WOODLEY REX SNYDER was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925 to Rex W. Snyder and his wife, the former Anna Jackson. He was the first of at least seven children, the others being Clarence F. Snyder, Julius Snyder,  Margaret Snyder,  Leroy Snyder, James R. Snyder, and Florence Snyder. The Snyders had come to Camden from Philadelphia, shortly after the birth of Woodley Snyder. The 1930 Census shows them at 919 South 9th Street. Also living with the family were Rex Snyder's mother Jane and her second husband, Louis Frazier. Leroy, James, and Florence were all born after the 1930 Census. The family broke apart in the late 1930s, the most likely scenario is that Anna Snyder had passed away, and Clarence F. Snyder, Woodley's twin, does not appear to have survived the 1930s. 

The 1940 Census shows that Woodley Snyder was living at the New Jersey Home for Boys in Middlesex County. Julius, Leroy and James were living with grandparents Howard and Caroline Jackson are listed in the 1940 Census for Sleepy Hole, Virginia, which is now part of the city of Suffolk, Virginia. The Census indicates that the boys were living there as early as 1935. The 1940 Census also shows Rex Snyder was boarding at 904 Douglass Street in Camden, and grandmother Jane Frazier and her husband had moved to 736 Cherry Street. The Snyder daughters were raised elsewhere, Margaret by Chasten and Mary Howard, who lived for many years in Pennsauken, New Jersey. By 1942 Rex Snyder had moved to the 700 block of Mt. Vernon Street.

Woodley, Julius, Leroy and James Snyder were all back in Camden in the 1940s. Woodley Snyder had been getting trouble with the law since the age of nine. He was sent to Jamesburg in 1942 for breaking and entering. He  escaped from the Boys Home in September of 1942 and was arrested in Camden with stolen goods after a month on the run. He was sent to Jamesburg for five years. for crimes committed during his escape. In October of 1942 he robbed and beat an elderly woman during a robbery so badly that she was paralyzed. Woodley Snyder was sentenced to a 10-15 year prison term for this crime. Woodley Snyder moved to Philadelphia after his release from prison, and his involvement with law enforcement appears to ended after his time in New Jersey's state prison system.

All four of the Snyder brothers had encounters with the law due to criminal behavior. Julius Snyder had at least four brushes with the law between 1946 and 1963 on charges that included  gambling,  embezzlement, burglary, and assault. Like Woodley, Julius Snyder appears to have straightened as the years passed. Leroy and James Snyder, on the other hand, were a whole other matter. 

In December of 1949 Leroy Snyder was arrested for assaulting a young woman and attempting to strangle her. with a clothesline. In and out of prison for a series of crimes that only escalated in violence, Leroy Snyder was put back on the street in January of 1969 after serving nine years in prison. Within six weeks of his being put back on the street, he had murdered his first victim, Mrs. Lula Crawley. His killing spree was stopped in September, shortly after the rape and murder of Mrs. Friedman, his seventh. On July 16, 1970, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms. Referring to a court-ordered psychiatric report, the presiding judge publicly described Snyder as a "malignant psychopath" and a "threat to society," expressing the hope that he would never be released from jail. Leroy Snyder died in prison October of 2001.

James Snyder was arrested in Camden on May 10, 1952 for possession of a stolen car and was fined $200 and turned over to the Army at Fort Dix. His life appears to have gone completely off the rails after this. He was next sent to prison on larceny charges for crimes committed in Washington D.C. Within two weeks of his release in 1956, he had robbed and assaulted a nurse, and killed a busboy with a hammer. He was acquitted for reasons of insanity and confined to the federal mental institution at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington. Although he had been violent on several occasions, he was allowed street privileges from 9:00 A.M to 9:00 P.M. to work in a vocational program. In 1969 while at one of these programs, he attacked a hospital employee, leaving his victim less one eye. The hospitals' response was to cut his time allowed off-premises to 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. James Snyder escaped from St. Elizabeth's in July of 1972 and made his way back to Camden. He connected with Mrs. Muskogee Edwards, who had taught him when he had been a student at the John G. Whittier School. This was a fatal mistake, as James Snyder murdered her. He had already been caught and returned to St. Elizabeth's when her body was discovered. James Snyder was not tried until 1975. He was convicted of first degree murder, but apparently never served time in New Jersey prisons, having been returned to federal custody. Criminally insane, James Snyder lived out his years at St. Elizabeth's, passing away on July 16, 2013.