Murdering Bobby Franks: The Crime and Trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, Chicago, May 1924

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Richard Loeb (in white jacket) and Nathan Leopold (in front) at their trial.

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Blog Created: 8-30-2022

Last Updated: 8-31-2022

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Wikipedia // Find A Grave // Famous Trials: https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1741-home

Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (/ˈloʊb/; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in May 1924. They committed the murder – characterized at the time as "the crime of the century" – as a demonstration of their ostensible intellectual superiority, which they believed enabled and entitled them to carry out a "perfect crime" without consequences.

After the two men were arrested, Loeb's family retained Clarence Darrow as lead counsel for their defense. Darrow's twelve-hour summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment as retributive rather than transformative justice. Both young men were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years. Loeb was murdered by a fellow prisoner in 1936; Leopold was released on parole in 1958. The case has since served as the inspiration for several dramatic works.

Early lives ~

Nathan Leopold

Nathan Leopold was born on November 19, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Florence (née Foreman) and Nathan Leopold, a wealthy German-Jewish immigrant family. A child prodigy, Leopold claimed to have spoken his first words at the age of four months. At the time of the murder, he had completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago with Phi Beta Kappa honors and planned to begin studies at Harvard Law School after a trip to Europe. Leopold had reportedly studied fifteen languages, claimed to speak five fluently, and had achieved a measure of national recognition as an ornithologist. Leopold and several other ornithologists identified the Kirtland's warbler and made astute observations about the parasitic nesting behavior of brown-headed cowbirds, which threatened the warblers. (He evidently maintained his interest in birds after his crime, writing to the Field Museum from his prison cell regarding specimens he had donated.)

Richard Loeb

Richard Loeb was born on June 11, 1905, in Chicago, to the family of Anna Henrietta (née Bohnen) and Albert Henry Loeb, a wealthy lawyer and retired vice president of Sears, Roebuck & Company. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic. Like Leopold, Loeb was exceptionally intelligent. With the encouragement of his governess, he skipped several grades in school and became the University of Michigan's youngest graduate at age 17. Loeb was a student at the University of Chicago Law School and was especially interested in doing graduate work in history at the time of the murder.

Compared to Leopold, Loeb was not overly interested in intellectual pursuits, preferring to socialize, play tennis, and read detective novels.

Adolescence and early crimes ~

The two young men grew up with their respective families in the affluent Kenwood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. The Loebs owned a summer estate (now called Castle Farms) in Charlevoix, Michigan, as well as a mansion in Kenwood, two blocks from the Leopold home.

Though Leopold and Loeb knew each other casually while growing up, they began to see more of each other in mid-1920, and their relationship flourished at the University of Chicago, particularly after they discovered a mutual interest in crime. Leopold was particularly fascinated by Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of "supermen" (Übermenschen), interpreting them as transcendent individuals possessing extraordinary and unusual capabilities, whose superior intellects allowed them to rise above the laws and rules that bound the unimportant, average populace. Leopold believed that he and Loeb were such individuals, and as such, by his interpretation of Nietzsche's doctrines, they were not bound by any of society's normal ethics or rules. In a letter to Loeb, he wrote, "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."

Richard Loeb's high school yearbook picture.

Leopold c1920.

The pair began asserting their perceived immunity from normal restrictions with acts of petty theft and vandalism. Breaking into a fraternity house at the University of Michigan, they stole penknives, a camera, and a typewriter that they later used to type their ransom note. Emboldened, they progressed to a series of more serious crimes, including arson, but no one seemed to notice. Disappointed with the absence of media coverage of their crimes, they decided to plan and execute a sensational "perfect crime" that would garner public attention and confirm their self-perceived status as "supermen".

Murder of Bobby Franks ~

The murder victim, 14-Year old Bobby Franks.

