It's been almost sixty years since Idaho's "Jack The Ripper" was put to death in the Old Idaho Penitentiary.

 

Raymund Allen Snowden found himself on the second floor of the gallows in the Old Idaho Penitentiary for brutally killing a woman in Garden City on September 23, 1956.  Cora Dean had thirty stab wounds and Snowden also thrust the blade of the knife into the base of her skull severing the spinal chord.

 

The weapon was found in the gutter just outside of Hannifan's Cigar Store in Boise.  Employees there witnessed Snowden acting suspiciously when he was using the restroom.

 

After Snowden was arrested he admitted to two other killings but was only convicted for the death of Cora Dean.

 

On October 18, 1957, Idaho's "Jack The Ripper" was strung up in the gallows at the Old Idaho Penitentiary in a room where there was a big glass window so the family could witness the hanging.  When the officers pulled the lever, the iron trap doors slammed against the side walls, shattering the glass to the windows.  Snowden's neck didn't snap so he struggled, gasping for air and life for fifteen minutes before he died.

 

Some say you can still hear Snowden gurgling and gasping for air in the gallows of the Old Idaho Penitentiary.

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