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Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard A. Loeb (June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), more commonly known as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, and were sentenced to life in prison.

The duo were motivated to murder Franks by their desire to commit a perfect crime. Once apprehended, Leopold and Loeb retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for the defense; Darrow’s summation in their trial is noted for its influential criticisms of the capital punishment and retributive, as opposed to rehabilitative, penal systems.

Contents 1 Motive 2 Timeline 3 Trial 4 Prison and later life 5 Bibliography and films 6 References 7 External links

Leopold, age 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb, 18, believed themselves to be Nietzschean supermen who could commit a "perfect crime" (in this case a kidnapping and murder).^[1]

The friends were exceptionally intelligent: Leopold had already completed college and was attending law school at the University of Chicago.^[1] He spoke fifteen languages^[2] and was an expert ornithologist, while Loeb was the youngest graduate in the history of the University of Michigan.^[1] Leopold planned to transfer to Harvard Law School in September, after taking a trip to Europe. Loeb planned to enter the University of Chicago Law School after taking some post graduate courses.^[1]

Both Leopold and Loeb lived in Kenwood, a wealthy neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Loeb's father, Albert, began his career as a lawyer and became the Vice President of Sears and Roebuck. Besides owning an impressive mansion in Kenwood, two blocks away from the Leopold home, the Loeb family also had a summer estate in Charlevoix, Michigan.

Leopold and Loeb met at the University of Chicago as teenagers. Leopold agreed to act as Loeb's accomplice as long as Loeb had sex with him.^[3] Beginning with petty theft, the pair committed a series of more and more serious crimes; the series culminated in murder.^[1]

Leopold and Loeb spent months planning the murder, working out a way to get the ransom money with little risk of being caught.^[4] On Wednesday, May 21, 1924, they put their plot in motion. The pair lured Franks, a neighbor and distant relative of Loeb's, into a rented car. Either Loeb or Leopold first struck Franks with a chisel.^[5] Leopold or Loeb then stuffed a sock into Franks' mouth. Franks died soon thereafter.

Leopold and Loeb concealed the body in a culvert under a railroad track outside of Gary, Indiana and poured hydrochloric acid on the body to make identification more difficult. After returning to Hyde Park, they burned Frank's clothes.^{[4] [5]} They then called Franks' mother and told her that her son had been kidnapped. They mailed the ransom note to the Franks.

Before the family could pay the ransom, though, Tony Minke, a Polish immigrant, discovered the body.^{[4] [5]} When Leopold and Loeb learned that the body had been found, they destroyed the typewriter used to write the ransom note and burned the robe used to move the body.^{[4] [5]}

A pair of eyeglasses were found near the body. The glasses were ordinary, except that they had a special hinge mechanism. In Chicago, only three people had purchased such hinge mechanism, and one of those people was Nathan Leopold.^[6]

Leopold told police that he had lost the glasses while bird watching. ^[7] Loeb told the police that Leopold was with him the night of the murder. Leopold and Loeb's story was that they had picked up two women in Leopold's car. They dropped them off near a golf course and never learned the women's last names. Unfortunately for Leopold and Loeb, Leopold's car was being repaired by Leopold's chauffeur that same night. The chauffeur's wife also said the car was in the Leopold garage that night.

During police questioning, Leopold's and Loeb's alibis broke down. Loeb confessed first, followed by Leopold.^[8] Although their confessions were in agreement about most major facts in the case, each blamed the other for the actual killing.^[4] Most commentators believe that Loeb struck the blow that killed Franks.^[9]

The ransom was not their primary motive; each one's family gave him all the money that he needed. In fact, they admitted that they were driven by the thrill. For that matter, they basked in the public attention they received while in jail; they regaled newspaper reporters with the crime's lurid details again and again.

The trial became a media spectacle. Held at Courthouse Place, it was one of the first cases in the U.S. to be dubbed the "Trial of the Century."^[10] Loeb's family hired 67-year-old Clarence Darrow — a well-known opponent of capital punishment — to defend the boys against the capital charges of murder and kidnapping. ^[11] While the media expected Leopold and Loeb to plead not guilty (by reason of insanity), Darrow surprised everyone by having them both plead guilty. In this way, Darrow avoided a jury trial which Darrow believed would most certainly have resulted in a conviction and perhaps even the death penalty. ^[11] Instead, he was able to make his case for his clients' lives before a single person, Cook County Circuit Court Judge John R. Caverly.

During the 12-hour hearing on the final day, Darrow gave a speech, which has been called the finest of his career. The speech included: "this terrible crime was inherent in his organism, and it came from some ancestor … Is any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche’s philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? … it is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university."^[12]

In the end, Darrow succeeded. The judge sentenced Leopold and Loeb each to life in prison (for the murder), plus 99 years each (for the kidnapping). ^[11]

At Joliet Prison, Leopold and Loeb used their educations to good purpose, teaching classes in the prison school.^[13] In January 1936, Loeb was attacked by fellow prisoner James Day with a straight razor in the prison's shower room, and died from his wounds.^[1][13] Day claimed afterwards that Loeb had attempted to sexually assault him; an inquiry accepted Day's testimony, and the prison authorities ruled that Day's attack on Loeb was self-defense.^[1][13] That inspired the newsman Ed Lahey to write in the Chicago Daily News, "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition."^[14] Years later Day's cellmate admitted that the killing was preplanned.

In 1944, Leopold participated in the Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study where he volunteered to be infected with malaria^[15]. Early in 1958, after 33 years in prison, Leopold was released on parole.^[1][2] That year he wrote an autobiography titled Life plus Ninety Nine Years.^[1][2] Leopold moved to Puerto Rico to avoid media attention, and married a widowed florist.^[1][2] He died of a heart attack on August 30, 1971 at the age of 66.^[1][2] He donated his organs.^[1] Leopold and Loeb have been referenced several times in popular culture.

• Richard Wright (author). Native Son 1940 Published by Harper Perennial ISBN 0-06-083756-X
• Alfred Hitchcock (director). Rope. Film, 1948.
• Fleischer, Richard (director). Compulsion. Film, 1959.
• Haneke, Michael (director). Funny Games. Film, 1997.
• Higdon, Hal. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century. University of Illinois Press, 1999. (originally published in 1975). ISBN 0-252-06829-7
• Kalin, Tom (director). Swoon. Film, 1990.
• Levin, Meyer. Compulsion. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1996. (originally published in 1956). ISBN 0-7867-0319-9
• Logan, John (Author), "Never The Sinner." Play, Samuel French, Inc. 1987.
• Saul, John (Author), In the Dark of the Night, 2006 ISBN 034548701X
• Dolginoff, Stephen (author/composer) "Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story" (Musical published by Dramatists Play Service ISBN 0-8222-2102-0
• Mark Anthony Galluzzo (director. "R.S.V.P. Film, 2002.
• Barbet Schroeder (director). Murder by Numbers. Film, 2002.
• Kurt Vonnegut (author). "Jailbird" (page 171) Published by Delacort Press/ Seymour Lawrence ISBN 0-440-05449-4
• Gautham Menon (writer/director). "Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. Film, 2006.

Leopold, Nathan F., Jr. Life Plus 99 Years. Lowe and Brydone (Printers) Limited, 1958.

• Leopold and Loeb Trial Home Page by Douglas Linder. Famous American Trials - Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School. 1997. Accessed 11 April 2007.
• Nathan Leopold and Richad Loeb, Crime of the 20th Century by Marilyn Bardsley. Crime Library - Courtroom Television Network, LLC. Accessed 11 April 2007.
• Leopoldandloeb.com
• Thrill Me:The Leopold and Loeb Story main site/CD ordering
• Thrill Me:The Leopold and Loeb Story Review quotes from York Theatre Company
• Harold S. Hulbert Papers, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois