Leopold and Loeb

 

The friendship between nineteen-year-old Nathan Leopold and eighteen-year-old Richard Loeb began in the Spring of 1920. They both came from wealthy Jewish families and excelled academically, with outstanding IQs. In fact Leopold was a child prodigy and entered the University of Chicago at the age of fourteen, graduating four years later in law, becoming one of the youngest graduates in the university’s history earning himself Phi Beta Kappa status. Richard Loeb was the handsome and privileged son of a retired Sears Roebuck vice-president and was one of the youngest graduates, at fifteen, to enter the University of Chicago. When the two met, Loeb was in his first year at Chicago, struggling to form any real friendships due to the fact that he felt superior to all the other students. Introduced to each other by mutual friends, Leopold and Loeb were immediately attracted to one another, but the relationship was both intense and stormy. Apart, the two young men would probably have remained harmless, but together they drove each other to commit the unthinkable act – the murder of a young boy.

 

the perfect crime

 

Loeb was obsessed with crime and spent many hours with his head buried in detective stories. In his mind he planned crimes, he dreamt about crimes and he actually committed crimes, although none of these involved any physical harm to another person. In a way, crime became a game to the young man and he started to plot how he could carry out the perfect crime without ever getting caught. Although Leopold was doubtful about Loeb’s plan, he was obsessed with his friend, describing him as the ‘smartest young man in the world’, and eventually agreed that it would be an interesting intellectual exercise. He agreed to go along with Loeb so long as he was prepared to become his sexual partner.

The crisis point in their relationship came in 1924 when Leopold was on the verge of going to Europe on holiday and then moving on to Harvard to continue his education. They both decided they wanted to do something drastic to seal their union and to prove their superiority over their fellow students.

The couple started to plot their crime and agreed that the one essential element was to commit murder. They spent hours discussing how they would carry out their plan, which included the kidnap of a child from a wealthy family and then the demand of a hefty ransom. To minimize the likelihood of being discovered they both agreed that it would be necessary to kill their victim after receiving the money. They decided it would be easier to kidnap a boy that was known to either Leopold or Loeb, so that he would willingly get into their car, and their chosen victim was a fourteen-year-old by the name of Bobby Franks.

 

carrying out their plan

 

In truth, Bobby Franks just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The original victim they had had in mind was a boy named Johnny Levinson, a local lad who fitted perfectly into their planned ‘profile’. However, when they cruised around the golf course of Jackson Part on Wednesday, May 21, 1924, in their rented grey Willy’s Knight, the two teenagers lost their quarry.

At about 5.00 p.m. a boy left a baseball game he had been watching and started to walk south on Ellis Avenue. Leopold and Loeb spotted Bobby Franks and decided to turn the car round and follow him. Loeb knew Bobby quite well because he was a friend of his younger brother, Tommy, and the Franks family lived opposite the Loebs on Ellis Avenue.

Loeb hung out of the window of the car and called to Bobby, ‘Bobby, you want a ride home?’ Bobby shook his head and told Loeb that he would just as soon walk, as it was only two blocks away. Loeb thought quickly and then said, ‘Wait. I want to ask you about that tennis racquet you were using last week. I was thinking of getting one for Tommy.’

Bobby stopped and got into the car, sitting beside the driver in the front seat. Loeb introduced Bobby to Leopold and then asked if he would mind if they just drove round the corner before going home. Bobby said he didn’t mind, unaware of the fate that was before him.

The plan was to knock the boy unconscious using a metal chisel which they had previously bound with tape to make it easier to grip. However, the plan started to go horribly wrong when they failed to knock Bobby out with the first hit and he started to scream. They hit him again and again causing the young boy to bleed profusely, leaving blood all over the seats of the car. They stuffed a gag into Bobby’s mouth, wrapped him in a blanket and then pushed him onto the floor of the car.

At this point in the proceedings, Leopold lost his nerve and started mumbling, ‘This is terrible. This is terrible!’ Looking at the amount of blood that had seeped out onto the floor and seats, Leopold was starting to panic, but the ever cool Loeb started to laugh and joke with his friend in an effort to calm him down.

They drove around and decided they would wait until after dark to finish the job. The plan was to strangle him at a predetermined site, each taking one end of a rope so as to apportion the blame, but this part of the plan was foiled because Bobby was already dead. They drove south towards Indiana to their designated spot and then stopped the car, removing Bobby’s clothes.

As it would be a little while before it became dark the couple drove round until they came across a hotdog stand. Leaving Bobby on the floor of the car, they sat and enjoyed hotdogs and root beers, seemingly unaffected by the gruesome murder they had just carried out.

As soon as it was dark, Leopold and Loeb headed towards Wolf Lake and the allocated hiding spot, which was a drainpipe under the railway tracks which connected two lakes. They dragged Bobby’s naked body from the car and, before placing it in the drainage pipe, poured hydrochloric acid over the boy’s face, an identifying scar on his stomach and his penis. Leopold and Loeb were both under the misapprehension that a body could be identified by its genitalia, which is why they tried to destroy Bobby’s gender. They had hoped that the body would simply decompose before it was discovered, but the acid actually only discoloured the skin rather than causing any disfigurement.

Leopold put on a pair of rubber waders he had previously purchased, so that he could drag the body into the water without getting too wet. However, as the body hit the water some of it splashed on his clothing causing him some concern. He pushed the head into the drainpipe first, but, overcome by the fumes of the acid, Leopold failed to push the body in far enough and left one foot protruding. This was to be another major mistake in their supposed ‘perfect’ crime.

After washing the blood off their hands, the two teenagers drove to a drugstore so that Leopold could phone his father and tell him that he would be a little late getting home. While in the drugstore they got the telephone number of the Franks family from the directory and dialled the number. However, the operator took a long time to connect them and Leopold panicked and slammed the receiver down, fearing that the call would be traced.

Instead they addressed an envelope to the Franks and sent a ransom note marking it SPECIAL and mailing it from the Hyde Park Post Office.

On the way home they made another attempt at calling the Franks and this time got through to Bobby’s mother. Leopold told Mrs Franks that his name was George Johnson, that he had kidnapped her son, adding that he was safe and that ransom instructions would arrive tomorrow.

Arriving back at Leopold’s house, they parked the tarnished rented car on the street in front of an apartment building on Greenwood Street and then Leopold retrieved his own car from the garage where he had left it earlier that evening. Leopold drove his aunt and uncle home who had been visiting his parents, while Loeb stayed and talked to Mr Leopold. When Leopold returned they had a few drinks and then sat up and played cards until about 1.00 a.m. The two young men left and went to Loeb’s house, where they burnt the boy’s clothing in the furnace and then made a half-hearted attempt at trying to clean the rental car in the driveway.

Another flaw in their ‘perfect’ crime was the fact that the chisel had been carelessly flung from the car window as they drove around the streets. This action was witnessed by a nightwatchman, who went and retrieved the object which was covered with tape and blood, and took it straight to the police.

Mr Franks, accompanied by his friend and attorney, Samuel Ettelson, went to the police department at around 2.00 a.m. to report that Bobby was missing.

 

the ransom

 

The delivery of the ransom note was possibly the most elaborate part of the whole plan, and actually the part that Loeb enjoyed the most.

The following morning the postman brought the special delivery letter written by Leopold the day before. The ransom note assured the Franks that their son was safe and well and would not be harmed provided they followed their instructions precisely. The ransom note instructed the Franks to secure the sum of $10,000 in old bills which were to be placed in a heavy cardboard box and then sealed securely with sealing wax. Finally, it said that they were to have the money ready and wait at home, without calling the police, until 1.00 p.m., when they would receive further instructions. The note was signed ‘George Johnson’.

Jacob Franks went to his bank to withdraw the money while Ettelson called a friend of his who was chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department. In the meantime, the body of a boy had been discovered in a drainpipe near Wolf Lake and the police called Mr Franks with a description of the corpse. Not prepared to accept that the body was in fact that of Bobby, Mr Franks sent his brother-in-law to the morgue to view the corpse.

Back at the Franks’ house the telephone rang and Ettelson answered it. Leopold, still calling himself George Johnson, told him that a yellow taxi would soon be arriving and that he was to instruct it to drive him to a drugstore at 1465 East Sixty-third Street. Ettelson handed the phone to Mr Franks, who asked the caller to repeat the message, but as soon as he put the phone down in their panic neither men had remembered the address to which they were supposed to go. Leopold and Loeb phoned the drugstore several times, but needless to say Mr Franks never arrived and the ransom was never collected.

 

incriminating evidence

 

Although they had meticulously planned their crime so that their identities would remain a secret, Leopold and Loeb were caught almost immediately because Leopold dropped a pair of eye glasses close to where they dumped Bobby’s body. The glasses were easily traced back to Leopold because they had a special patented spring on the frames which had only been sold in one place in Chicago and purchased by only three people.

Once the pair were in custody they both confessed to the crime in lurid details, showing no remorse whatsoever. The public were outraged that two young men from such privileged backgrounds should stoop to such levels and their trial proved to be a media spectacle.

An eminent defence lawyer was hired by the families of Leopold and Loeb, and Clarence Darrow advised the two teenagers to plead guilty to kidnap and murder, thus forgoing a jury. The sentencing hearing was in front of Judge John R. Caverly, and it was Darrow’s job to prevent his clients from receiving the death sentence.

The hearing lasted for three months in August 1924, and public interest remained intense through-out. Darrow played on the fact that Leopold and Loeb were still immature and should not therefore be treated as adults. After twelve hours of summing up, Darrow convinced the judge to spare their lives because of their youth and they were both sentenced to life plus ninety-nine years, with no possible chance of parole.

In prison Leopold and Loeb were kept apart and Leopold was devastated when Richard Loeb was murdered in 1936 by a fellow inmate. When Leopold was granted permission to see his friend for the last time, he described the sensation as: ‘I felt like half of me was dead.’ Loeb’s body was cremated at Oaks Wood cemetery in Chicago, but there is no marker and no official burial site.

Nathan Leopold became a model prisoner and published an autobiography in 1958 entitled Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years. Leopold was eventually paroled that same year after spending thirty-three years in prison. He attended the University of Puerto Rico where he earned a master’s degree in social work, graduating first in his class. He married Gertrude ‘Trudi’ Feldman Garcia de Quevado in February 1961 and spent the next ten years living in Puerto Rico away from the glare of media attention.

Leopold died after ten days of hospitalisation on August 30, 1971, with his wife at his side. Right up until the time of his death, he avoided discussing the murder of Bobby Franks, although he always kept a photograph of Richard Loeb where he could see it. For a couple who wanted to commit the perfect crime, they ended up by performing an act that was riddled with flaws.