Today’s post is about a relationship I’ve often been asked about: that between Nathan Leopold and his wife Trudi Feldman. I hope to answer the questions I’ve often received: why did they get married? Did she know about his past when they met? What was their relationship like behind closed doors? All of that and more are explored in my post here.
And now my big announcement: in honor of the 100th anniversary of the crime I will be posting daily from May 21st, the day of the murder, to September 11th, the day Leopold and Loeb were sent to Joliet. These posts will cover what was happening on the day 100 years prior, so you can feel as if you were following along with the case as it happened in 1924. With photos, newspaper headlines, interviews from reporters and more, I hope you’ll be able to feel immersed in the time period and story as never before.
While the daily posts are going on I won’t be doing my larger posts as well, though if things come up I may throw in a few extra posts now and then to discuss relevant news, and the updates will continue as normal on the 1st and 15th of the month.
I’ve also added a new section for recently published articles on the Articles page. Since the case is seeing an upswing in publicity I thought it would be helpful to gather the latest selection of articles in one place. Right now the list contains everything I was able to find that was published in 2024.
Now for upcoming events:
From May 10th-June 16th VivianeArt in Calgary, Canada will be exhibiting a series of etchings called A Model World by Tyler Bright Hilton, in part based on the Leopold-Loeb crime. You can see a portfolio of some of the etchings here.
On May 18th from 10-11:30am Paul Durica of the Chicago History Museum will be giving a walking tour around the neighborhood where Leopold, Loeb, and Bobby Franks lived and where the murder took place. It’s $25 for non-members and $22.50 for members. To register, go here.
May 21st, 6-9pm Central Time, in-person: I’ll be part of the programming at the Elgin Public Museum’s program The Leopold Collection: A 100-Year Mystery. Admission is $5 for the general public and $3 for museum members. For more information you can go here.
May 21st, a woman on twitter has announced that she plans to self-publish a Leopold-Loeb based novel on this day.
May 27th, 2-3:30pm, in person only, the Niagara on the Lake Museum in Ontario, Canada will host a Leopold-Loeb lecture by Gus Calderone as part of its Famous & Infamous lecture series. Tickets are $10 for non-members and free for members. More information is available here.
I hope everyone has been having a good month, and excited for what’s to come!
When talking about the later life of Nathan Leopold, there’s a certain amount of mystery surrounding his marriage. I’d like to dig into that a little, to see who Trudi Feldman was, why she married Nathan Leopold and what their relationship was like behind closed doors.
Gertrude ‘Trudi’ Feldman was born on December 4th, 1905, in Baltimore, Maryland to Allan and Fanny Feldman. Her parents were Russian and their first language was Yiddish, her father working as a carpenter to support the family. But with seven children, of which Trudi was the third oldest, money was often tight. Trudi recalled that “from the time I was 16 until my marriage in 1944, I supported myself and contributed to the support of my family by working in offices as a secretary and finally, during the war, by acting as supervisor of a typing pool for the Government.”
From the few records I’ve been able to find, this appears correct; Trudi and her youngest sister Anita worked for the government, living and working in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Washington DC. While in Puerto Rico Trudi met Dr. Manuel Garcia de Quevado, a Puerto Rican physician with a private practice who was 15 years her senior. They married in 1944, and lived in Añasco, a little town on the west side of the Island. Trudi recalled her first husband as generous and well respected, often taking whatever people had to give as payment for his services. She relayed that once he came home and showed her the bananas he had accepted from a patient for his treatment. But just three years after their marriage Dr. Garcia de Quevado died at the age of 57 from a pulmonary embolism and cerebral hemorrhage.
According to a newspaper article, Trudi returned to the continental United States after her husband died, but was back in Puerto Rico three months later. “I knew my roots were here,” she said. “I had grown fond of the informal charm, warmth and friendliness of Puerto Ricans.”
A year later Trudi announced the opening of the Miramar Flower and Gift Shop, which she was running out of her new apartment in Santurce, a neighborhood of San Juan.
October 30, 1948, El Mundo
Her shop seems to have been a success, her flowers used in some well-publicized events and given shout outs in the local paper. One columnist advised her patrons to visit Trudi: “For beautiful cut flowers and all floral work. Also for those delicious Cherrydale Farms Chocolates and Bonbons.” With the shop making enough money to support herself, Trudi made a comfortable life on the island, integrating into the small Jewish community and fundraising for causes she cared about.
She first met Nathan Leopold on April 5th, 1958, at a private Seder in the apartment of Rabbi Harold Gottesman. Describing the event to a friend, Leopold listed the short guest list, which included a family he knew, two congressman, “and two ladies, one the widow of a Puerto Rican, who runs a florist shop, and her spinster sister who works for the Army. I amazed myself by having a really good time.”
Trudi knew who he was and what he had done, and despite that was eager to maintain their connection: “I told Nathan that night that if he were ever to visit San Juan again I would be pleased to have him drop in for a visit. But I felt I would never hear from him again. He was not shy, but he was plainly reluctant to meet people and uncertain about accepting invitations. Nevertheless, several months later I sent him a Jewish New Year’s greeting card, on which I wished him ‘peace of mind.’ It was something I knew he desperately wanted. The phrase apparently struck a responsive chord. He wrote to say that he expected to be in San Juan and would make sure to call on me. I was overjoyed.”
In February of 1959 Leopold wrote to Trudi again, apologizing for not seeing her on his recent trip to San Juan, but promising to get together in April for Passover. He also bought an orchid from her shop to send to a friend and heaped Church of the Brethren pamphlets and materials on her, as she had agreed to help the Project with its fundraiser to build a new hospital. In the following months the pair worked together on this campaign, sometimes getting together to brainstorm and write letters.
Slowly they began to see each other outside of the fundraising campaign as well, Leopold sometimes had lunch with her, met her at parties, and introduced her to some of his friends. In August of 1959 Leopold moved to Santurce to attend the University of Puerto Rico, in an apartment which Trudi found for him, and the pair began to spend even more time together. But Leopold assured his friend about the nature of their relationship: “She has been very kind and helpful to me. SHE may have romantic ideas (tho I doubt it), but I surely haven’t.”
But by mid-October rumors leaked in the papers that Leopold would soon be getting married, and he was forced to confront the idea when friends wrote to congratulate him. He replied to one:
“[Trudi] is the one who has found each of my successive apartments here in San Juan for me, and generally she mothers and ‘wifes’ me no end. Comes out and cooks me a meal and cleans up the apartment every so often, for instance. There’s nothing that gal can’t do: from fixing the plumbing to repairing the window-openers.
I eat at her home several times a week and we see a very great deal of each other. Indeed, this school year — since August — I have hardly gone out with anyone else but Trudi. Last Sunday, for instance, we took the day-long trip to the island of Vieques, off the east coast, together. But all this is a far cry from marriage! We’re just very close friends. As to marriage, in many ways it appeals to me: I’d love the comfort and stability of a home. On the other hand, I’m not at all sure that I am ready for marriage: emotionally, etc. For one thing, I hesitate, after 33 years in Stateville, to surrender an iota of my new-found liberty.”
Over the next few months the pair continued their close association, but Leopold was far from monogamous. He often entertained female ‘fans’ from the States who wanted to meet him in person and he hadn’t given up on a former flame. Before moving to San Juan he’d had a relationship with a nurse on the Brethren Project named Louise. The pair worked and fundraised together, went on picnics and birding trips around the Project. After a few months together, Leopold contemplated proposing, writing to a friend:
“Louise is not pretty, tho she might be called interesting looking, and she is not young—late 30’s, so my interest is certainly not sensual. Her up-bringing and view of the world are quite different from mine: she’s quite a typical little Brethren girl. But she certainly has a million dollar personality. She is kindness and consideration personified, and in spite of her strict upbringing is what I would call a “good sport.” But somehow I think I should live a little on my own first. All this, of course, assumes that she’d have me, Somehow, tho I’ve never come close to broaching the subject and have never so much as kissed her or held her hand, I’m rather sure she would.”
Louise, Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1958
Louise moved back to the States after knowing Leopold for only four months and never returned to work on the Project, but Leopold continued to hold a candle for her. In May of 1960 Louise came back to visit Puerto Rico for the dedication of the new Church of the Brethren hospital, and Leopold was eager to see her again and renew their relationship.
