From Front Page to Obscurity
While Leo McLaughlin was lucky to get off with no prison time, his time in the spot light was over. He no longer received calls to makes speeches at conferences, when famous people came to town it was not to see him, and if someone recognized him it was in a hushed whisper. The man who had enjoyed the camera so much was miserable in the last decade of his life.
In May of 1958, at the age of 69, McLaughlin went into a coma due to complications of influenza and uremia and passed away. Shortly after he was buried, grave robbers exhumed his grave looking for buried treasure. McLaughlin's body was desecrated and left exposed until discovered by his only surviving relatives, his sisters.