Poll Results
Thank you to everyone who voted in the poll asking what kind of information people were interested in seeing me add to this site. We got a total of 62 votes from 10 countries.
Taking a look at the results the clear winners are ‘Leopold and Loeb in prison’ and Leopold and Loeb ‘pre-murder,’ though ‘Interviews Leopold and Loeb did’ isn’t far behind. After that is information about the Franks/Leopold/Loeb families, and interest really dropped off after that, with ‘Interviews with authors/directors’ bringing up the rear with only a single vote. I’m really glad to get this feedback, especially as I’m starting to plan out my next few months of posts!
There were two people who chose ‘Other’ and commented, the first:
‘Loeb’s correspondence in prison, any insights to his life after sentencing’
While this melds into the prison option, I’ll keep in mind to focus on Loeb. Unfortunately I can’t be of much help with the correspondence, as I’ve only seen one letter, one card, and possibly two other letters written by Loeb in prison. The two possible letters were written under different names, one as the civilian head of the prison’s schools reaching out to an outside educator, and one letter used as an example in his English textbook.
The textbook letter is particularly interesting, because I can’t tell if it’s a letter Loeb wrote, a letter Leopold wrote, a combination, or completely fictional. Some information fits both of them-the letter is written to a family member and it sounds like it could have either been Loeb writing to Allan or Leopold writing to Sam-as the ages of the children they mention works for both brothers. A specific book mentioned I know was read by Loeb, but it’s also mentioned that the letter writer saw an old friend who used to work in the Shoe Shop with him-and only Leopold-not Loeb-worked in the prison Shoe Shop. It’s a pickle, and because I can’t tell the author, I don’t think it can offer too much insight.
The second comment was ‘An explanation of the “cocksucker” letters Nathan sent to Richard, thank you!’
The first cocksucker letter (the one that actually used the word cocksucker) was sent because Leopold didn’t want to apologize and was asking Loeb if he wanted to stop being friends because of it. Basically, Leopold and Loeb had agreed to go out together on New Years, but later Loeb made plans to double date with their friend Richard Rubel instead. Leopold explained that Leopold told Rubel that he assumed Loeb wouldn’t break the date with Rubel, and Loeb and Rubel apparently pretended discussing changing it, but never actually considered changing the date. Leopold says that he only told Rubel what he assumed Loeb thought, not what Loeb had told him, but Loeb was accusing Leopold of breaking confidence by telling Rubel things that Loeb had told Leopold in confidence. Leopold apologized for breaking confidence, but then verified with Rubel that he actually hadn’t broken confidence, and just told Rubel his assumption, rather than facts. It’s all a bit convoluted.
Regardless, the letter is Leopold saying he’s taking back his apology and though Loeb wants him to admit he acted wrongly, Leopold is refusing to do so. He wants to know if Loeb will accept that or if Loeb will punish him or they’ll stop being friends over it. But he warns that if they do stop being friends, they should still act sort of friendly on the street, otherwise, if they went from being very close friends to completely ignoring each other, their friends may gossip that they broke up, or that there was “A falling out of a pair of cocksuckers.”
The second letter is Leopold trying to clarify his terms to make sure Loeb understands him, and this is the letter where he explains Nietzsche’s superman in relation to Loeb.
Hopefully that explained it? It’s kind of confusing, please let me know if I can help anymore!
In light of the poll, today’s post is a little story which took place in 1933, which found Leopold, Loeb and two friends in a compromising position: Prison Party
Book Updates
For those interested in a little peek behind the curtain; I’ve been working on the index for my book, and as of chapter 1 the index terms go from ‘American Ornithologist’s Union’ to ‘World War One.’ So far, Florence Leopold has the most page mentions of all my indexed terms (though I don’t think she’ll manage to hold that position for long).
The Lives and Legends of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold 