Poetry

I can’t post the full poems without the poet’s permission, but I will be including some relevant stanzas to help you get a feel for the pieces.

There are three sections: Poems written by people connected to the case, Poems which are entirely about Leopold and/or Loeb and poems which mention Leopold and/or Loeb.

All of the poems are sorted in order of when they were published.

For a full list of the fiction inspired by this case see this page, which includes plays, songs, short stories, novels and more.

Poems written by those connected to the case

Elegy to My Little Brother: Who Dwells with Me Perpetually

This poem was written by Bobby Franks’ older brother Jack, and is contained within his poetry collection My Blessed Little Pal, which was published in 1926. The book is dedicated to Bobby, though most of the poems are about other topics.

You who vow that he is gone:
In body, yes; in spirit, no-
Can that immortal spirit go?
I dare proclaim that he with me
Will dwell through all eternity.

And Tender Thoughts Flowed On

This poem was by Bobby Franks’ older brother Jack, and is contained within his poetry collection Echoes, which was published in 1929. This book is dedicated to Jack’s father Jacob, and contains a collection of poems on various topics which Jack wrote over several years. This poem on Bobby was written “after scrutinizing a tinted picture of my brother.”

And the eyes-I think that’s what induced me to pause-
So like Mother’s brown eyes when I talk to the winds,
When the lids lower languidly while the gaze wanders,
And there’s not a response save a far-off serenity

Nathan Leopold’s poetry

In his autobiography, Leopold said that around 1925-1926 he “was bitten by the poetry-writing bug.” He quotes one of these early poems:

For mine is a spirit untrammeled
Uncramped by physical space,
So thanks, all my bourgeois consolers,
I wouldn’t trade you my place.

In his autobiography he said that in October of 1925 he wrote a poem for his aunt titled ‘To Birdie’:

Thou are not bound to me by ties
Of motherhood, and yet the sighs
Which wrack they breast thou triest to hide
Like her, and lingerest by my side.

He also prints a poem he wrote for a horned lark he kept as a pet:

Of course he’s devoid of discernment,
He doesn’t know of my sin,
And his liking, perhaps, is engendered
‘Cause I fed and I cared for him.

In June of 1966 he learned that a friend’s dog, Carlo, had died, and wrote a 32-line poem for his friend titled: ‘In Memoriam: Carlo’ Much of the poem pertains to the question of animal souls and the good qualities of dogs which makes them so hard to lose:

Now why did God permit this day to dawn-
The day that finds true Carlo gone?
Our life, God knows, is surely hard enough
Without such grief sent from above.

Poems which are completely about Leopold/Loeb

Reformation

Reacting to an article about Leopold and Loeb teaching in prison, Sid La Cholter wrote in to the Knickerbocker Press and his poem was published on September 25, 1934. Part of the poem is as follows:

Within those walls of Stateville Pen
The king’s own English reigns again;
Where ‘dems’ and ‘dese’ once filled the air
Their sound now brings an icy stare;
‘Professors’ Leopold and Loeb
Have made of it a new abode.
Atrocious language they condemn
They speak of these and those and them

All Death is Senseless

This poem was written by Aletha K. Sunderland and sent to Leopold. As far as I can tell, it was unpublished, and written in 1958 after his release from prison.

And since he was a model example
Serving “Life and Ninety-Nine Years”—
With those thirty-three years behind him
He now serves life with grateful tears!

To Bill

This poem was written by Rita Hipkiss in July of 1958. Though written to Leopold’s dog Bill, the author spends 7 of her 9 stanzas disparaging herself, begging Leopold to forgive her for asking he write more letters, while continuing to beg him to write more often. Hipkiss was one of Leopold’s “fans” who had a difficult time with the frequency he wrote to her, often asking if he was sick, depressed, or angry at her, though he continually explained that he was just busy and had a lot of correspondence to respond to.

I’ll bide by all his rules, not mine,
Nor muff or spoil it nay,
If he’ll just once again say, Marge,
Your letters are OK.

I’ll wait n’wait n’wait for news,
And never ask for faster.
So good n’good n’good I’ll be,
Please tell it to your master.

February 20th

This poem was written by Rita Hipkiss in 1959 for the anniversary of the announcement that Leopold would be paroled. It was sent to Leopold and he thanked her for her “beautiful poem.” “I didn’t realize anyone but me would remember the significance of that date.”

For this great date, which meant so much,
A year ago to-day,
I thank The Lord with all my heart
For more than words can say.

[Untitled]

This poem by Diane Gottesman was unpublished, and sent to Leopold in 1967.

And God–
This man, who for almost half a century
Has served you
And the world-

Some still
Want his pound of flesh
Condescendingly, they say
Yes, but remember the past….

Eye Bank

This poem was written by Christopher McNew and published in the Chicago Review in 1994. It was dedicated to Leopold and refers to the donation of his eyes after death.

They would
not rest until your sight was
her sight, until she raised
her head and the eyes swam,
taking in every plane of light,
and her mother stepped back,
hand curled over her mouth,
and said That man killed a
boy, now my daughter can see.

Crime and Punishment

This poem was written by Turner Cassity and published in No Second Eden (2002). This poem was apparently inspired by a quote from Higdon’s book, wherein he mentions that a photo of Loeb was in Leopold’s apartment in Puerto Rico.

“A love like ours what common herd can probe?”
Said Nathan Leopold to Richard Loeb.

“To prove it we’ll do something brave and bold,
As Nietzsche might,” said Loeb to Leopold.

Leopold and His Lepers

This poem, by Willis Barnstone was published in Life Watch (2003).

Short Leopold, ballooning in his white jacket,
takes my hand and we blab all day long.
The devil is human. His grand hobby

is birds. Earlier he tried the perfect crime
and mathematics. Done with that, now
he tends the bodies of the dying.

Cinema ’24

This poem was written by Peter Jaworowski and published in Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades by The Poet’s Press (2010). Going off of his footnote, it was inspired by the case, the Superman theory and the many fictional adaptations the crime has spawned.

Skies agape and angels bleed,
adrenaline-drunk and fire-eyed,
licking the sweat of fear we breath,
dreaming of gods and grandeur alike,

reveling in the dead stare
while taking you on a dare.

[Untitled]

This poem was from the the thesis Twisted in the Trunks of Trees by Kristin Aardsma (2010).

My cousin

lives in death, while the Franks boy

died a martyr for boredom,
is now a symbol for forgetfulness.

Leopold And Loeb / Chicago Thrill Killers ./ Bobby Franks /1924

Listen to Cargill recite it here

This poem by Acie Cargill was included on his 2011 spoken word poetry album Yes, This is Poetry as well as in his 2015 book Aberrations. It is a fairly straightforward summary of the case, though there are many popular (and some brand new) inaccuracies. This has few features that one would typically associate with a poem, but one of the more creative stanzas is:

In 1924 many of Chicago’s citizens were blue collar workers and their
families
They despised the wealthy and the “eggheads” at the U of C
Many were also anti-Semitic
They clamored for the killers to be hung

The Love Song of Leopold and Loeb

This poem was published in the collection Tap Dancing on the Razor’s Edge by Paul A. Lubenkov (2018). Before the poem is this quote, attributed to Leopold:

“With our looks and Darrow’s brains,
I think we’ll get along pretty well.”

The quote I’ve been able to find close to this, from 1924 was allegedly said by Leopold after a court session on July 28th. As reported in the Chicago Daily Journal: “With my looks and Darrow’s brains I think we’ll get along pretty well.” The quote which Lubenkov uses was published in The Chicago Tribune in 2016, and I assume that’s where he saw it.

Seated next to him was Loeb,
Elegant, beautiful Loeb
With impeccable social skills,
his smug courtroom smile,
The classic line of his jaw,
The lapels of his tailored suits
Sharp as knives to the eye.

Chairman of the Committee on Nomenclature

This poem was published in the collection Ricantations by Loretta Collins Klobah (2018).

By bel canto, coo, hoot, pip, or trill,
young Leopold could name that bird,
using string to noose wrens and warblers,
bag up his feathery collection for display.
Little deaths, erector-executions, sado-scientific
quest to document through snuffing out
winged things with chloroform, stirred
a quick ache in Nathan Leopold, but no remorse.

The Imperfect Criminals

Read it here

This poem was posted on Wattpad on June 30, 2019 by user 0osomatsu. It explores the ramp up, crime and fallout mostly from the perspective of Richard Loeb.

As we physically matured toward our intellects
We sought expression in a more meaningful hobby
For months we sought a perfect mortal target
Then right into our sights wandered poor Bobby

Poems which mention Leopold/Loeb

The Teeming Times by Tiny Tessie (Washington Times, 1924)

Loeb and Leopold are frightened
Just like kids their hearts are tightened,
Merciful ‘twould be to end it quick,
If a life for life’s the answer,
Judge, kill quickly if you can, sir:
Do not fasten new crimes on so thick.

Poem Out of Childhood from Theory of Flight by Muriel Rukeyser (1935)

We sat on the steps of the unrented house
raining blood down on Loeb and Leopold
creating again how they removed his glasses
and philosophically slit his throat

Friend by Gregory Corso (Long Live Man, 1962)

Old Scrooge knew a joy in a friendless Christmas
Leopold and Loeb planning in the night!
Et tu Brute
I have many friends yet sometimes I am nobody’s friend

Rant in Madison Red by R. E. Stephenson (Quixote, 1971)

Leopold and Loeb killed Bobby Frank among
The railroad trains and scarlet tanagers
Roads for cars and rose-breasted grosbeaks
The jazz and macaroni opera, the purple martins
Tired business men and captive tigers

Memoir of Repairs to the Colony from Ricantations by Loretta Collins Klobah (2018)

In 1926, patients were transferred
from Isla de Cabras to a new hospital colony
in Trujillo Alto, managed by child-murderer
Nathan Leopold, who published scientific papers
on our lepers.