Spring Migration Notes...By a Murderer

On November 5, 1950, Curator of Mammalogy Colin Sanborn received an extraordinary letter at the Museum (then the Chicago Museum of Natural History). It began as follows:

Dear Colin,

I should like to make a rather unusual request of you. Some twenty-five years ago I gave the then Field Museum several specimens from my bird collection. Included among them was a habitat group of Kirtland's Warblers, consisting of the two adults and four nestlings in the nest, mounted by Ashley Hine…I know that the Museum used to have souvenir photograph postcards of many of its mounted groups on sale to the public. Could you find out for me whether such a photo was ever made of this Kirtland's Warbler group, and if so, let me know how I can get one?

It wasn't the request itself that was so unusual: individuals (or their descendants) frequently inquired about a specimen donated to the Museum. It was the letter's author that made it stand out: Nathan Leopold, Jr. Prior to becoming part of the infamous duo Leopold and Loeb, convicted for kidnapping and murdering 14-year-old neighbor Bobby Franks, Leopold had been a birder and ornithologist. Writing from prison in Joliet, Illinois, he hoped to receive a photograph of a group of specimens he'd donated as a very young man.