Loeb and Leopold Immortalized in Wax

Within a month of their confessions, wax versions of Leopold and Loeb were drawing crowds in Coney Island. For more than ten years they could be seen in wax museums and travelling shows across the country. Descriptions of those exhibits are below, sorted by the museum they belonged to.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find photos of the figures themselves, and if anyone else can I’d love to see them!

Eden Musee (Coney Island) * Eden Musee (Montreal, Canada) * Shaw (Missouri) * Travelling Shows * Non Location Specific * In Fiction

A Leopold & Loeb sign can be seen at the bottom right, along with signs advertising other popular murder cases

Eden Musee (Coney Island)

Leopold-Loeb in Wax at Coney, Urbana Daily Courier, June 21, 1924

It didn’t take the Island long to reproduce the Leopold-Loeb figures in wax as the central angle of the Franks murder in Chicago.

The Eden Musee had both of the freak-minded boys reproduced by Sunday with a big streamer over the entrance telling the world about it.

A steady stream poured into the Musee all day to get a look at the self-confessed murderers.

Images of Loeb and Leopold in Eden Musee, Chicago Herald and Examiner, June 23, 1924

Eden Musee, the famous Coney Island museum, offers its visitors wax likenesses of famous rulers, martyrs and fame-winning generals as well as of bank robbers and assassins. A few days ago it installed wax figures of Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. The management announces the figures as the greatest attraction since a waxen Harry K. Thaw stared at the patrons.

A Boardwalk View of Coney, by Burns Mantle, New York Daily News, August 10, 1924

It may interest you to know that a museum-exhibit along the avenue includes wax figures and lectures descriptive of the Leopold-Loeb-Franks murder case. ‘Sterrible!

Only One Dime Museum Remains in New York, New York Times, September 21, 1924

Although not exactly a dime museum, the best drawing resort of a similar nature during the last generation was the Eden Musée, the house of life-like wax works. For over thirty years it attracted crowds to Twenty-third Street from all over the county. Its “Chamber of Horrors” was better known nationally than any Chamber of Commerce or Government.

…

In June, 1925, the Musée went bankrupt, and in December of that year its wax effigies were sold at auction. Thus passed the last of the city’s old-time amusement landmarks, and now an office building stands on the spot. The collections were sold to different bidders, and many of the wax works are being now exhibited, with new additions, such as the Leopold-Loeb trial, under the name Edén Musee, at Coney Island.

Pathos, Idaho Statesman, March 16, 1928

To understand the qualities of pathos and humor is difficult and it is difficult to understand why there should be pathos, as well as humor, in the story of the Coney Island fire, which destroyed the Chamber of Horrors and reduced its replicas of famous personages to puddles of was. But the pathos is there.

…

Former president Taft dwindled within his clothing and ran over his show tops. The sprucely erect policeman caved in at the knees, buckled at the waist and collapsed within his blue uniform. Loeb and Leopold mingled in common wax with Gerald Chapman, the garrote murderer, and the rest of the Chamber of Horrors ran out through a crack in the door.

A New Yorker at Large by G. D. Seymour, Chico Record, April 19, 1929

All the favorite wax works of other seasons will be shown again-Lindbergh Crossing the Atlantic, the Leopold-Loeb murder case, the Snyder-Gray murder and dozens more. But the crowds clamor for new morbidities, and the Chicago massacre and the Rothstein killing are just the things to pull them in.

Samuel W. Gumpertz, proprietor of the Musee, doubts seriously however, that either will be as popular as was the Snyder-Gray exhibit two seasons ago, when he had to call out the police to keep the crowds in order the week he revealed it. And no wax display ever attracted as many patrons as the miniature Leopold-Loeb effigies.

Short Memory For Murders Bad For Waxwork Business by H Allen Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 12, 1930

The American public has forgotten the hanging of Gerald Chapman, the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, the Loeb-Leopold case, the Hall-Mills case and even the shooting of Arnold Rothstein, but the celebrated Snyder-Gray murder still lures them by the thousands to the Eden Musee, Coney Island’s leading wax-works.

…

The St. Valentine’s Day massacre, the Loeb-Leopold case, the Rothstein murder and even the shooting of Alfred (Jake) Lingle are now on exhibit, but attract little or no attention, according to the man who set them up.

Reflector, Minnesota State Reformatory for Women, 1938, page 14

I’m only able to see a snippet of this from Google Books, but because it contains a description of the exhibit itself, I wanted to include what I could.

[Describing Coney Island] You see rooms windowed and each containing wax figures representing famous criminal cases. It also shows how the crimes were committed. For instance one room contains the wax figures of Leopold and Loeb and the little Franks boy who is half inserted in a culvert. Nearby lay the glasses [preview ends]

Eden Musee (Montreal, Canada)

Old Montreal Waxwork Museum to Close After Half a Century, Montreal Gazette, June 10, 1940

A visitor to the museum today – and for the next three and a half months – will see reproductions of the death of General Wolfe and Montcalm, heroes of the Battles of the Plans of Abraham: Maisonneuve, Olier, Dauversiere and D’Ailerboust as they signed the document which founded the city of Montreal: a statue of Edward Beaupre, the French-Canadian Giant who stood 8 feet 2 inches in his stocking feet and weighed 346 pounds; Mrs. Thomas, who slept for 18 months; Dr. Crippen, the famous murderer; Joan of Arc, her visions, her imprisonment and her execution; Madame de Vinci the mother of 62 children; the Rawdon shack of the Nulty family where Thomas, the cider brother, murdered his three sisters and younger brother; Loeb and Leopold in their cell; and Jack the Ripper.

Shaw (Missouri)

Wax Figures (Ad), Billboard, February 6, 1926

Buffalo Bill, General Custer, Tom Mix, Sitting Bull, Loeb and Leopold, Outlaws and others.

W. H. J. SHAW, Shaw Bldg., Victoria, Missouri.

Wax Show, $295.00-Cost $950.00 (Ad), Billboard, April 15, 1933

Zangara, Jesse James, Bob Ford, Red Kelly, Snooks, Hickman, Leopold, Loeb, Grat and Bob Dalton, Flashy Readers, Easels, Banners. SHAW, Victoria, Mo.

Travelling Shows

Wax Figures Very Deceiving, Honolulu Star Bulletin, December 24, 1924

Wax figures that appear so lifelike that they seem to breathe are not at all unusual in wax work exhibitions.

Dr. Otto Geotze, however, whose exhibition is one of the features of the Phoenix carnival now being held at Waikiki park, has gone the usual type of show one better. His figures do breathe.

The breathing is the result of intricate machinery, concealed within the figures and driven by electrical motors, which reproduces the appearance of natural respiration and also supplies “expression” to the figures’ eyes. The chief difference between his performers and those of flesh and blood, Dr. Goetze declares, is that his “troupe” knows nothing of the eight hour law.

In addition to the usual lineup of scenic groups and reproductions of those who have figured in recent news events-such as Loeb and Leopold for instance-Dr. Goetze’s collection also includes a complete anatomical museum which was formerly on exhibition in San Francisco specially for medical students.

Jones’ Expo, Variety, April 29, 1925

[Eden Musee show touring in Washington]

One of the newer features that attracted no end of attention was the Eden Musee with all the famed men and women of the past and today appearing in wax. Many of the sensational characters that have occupied much front-page space are depicted, these including Leopold, Loeb and others.

Rubin & Cherry Shows Keep Midway Roaring Blaze of Merriment, Quad-City Times (Iowa), August 18, 1925

The Law and Outlaw is one of the unique new feature attractions that bedeck the spacious midway, presented by Col. George W. Rollins, and exhibiting fifty realistic replicas of noted bank robbers, train bandits, outlaws and law transgressors.

…

They are all shown in life like poses in wax, down to the present day criminals, Loeb and Leopold and Gerald Chapman. Col. Rollins delivers a lecture that never fails to impress his auditors, the text being, “The wages of sin is death.”

How to Win a Blanket at the State Fair, The Independent Record (Montana), September 8, 1927

The “corpse” show has everything in it but Aimee McPherson and Lou Gehrig. The object of this game is to find the embalmed body; it might be Jesse James and again it might be Ruth Snyder. As far as we know, the wax characters are all fairly good except Lindbergh, Loeb and Leopold. The wax figure of the “Flying Eagle” has too many goggles and front teeth to make it represent the colonel. Loeb and Leopold lack that “Near East” nose that is so prominent in their set.

“Purple Masker,” Enemy of Barney, Put in Wax Show, Tampa Times, February 7, 1928

Col. Philip Ellsworth, who conducts the wax show on Johnny J. Jones’ midway, has a wax figure of the villain added to his collection of famous criminals, including Jesse James, the Younger brothers, Leopold and Loeb, and others of such ilk.

My Greatest Thrill: At a Carnival, by C.B., Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1928

One night my girl friend and I went to a carnival. One of the sideshows had a man in front announcing that if you went inside you would see the world’s most horrible criminals. So we went in. There were wax figures of Jesse James, Loeb and Leopold, and all of the criminals we had ever heard of. They looked as if they were alive, deep gashes with blood pouring out-hideous looking creatures!

Now it Can Be Told, The San Franciscan, December, 1928

The figures are life size and dressed in the garments and styles prevalent during their life times…They are naturalistically and horribly exact. They are mechanically and coldly artificial.

Before each figure is a printed placard, giving the name and a brief history of the subject in question. At the bottom of this explanatory matter is invariably an admonition against crime and evil ways-“The wages of sin is death. No man ever escapes from his own conscience. Crime does not pay. The Law never sleeps,” etc., etc.

We dig up a quarter for admission and enter the sacred portals…The main show is to the rear. We proceed to these quarters to see in the next best thing to the flesh the perpetrators in all of our recent, best and biggest murders.

Here is Hickman, Leopold and Loeb (Leopold even has on his fatal glasses) and Leo “Pat” Kelly of the Mellus murder.

Wax Figures of Famous Criminal Leaders Coming, Santa Maria Times, March 25, 1932

Among the interesting exhibitions which the Wortham Shows will bring to Santa Maria next week is the wax works and museum of Prof. Harry B. Danville, noted criminologist, who has spent 30 years studying underworld characters and their deeds. Noted desperadoes and famous peace-time officers are among the especially instructive wax replicas which will be one part of the show.

Jessie James, Rube Burroughs, Cole and Bob Younger, the Dalton gang, Billie the Kid, Belle Starr and a score or more other outlaws who have gained notoriety such as General Chapman, Leopold and Loeb, Scarface Al Capone, Ruth Snyder, Willine Ruth Judd, Old Geronimo and Sitting Bull, two of the country’s most notorious Indian chiefs, are shown.

Leaves Before the Wind: The Autobiography of Vermont’s Own Daughter

At the Champlain Valley Fair in late August, Sheriff Todd and I closed a so-called sideshow which consisted of gruesome wax figures of murderers Dillinger, James, Leopold, Loeb and other violators of the law. The sight served no good purpose.

Non Location Specific

Wax Figures Still Popular by Louis La Coss, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 2, 1934

The owners of museums, carnival side shows, circuses and others of those who garner the shekels from curious patrons who will willingly part with a dime or a quarter to see how Gerald Chapman or Leopold and Loeb or, of later date, John Dillinger must have looked in the flesh.

In Fiction

Flirtation Act: The Story of a Boy, a Girl, and Vaudeville by Debra L Davis, 2016

They went through the Eden Musee Wax Museum, renowned for its lifelike wax tableaux of such famous works as “Too Late for the Opera” and “The Electrocution of the Four Gunmen.” Also depicted were ex-president William Howard Taft; Gerald Chapman, the infamous Garrote Murderer; Leopold and Loeb, the wealthy college students who, just a year earlier, had committed “the crime of the century”; and Marat in his bathtub, being surprised by a knife-wielding Charlotte Corday. Danny laughed when Violet flinched at the last scene, so realistic were the figures.

Leopold and Loeb For All Ages

True crime is typically a genre that attracts an older crowd, but three authors exploring the Leopold-Loeb case have tried instead to capture a younger audience. This small group will receive its largest book to date on March 29th with Candance Fleming’s young adult book about the case: Murder Among Friends: How Leopold and Loeb Tried to Commit the Perfect Crime. Before that’s released, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the previous books aimed at children and teens to see the trends between them and if any stand out as particularly noteworthy.

The three books I’ll be covering (and, to my knowledge, the only books aimed at young audiences about Leopold and Loeb) are:

• The Trial of Leopold and Loeb: A Primary Source Account by Simone Payment (Great Trials of the 20th Century Series) (2004)
• Judge for Yourself: Famous American Trials for Readers Theatre by Suzanne Barchers (2003)
• Leopold And Loeb Teen Killers by Andy Koopmans (Famous Trials Series) (2003)

The Koopmans and Payment books are both non-fiction and only focus on Leopold-Loeb, while Barchers’ book is a collection of short scripts to be used by teachers to help teach kids about trials in a more interesting way, and includes a chapter on the case.

Payment

I’ll look at Payment’s book first, as it is recommended to the youngest audience, Amazon listing it as appropriate for children in grades 5-9.

This target demographic becomes immediately apparent when flipping through the book: Payment utilizes large font, short sentences, many photos and a glossary in the back for words which most adults would hopefully recognize, like ‘chisel’ and ‘legendary.’ The entire book is 64 pages total, and the main text (without things like the bibliography and index) is only 49 pages.

There are some minor inaccuracies in this book, like saying that Bobby’s foot was found protruding from shrubbery, that Leopold’s autobiography came out in 1974, and Jacob Loeb being Richard Loeb’s father, but these are relatively minor. One thing I did find a little annoying were the photo captions, which sometimes repeated word for word sentences from the text, and at the start of the chapter about the hearing, the photo caption comes out and says that Caverly wouldn’t execute Leopold and Loeb, which seems like a pretty big spoiler to me!

As makes sense for a younger audience, the murder and body disposal are described, even the acid, but there is very little detail and no mention of the suspicion of sexual violence that police originally attributed to the case. The only mention of Leopold and Loeb being more than friends can be found in a photo caption on page one: “the two friends, who shared an oddly intense relationship.” I also found it fun the way the author tried to describe the way Loeb went wild after his governess left, without being able to talk about prostitutes or STDs: “[Loeb] started drinking and talking a lot about girls so he could fit in.”

Overall this seems like a competent place to start a young reader if you feel the urge to do so. The pictures are sure to be engaging and it explains enough without being overwhelming. Much focus is given to capital punishment, the psychological issues brought up during the hearing and the unanswerable motive, which should keep kids towards the top of the age range engaged as well.

Barchers

From there I’ll go to Barchers’ book of scenes, the back of the book touting it for kids in grades 6-12. The piece is called ‘A Perfect Crime’ and there are nine characters and a narrator to be acted out by students, and it is more a series of monologues than a scene from a play, as each character takes their turn to stand and address the audience without interacting with other characters. Barchers suggests that teachers use this as a teaching tool: “Listeners can determine whether the sentencing was justified. Students can also discuss whether the outcome would have been different had the students been minority or underprivileged.”

The strength of the monologue format is immediately apparent, as the first scene of the production is having Bobby narrate the events of his own death, which makes them much more visceral in a way that seems maybe too gruesome for 6^th grade: “I didn’t expect to be hit on the head with a chisel or to have a cloth crammed down my throat. I didn’t expect to be stripped of my clothes. I didn’t expect to have hydrochloric acid poured on my body. I didn’t expect to be stuffed into a concrete culvert.” Of course, while describing violence and mutilation isn’t too much, swearing is and Loeb’s line about Bobby is changed to: “If I were going to murder anyone, I would murder just such a cocky little jerk as Bobby Franks.”

Mirroring reality, both Leopold and Loeb tell the audience that the other killed Bobby and it is left up to the audience to decide who is telling the truth. There are also bits taken directly from the lawyer’s closing arguments as well as Caverly’s sentence. The scenes end with Jacob, Flora, Leopold and Loeb talking about what happened afterwards: Jacob died, Flora was unstable for a while but recovered, Loeb was murdered and Day’s self-defense story was believed, and Leopold moved to Puerto Rico, married and realized that life became worth living in 1963.

The relationship between Leopold and Loeb seems a bit murky here, in the introduction Barchers says: “Their friendship was considered by many to be intense and perhaps ‘unnatural,’ with Loeb identified as the manipulative leader of the two,” but she doesn’t clarify what “unnatural” means and later Loeb calls Leopold his “best friend.” Adding to the confusion: Barchers mixes up a famous quote that Leopold told the defense psychiatrists about how he felt about Loeb, leading to a dynamic that contradicts reality pretty heavily:

Leopold: “I don’t know why I let this go so far. I was looking forward to going to Europe with my family. I had a girlfriend, I taught four birding classes, and I was going to study law in the fall. But Dick had such a hold on me. And he was so jealous-even of the food I ate and the water I drank.”

There are some other strange additions, such as having the killers say that finding the culvert “was a lucky break-because we didn’t want to take time to bury him,” making it seem a happy accident rather than a meticulous plan.

This is an interesting and engaging way to get students to learn about history, some details may be off, but I think this is a fun sampler of information and the format makes it a great way to learn about the case for young audiences.

Koopmans

Koopmans’ book is significantly longer than the previous two and, (according to Amazon), aimed at kids 14-17 years old who are in 9-10^th grade. This book is part of a series on famous trials (as was Payment’s) and in the forward the mission statement for the trial series introduces the reader to what they’re likely to find within:

“Lucent Books’ Famous Trials series…each volume begins by setting the scene and providing a historical context to show how society’s mores influence the trial process and the verdict. Each book goes on to present a detailed and lively account of the trial, including liberal use of primary source material such as direct testimony, lawyers’ summations, and contemporary and modern commentary. In addition, sidebars throughout the text create a broader context by presenting illuminating details about important points of law, information on key personalities, and important distinctions related to civil, federal, and criminal procedures.”

I’m really impressed by this book and what it does with its limited space. It’s only 112 total pages including intro, about the author, index, bibliography, etc., yet it manages to get in the details, background of the time period, and gives an analysis of the media and newspaper reactions to the crime. There are even original maps to help give context and explain the area.

Benefitted by its older age demographic, it doesn’t pull punches, mentioning how Bobby died, the acid being poured on his body (including his genitals which the other books didn’t mention). When describing the confessions the alibi about Leopold and Loeb trying to seduce Mae and Edna was included. And even the homosexual relationship between the killers and the rumors they tried to distance themselves from were mentioned, though not discussed at length. Koopmans does tread more lightly on one point: he writes that Leopold and Loeb were accusing of beating Ream-I guess castration is a step too far for children.

There are some small errors, but overall this book is a good overview even for adults, and if you’re looking for a Leopold-Loeb book aimed at young audiences this is it, at least for now. We’ll have to wait until March 29th to see what Candance Fleming has in store for us!