Queer Theory and the Jewish Question (28 page)

Susanne Klingenstein,
Jews in the American Academy, 1900–1940: The Dynamics of Intellectual Assimilation
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), p. 6

Ralph Philip Boas, “Who Shall Go to College?”
Atlantic Monthly
, vol. 130, no. 4 (October 1922), pp. 441–48. Until the recent constitutional challenges to affirmative ac- tion legislation, these formerly exclusionary criteria for admission provided the very means by which colleges and universities ensured diversity within their student populations.

William T. Ham, “Harvard Student Opinion on the Jewish Question,”
Nation
, vol. 115, no. 2983, 6 September 1922, p. 225.

On Harvard’s proposed policy, see Horace M. Kallen, “The Roots of Anti- semitism,”
Nation
, vol. 116, no. 3008, 28 February 1923, pp. 240–42; “What Was Your

Father’s Name?”
Nation
, vol. 115, no. 2987, 4 October 1922, p. 322; and Marcia Graham Synnott,
The Half-Open Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale and Prince- ton, 1900–1970
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1979).

Forbes, “They Slew for a Laboratory Test in Emotions,” part 1, p. 3.

“Hang the Slayers, Billy Sunday Says,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 5 June 1924,

p. 3; “Loeb and Leopold Called Abnormal,”
New York Times
, 2 June 1924, p. 3.

G. K. Chesterton, “Education and Murder,”
Literary Digest
, vol. 83, 18 October 1924, p. 31. Also see “Psycho Experts Blame Parents for Precocity,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 5 June 1924, p. 3.

Blumgart, “The New Psychology,” p. 261.

On homosexuals as intellectually gifted, see Dr. G. Frank Lydston, “Sexual Perver- sion, Satyriasis and Nymphomania,”
Medical and Surgical Reporter
, vol. 61, no. 10, 7 Sep- tember 1889, p. 256; Havelock Ellis,
Sexual Inversion
, vol. 1:
Studies in the Psychology of Sex
(New York: Random House, 1942 [1897]), pp. 293–94; Dr. William Lee Howard, “Sexual Perversion in America,”
American Journal of Dermatology and Genito-Urinary Dis- ease
, vol. 8, no. 1 (January 1904), p. 11; and Dr. John F. W. Meagher, “Homosexuality; Its Psychobiological and Psychopathological Significance,”
Urologic and Cutaneous Review
, vol. 33, no. 8 (August 1929), p. 508.

In the culminating moment of this ancient Jewish rite, known as
metsitsah
, the
mohel
(an adult male) sucked the male infant’s newly circumcised penis, a readably homo- erotic and even pederastic gesture. On the role of circumcision in marking Jewish male dif- ference, see Gilman,
Freud, Race, and Gender
, pp. 49–92. On the relation between the Jew- ish nose and the penis, see Jay Geller, “(G)nos(e)ology: The Cultural Construction of the Other,” in
People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective
, ed. Howard Eilberg-Schwarz (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), pp. 243–82.

On Loeb as Leopold’s “companion,” see “Millionaire’s Son On Grill; Glasses Agree,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 30 May 1924, p. 1. On the contradictions between their alibis, see “Leopold’s Alibi in Conflict with Chum’s Story Regarding Girls,”
Chicago Her- ald and Examiner
, 31 May 1924, p. 2.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, box 19, vol. 2, p. 831.

Ibid., pp. 832, 840. Excerpts of the letter were published in “Cryptic Letter Ad- dressed to ‘Dick’ Regarding ‘Differences’ Mystifies,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 31 May 1924, p. 2; and “Richard Loeb as Best Friend, Letter’s Theme,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 31 May 1924, p. 3.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, vol. 1, p. 495.

Dr. S. M. Melamed, “Jewish Spokesman Says Crime Is Due to Neglect of Judaism,”

Chicago Daily Tribune
, 2 June 1924, p. 3.

“Leopold-Loeb Case Battle of Alienists,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 3 June 1924, p. 2; and “Notes of Two Slayers Held Vital Evidence,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 9 June 1924, p. 1. Such evidence directly contradicts Fass’s reading of the archives.

One reporter coyly outed Leopold and Loeb as lovers by associating them with the legacy of Walt Whitman, a major homosexual icon in this era: “All through their child- hood and college days ‘Babe’ Leopold and ‘Dicky’ Loeb were constant companions in the ‘fussing’ parties they staged, in their campus activities, and the bright south side college life. Their trail of learning and spending of their fathers’ fortunes was marked by their ad- hesive comradeship.” See Tyrrell Krum, “Elite of the Jail Think Leopold ‘Ain’t So Much,’”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 4 June 1924, p. 2.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, vol. 2, pp. 824–25; and
Confessions and Other State- ments of Leopold and Loeb
, Harold S. Hulbert Papers, Northwestern University Archives, series 55/23, box 2, p. 264. On Leopold’s interest in Aretino, see “Pietro Aretino No Boys’ Author Savant Reveals,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 4 June 1924, p. 3.

On the introduction of textual material during Wilde’s trials as evidence of his sodomitical leanings, see Ed Cohen,
Talk on the Wilde Side: Towards a Genealogy of Dis- courses on Male Sexualities
(New York: Routledge, 1993).

John Herrick, “Loeb Followed Leopold Whims, Expert Asserts,”
Chicago Daily Tri- bune
, 5 June 1924, p. 2.

Ibid.

“Charles A. Bonniwell Analyzes Characteristics of Student Slayers and Reveals Their Inner Characters,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 1 June 1924, p. 2; and Charles A. Bonniwell, “Comparison of the Eyebrows and Eyes of Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 7 June 1924, p. 2. Also see “Faces of Youthful Slay- ers Are Contrasted by Experts,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 4 June 1924, p. 2.

“State to Rely on Photographs to Show Slaying Traits,”
Chicago Herald and Exam- iner
, 21 July 1924, p. 3. Claiming that the “camera never lies,” editors recognized the po- tential importance of such a courtroom strategy and reproduced seven different head shots of each teen in this article.

Morrow Krum, “‘This’ll Be the Making of Me,’ Says Loeb Boy,”
Chicago Daily Tri- bune
, 2 June 1924, p. 2. On Loeb as “suggestible,” see “Charles A. Bonniwell Analyzes Characteristics,” p. 2; and Maureen McKernan, “Sensitive Boy, Girls Recall of ‘Dickey’ Loeb,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 2 June 1924, p. 4.

“Dr. Sanger Brown’s Report on Two Slayers,” p. 2.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, box 20, vol. 4, p. 2052; and Krum, “‘This’ll Be the Making of Me,’” p. 2.

Maureen McKernan, “Weeping Girls Mourn Plight of Richard Loeb,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 4 June 1924, p. 2. Also see Maureen McKernan, “Loeb Writes Letter to Girl; Jail Chills Him,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 3 June 1924, p. 3; “Girl’s Initials on Plot Note,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 8 June 1924, p. 2; and “‘Patches’ Asks to Help ‘Dick- ie’ Loeb,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 7 June 1924, p. 2.

“Loeb’s Sweetheart Ready to Testify,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 11 June 1924, p. 6.

Xavier Mayne [Edward Irenaeus Prime Stevenson],
The Intersexes: A History of Sim- ilsexualism as a Problem in Social Life
(New York: Arno, 1975 [1908]), p. 395.

Melamed, “Jewish Spokesman Says,” p. 3.

Ibid.

Ibid.

In his recollections of the crime, Deutsch remarked: “Homosexuality was not dis- cussed 70 years ago. When it was reported that these two well-born boys were homosexu- al partners who had sexual relationship with numerous other men, the outcry for hanging intensified.” See Armand “Billie” Deutsch, “My Murder: Loeb and Leopold’s Intended Victim Recalls the First ‘Crime of the Century,’”
Chicago Tribune Magazine
, 23 June 1996, p. 27.

Clarence Darrow,
The Plea of Clarence Darrow, August 22nd, 23rd and 25th MCMXXIIII in Defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. on Trial for Murder
(Chica- go: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 1924), p. 4.

On the wealth of the Leopold and Loeb families, see James Doherty, “Darrow Leads Court Battle for Writ Today,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 2 June 1924, p. 1. The
Chica- go Herald and Examiner
’s lead article of 2 June 1924, “‘I Wrote Note, Loeb Killed Him,’ Says Leopold in First Interview,” opened with “Richard A. Loeb, son of the multimillion- aire vice president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., was named as the actual slayer of Robert Franks, 13-year-old heir to a $4,000,000 estate, in an amplified confession made Sunday by Nathan E. Leopold Jr., his companion in crime.”

Maureen McKernan, “Leopold Family a Big Factor in City’s Business,”
Chicago Sunday Tribune
, 1 June 1924, part 1, p. 5; and Maurine Watkins, “‘Dick Innocent,’ Loebs Protest; Plan Defense,”
Chicago Sunday Tribune
, 1 June 1924, part 1, p. 5.

Cited in Fass, “Making and Remaking an Event,” p. 922.

“Millions for Defense, Trial to Rival Famous Thaw Case,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 2 June 1924, p. 4.

Doherty, “Darrow Leads Court Battle for Writ Today,” p. 1.

Ibid.

“Fathers Will Let Bar Fix Fees in Slayer’s Defense,”
Chicago Herald and Examiner
, 7 June 1924, pp. 1–2.

On class and the criminal justice system in the 1920s, see “Rich and Poor Mur- derers,”
Literary Digest
, vol. 82, no. 13, 27 September 1924, pp. 10–11; and Arthur Train and Upton Sinclair, “Can a Rich Man Be Convicted?”
Forum
, vol. 79, no. 5 (May 1928), pp. 645–57.

“Leopold-Loeb Case Battle of Alienists,” p. 2.

On the controversy surrounding the use of expert testimony in the Leopold-Loeb case, see Blumgart, “The New Psychology,” pp. 261–62; John H. Wigmore, “Editorial: To Abolish Partisanship of Expert Witnesses, as Illustrated in the Loeb-Leopold Case,”
Jour- nal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology
, vol. 15, no. 3 (November 1924), pp. 341–43; “The Loeb-Leopold Case: A Symposium of Comments from the Legal Profession,” pp. 395–405; S. Sheldon Glueck, “Some Implications of the Leopold and Loeb Hearing in Mitigation,”
Mental Hygiene
, vol. 9 (July 1925), pp. 449–68; Dr. V. C. Branham, “The Reconciliation of the Legal and Psychiatric Viewpoints of Delinquency,”
Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology
, vol. 17, no. 2 (August 1926), pp. 173–82; William A. White, “The Need for Cooperation Between the Legal Profession and the Psychiatrist in Dealing with the Crime Problem,”
American Journal of Psychiatry
, vol. 7 (November 1927), pp. 493–505; “Crime and the Expert,”
Outlook
, vol. 20, 27 August 1924, p. 626; and James J. Walsh, “Criminal Responsibility and the Med- ical Experts,”
America
, vol. 16, 4 October 1924, pp. 586–88.

Ernest Jones,
Sigmund Freud: Life and Work
(London: Hogarth, 1957), vol. 3, pp. 108–9. Jones noted that Hearst offered Freud any sum he wished to name to participate in the trial. Karl H. von Wiegand, “Freud Under Knife for Cancer, Report,”
Chicago Her- ald and Examiner
, 18 June 1924, p. 3, quoted the psychoanalyst: “The condition of my health makes it impossible to consider a proposal to go to America at this time.”

Jones, ibid.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, box 21, vol. 7, p. 4262.

McKernan,
The Amazing Crime and Trial
, p. 354.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, vol. 7, p. 4260.

Sellers,
The Loeb-Leopold Case with Excerpts
, pp. 259, 273, 303–4. Europe was not a neutral destination. On the Continent class and wealth had long been misperceived as

cultural cofactors in the development of male homosexuality, which itself was dubbed an “aristocratic vice” endemic to old world European cultures.

Darrow,
The Plea of Clarence Darrow
, pp. 15, 75–76.

Ellis,
Sexual Inversion
, p. 292.

Wechsler, “Nervousness and the Jew,” p. 129.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, vol. 2, pp. 1315, 1344–45.

Dr. Harold S. Hulbert,
The Franks Case: Psychiatric Data, Interpretation and Opin- ion (Richard Loeb)
, Leopold-Loeb Collection, Charles Deering McCormick Library of Spe- cial Collections, Northwestern University, 2 July 1924, box 21, p. 22.

Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, vol. 2, p. 1321; vol. 4, pp. 1966–67.

Dr. William Alanson White,
Report on Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold
, Leopold- Loeb Collection, Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwest- ern University, box 21, p. 44.

Dr. Harold S. Hulbert and Dr. Karl M. Bowman,
Abstract of the Preliminary Neuro- Psychiatric Examination of Nathan Leopold, Jr.,
Leopold-Loeb Collection, Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, 30 June 1924, box 21, p. 50.

Ibid., pp. 6, 8, 18–22, 23, 50, 55, 137, 145; and
Leopold-Loeb Trial Transcript
, vol. 4, pp. 2013, 2062, 2067. On Jews and dementia praecox, see Gilman,
Freud, Race, and Gender
, p. 148.