James R. Snyder

FBI Arrests Man As Prison Escapee

Camden Courier-Post, September 6, 1972

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FBI Arrests Man As Prison Escapee FBI agents yesterday arrested James R. Snyder, 40, an apartment superintendent living at 1419 Baird Blvd., Camden, on a charge of being an escaped federal prisoner, according to J. Wallace LaPrade, special agent in charge of the Bureau’s Newark office. Snyder allegedly escaped from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., July 15, while serving a three-to-ten-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and mayhem, according to LaPrade. Snyder was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal in Camden for return to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.

Search Intensified For Missing Teacher

Camden Courier-Post, October 4, 1972

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Three Fingers Still Mystery Search Intensified For Missing Teacher By LOUIS T. LOUNSBERRY Courier-Post Staff Camden police said yesterday they had no new clues in the apparent slaying of Mrs. Muskogee Edwards, 66, a retired Camden school teacher whose three severed fingers were found in a trash can at her home on Sept. 21. Mrs. Edwards, who lived in the first floor apartment of a duplex she owned at 1419 Baird Ave., was reported missing in mid-September by neighbors who said they had not seen the woman since about Aug. 21. Yesterday, police were intensifying their search for Mrs. Edwards’ missing 1966 blue Pontiac with damaged left front fender, hood and grill. Collect Data They also continued to collect information about James Snyder, 47, a fugitive from a Washington, D.C., mental hospital. Snyder, police said, had escaped from the hospital while under treatment there following an arrest on a murder charge. He was taken into custody in Mrs. Edwards’ home Sept. 5 by Camden police and FBI agents. Snyder had been employed as a maintenance man by the missing woman for several months. He had escaped from the Washington mental facility in July, 1971. Snyder has been returned to the hospital, and police said they have not yet been Continued on Page 44—Col. 1 MUSKOGEE A. EDWARDS

Muskogee A. Edwards, 1972

Camden Courier-Post, October 4, 1972

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Search Is Intensified For Missing City Woman Continued From Page One able to question him about Mrs. Edwards. Residents on Baird Avenue told police they became concerned about Mrs. Edwards when they did not see her for what seemed to be an unusually long period of time. Left for Visit They said they asked Snyder where Mrs. Edwards was, and were told she had left to visit her sister, Mrs. Adele Heiskell, in California. However, police investigations revealed that Mrs. Heiskell, who had lived in the upstairs apartment of Mrs. Edwards’ duplex until about a year ago, had not seen her sister in months. Neighbors described Snyder as a quiet man who kept very much to himself during the months he worked as a caretaker for the missing woman. They said they did not know he was a mental hospital excapee. Sixth Grade Teacher Mrs. Edwards, a sixth grade teacher at the Whittier School in Camden for more than 20 years, also was described by neighbors as a quiet person. They pictured her as a pleasant woman who kept to herself, left her home infrequently, and spent a great deal of time gardening. Mrs. Rachel McNeil, a 78-year-old former school teacher who has lived next door to Mrs. Edwards for five or six years, described her neighbor as a friendly person and a good neighbor. While she was never inside Mrs. Edwards’ home, Mrs. McNeil says, the two had frequent friendly conversations across the back fence, or as Mrs. Edwards worked outside with her flowers and plants. Mrs. McNeil remembers her neighbor as a devoted teacher who was extremely fond of children and took a personal interest in them. Often, she recalls, Mrs. Edwards would discover that a pupil needed new shoes, find work for him to do around her house, then pay him enough to buy the shoes. Mrs. McNeil says she has not seen her neighbor since before Sept. 5, when Snyder was arrested.

Missing Teacher Is Called Too Trusting

Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 1972

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Missing Teacher Is Called Too Trusting By ELLEN KARASIK Of The Inquirer Staff Muskogee Edwards was a trusting women. Friends say too trusting. “She’d let different people take care of her personal business,” said Mrs. Joyce Boston, who taught with Mrs. Edwards for 12 years at Whittier Elementary School in Camden. “People on the outside could see that these people weren’t the type to trust with important matters. She’d let them drive her around, take care of her house, even go to the bank for her.” ONE PERSON that Mrs. Edwards trusted—and trusted perhaps too much—was James Rudolph Snyder. Snyder, a snappy dresser and a glib talker, is now the focal point of an investigation into Mrs. Edwards’ disappearance. She was last seen by neighbors Aug. 17. But friends gave little thought to her whereabouts because Snyder, whom she hired as a handyman to take care of her house at 1419 Baird blvd., Camden, said she had gone to California to visit her sister. IT WAS PLAUSIBLE explanation. Retired after 25 years of teaching, the 66-year-old woman longed for the day she could settle business matters on her three Camden apartment buildings and the home on Baird blvd. She was eager to move into the $40,000 house she had bought in Altadena, Calif. “She was always showing us pictures of the house. She had a treehouse built in the backyard for her niece and nephew,” said Mrs. Margaret Hall, a friend for 30 years. “She always told us that once she retired, that house would be her home.” Mrs. Edwards never got to California. ON SEPT. 20, Camden police found in the basement of her home a trash container filled with goulish remnants of the horror she must have suffered. Packed in that container were the pieces of three finters, a mattress cover, a quilt, two pillow cases, a knife and a broken hacksaw blade—all with red stains that police expect laboratory tests to show as Mrs. Edwards’ blood type. A thumb found in the trash can was indentified as Mrs. Edwards’ after police matched the print with a print taken when she applied for a gun permit. Also in the container were 15 pounds of what police described as “foul-smelling material,” believed to be human flesh eaten away by a type of acid. WHILE THAT discovery was being made, James R. Snyder—the man Mrs. Edwards trusted enough to hire to help around the house, was back in familar surroundings—the maximum security section of the Federal Mental Institution in Washington. It was on Sept. 5 that neighbors witnessed a scene that 15 days later they would link to the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Edwards. “I WAS SITTING on my porch, and this man who had been doing work for Mrs. Edwards—I never knew his name—was handcuffed right on the front lawn of her house by two men,” said Mrs. Rasheal McNeal, who lives one door down at 1417 Baird blvd. Snyder had escaped from the institution July 13. It was his first escape since his commitment to hospital in 1959. JAMES R. SNYDER has a history of violence dating back to his youth. In September 1956, less than two weeks after his release from Lorton Reformatory, where he served time for grand larceny, he was charged in the hammer slaying of a busboy. A few days before that, Snyder, then 24, had assaulted and robbed an Army nurse, also in Washington. Snyder was tried for murder Feb. 24, 1959 and was acquitted by reason of insanity. He was placed in the hospital that year. SNYDER BECAME violent on several occasions while in the hospital. But when he showed improvement, he was granted ground privileges and allowed to work in different sections of the hospital. While assigned to work in the garage in 1969, he attacked a hospital employe and beat him on the head with a pipe. The victim lost an eye. CAMDEN POLICE will not discuss Snyder. And although Mrs. Edwards is still listed as a missing person, Detective Capt. Donald McGlensey said, “We are pursuing the case as if it was murder.” MUSKOGEE EDWARDS … dreamed of California It’s expected that once the laboratory tests come in on the contents of the trash container and the case is officially listed as murder, an arrest warrant will be issued. Camden police have not yet questioned Snyder, but according to Washington police officials, two Camden detectives have made several tele-vestigation into Snyder’s background within days after the trash container was discovered. The U. S. Attorney in Washington has been apprised of the case, and Camden detectives have made several telephone contacts with police there. SNYDER went to Camden after his escape and took a room in the house owned by Mrs. Edwards. It adjoins her own house. There was nothing strange in the fact that Mrs. Edwards hired Snyder. He was an expert woodworker, and Mrs. Edwards was fixing up the house. “There were always workmen around the house,” said Mrs. Caroline Pugsley, who lives three doors away. “When she bought that house it was vacant and in terrible condition. We were glad to see her because she fixed it up beautifully.” MRS. PUGSLEY ALSO believed Mrs. Edwards had gone to California. One night in August—about 2:30 A. M.—Mrs. Pugsley heard a loud racket outside her house and looked outside to see if her car was safe. “I saw someone in Mrs. Edwards’ car. I couldn’t tell who it was because it was dark and the car drove away as I came out. When I heard the neighbors say she had gone to California, I said ‘My God I hope she didn’t go in that car, because she’d never make it to Haddon ave.’”

Escapee Indicted In Stolen Car Sale

Camden Courier-Post, May 14, 1973

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Escapee Indicted In Stolen Car Sale A man previously arrested as an escaped federal prisoner was indicted by a Camden County grand jury yesterday on charges of possession of a stolen auto and forging a title to the vehicle that belonged to a missing retired Camden school teacher. James R. Snyder, 40, presently confined to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D.C., was indicted on charges of selling the 1966 auto of Mrs. Muskogee Edwards, 66, last September to a Gloucester City used car dealer. Snyder was identified as the superintendent of Mrs. Edwards’ Camden duplex at 1419 Baird Boulevard. He originally was arrested by federal agents Sept. 5, 1972, as an escapee from the hospital where he is now confined. Snyder was serving a three-to-ten-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and mayhem. Mrs. Edwards has been missing since mid-August 1972 and is believed to be dead, according to police. Last Sept. 21, police found three fingers, identified as those of the missing woman, in a trash can at her home. Police believe the woman was murdered and her body cut up with either a meat cleaver, ax or knife.

Snyder Found Guilty of 1st Degree Murder

Camden Courier-Post, April 22, 1975

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Snyder Found Guilty of 1st Degree Murder By RENEE WINKLER Courier-Post Staff James R. Snyder, 49, formerly of Camden, was convicted Monday of first degree murder in the slaying of Muskogee Edwards, 66, a retired Camden school teacher who had befriended the mental hospital runaway. A jury of six men and six women deliberated one hour and 20 minutes before returning the verdict to Superior Court Judge Philip A. Gruccio, who had presided at the 11-day trial. Snyder showed no immediate reaction to the guilty verdict, which could mean life imprisonment. When court attendants asked him to stand to be handcuffed for his return to Camden County Jail, Snyder at first refused to move. He muttered a few unintelligible comments, but was cautioned by Judge Gruccio, and then cooperated. The state had presented 34 witnesses, and the jury studied 141 pieces of evidence before returning its verdict. Snyder was charged with stabbing Mrs. Edwards to death as she slept in her first floor bedroom at 1419 Baird Blvd. in the Parkside section of Camden, then dismembering her body and disposing of the remains. Mrs. Edwards, who had been reported missing to Camden police by several friends, was identified through the fingerprint on a severed thumb found by police in a trash can in the basement of the house on Sept. 21, 1972. Snyder had been arrested by federal agents about two weeks prior to the grisly discovery, in connection with a charge that he had left the grounds at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., without permission. Snyder, who was raised in Camden, had been Mrs. Edwards’ student at the Whittier School about 35 years ago. When he returned to the Camden area in July 1972, he visited Mrs. Edwards, and she gave him a job painting her house and doing general maintenance at several other properties she owned in the city. Snyder had been confined to the federally-operated St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in February 1959 after being acquitted of a murder by reason of insanity. While hospitalized there, he was acquitted of stabbing an attendant 18 times, also by reason of insanity, and later was convicted of atrocious assault and battery on another guard. Prior to standing trial, he was declared legally sane by state psychiatric officials. In his summation to the jury, Camden County Assistant Prosecutor Philip B. Seaton said there was “no reasonable alternative to a guilty verdict.” He asked for a conviction on the charge of first degree murder, since he felt the defendant had planned to murder Mrs. Edwards before assuming her identification and her assets. After Mrs. Edwards’ death, Snyder had written checks on her account, made purchases with her credit cards and collected rents on her properties on the strength of an authorizing letter he had forged. Seaton said that for the jury to acquit the defendant they would have to disregard all testimony made by the state’s witnesses.

United States v. James R. Snyder — 529 F.2d 871 (D.C. Cir. 1976)

United States of America v. James R. Snyder, Appellant (three Cases), 529 F.2d 871 (D.C. Cir. 1976). Argued Jan. 13, 1975. Decided Jan. 7, 1976.

ROBB, Circuit Judge: Each of these consolidated appeals presents a different issue. In No. 24,575 the appellant Snyder, a patient at Saint Elizabeths Hospital for the mentally ill, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, 22 D.C.Code § 502, and mayhem, 22 D.C.Code § 506. After a non-jury trial he was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than three nor more than ten years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. The question presented is whether the District Court rightly declined to interpose an insanity defense when both Snyder and his counsel urged that it not be raised.

In No. 73–1970 Snyder challenges the refusal of the District Court to approve the recommendation of the hospital authorities that he be unconditionally released.

In 1956 Snyder was indicted in the District Court for the murder of his homosexual partner. Found competent to stand trial he was tried in 1959, adjudged not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to Saint Elizabeths Hospital. On August 5, 1963, while still a patient at Saint Elizabeths, he stabbed another patient repeatedly with an ice pick, inflicting serious wounds. By threats with the same weapon he then compelled a nursing assistant to open the door and allow him to escape. Snyder was apprehended some six weeks later and returned to the hospital, but no criminal action was taken against him.

On December 1, 1968 Snyder struck a hospital employee on the head with a blunt instrument, causing him to lose one eye, his olfactory sense, and a piece of his skull. According to the employee, Peter Klaga, Snyder suddenly became violent and struck him from behind. Snyder claimed that Klaga had made homosexual advances to him and that Snyder struck him in self-defense.

On July 15, 1972, before the court acted on the Superintendent’s request for his release, Snyder again escaped from Saint Elizabeths Hospital. He was arrested in Camden, New Jersey, on September 15, 1972 and returned to the hospital.

On December 8, 1972 Snyder was indicted under 18 U.S.C. § 751(a) for his escape of July 15, 1972. A jury trial on September 17, 1973 resulted in a verdict of guilty, the court having again declined to interpose the defense of insanity sua sponte. Snyder was sentenced to be imprisoned for five years, this sentence to run consecutively to any sentence then being served; and the court directed that Snyder be committed to the medical center at Springfield, Missouri.

Having weighed the evidence as he was required to do by 24 D.C. Code § 301(e) the district judge found that Snyder still suffered from mental illness and would in the reasonable future be dangerous to others if released. Accordingly the judge denied release. The judge noted the evidence of Snyder’s involvement in the Camden murder.

In No. 24,575 the record is remanded for supplementation in accordance with this opinion. The judgment in No. 73–1970 is affirmed. The judgment in No. 73–2154 is reversed.

United States v. James R. Snyder — 689 F.2d 1067 (D.C. Cir. 1982)

United States of America v. James R. Snyder, Appellant, 689 F.2d 1067 (D.C. Cir. 1982). Argued May 4, 1982. Decided Aug. 20, 1982. As Amended Dec. 10, 1982.

MacKINNON, Circuit Judge: Following a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity to a 1956 charge of first-degree murder, Snyder has been confined at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Through the years there have been several attempts to obtain his release and we here affirm a refusal by the district court to unconditionally release him pursuant to requests by the Superintendent of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital under D.C.Code § 24-301(e) (1981) and by appellant (Snyder) under D.C.Code § 24-301(k) (1981). The facts of this case are almost unbelievable.

On October 15, 1956, James R. Snyder was charged with first-degree murder for killing his homosexual paramour. After various delays, Snyder was tried before a jury on a three-count indictment. The jury rejected his insanity defense and found him guilty. On appeal this court remanded the case to the district court with instructions to enter a judgment of not guilty by reason of insanity. The district court entered judgment as directed and committed Snyder to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.

On February 24, 1959, Snyder’s first-degree murder trial commenced. Several days later on February 27, 1959, the district court granted Snyder’s motion for a directed verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity and committed him to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.

While housed at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Snyder on August 5, 1963 in a “rage reaction” stabbed another patient seventeen times with an ice pick and then compelled a nursing assistant under threats with the same weapon to open the door so that he could escape. Six weeks later Snyder was apprehended but no criminal charges were filed.

Five years later on December 1, 1968, Snyder while on the hospital grounds assaulted a hospital employee with a ball-peen hammer, causing the employee to lose an eye, his olfactory sense and a piece of his skull. Snyder was subsequently indicted for mayhem and assault with a dangerous weapon and at his own election was tried without a jury. Neither Snyder nor his counsel wanted to raise the insanity defense. Snyder was convicted and sentenced to concurrent sentences of three to ten years on each count.

However, while the Superintendent’s 1972 request for unconditional release was pending, Snyder on July 15, 1972 again escaped from the hospital and traveled to Camden, New Jersey where he began living with a Mrs. Muskogee Edwards. On September 15, 1972, Snyder was arrested in Camden and returned to St. Elizabeth’s. Five days later, Camden police, while investigating Mrs. Edwards’ disappearance, found her mutilated, decomposed remains in the basement of her home. She had apparently been murdered in gruesome fashion with a hack saw, meat cleaver, knife and ax. Camden police found that Snyder had been forging Mrs. Edwards’ signature on her car title certificate, checks and personal correspondence.

Following a jury trial before the Camden County Criminal Court, Snyder on April 21, 1975 was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Mrs. Edwards. Snyder was sentenced to a consecutive life term of imprisonment and was returned to St. Elizabeth’s where the State of New Jersey lodged a detainer that remains in force.

The district court found as a result of the testimony presented at the hearing that Snyder “suffers from anti-social personality disorder, compulsive personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.” It is hard to see how any reasonable person could conclude that Snyder is not dangerous to others.

Accordingly, Snyder has not stated a claim upon which relief may be granted. We affirm the district court’s order denying the requests of both the hospital and Snyder for his unconditional release. Judgment accordingly.