Somewhat disappointed that he had already invited Trudi before he knew Louise was coming, Leopold escorted both of the women to the event. He was desperate to have alone time with her so they could talk about their relationship, and “when it came time for [Louise] to board the plane I kissed her in front of Trudi and others. I guess I’m not a diplomat, but at least there was no hair-pulling and both gals still seem well-disposed. Don’t know which I should marry, if either. Had the situation been different, I might now be engaged to Louise. Trudi would marry me at the drop of a hat – – has several times suggested it.”
After her visit Leopold confided to a friend that Louise was still his number one pick, and that if things had gone differently they may already be married. Just as he had done with Susan Lurie after he was sent to prison, Leopold seemed to place women on a pedestal and felt confident that a heterosexual relationship would have worked out, only if the woman in question was completely inaccessible to him.
With Louise an ocean away, Leopold was forced to reevaluate Trudi as a marriage prospect. He wrote to one friend: “Trudi has me about hog-tied; I spend 90% of my time with her — free time, that is. A very determined gal!”
As Leopold was considering his options, Trudi continued to pursue him, throwing a massive party for his 56th birthday complete with 40 guests, costumes (for them and Leopold’s dog), which went until 3 in the morning. After attending the party Leopold’s friend and lawyer Elmer Gertz wrote to Trudi: “It is a very wonderful thing that our friend has met somebody like you. It seems to be his destiny to meet exactly those people who can do most to help him make up for the tragedies of the past.”
After months of avoiding the marriage question, Leopold wrote to Gertz for advice:
“[Trudi] is pushing pretty hard for us to get married and I am, for the first time, considering it seriously. One of the points she urges is that such a marriage would be highly approved by the Board and might be an important factor in getting my discharge. I’m not looking to you for advice in affairs of the heart, but would like your considered opinion on this aspect of it. To orient you, I might say that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, in love. I do like Trudi a lot and I would in some ways welcome the stability and comfort of a home. In other ways I would hate to lose my freedom of motion. Trudi is eminently respectable and well thought of in local circles — has a host of friends. She realizes fully the glare of publicity to which she would almost certainly be subjected and professes not to mind. I’m afraid she is in love. She wants to get married before the beginning of school in August.”
Here Leopold talks about one of the biggest issues influencing his decision to marry or not: how it would look publicly, and if it would help him get released early from parole. He currently had to be on parole for 5 years after his release from prison: making monthly reports to his parole officer, asking permission to make big decisions (like marrying) and being restricted in the things he could do and the places he could go. He hated the feeling of being constrained, though the Puerto Rican parole officials were extremely lenient with him, he wanted to get released in any way possible, and he and Gertz thought Trudi might be a possible avenue for that.
Gertz advised Leopold: “I know that you have a sensitivity about using Trudi simply to effect discharge from parole. It seems to me that, if you asked permission to marry Trudi, and it would be granted to you as Austin stated, then, subsequently, you might be in a better position to ask for discharge…I hesitate to give any such advice, because neither you nor I think of Trudi as any pawn in a game, but we must consider the realities of the situation.”
This plan began with Leopold telling the parole board that he refused to get married until he was off of parole, on a matter of principal and because he wanted to shield Trudi from publicity (though the publicity would be the same regardless of if he was on parole or not.) This was followed by Trudi writing to the parole board herself, begging them to release Leopold so they could get married and she could be a stabilizing influence on him, while listing all of his wonderful traits:
“We met in April 1958, The evening we met, during our conversations, I was so greatly impressed with this man’s humility, sincerity and honesty and his obvious wish to make up for the past, that I felt I must help him in every way I possibly could. I saw before me a man who needed the understanding, the love and companionship of his fellow man and, for that day forward, I have been his friend and advisor.
The results? Gratifying beyond all measure! Much has already been written and said of his work on the Island, and everything favorable. But I feel I must add to it – he has made himself respected, loved and admired by all who have come in contact with him – from the highest officials in Government circles to the poorest farmer in the country. This, because he gives so unstintingly of himself in every possible way; nothing is too much or too difficult for him to accomplish when it means helping a person in need. He does so much for so many!”
Their plan failed: the board granted them permission to marry, but ruled that Leopold would have to serve his entire 5-year parole period. So Leopold had a decision to make about the next steps in his and Trudi’s relationship.
At the beginning of 1961 Trudi’s name was published in the newspapers for the first time connected to her potential marriage to Leopold. She got her first scare about the scrutiny she would receive if she went through with this marriage: “On the day the news broke…the phone started ringing at 7:00 PM and continued all night, at least once an hour until 8:00 AM next day. Mostly Continental papers (all the Chicago ones and some from New York) and all the local ones, plus AP, UP, and INS.” Trudi wrote to Gertz: “This has been my first, and I hope my last, experience with newsmen and I’m still too disturbed to write about them sanely.”
But even that wasn’t enough to scare her away. The pair got married on February 5th, 1961. In an attempt to avoid publicity, the couple drove up to Castañer for the ceremony, telling no one it was happening. They brought their own justice of the peace, Leopold’s former parole officer, Angel Umpierre, and their witnesses were Trudi’s sister Anita and Umpierre’s wife (as well as Leopold’s dog Sue). The ceremony took place in a small room on the Project, with only one staff member in the know and sworn to secrecy. Despite all the subterfuge, the news of the wedding broke two days later.
The ceremony was announced in the papers with a photo of the couple taken the year before. When asked by a reporter about her choice of partner, Trudi described her first husband: “He was famous thruout[sic] Puerto Rico for his humanitarianism. Nathan Leopold is the same sort of man. I look forward to a happy and fruitful life with him.”
Congratulations poured in from family and friends, and Leopold joked to one ex-con friend: “The institution of matrimony has certain advantages over the last institution in which I spent time.” Leopold and his dog Sue moved in with Trudi to her apartment in Santurce, Leopold bringing with him not a lot of furniture, but some framed photos which Trudi found somewhat questionable, especially those of Leopold’s old girlfriend Susan Lurie and Richard Loeb. On February 26th the couple went to the town of Barranquitas for a short honeymoon.
Trudi gave a glimpse into the day to day of their early married life when writing to a friend:
“Yesterday we spent a delightful day at Luquillo Beach. It was a Puerto Rican holiday, Munoz Rivera Day, and Nathan had the day off and I simply closed up shop and took off with him. We were invited to attend a picnic given for a group of Latin American students…It was a beautiful day, a congenial group and we all had fun.
We don’t have very much free time – seems there’s always something on and, as for myself, I find that taking care of a business, a household and a husband keeps me pretty much occupied – but most happily. And, as you probably know, our family has increased; I’m enclosing a not very good picture showing ‘mom’, Susie and Pepper, our Boston Terrier. And what a character she is! Needless to say, however, Susie is our No. 1 gal.
I’ve been interrupted a dozen times since I started this little letter and it’s almost time to start getting dinner ready, before my hungry husband arrives on the scene, and he’s always hungry, so I’ll bring this to a close.”
Things seemed to be going well for the couple: Leopold had graduated with his master’s degree and was working a series of jobs for the Puerto Rican Department of Health. Leopold’s family and friends all approved of Trudi, and Leopold’s brother Sam, one of his biggest critics, wrote glowingly of a trip he took to the island:
“Saturday evening Trudi and Nathan gave a party for us, which started about 9:00 in the evening and lasted until two in the morning. There were 40 or 50 of their friends there, and again I can’t tell you how pleased we were to see how well they fit in the community down there…I find Nathan with much much more maturity and security. Trudi handles him magnificently and a great balance wheel.”
And while things seemed to be going well for the couple, behind closed doors, trouble brewed. Before they married, Leopold allegedly told Trudi that their union would be sexless, as his diabetes made him impotent. This was true, he did struggle with impotency, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing the people he was actually interested in: teenage boys and young men in their 20s and 30s.
Doubtless Leopold considered this before marrying Trudi, even in 1924 he told psychiatrists that he wondered if marrying a woman would be fair if he wasn’t able to satisfy her sexually. But in this case the many benefits seemed to outweigh his concerns: the use of her as attempted leverage for parole, a beard to shield his sexuality, a symbol of his maturity and someone to cook and clean for him was deemed more important than Trudi’s happiness or satisfaction.
For many years it seemed that Trudi was unaware of her husband’s sexuality, despite him cheating on her very regularly and living an active gay life in the local bars and among a community of gay friends on the island.
When Leopold finally was released from his parole, he celebrated in a way which was typical of him: spending several days in Maricao, where he stayed with a gay friend and his houseboys as well as at a hotel which provided its guests with young men to share their nights.
As Leopold was enjoying himself, Trudi was braving another wave of publicity alone, reading a prepared statement to reporters from her husband in which he thanked everyone who made his successful parole possible. But Trudi was finding the job difficult, especially without Leopold with her, writing to Gertz:
“Nathan left Tuesday morning and I rather hoped I’d hear from him last night but, so far, nary a word. I’m sure he’s gotten the news of his discharge, via radio, so there’s really no urgency for him to phone, particularly since the place he’s visiting is without telephone service, and he’d have to travel many miles to get to one.
At this moment I almost wish I had no phone because it’s been ringing incessantly since Tuesday, newsmen mostly, and, today, well-wishers, plus the cable and telegraph people. I’m weary but it’s a wonderful, happy weariness so I’m sure I’ll survive.”
The ups and downs of their married life continued from there. To celebrate his release, the couple went on a three month international trip, starting in the States where Leopold met most of Trudi’s family for the first time. He seemed to be well accepted despite his past, from then on the Leopolds would usually stay with the Feldmans when they visited the States, and the Feldmans stayed with the Leopolds, often for weeks at a time, when they vacationed in Puerto Rico. After the States the couple travelled to 17 countries, packed with touristy entertainments at every stop. They lunched with a Baroness, toured museums and churches, saw an opera and an orchestra, it seemed like a dream.
But on their return Trudi got to see a bit of Leopold’s temper as well. She’d known about it, even before they got married she mentioned that she had declined to throw a surprise party for him because he was as likely to enjoy himself as “blow a gasket,” but at the beginning of 1964 the pair had an altercation that was so bad Trudi had to write to Elmer Gertz for help. Her letter explaining the initial trouble has been lost, but the advice Gertz gave her has been saved:
“What I can recommend to you, most of all, is extreme patience. Don’t respond, even when you are provoked, for the time being…You must remember that he has been under a terrific strain for almost forty years and you must expect an occasional breakout. The miracle is that there have not been troubles earlier…It is unfortunate that you must bear the brunt of this. You are a very great and wonderful woman and you must do nothing that adds to his woes, hard as it is to bear. If he collapses, then you and all of us will suffer thereby.”
This must not have been very reassuring, and didn’t incline Trudi to reach out to Gertz for advice about her husband again for many years. With Trudi unwilling to air their troubles publicity, or even privately when that was the kind of response she got, most of their family, friends and the public were none the wiser.
On Easter Sunday of 1964 a woman wrote to Leopold and Trudi: “Often do I think of you, living in a golden glow of your own inner happiness and giving out to others, some of the service and worth whileness which have always filled your lives.” While she was sitting down to write that Leopold had just returned from his own Easter celebration: two days of cheating on Trudi with a couple of young men.
Maintaining the public appearance of serenity, the couple traveled to the States in 1964, where Trudi met many of Leopold’s friends and family for the first time. On June 27th they had their first public interview together at a Church of the Brethren conference, sitting side by side with one of Leopold’s hands clasped in Trudi’s.
Trudi and Leopold on June 27th, 1964, being interviewed
One paper described the event: “As she smiled he concluded his interview declaring:
‘In this family I get the last word. You too, can have it-if you use the right words.’
She replied: ‘Yes, dear.'”
Trudi also started working on benefit events for Leopold’s personal charity, pouring dozens of hours into planning and executing huge concerts, fashion shows and other events to raise money.
But things continued to deteriorate internally. In 1965 Leopold considered taking a job in Nigeria, though it would mean leaving Trudi behind. Again in 1966 he considered the same option with Poland. He also began complaining about her, annoyed at a string of health problems, including several cataract surgeries, shingles, rashes as well as the usual colds and flus. He complained to one friend: “either she has every ailment in the Doctor book or she’s a confirmed hypochondriac. She has headaches all day every day; her stomach is upset; her eyes are failingñ[sic] so are her ears. She’s in great shape.” He was also annoyed at her tv habit, remarking to another friend that as he was writing she was “Glued to the idiot box, as usual.”
In 1968 the pair continued their distancing, taking separate, simultaneous vacations for the first time. On their last trip around the world Leopold wrote to a friend that he could have gone on travelling indefinitely but Trudi, who was in charge of all the packing and repacking as they moved to new cities and hotels every few days, “was unravelling at the seams.” As Trudi liked slower paced visits with family, while Leopold liked darting around to different cities and countries every few days, it made sense for them to take different vacations, but it didn’t help bring them closer together.
After years of holding things in, in April of 1971 Trudi had enough, writing to Elmer Gertz once again to let him know the situation between them. By this point she had discovered Leopold’s sexuality and his cheating and asked his advice for a way to end the relationship:
“Now, Elmer, I want to talk a little about our situation as concerns each other. You know I’ve had problems with him before but as long as I remained with him he’s had a cloak of respectability over him. I find I can’t and l don’t want to continue with him and all of this I’ll discuss with you when I come to Chicago for my vacation. I plan to leave San Juan unless something develops to change that on July 1st and hope I can spend a few days with you kids. It will be so good to get in an atmosphere of sanity again. I don’t want to discuss all my problems by mail – all I can say is they couldn’t be more serious. Everything has deteriorated to a point that I must have OUT, and I’m fully aware that this may destroy him. But, I must think of myself also – I have no wish to be destroyed and that’s what he’s doing to me.
You know we’re taking separate vacations; on his proposed trip to Europe he’s taking with him an 18 or 19 year old boy from Castaner, as his guest. I’ve pleaded with him not to do this because on this Bridgewater College (Brethren) tour, there may be many people who will recognize him and wonder about his so-called protegee, and it might just unleash an avalanche of criticism hearkening back to 1924 and his unholy alliance with Dick L. I pointed out to him that if anything like that happened it could easily cause the death of Harold who sponsored him here and thinks he little less than perfect. My very superior husband laughed at me and is continuing with his arrangements for the tour. The fact remains, Elmer, that he’s broken faith with everyone who helped him and believed in him – all of his dear devoted friends, as well as his family, and most of all me. I hate to say this but he isn’t one bit different than he was in 1924; his activities continued throughout his Stateville days, and started here a month after he arrived in 1958, and are continuing presently. I’ve confronted him with what he is and he laughs at me and says I’m a paranoid schizophrenic. Naturally, when confronted, he lies but I have such damning evidence that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. I hope with all my heart that I never need to use this. I don’t wish to hurt him but I long since ceased to love him and don’t have a particle of respect for him.”
Once again Gertz proved his uselessness in this area, advising her to calm down and talk to him in July, when she would be visiting the States. But clearly the relationship had deteriorated to a point when others were taking notice. Another friend recalled: “When I saw the two of them in 1971, it was obvious that they were getting on each other’s nerves. I tried to avoid having them each corner me and tell me about his or her faults, shortcomings, etc.”
Trudi didn’t have to worry about Leopold for much longer though. After a series of heart attacks and other health problems, he died on August 29th, 1971. Trudi relayed their final moments together in a letter after the event:
“A few minutes later he asked me for his ‘vomit cup’. I had my right arm behind him, to support him, and my left hand hold the cup – a few seconds later he was gone, at 8:45 p.m.
I waited till doctors and nurses left the room and spent a few minutes at his side. I held his hand in mine for a few moments, said a prayer, kissed his lips and left. I waited in the lobby till the Ophthalmologist arrived to remove his eyes. The following morning one of his corneas was given to an elderly Puerto Rican widow. The other recipient was a man, so Nate’s final act brought sight to two strangers. He died happy in the knowledge that I would see his wishes through.”
But Trudi would have a much more difficult time seeing his wishes through when she discovered the contents of his will. Leopold was leaving everything to her, except $15,000 which he was giving to lovers, plus he would pay for one to go to medical school, and after Trudi died everything he gave her, including the condo they lived in, would go to another lover.
Just over a week after Leopold’s death Trudi hired a lawyer and contested his will, enraged with the idea that these men would steal what she felt she had earned through years of hard work. As the weeks went by Trudi continued to frame herself as a martyr who had taken Leopold on as a charity case, writing to one friend:
“I prayed that God would at long last grant him the peace he never knew during his lifetime. Many people have commented that I gave him the best years of my life, and to each of them I’ve said – ‘yes, and they were the best years of his life,’ which is what I wanted them to be…My faith in God is supreme and I know, with His help, I’ll survive and continue to help others less strong and less fortunate.”
However upset she was with him, she still wanted to honor the sacrifice she imagined she had made, and to maintain the reputation Leopold had built as a reformed humanitarian. When approached about articles and books she refused to help, explaining: “When I told the press ‘The Nathan Leopold Story is finished,’ I meant just that. I will not cooperate in this, or any other story…Even if I agreed to cooperate, you surely know how unwise it would be to have newsmen delving and prying into the past. Let his present image, which is fine and good, and which I worked so hard to create, remain.”
But a few years later she had also flipped on this. In 1974 newspapers began to publish rumors that Trudi was working on a book “which she says ‘will blow the whistle’ on her late husband.” One article giving the working title as: “To Truth: My Life With Nathan F. Leopold Jr,” though a friend recalled it as the more sensational: “I Married a Murderer.”
Leopold’s friends and family were disturbed by the idea of the book and Louise, Leopold’s former marriage prospect, declined helping Trudi with it, feeling that Trudi airing “the nauseating episodes in your relationship,” would help no one, and Louise felt nothing but pity for Leopold, who she thought had been failed by a society which hadn’t properly corrected his homosexual patterns.
By this point most of Leopold’s family and friends had turned on Trudi, several calling her ugly, a vain, unintelligent but cunning bitch who had just married Leopold for his wealth, and the fame it would bring her. One of Leopold’s relatives speculated that Trudi had wanted a separation rather than a divorce so she could get Leopold’s money when he died. Almost all of their mutual friends and Leopold’s family members stopped talking to her shortly after Leopold’s death.
Unfortunately, these small glimpses into the inner workings of the marriage between Leopold and Trudi may be all we’re able to get for the time being. Leopold didn’t donate the letters he and Trudi exchanged, and very few of her letters to others have surfaced. Her planned book, which would have told her side of the story, was never completed and she gave no interviews after her husband’s death.
Did Trudi marry Leopold out of admiration and love, only to be betrayed by seeing the real face of the man she married, left feeling bitter about the years she had given and the abuse she endured? Or had she and her husband had more in common than we thought: she using Leopold for his money and the life of dinners with politicians and celebrities which Leopold cultivated, while he used her as a mask to cover his sexuality and a homemaker to keep him comfortable? We may never know, but I think we can say with certainty that it was an unsustainable union, and both parties likely would have been happier had they remained apart.
This week I’ve got an interview with Paula Frew posted, a playwright who wrote the latest Leopold-Loeb play, which was staged in Liverpool last month. You can read that over here.
My next post on the 15th will be an exploration of a person/relationship that I know some people are curious to hear more about. Then on May 21st, the 100th anniversary of the murder, I’ll have an announcement about this blog’s content going forward. As for other updates:
The American Criminals movie will premiere this month. If you’d like further details, please email me at theloebleopoldwp@gmail.com
On May 19th Paul Durica of the Chicago History Museum will be giving a walking tour around the neighborhood where Leopold, Loeb, and Bobby Franks lived and where the murder took place.
May 21st, 6-9pm Central Time, in-person: I’ll be part of the programming at the Elgin Public Museum’s program The Leopold Collection: A 100-Year Mystery. Admission is $5 for the general public and $3 for museum members. For more information you can go here.
May 21st, a woman on twitter has announced that she plans to self-publish a Leopold-Loeb based novel on this day.
May 27th, 2-3:30pm, in person only, the Niagara on the Lake Museum in Ontario, Canada will host a Leopold-Loeb lecture by Gus Calderone as part of its Famous & Infamous lecture series. Tickets are $10 for non-members and free for members. More information is available here.
I forgot to mention that I updated the main navigation pages so in case the branching menus give you trouble (they can be fiddly) you can click on the main headings and see links to all of the pages that way as well. Less aesthetic, but more accessible.
Edit: The full play is available to be watched here.
Bobby Franks, the newest play about Leopold and Loeb, had its premiere on April 20th of this year, debuting as part of the Boss New Plays series in Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre. Playwright Paula Frew has been writing fiction since childhood, and this is her first play to be produced. Her piece was directed by John MC and brought to life by actors Jacob Bee, Greg O’Flynn, Mark Greensmith and Duncan Shaw. I was delighted to be able to talk to Frew about her play and the case that inspired it.
When I asked what drew Frew to the subject she replied that she first heard about the case when she caught the 2018 PBS documentary about it and was intrigued: “The murder of Bobby was just so awful. I couldn’t comprehend how two teenagers could commit this terrible crime. I had to find out more about them. Once I read that they were above average intelligence, high IQ’s, from affluent families , etc. I was shocked. I decided to write about their crime. I find that humans are capable of such beautiful deeds and also darkness, regardless of their positions in society.” So she started writing.
As the play opens Leopold and Loeb are in Leopold’s bedroom on May 20th, 1924, discussing philosophy, working on the ransom note and deciding that tomorrow will be the big day that they’ll commit their perfect crime.
In Bobby Franks the pair are on the same page, occasional disagreements and squabbles are quickly resolved; you get the sense that Leopold and Loeb are lost in a world of their shared delusions. Frew contrasted the “social, outgoing nature of Loeb against the reclusive, simmering Leopold,” but found that “their true natures revealed when they are together.” As we see them, that simmering nature of Leopold is on full display: he’s almost languid, often giggling and making snide comments, sipping a drink, though he can unexpectedly explode in anger. While Leopold lounges Loeb stands, paces, and is the more dynamic force moving the pair forward.
A theme runs through the play of rebirth through fire. One of the first things the viewer sees is Leopold reading aloud from Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra: “You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame. How could you become new if you have not first become ashes?”
This resonates with Loeb especially, who wants to forge his own destiny, away from what his parents and society expects of him. Leopold goads him with the knowledge that they’ve both been created “to marry into the finest families in Chicago and carry on their fine lineage of wealth, control and power.” Loeb wants nothing more than to find his own path, even if he has to burn himself to achieve it.
There is a streak of anger towards the Leopold and Loeb families from their sons that crops up several times and may be the key to their subconscious motive for murder. As Frew saw it, both Leopold and Loeb lacked paternal love when growing up. “For Loeb, the lack of close attachment to his parents may have created abandonment issues…Leopold’s lack of parental warmth and affection was a combination of their neglect and his self-blame of his mother’s illness…Perhaps somewhere deep in their psyches they wanted to kill their parents. This subtle thread probably connected them.”
The highest emotional beats of the play, Bobby’s murder and a sex scene between Leopold and Loeb, are accompanied by lighting changes, pulsing red lights for the murder and green for the sex scene. Both are accompanied by loud sounds like a heartbeat which build to a crescendo before cutting out, and the heartbeat sound over the sex scene mixes with an old record the pair were dancing to, creating a nightmarish experience.
The second half of the play covers the sentencing hearing, with the cast expanding; Darrow, a psychiatrist witness and Judge Caverly breaking into the isolated world of Leopold and Loeb’s fantasies. Darrow and the psychiatrist explain the mental illness behind the murder, hoping to get the judge to understand that both teenagers had been psychologically damaged as children, and that they are both physically and mentally abnormal.
As the trial progresses, Leopold and Loeb sit center stage, still spattered with blood, caressing each other and giggling to themselves. Leopold even gets up at one point and insults Darrow and Loeb says that money will get them out of their predicament. Darrow pleads to the judge that these public outbursts are evidence of their derangement, and though the judge denounces them and their crime, he ultimately does settle on life imprisonment over death by hanging. The play ends with the pair having learned no lesson, satisfied that they’ve gotten all this attention, notoriety, and that they came so close to their perfect crime.
This initial version of the play is only around 30-35 minutes long, but Frew hopes to expand it to 90. In that expanded version, Frew revealed that she’d like to delve deeper into the family trauma which helped shape Leopold and Loeb, as well as explore who Bobby was. She said: “I’d like to show Bobby debating against capital punishment in his debating class. The irony of this would not be lost. It would also show his development and maturity at his tender age of fourteen. His advocacy against issues he found important enough to speak about. He could have become a well-rounded, fair, and kind man if he had the chance.”
When I asked Frew what she hoped people who watched her play would take away from the experience, she replied: “I want people to understand the complexity of the human mind in this play. We are all capable of certain deeds. Free will allows us this capability to act in any way we wish. These boys seemed to have everything that others desired; wealth, intelligence, youthfulness, confidence etc. Yet they chose to murder a young boy because they were bored and needed a thrill. I think this play will shock and disturb the audience, yet wise enough to know that we all make choices that can harm or heal.”
The Lives and Legends of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold 