Leopold and Loeb - Prison and Later Life

Prison and Later Life

Initially held at Joliet Prison, Leopold and Loeb were later transferred to Stateville Penitentiary, where they taught classes in the prison school.

On January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked by fellow prisoner James E. Day with a straight razor in a shower room and died from his wounds. Day claimed afterward that Loeb had attempted to sexually assault him. Day emerged without a scratch while Loeb sustained more than 50 wounds from the attack, including numerous self-defense wounds on his arms and hands. Loeb's throat had also been slashed from behind. Nevertheless, an inquiry accepted Day's testimony. The prison authorities, embarrassed by publicity sensationalizing alleged decadent behavior in the prison, ruled that Day's attack on Loeb was in self-defense. According to one widely reported account, newsman Ed Lahey wrote this lead for the Chicago Daily News: "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition."

The actual motive for Loeb's murder was apparently money. Both Leopold and Loeb had been receiving generous allowances from their families, enough to purchase tobacco and various other items for their cellmates and friends. After the warden reduced all prisoner allowances to only a few dollars per month, Day, a former cellmate of Loeb's, continued to demand the gifts he had been accustomed to receiving, which Loeb could no longer afford.

There is no evidence that Richard Loeb was a sexual predator while in prison; however, Loeb's murderer was later caught on at least one occasion engaging a fellow inmate sexually as well as committing numerous other infractions. In an autobiography entitled Life Plus 99 Years, Leopold referred to Day's claims that Loeb had attempted to sexually assault him as ridiculous and laughable. This is echoed in an interview with the Catholic chaplain at the prison, Father Eligius Weir, who had been a personal confidant of Richard Loeb. Weir stated that James Day had been the sexual predator and had gone after Loeb because Loeb refused to have sexual relations with him.

In 1944, Leopold participated in the Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study, in which he volunteered to be infected with malaria. Early in 1958, after 33 years in prison, Leopold was released on parole. In April of that year, he set up the Leopold foundation "to aid emotionally disturbed, retarded, or delinquent youths" which would be funded by the royalties from his book, Life Plus 99 Years. But in July, the State of Illinois voided his charter for the organization, saying it violated the terms of his parole.

Leopold moved to Puerto Rico to avoid media attention and married a widowed florist. On many occasions he expressed his appreciation for the willingness of the Brethren Service Commission, a Church of the Brethren affiliated program, to accept him upon his parole as a medical technician at its hospital in Puerto Rico. He wrote in an article, "To me the Brethren Service Commission offered the job, the home, and the sponsorship without which a man cannot be paroled. But it gave me so much more than that, the companionship, the acceptance, the love which would have rendered a violation of parole almost impossible." He was known as "Nate" to neighbors and co-workers at Castañer General Hospital in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, where he worked as a laboratory and x-ray assistant. During this period he was active in the Natural History Society of Puerto Rico, traveling throughout the island to observe its birdlife. In 1963 he published the Checklist of Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

At one time after his release from prison, Leopold talked about his intention to write a book entitled Snatch for a Halo about his life following prison. He never did so. Later, Leopold tried to block the movie Compulsion (see below) on the grounds of invasion of privacy, defamation, and making money from his life story.

He died of a diabetes-related heart attack on August 29, 1971, at the age of 66. His corneas were donated.