Happy Halloween! My post for this week hopefully reflects the spooky season, I’ll be talking about the tour I took through the Old Joliet Prison last week.
I’ve also put together a blog post masterpost, so all of my extra posts and pages will have a home and be more easy to access.
And a little deal for everyone: my audiobook is available for 60% off until November 10th, you can access that deal here.
A collection of the posts and pages I’ve written over the years. This doesn’t include the main pages of the wordpress, just the additional ones that go more in depth on a specific topic.
The Communist Response to Leopold and Loeb
Darrow’s 12-Hour Speech and Other Closing Argument Myths
Fan Mail for the Franks Killers
The Ku Klux Klan’s Reaction to the Leopold-Loeb Case
Leopold and Loeb’s Potential Victims
The Myth of Darrow’s Monetary Snub
The Myth of Leopold and Loeb’s ZBT Break Up
The Nose Knows: Phrenology and Physiognomy as the Keys to Understanding Leopold and Loeb
Was the Ransom Letter Plagiarized?
What and Where Leopold and Loeb Ate in 1924
Charles Ream v. Leopold and Loeb, Incomplete Trial Transcript
Leopold’s Tonsil Surgery and What Privilege Means in Prison
Parole Paranoia: The Story of Leopold and Loeb’s First Prison Interviews
Prison Punks and Gun Smuggling: James Day’s Many Reasons For Murdering Richard Loeb
The State of Illinois vs. James Day, Incomplete Trial Transcript
A Marriage Doomed to Fail: Exploring the Relationship Between Nathan Leopold and Trudi Feldman
Nathan Leopold’s Trips to Japan
Bobby Franks’ Legacy: Giving Pleasure, Help and Encouragement
Playboy Jacob Franks: The 1903 Sobra Trial
Benjamin Foreman: Tragedy on the Titanic
The Short-Lived Soccer Career of Ernest Loeb
Burned by Their Own Flame: An Interview With Paula Frew
A Deja’ Blue Dissection: The Worst Leopold-Loeb Story I’ve Ever Read
Exploring Motivations For Murder: The Making of American Criminals
Funny Games: The Unknowable Killer
Hollow Fires: Leopold and Loeb Commit a Hate Crime
Japanese Thrill Me Merch Review
Jazzed: Exploring Leopold and Loeb Through Jazz, Gender, Race and the Queer Community
Little Brother Fate: The Power of a Well Written Story
Script Comparison: Murder By Numbers
Semblance of Balance: Where Genealogy and True Crime Collide
The Story Behind the Novel: An Interview With Brandy Purdy
These Violent Delights: The Space Between the Imagined and the Real
Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story
Uncovering the Übermensch: An Interview With D. L. Scarpe
Blowhard: Reviewing a Book Determined to Take Darrow Down
Crime of the Century Centenary Edition
The Crime of the Century: The Creation of the Definitive Leopold-Loeb Book
Evil Summer: Slaves, Masterminds, and Terrible Nicknames
For the Thrill of it: One More Sensationalized Look at 1924
Killer Queens: Avoid at all Costs
The Leopold and Loeb Files: A Pretty But Shallow Introduction
Murder Among Friends: Creative Nonfiction for Teens
Nothing But the Night: An Examination into a Book of Hot Takes
What Leopold-Loeb Media Was Popular in 2022?
What Leopold-Loeb Media Was Popular in 2023?
Advanced Review Copies of my Book Are Now Available!
My Book is Available for Pre-Order
Books Read By Leopold and Loeb
Loeb and Leopold Immortalized in Wax
Reasons For the Franks Murder Written in the Stars
Restless Spirits: Ghost sightings associated with the Leopold-Loeb case
May 15th 2024 Update * May 1st 2024 Update * April 15, 2024 Update * April 1st, 2024 Update * March 15th, 2024 Update * March 1st, 2024 Update * February 15, 2024 Update * February 1st, 2024 Update * January 15th, 2024 Update * January 1st, 2024 Update * December 15th 2023 Update * December 1st, 2023 Update * November 15, 2023 Update * October 31, 2023 Update * October 15, 2023 Update * October 1st, 2023 Update * September 15, 2023 Update * August 15, 2023 Update * August 8, 2023 Update: Audiobook and Interview * August 3, 2023 Update * July 15, 2023 Update * July 1, 2023 Update * June 15, 2023 Update * June 1, 2023 Update: New Gay Puerto Rico WordPress * May 15th 2023 Update * May 1st 2023 Update * April 15th Update: Book Release and Website Updates * April 1st 2023 Update * March 15th Update: Non Fiction Revamp and Lots of News * March 1st Update * February 15th Update * Newspaper Photo Database Launch * January 24th Update: Book Coupon and Other News * December 15, 2022 Site Update * December 1, 2022 Updates and An Upcoming Project * October 31st Updates * October 1st Updates * September 15th Updates * September 1st Updates * August 15, 2022 Updates and Poll Results * August 2022 Updates * June 2022 Updates * Exhibits and Magazines * Thrill Me * Bobby Franks * December News: New Releases * A New Direction: Website Update
This October I was thrilled to go on a tour around the old prison at Joliet. After the last prisoners were relocated to other institutions in 2002 and the staff offices were removed in 2007, the prison sat abandoned. It was left to the elements and frequently broken into, and the wear of the sun, rain, snow and scavengers with bolt cutters began to take their toll on the property. After several cases of arson the city took possession of the property in late 2017. Over the last six years staff have worked hard to make it safe for tours and are preserving as much as they can to help the history of the prison come to life.
My tour began and ended by walking through the cell houses. I had failed to understand this during my research, but despite the number of buildings on the property, the only cell houses in Joliet were the east and west wings: rectangular buildings which jut out on either side of the administration building. The cells are, of course, small, and only some of them had a sink and toilet, while others only had a wooden stool and desk attached to the floor and wall.
After exiting the west cell house we walked by the school and chapel, both newer buildings which hadn’t been there when Leopold and Loeb were incarcerated. I was really charmed by the chapel, which was built in the mid-60s and had an incredible design inside and out, the roof reminding me of the back of a fish.
My guide and I continued on through the laundry, complete with industrial size washing machines, past the library and then to the west gate. This was where most prisoners and supplies entered the prison since its establishment in 1951 (as the east gate wasn’t functional for most of the prison’s life) and it still works, my guide cranking it open as guards in the past would have had to do.
Then we walked on to the shops, which were still in a state of disarray, with machine manuals strewn around the floor and lockers agape. Many people who break into the prison try to take something to sell or keep as a souvenir, and that was evident in the way things had clearly been thrown around.
There are signs throughout the prison giving historical background about the various buildings, and I spotted Leopold on one next to an interior guard tower. A passage from his autobiography in which he describes the sights and smells of Joliet in the 20s accompanies his mug shot.
My guide and I continued to north segregation and death row, though the buildings had been changed considerably since the 20s, and many of the buildings that had been there, including the one which had housed the electric chair, had been demolished.
We continued along and I got to see various bathroom options throughout the prison, some more private than others.
The tour continued past the cistern where inmates got their fresh water (which I’d somehow missed noticing in old photos despite its striking appearance) and I got to peek into the old commissary building which still retains the counter inmates would buy goods from.
Then we passed the “Burnt District,” or the buildings that were almost completely destroyed by arson. This included the records building and many of the shops.
We went on to the new dining hall, adorned with 70s swirls of orange and brown and some very intricate Simpsons graffiti, as well as photo op stations from the last Blues Brothers Convention, which are held in the prison annually when strikes and COVID permit. We also walked by the hospital, one of the oldest buildings on the property, before we walked back through the east cell house and over to the gift shop.
The gift shop had plenty of merch, I was pleased to see Higdon’s book being sold, and I bought myself a t-shirt (here’s a link to their online store if anyone’s interested).
I was really impressed with the tour and my guide, who was extremely knowledgeable and able to answer all my questions, no matter how small. The prison offers many types of tours, including self guided and flashlight, which are on your own, and the general history tour and the prison after dark tour in which you’re led around by a guide. Each tour goes to slightly different areas, so you may not get into all of the buildings I photographed if you go on your own tour, though the grounds of the prison are completely open to explore.
After the tour I went over to the nearby Joliet Area Historical Museum, where they were putting up a prison exhibit complete with a model of one of the guard towers!
The museum was small, but seriously impressive, with lots of light, beautiful stained glass windows, huge wall posters to set each scene and a spectacular use of space including one exhibit which you need to view from two floors to really appreciate it.
I spent the rest of the day in Joliet’s archives, looking over photographs, records, letters and scrapbooks from the prison’s history.
The only place I didn’t hit was across the street from the prison, in what used to be the women’s prison and then the diagnostic department: the Old Joliet Haunted Prison. Though I don’t think I’m missing too much historically, as the trailer and website boast supernatural ghouls with chainsaw arms and multiple spiderlike limbs. Preferable to a company attempting to depict and profit off of the stories and names of real prisoners who’d passed through the walls, but I didn’t think that playing zombie laser tag or running from undead nurses would help me get a feel for the century of history of the location.
The meaning of the word ‘privilege’ in prison is a slippery one. Something I would consider a human right, others deem unfair privileges if granted to those who have been caught breaking laws. Today I’d like to look at an instance of Leopold getting sick and how it helps show the blurry line between privilege and rights in prison.
Leopold became ill on June 29th, 1934. He explained in a draft of his autobiography that this wasn’t the first time he’d been sick like this: “Two or three times before, over the years, I had contracted a severe sore throat. Always it was the right side of the throat that was affected.” With a 103-degree fever he checked into the prison’s hospital and was placed in a bed. But Leopold wasn’t alone; “Dick came up with me and kept me company until he had to go back to the cell house for count.” Leopold had his throat swabbed by an inmate nurse and once Loeb had gone back to the cell house for bed the nurse determined that Leopold had diphtheria: a rare contagious and sometimes deadly bacterial throat infection. Though the civilian Doctor Frank Chmelik doubted the diagnosis, he ordered a diphtheria vaccine from outside the prison, and vaccinated both Leopold and woke up Loeb to give him the vaccination as well.
By the next day Leopold was feeling better and a second throat swab (done by a doctor this time) confirmed that Leopold didn’t have diphtheria, and he was allowed to return to his cell the following day. Unfortunately, that coincided with a reaction to the diphtheria vaccine on his inoculation site: “Huge weals broke out on my buttock and it itched like fury. I could hardly restrain myself from gouging the flesh with my fingernails. On my bunk in the cell I lay with calamine lotion liberally doused over the affected part and fellows in relays fanning my fanny. That helped a little, but not very much. I’d never gone through such torture.” Luckily for Leopold this happened on a Sunday, when most inmates didn’t work, and he had an ample supply of fanny fanners to attend to him.
By this time news that Leopold was sick had gotten out to the press, and Dr. Robert Lennon, a civilian doctor who’d been treating Leopold released the statement: “He has a severe infection and his condition is serious, but barring unforeseen complications, I believe he will recover.” Two days later there was the small statement printed in a few newspapers that Warden Whipp had informed Leopold’s family that his fever had subsided and he was recovering. But it was not the end of Leopold’s saga.
Though Leopold had recovered for now, the continual reoccurrences of these attacks of throat infections made him want to get checked out by a specialist. Luckily for him, “One of our family friends happened to be a brilliant young nose and throat specialist in Chicago. Since outside specialists were sometimes invited to hold clinics at the institution, the folks arranged to have an invitation extended to Murph and he made the trip down and examined fifteen or twenty patients, of whom I was one. He diagnosed my trouble as an infected lingual tonsil…He advised surgical removal and the local throat specialist agreed to operate.”
“On the big day, I was seated in a metal examining chair in the operating room and Dr. Lennon sprayed cocaine into my throat. I don’t stand pain very well, and this was a long and bloody procedure. But my throat was anesthetized and I was doing fine. I was doing fine, that is, until he got the right tonsil out after about twenty-five minutes and stopped to rest a moment. Dick was standing behind me, watching the proceedings. During the rest period I made the mistake of looking around at him, He was a pale sea-green. Now I got sick. Dr. Lennon decided to leave the left tonsil, which had never bothered me anyhow, and remove it another time. I still have it and it seems likely that I’ll go to the grave with one lingual tonsil. But I never had a recurrence of the throat infection.”
Now that the story’s been told, I’d like to go back over it to analyze what privileges Leopold was afforded as a prisoner with connections and wealth, and what that actually means. The beginning of the story-Leopold going on sick call and being diagnosed-seems in line with the treatment any other prisoner would have been able to access. Loeb tagging along may have been unusual, depending on the laxity of the guards during this time period. As it was 1934, a notoriously lax time for the prison’s security, prisoners visiting each other in the hospital was likely not unheard of and going to work wasn’t strictly enforced, so not even that would have been a barrier.
Next, Leopold was misdiagnosed by a self-taught inmate and vaccinated for a rare disease (a newspaper article confirms that part of Leopold’s story) and sent back to his cell. His access to calamine lotion and a steady stream of prisoners to attend to him was likely unusual, and I’d guess it had more to do with inmates looking for his favor or getting paid for their work rather than Leopold having a group of extremely ride or die friends.
Then we come to the meat of the ‘privilege’ on display in this story. As Leopold had recovered in the short-term, the prison doctors moved on to other patients and seemed to have no further plans to treat him, despite his concerns about these reoccurrences. In order to get a diagnosis, as Leopold says, “the folks arranged to have an invitation extended to Murph and he made the trip down and examined fifteen or twenty patients, of whom I was one.” First, he had to be family friends with ‘Murph,’ real name Leopold Benno Bernheimer (I have no idea where the nickname came from), who had graduated with a medical degree in 1921 from the University of Illinois and become an ear, nose and throat specialist at Michael Reese Hospital. ‘Murph’ had been close to the Leopolds for his entire life, being tangentially related to the family through the Austrians, and he was interviewed by defense psychiatrists in 1924 about the talks he’d had with Leopold over the years. But a connection to a prominent specialist in the field wasn’t enough.
As Leopold said, he had his family arrange for an invitation to be sent to ‘Murph’ asking that he give a clinic at the prison. Leopold doesn’t explain any part of this process: who had to be convinced and how? The prison doctors? The Warden? Was it a simple matter of a letter suggesting that perhaps the prisoners may benefit from a specialist coming in? Perhaps Leopold furnished them with the names of several prisoners with ear, nose and throat concerns who could benefit from the help of a specialist, or maybe the family would have given a gift or donation to the prison in order to facilitate this. Whatever was necessary, this is what it took for Leopold to get diagnosed, and once he was, then the prison doctor carried out the operation.
As ‘privilege’ means having access to something that others don’t, it’s clear that Leopold’s wealth and connections granted him privileges unattainable to other prisoners. But to me that just seems to highlight the brokenness of the prison system more than it does Leopold abusing the system. Leopold’s reoccurring throat problems were treated in the short-term, but there was no long-term connection made. He was misdiagnosed by someone who wasn’t a doctor and given a vaccination he didn’t need which caused a bad side effect that he then had to deal with without medical aid. When he suspected there was something more wrong with his throat, he had to use his family’s help and connections to get a specialist to the prison who was able to properly diagnose him before he could finally have the surgery that he needed to solve the problem.
For a prisoner without Leopold’s resources, they would have had to simply wait for a specialist to come by the prison, which assumedly didn’t happen often, or content themselves with getting substandard and patchwork medical care to address the immediate symptoms instead of the actual cause of the problem. And this isn’t a slight against the prison doctors themselves. There were only a handful of civilian staff who had to take care of over 5,000 inmates, so they would have triaged to sort out those with immediate life or death medical concerns, and those who could wait, passing the rest along to either the dubiously trained staff of inmate nurses, or sending the sick prisoners back to their cells to hope they got better on their own.
And that’s with the understanding that prisoners have a right to medical care at all. What about the case of Joseph Coakley, who in 1931 asked for a doctor when he was in solitary confinement and was told he would have to wait until he was released from solitary to see someone. He died in his solitary cell without any medical aid. Did he have the right to care, or had he given it up when he broke the prison’s rules?
There will likely always be debates about what rights prisoners have, what it looks like to spoil or pamper a prisoner, or what level of deprivation is appropriate as a punishment for breaking the law. But I think it’s useful to keep in mind, when there are complaints about prison privileges, what that actually means, and if those so-called ‘privileges’ are actually rights that should be available to everyone.
This week I’ve got two smaller posts, both reviews.
Internationally popular musical Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story is in the middle of a run in Japan, and along with this newest staging comes new merchandise. Past productions of Thrill Me staged in Japan, Korea and China have all had a wide variety of merch, including resin dolls, scarves, washi tape and charm bracelets, and this season has introduced a lot of new and unique items.
I got a selection of merch from their website and wanted to review it, in case anyone is on the fence about purchasing their own. I didn’t get everything, some notable missing items are a mini-towel, t-shirt (with the same design as the tote bag) and acrylic dioramas of the stage and actors. If you’re interested you can check out the store here, and the items will be on sale until October 31st of this year.
EDIT: The last day to order has been pushed back to November 19th
The shipping didn’t take too long for international, and everything came wrapped in individual plastic bags.
The star attraction, at least if the numerous photos of the actors and fans posing with them are to be believed, are the plush versions of Nathan and Richard. On the website and tags the one in black is labelled ‘He’ meaning Richard and the plush in brown is labelled as ‘I/Me’ meaning Nathan.
As for the dolls themselves, they’re about six inches tall, with stiff (but still soft) outfits, very soft skin and hair and stitched on eyes. They have a ball chain on the top of their heads in case you’d like to hang them.
Richard has a little cowlick in his hair and both Nathan and Richard have hair that extends past their heads, which gives them a bit of dimension.
The plushies aren’t posable, and though I could get Richard to sit upright by balancing him on his tag, I couldn’t do the same for Nathan. For display they’ll be best propped up against something, I’ve currently got them hanging out on my Leopold-Loeb bookshelf!
I also received two blind bag key chains, and got two different ones out of the total 9 that are available. They come wrapped in cardboard so they’re pretty secure, and are all white on one side and in color on the other. They’re about 2.5 inches long and the clasps seem good quality.
The sticky notes are very small, just about 1 inch by 2.2 inches and come in 3 designs: the poster, matches and one of the poses from the musical which is also a keychain. The box they come in is pretty flimsy and probably won’t stand up to much handling.
I was really impressed with the program. There’s interviews with the director and actors, a message from Stephen Dolginoff, background into the history of the Japanese production and the history of the real Leopold and Loeb. If you’re interested there are also very good quality photos of the actors playing Nathan and Richard.
The tote bag has the name of the show’s songs with photo icons to represent most of them, as well as the name of the musical. It’s blank on one side. It seems to be of good quality, and has a blue lining with a rope design, something I wasn’t expecting and was very happily surprised by.
And for the last item I got: the prison style jacket has four pockets in front, two on the outside and two on the inside, which are nice and it feels warm. Be wary of the sizes, and I’d advise ordering a size or two above what you’d normally wear.
The front has a collar and Nathan’s play version of his prison number printed on it. The back has a caged bird with the words Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years, and the Ninety-Nine Years is glitchy looking. I will say that the dark blue of the caged bird doesn’t show up super well and is a bit hard to see.
Overall I’m really pleased with this merch and only wish I could have gotten some from past productions as well.
Hal Higdon’s book Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century is getting a new edition for next year; thank you to the University of Illinois press for sending me an advanced copy so I could get a sneak peek!
As I say often on the blog: I consider Higdon’s book to be the definitive non-fiction retelling of the Leopold-Loeb investigation and sentencing hearing, so I was stoked when I saw that it was getting a new edition.
This new centenary edition is being published on January 2, 2024 by the same press who put out the 1999 version of this book. That 1999 edition came with a two-page preface by Higdon where he talked about the longevity of the case’s popularity. For the 2024 edition that has been replaced by an updated preface by Higdon, though the content is extremely similar to the 1999 version and it’s still two pages long. The two prefaces both use the same quote to begin, and oddly neither are cited, though all the other chapter heading quotes in the book are.
I was amazed to find that the page numbers are the same not only as the 1999 University of Illinois Press edition, but also to the original 1975 book, which makes it really useful when I’m looking up a specific source or page number.
Internally, other than the preface, this edition looks to be exactly the same as the 1999 one: they both lack the several page photo insert (with a total of 33 photos) from the 1975 edition, opting to have only a single photo at the front of the book. The font and layout of the chapters and text also seems to be the same as the 1975 and 1999 versions.
There is a new cover though, which is quite a big departure, getting rid of the black, orange and red of the previous two editions in favor of Leopold and Loeb’s mug shots and a palate of mostly red and grey. You’ll note that this new edition also retains the 1999 title change: from The Crime of the Century: The Leopold & Loeb Case to Leopold & Loeb: The Crime of the Century.
I’m not sure about the quality of the physical book itself, as I don’t have a copy of the finished version yet, but I do know that, like the 1999 edition, it won’t have a hardback version and will only be offered in paperback and as an ebook.
So I’d say it’ll come down to preference here whether you’d like to buy it or not. If you prefer hardcovers or want the photo collection, I’d say pick the 1975 version up secondhand. If you want an ebook the 2024 version will be your only option. As for choosing between the 1999 and the 2024 paperbacks, I’d say take whichever cover appeals to you the most.
For more information you can check out the publisher’s page for this edition here.
The Lives and Legends of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold 