In the late summer of 1969, the life of 58-year-old Gertrude Friedman came to a brutal and tragic end in the city of Camden, New Jersey. For over four decades, she had been a fixture in her community, living and working in her combination apartment and linoleum shop located at 330 Kaighn Avenue. It was within these familiar walls that she was brutally attacked, beaten, and raped before her throat was slashed. Her death on September 11, 1969, marked the final act of violence in a string of killings that had cast a shadow of fear over the city.
The investigation into her murder led authorities to Leroy Snyder, a 38-year-old junkyard laborer with an extensive and violent criminal history. At the time of his arrest for Friedman's murder, Snyder had spent the better part of the previous two decades in and out of New Jersey state prisons for crimes including rape and armed robbery.
Held without bail, the scope of his violent spree began to unravel.
While incarcerated for the murder of Gertrude Friedman, Leroy Snyder was indicted for six additional murders that had occurred in Camden between February and September of that year. In July of 1970, he confessed to all seven slayings. The victims, who included five women and one man, were largely described as friends or acquaintances of Snyder. The motives he claimed were varied, with robbery being the primary reason for six of the murders, while he stated he could not recall his motivation for the seventh.
To avoid the death penalty, Snyder entered a plea of no defense to the seven counts of homicide. On July 16, 1970, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms, a sentence that required him to serve a minimum of 43 and a half years before the possibility of parole. A court-ordered psychiatric report described him as a 'malignant psychopath' and a 'threat to society,' with the presiding judge expressing a hope that he would never be released from prison. Leroy Snyder died in prison in October of 2001, closing the final chapter on the series of violent acts that included the death of Gertrude Friedman.
