Leroy Snyder (February 13, 1931 â October 1, 2001) was an American serial killer who murdered six women and one man in Camden, New Jersey, over a period of eight months in 1969. He was a habitual offender who was on parole at the time of the murders. After his arrest, he pleaded guilty to each crime to avoid a potential death sentence and was given six life sentences.
Snyder was born in Camden on February 13, 1931, the fifth in a family of seven children. The family was seriously dysfunctional and they lived in a socially disadvantageous environment, as Leroy and his siblings were raised in multiple locations. In the mid-1940s, Leroy, along with other siblings returned to Camden, where he sparked his early criminal escapades.
In December 1949, at age 18, Snyder attempted to strangle a local woman using a clothesline. Arrested not long after, he was jailed only briefly before being released and returning to Camden. There, he was apprehended by authorities after making vulgar threats of rape to two young women. He was jailed again for four years before being released in June 1955.
Snyder was once again arrested in July 1955 for robbing and assaulting a cab driver in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for which he was given a five-year sentence. Another arrest came in 1959 for armed robbery, for which he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He was incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison until being paroled in December 1968.
Between February and September 1969, a series of shockingly brutal murders rocked Camden and the surrounding areas. It was the worst murder-spree the city dealt with in 20 years. Six women and one man were killed:
Three days after Friedman's murder, authorities raided Snyder's home on Cherry Street and arrested him for murder. Police recovered Friedman's stolen watch and several of her missing clothes from his house. After his arrest, the brutal murders in Camden abruptly came to an end. Before Snyder's capture, two men were arrested as suspects in the killings and later cleared of suspicion:
Snyder was questioned in the other murders by detectives Earl Smith and Nate Jones. He confessed to each murder with graphic details that had not originally been made public. Authorities also investigated Snyder's possible involvement in three additional murders committed in the Camden area, but he was eventually ruled out as a suspect.
Under New Jersey law, Snyder couldn't be sentenced to death after a confession, so on July 17, 1970, Snyder was sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment.
Snyder was required to serve at least 43ý years of his sentence before being considered for parole, which would have been in 2014 at 84 years of age. On October 1, 2001, Snyder, who had served 31 years of his initial sentence, died at New Jersey State Prison at age 70.