Cook County Jail Lives
While discussing toiletries and why he wasn’t allowed to shave himself, Leopold was told that he couldn’t have a steel trench mirror because it could be turned into a saw that he could use to escape. “Oh, I could get out if I wanted,” he replied. This was not taken seriously as an escape plan by the jail authorities.
Psychiatric Examinations
According to newspapers, the pair were examined by Harold Hulbert and Dr. Clarence A Neymann.
Blame Game
At the commencement of the Penn Yann Academy, a high school in New York, Reverend W. H. Wheatley gave a speech in which he paraphrased the bible and gave the students a warning:
“When you pitch a tent, if you lengthen your ropes you must strengthen your stakes. The restraints of other generations are gone today…young Leopold and Loeb lengthened their ropes but the stakes pulled out, and they stand indicted for one of the most horrible homicides in human history. Far be it from me, especially upon this occasion, to belittle the worth of an education…But remember this–that an educated brain; extended horizons; increased opportunities and liberties call for a corresponding increase of power in the realm of self-control. A trained mind-the tenant of an untamed body and soul-is your gravest danger.”
His advice on how to best strengthen those stakes to avoid scandal and murder? Believing in Jesus Christ.
Annie Laurie (also known as Winifred Black), a sensationalist writer for the Hearst papers, made fun of the theory that the thyroid gland had anything to do with the Franks murder today. But in the midst of that she also dedicated quite a lot of time vilifying Leopold, as she seemed to enjoy doing:
“Loeb, handsome in a girlish short of way, brown-eyed, wavy-haired, good-humored, facile, courteous, the very pink of the sort of boy you see playing tennis with the girls at the summer resorts.
“Leopold cold, calculating, quick as a flash, a brilliant talker, a deep student-I never could look at him without thinking of Svengali…Cynical, sarcastic, cold-blooded, hypnotic-what a strange creature to spring up suddenly in a respectable and respected family.”
Described Pre-Murder
More women who had taken Leopold’s bird classes talked to members of the State’s Attorney’s office today. According to one newspaper, Mrs. Hamilton Moses said:
“In his last conversation with me he said that he intended to marry Miss Lurie, the girl who was recently questioned regarding his sanity,” she said. “He told me that he refused to be bound by family demands and that he was about to go out and live his own life. He was intensely serious but he gave one the impression of a pouting little boy and I laughed at him. He resented that.
“He spoke kindly of only one member of his family– his mother. He said that he took flowers out to her grave every Sunday.
“Except for that one conversation, I never spoke to the boy outside of his bird-study classes. He never gave me the impression that he might be other than perfectly rational.”
The Nathan family also spoke to members of the State’s Attorney’s office today: Lorraine, her sister Rosalind and their mother Jennie. As in the past, Lorraine and her family recalled Loeb as being “very kind.” Lorraine described Loeb as “a very intelligent young man and never anything but a gentleman. He introduced Leopold to me. I did not like him and told Richard so.”
Photos
Sources
- Chicago Daily News, June 26, 1924
- Chicago Evening Post, June 26, 1924
- Chicago Herald and Examiner, June 26, 1924
- Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1924
- Penn Yan Express, June 26, 1924
The Lives and Legends of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold 