Leopold and Loeb

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Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), more commonly known as "Leopold and Loeb", were two wealthy University of Michigan alumni and University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks in 1924 and were sentenced to life imprisonment.1

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 criticism of capital punishment and retributive, as opposed to rehabilitative, penal systems.

Leopold and Loeb have been the inspiration for several works in film, theater and fiction, such as the 1929 play Rope by Patrick Hamilton and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film of the same name.

Motive

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).[2] Before the murder, Leopold had written to Loeb: "A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do."[3]

The two were exceptionally intelligent. Nathan Leopold was a child prodigy who spoke his first words at the age of four months; he reportedly had an intelligence quotient of 210,[4] though this is not directly comparable to scores on modern IQ tests.[5] Leopold had already completed college, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and was attending law school at the University of Chicago.[2] He claimed to have been able to speak 27 different languages fluently,[6] and was an expert ornithologist. Loeb was the youngest graduate in the history of the University of Michigan and planned to enter the University of Chicago Law School after taking some postgraduate courses.[2] Leopold planned to transfer to Harvard Law School in September after taking a trip to Europe.

Leopold, Loeb, and Franks lived on the south side of Chicago, in Kenwood, which was at the time a wealthy Jewish neighborhood. 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 from the Leopold home, the Loeb family had a summer estate, Castle Farms, in Charlevoix, Michigan.

Leopold and Loeb met at the University of Chicago as teenagers. Leopold agreed to act as Loeb's accomplice.[7] Beginning with petty theft, the pair committed a series of more and more serious crimes, culminating in the murder.[2]

Timeline

Leopold and Loeb spent seven months planning the murder, disposing of the body and working out a way to get ransom money with little or no risk of being caught.[8] They put their plot into motion on Wednesday, May 21, 1924. After a search, the pair finally decided upon Robert "Bobby" Franks, the son of Chicago millionaire Jacob Franks, who was walking home from Harvard High School (closed 1962) in Hyde Park, Chicago. The 14-year-old boy, who was both the neighbor and second cousin of Richard Loeb, was lured into the passenger seat of their rented car.

Future Hollywood producer Armand Deutsch later claimed he might have been the intended victim of Loeb or Leopold. But on the day of the murder, as the 11-year-old grandson of Julius Rosenwald, he was picked up by his family's chauffeur after school because he had a prior dental appointment. Deutsch died aged 92 on August 13, 2005.[9][10]

With Franks in the vehicle, one of them drove and the other one sat in the back armed with a chisel. It's not known who struck the first blow with the murder weapon.[11] But a sock was stuffed into the schoolboy's mouth and he died soon after. Contrary to rumors that Franks had been sexually assaulted, the trial judge would later state that conclusive evidence convinced him that no abuse had been committed.[12]

The killers covered the body and drove to a remote area near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana. They removed Franks's clothes and left them at the side of the road. Leopold and Loeb poured hydrochloric acid[13] on the body to make identification more difficult. They then had dinner at a hot dog stand. After finishing their meal, they concealed the body in a culvert at the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks near 118th street, north of Wolf Lake.

After returning to Chicago, they called Franks's mother and said her son had been kidnapped. They mailed the ransom note to the Franks. The killers burned items of their own clothing that had been spotted with blood. They also attempted to clean bloodstains from the upholstery of their rented automobile. The two then spent the rest of the evening playing cards.

Before the Franks could pay the ransom, Tony Minke, a Polish immigrant, discovered the body.[8][11] 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.[8][11]

However, Detective Hugh Patrick Byrne, while searching for evidence, discovered a pair of eyeglasses near the body, unremarkable except for an unusual hinge mechanism. In Chicago, only three people had purchased glasses with such a mechanism, one of whom was Nathan Leopold.[14]

Upon being questioned, Leopold told police he had lost the glasses while birdwatching.[15] Loeb told the police that Leopold was with him the night of the murder. Leopold and Loeb claimed they had picked up two women in Leopold's car and had dropped them off near a golf course, never learning their last names. Unfortunately for Leopold and Loeb, Leopold's car was being repaired by his chauffeur that 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 fell apart. Loeb confessed first, followed by Leopold.[16] Although their confessions corroborated most of the facts in the case, each blamed the other for the actual killing.[8][11] Most commentators believe that Loeb struck the blow that killed Franks.[7] However, which of the two actually wielded the weapon that killed Franks would never be known. Psychiatrists at the trial, impressed by Leopold's intelligence, agreed that Loeb had struck the fatal blow. However, the circumstantial evidence in the case, including eyewitness testimony by Carl Ulvigh (who saw Loeb driving with Leopold in the back seat minutes before the kidnapping), indicated that Leopold had been the killer.[17]

The ransom was not their primary motive; the young men's families provided them all the money that they needed. Both had admitted that they were driven by the thrill of the kill and the desire to commit the "perfect crime".[2]

Trial

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".[18] Loeb's family hired 67-year-old Clarence Darrow—a well-known opponent of capital punishment—to defend the men against the capital charges of murder and kidnapping.[19] 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 he believed would most certainly have resulted in a conviction and perhaps even the death penalty.[19] 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 that has been called the finest of his career[citation needed]. The speech included the following: "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?"[20]

In the end, Darrow succeeded. The judge sentenced Leopold and Loeb each to life imprisonment (for the murder) plus 99 years each (for the kidnapping).[19] This was mainly on the grounds that, being under 21, Leopold and Loeb were legal minors.

Prison and later life

Initially held at Joliet Prison, they were later transferred to Stateville Penitentiary, where Leopold and Loeb used their educations to teach classes in the prison school.[21]

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.[2][21] 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.[22] Nevertheless, an inquiry accepted Day's testimony. The prison authorities, embarrassed by publicity sensationalizing alleged decadent behavior in the prison,[23] ruled that Day's attack on Loeb was in self-defense.[2][21] 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."[24][25]

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.[26]

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[27] 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 confidante 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.[28]

In 1944, Leopold participated in the Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study, in which he volunteered to be infected with malaria.[29] Early in 1958, after 33 years in prison, Leopold was released on parole.[2][6]

That year he also wrote Life Plus 99 Years.[2][6][30] Leopold moved to Puerto Rico to avoid media attention and married a widowed florist.[2][6] He was known as "Nate" to neighbors and co-workers at Castañer General Hospital in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, where he worked as a lab and x-ray assistant.[31]

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.[31]

He died of a diabetes-related heart attack on August 29, 1971, at the age of 66.[2][6] His corneas were donated.[2]

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Supermen or common murderers?

Exceptional, bu the system makes them common.