 and at New Mexico from 1910 to 1917, tallying a career college baseball mark of 69–44–2.
The Old Idaho Penitentiary State Historic Site was a functional prison from 1872 to 1973 in the western United States, east of Boise, Idaho. The first building, also known as the Territorial Prison, was constructed in the Territory of Idaho in 1870; the territory was seven years old when the prison was built, a full two decades before statehood.
Keith Eugene Wells was an American murderer convicted of the 1990 murders of John Justad and Brandi Rains in Boise, Idaho. He was executed in 1994 by the state of Idaho at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution via lethal injection only one year and nine months after having been sentenced to death by Judge Gerald Schroeder. Wells was the first person to be executed in Idaho since Raymond Snowden was hanged in 1957 and only the tenth since Idaho gained statehood. He chose not to appeal the death sentence although it was appealed on his behalf. The United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed against his wishes.
Henry Ruhl was a spree killer and the only person executed in Wyoming by the U.S. government. This was also the second-to-last pre-Furman execution in the state and third-to-last as of 2022.
Lyda Southard, also known as Lyda Anna Mae Trueblood, was an American female suspected serial killer. It was suspected that she had killed four of her husbands, a brother-in-law, and her daughter by using arsenic poisoning derived from flypaper in order to obtain life insurance money.
Ralph James Hudson was the last person to be executed by New Jersey. A native of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Hudson was tried and convicted of stabbing his 49-year-old estranged wife Myrtle Hudson to death as she worked in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, restaurant. Hudson turned down a plea deal for second degree murder. He was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death.
Paul Ezra Rhoades was an American spree killer and suspected serial killer convicted of three murders committed in Idaho during a three-week crime spree in 1987. He is the prime suspect in at least four additional killings in Utah and Wyoming dating back to 1984, however, he was never conclusively linked to these murders. He was executed for two of his confirmed murders in 2011, becoming the first person to be executed in Idaho in over seventeen years.
Thomas Eugene Creech is an American serial killer who was convicted of two murders committed in 1974 and sentenced to death in Idaho. The sentence was reduced two years later on appeal to life imprisonment. He was sent back to Idaho's death row for a 1981 murder committed while imprisoned. Creech personally confessed to a total of 42 murders in various states, some of which allegedly involved the Hells Angels and the Church of Satan. Most of his additional confessions are uncorroborated, but police believe strong evidence links Creech to seven additional murder victims. In January 2024, an investigation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department concluded that Creech murdered Daniel A. Walker.
Harvey John Collins was an American serial killer who was responsible for three murders committed in Kentucky and Washington between 1953 and 1955, one of them committed while he was serving in the United States Army. Convicted and sentenced to death for one of the murders, he was subsequently executed in 1957.
Phillip J. Coleman Jr. was an American spree killer and self-confessed serial killer who was convicted of a double murder in Lothrop, Montana committed on July 24, 1943, together with accomplice Louis Brown. On the day of his execution, he published a written confession admitting to 23 total murders across the United States and Canada, providing details for eight of them, including one for which he had been suspected previously but never charged.
Randy Lee Davison is an American actor who appeared in the films The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021) as Joseph McCarthy, Mank (2020), Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea (2023), Not This Part of the World (1995), and Touch (2022). In the 1990s, Davison appeared in the television show America's Funniest People as Edith Bunker and as Senex in Boise State University's production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
