This crime comes with baggage. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

In Phoenix, Arizona, there's this little gray house that's very unassuming,

little rundown exists between two giant, apartment complexes. While physically underwhelming,

its reputation is the exact opposite. It's called the Murder House or the Death House,

because in 1931, a woman murdered her two friends in a bizarre love quadrant,

slash crime of passion, dismembered them, and transported them to beautiful Los Angeles,

California. This is the story of Phoenix, Arizona's trunk murderous in her murder house.

I have to start by saying that Phoenix in the 1930s was a lot different than it is now.

Now I think of Phoenix as kind of big, very suburban, kind of corporate, but also,

you know, like beautiful, kind of nature-filled. But then it was kind of a small,

dusty town. It was really feeling the Great Depression. The community was really, really small,

and I just want to emphasize that everyone knew each other. Winnie Ruth Judd was a 26-year-old

medical secretary who started dating prominent Phoenix businessman and very much a ladies man named

Jack Halloran. No problems there except that Judd was married. Her husband was in Santa Monica,

California, struggling with a morphine addiction, but it didn't seem to matter. Judd and her two best

friends, Anne LaRoy and Sammy Samuelson, were completely and also obsessed with Halloran.

It's complicated. On Friday 16th, 1931, Winnie was at the Gunro Medical Clinic where she worked

as a secretary when Anne LaRoy invited her over to her home. Anne said another friend was coming

over and they could make a night of playing cards. Winnie declined the invitation, but Anne insisted.

Anne LaRoy lived with headvig Sammy Samuelson in a cottage on the corner of Second Street and

Catalina Drive in Phoenix. Winnie and Sammy had all lived together in the house just a week before,

but conflict, namely Jack Halloran, made Winnie move out. At this point, there's a lot of tension

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