Leopold and Loeb (who were 19 and 18, respectively, at the time) settled on kidnapping and murdering a younger adolescent as their perfect crime. They spent seven months planning everything, from the method of abduction to disposal of the body. To obfuscate the actual nature of their crime and motive, they decided to make a ransom demand, and devised an intricate plan for collecting it involving a long series of complex instructions to be communicated, one set at a time, by phone. They typed the final set of instructions involving the actual money drop in the form of a ransom note, using the typewriter stolen from the fraternity house. A chisel was selected as the murder weapon and purchased.

After a lengthy search for a suitable victim, mostly on the grounds of the Harvard School for Boys in the Kenwood area, where Leopold had been educated, the pair decided upon Robert "Bobby" Franks, the 14-year-old son of wealthy Chicago watch manufacturer Jacob Franks. Bobby Franks was Loeb's second cousin and an across-the-street neighbor who had played tennis at the Loeb residence several times.

Leopold and Loeb put their plan in motion on the afternoon of May 21, 1924. Using an automobile that Leopold rented under the name Morton D. Ballard, they offered Franks a ride as he walked home from school. The boy initially refused, because his destination was less than two blocks away, but Loeb persuaded him to enter the car to discuss a tennis racket that he had been using. The precise sequence of the events that followed remains in dispute, but a preponderance of opinion placed Leopold behind the wheel of the car while Loeb sat in the back seat with the chisel. Loeb struck Franks, who was sitting in front of him in the passenger seat, several times in the head with the chisel, then dragged him into the back seat and gagged him, where he died.

With the body on the floorboard, out of view, the men drove to their predetermined dumping spot near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana, 25 miles (40 km) south of Chicago. After nightfall, they removed and discarded Franks' clothes, then concealed the body in a culvert along the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks north of the lake. To obscure the body's identity, they poured hydrochloric acid on the face and genitals to disguise the fact that he had been circumcised.

By the time the two men returned to Chicago, word had already spread that Franks was missing. Leopold called Franks' mother, identifying himself as "George Johnson", and told her that Franks had been kidnapped; instructions for delivering the ransom would follow. After mailing the typed ransom note and burning their blood-stained clothing, then cleaning the blood stains from the rented vehicle's upholstery, they spent the remainder of the evening playing cards.

The ransom note.

Another note followed with instructions for payment.

Once the Franks family received the ransom note on the following morning, Leopold called a second time and dictated the first set of instructions for the ransom payment. The intricate plan stalled almost immediately when a nervous family member forgot the address of the store where he was supposed to receive the next set of directions, and it was abandoned entirely when word came that Franks's body had been found. Leopold and Loeb destroyed the typewriter and burned a car robe (lap blanket) they had used to move the body. They then went about their lives as usual.

Chicago police launched an intensive investigation; rewards were offered for information. While Loeb went about his daily routine quietly, Leopold spoke freely to police and reporters, offering theories to any who would listen. He even told one detective, "If I were to murder anybody, it would be just such a cocky little son of a bitch as Bobby Franks."

Police found a pair of eyeglasses near Franks' body. Although common in prescription and frame, they were fitted with an unusual hinge purchased by only three customers in Chicago, one of whom was Leopold. When questioned, Leopold offered the possibility that his glasses might have dropped out of his pocket during a bird-watching trip the previous weekend.

Eyeglasses found at the crime scene.

Leopold and Loeb were summoned for formal questioning on May 29. They asserted that on the night of the murder, they had picked up two women in Chicago using Leopold's car, then dropped them off sometime later near a golf course without learning their last names. Their alibi was exposed as a fabrication when Leopold's chauffeur told police that he was repairing Leopold's car while the men claimed to be using it. The chauffeur's wife confirmed that the car was parked in the Leopold garage on the night of the murder. The destroyed typewriter was recovered from the Jackson Park Lagoon on June 7.

Confession ~

Loeb was the first to confess. He asserted that Leopold had planned everything and had killed Franks in the back seat of the car while Loeb drove. Leopold's confession followed swiftly thereafter, but he insisted that he was the driver and Loeb the murderer. Their confessions otherwise corroborated most of the evidence in the case. Both confessions were announced by the state's attorney on May 31. Leopold later claimed (long after Loeb was dead) that he pleaded in vain with Loeb to admit to killing Franks. "Mompsie feels less terrible than she might, thinking you did it", he quotes Loeb as saying, "and I'm not going to take that shred of comfort away from her." While most observers believed that Loeb did indeed strike the fatal blows, some circumstantial evidence – including testimony from eyewitness Carl Ulvigh, who said he saw Loeb driving and Leopold in the back seat minutes before the kidnapping – suggested that Leopold could have been the killer.

Both Leopold and Loeb admitted that they were driven by their thrill-seeking, Übermenschen (supermen) delusions, and their aspiration to commit a "perfect crime". Neither claimed to have looked forward to the killing, but Leopold admitted interest in learning what it would feel like to be a murderer. He was disappointed to note that he felt the same as ever.

Trial ~

The trial of Leopold and Loeb at Chicago's Cook County Criminal Court became a media spectacle and the third – after those of Harry Thaw and Sacco and Vanzetti – to be labeled "the trial of the century." Loeb's family hired the renowned criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow to lead the defense team. It was rumored that Darrow was paid $1 million for his services, but he was actually paid $70,000 (equivalent to $1,100,000 in 2021). Darrow took the case because he was a staunch opponent of capital punishment.

Defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

While it was generally assumed that the men's defense would be based on a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, Darrow concluded that a jury trial would almost certainly end in conviction and the death penalty. Thus, he elected to enter a plea of guilty, hoping to convince Cook County Circuit Court Judge John R. Caverly to impose sentences of life imprisonment.

The trial (technically an extended sentencing, as their guilty pleas had already been accepted) ran for thirty-two days. The state's attorney, Robert E. Crowe, presented over 100 witnesses, documenting details of the crime. The defense presented extensive psychiatric testimony in an effort to establish mitigating circumstances, including childhood neglect in the form of absent parenting, and in Leopold's case, sexual abuse by a governess. Darrow called a series of expert witnesses, who offered a catalog of Leopold's and Loeb's abnormalities. One witness testified to their dysfunctional endocrine glands, another to the delusions that had led to their crime.

Darrow giving his closing argument.

Darrow's speech ~

Darrow's impassioned, twelve-hour-long "masterful plea" at the conclusion of the hearing has been called the finest speech of his career. Its principal arguments were that the methods and punishments of the American justice system were inhumane, and the youth and immaturity of the accused:

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"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.

We read of killing one hundred thousand men in a day [during World War I]. We read about it and we rejoiced in it – if it was the other fellows who were killed. We were fed on flesh and drank blood. Even down to the prattling babe. I need not tell you how many upright, honorable young boys have come into this court charged with murder, some saved and some sent to their death, boys who fought in this war and learned to place a cheap value on human life. You know it and I know it. These boys were brought up in it.

It will take fifty years to wipe it out of the human heart, if ever. I know this, that after the Civil War in 1865, crimes of this sort increased, marvelously. No one needs to tell me that crime has no cause. It has as definite a cause as any other disease, and I know that out of the hatred and bitterness of the Civil War crime increased as America had never seen before. I know that Europe is going through the same experience today; I know it has followed every war; and I know it has influenced these boys so that life was not the same to them as it would have been if the world had not made red with blood.

Your Honor knows that in this very court crimes of violence have increased growing out of the war. Not necessarily by those who fought but by those that learned that blood was cheap, and human life was cheap, and if the State could take it lightly why not the boy?

Has the court any right to consider anything but these two boys? The State says that your Honor has a right to consider the welfare of the community, as you have. If the welfare of the community would be benefited by taking these lives, well and good. I think it would work evil that no one could measure. Has your Honor a right to consider the families of these defendants? I have been sorry, and I am sorry for the bereavement of Mr. and Mrs. Franks, for those broken ties that cannot be healed. All I can hope and wish is that some good may come from it all. But as compared with the families of Leopold and Loeb, the Franks are to be envied – and everyone knows it.

Here is Leopold's father – and this boy was the pride of his life. He watched him and he cared for him, he worked for him; the boy was brilliant and accomplished. He educated him, and he thought that fame and position awaited him, as it should have awaited. It is a hard thing for a father to see his life's hopes crumble into dust.

And Loeb's the same. Here are the faithful uncle and brother, who have watched here day by day, while Dickie's father and his mother are too ill to stand this terrific strain, and shall be waiting for a message which means more to them than it can mean to you or me. Shall these be taken into account in this general bereavement?

The easy thing and the popular thing to do is to hang my clients. I know it. Men and women who do not think will applaud. The cruel and thoughtless will approve. It will be easy today; but in Chicago, and reaching out over the length and breadth of the land, more and more fathers and mothers, the humane, the kind and the hopeful, who are gaining an understanding and asking questions not only about these poor boys, but about their own – these will join in no acclaim at the death of my clients.

These would ask that the shedding of blood be stopped, and that the normal feelings of man resume their sway. Your Honor stands between the past and the future. You may hang these boys; you may hang them by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. In doing it you are making it harder for every other boy who in ignorance and darkness must grope his way through the mazes which only childhood knows. In doing it you will make it harder for unborn children. You may save them and make it easier for every child that sometime may stand where these boys stand. You will make it easier for every human being with an aspiration and a vision and a hope and a fate. I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man."

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Cook County Circuit Court Judge John R. Caverly.

The judge was persuaded, but he explained in his ruling that his decision was based primarily on precedent and the youth of the accused. On September 10, 1924, he sentenced both Leopold and Loeb to life imprisonment for the murder, and an additional 99 years for the kidnapping. A little over a month later, Loeb's father died of heart failure.

Prison ~

Leopold and Loeb initially were held at Joliet Prison. Although they were kept apart as much as possible, the two managed to maintain their friendship. Leopold was transferred to Stateville Penitentiary in 1931, and Loeb was later transferred there as well. Once reunited, the two expanded the prison school system, adding a high school and junior college curriculum.

Loeb's death ~

On January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked by fellow inmate James Day with a straight razor in a shower room; he died soon after in the prison hospital. Day claimed that Loeb had sexually assaulted him, but he was unharmed while Loeb sustained more than fifty wounds, including defensive wounds on his arms and hands. His throat had been slashed from behind. News accounts suggested Loeb had propositioned Day; the authorities, perhaps embarrassed by alleged same-sex behavior in the prison, ruled that Day was defending himself.

A sexual motive for the killing was suggested. While some sources state that newsman Ed Lahey began his story in the Chicago Daily News with the lead, "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition" – no evidence has been found that this lead was ever published, and actual copy from that date reads otherwise. On February 19, 1936, in a column printed in the Syracuse Journal, Mark Hellinger wrote, "I must tell you of the line that came to me from an unknown correspondent in Chicago. This anonymous contributor said he had the absolute low-down on the recent slaying of Dickie Loeb. Seems that Loeb made a slight mistake in grammar. He ended a sentence in a proposition..." Other newspapers at the time appeared to praise Day, who was later tried and acquitted of Loeb's murder.

There is no evidence that Loeb was a sexual predator while in prison, but Day was later caught at least once in a sexual act with a fellow inmate. In his autobiography, Life Plus 99 Years, Leopold ridiculed Day's claim that Loeb had attempted to sexually assault him. This was echoed by the prison's Catholic chaplain, a confidant of Loeb's, who said that it was more likely that Day attacked Loeb after Loeb rebuffed his advances.

Leopold's prison life ~

Leopold continued with his work after Loeb's death. Despite suffering from depression, he became a model prisoner and made many significant contributions to improving conditions at Stateville Penitentiary. These included reorganizing the prison library, revamping the schooling system and teaching its students, and volunteer work in the prison hospital. In 1944, Leopold volunteered for the Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study; he was deliberately inoculated with malaria pathogens and then subjected to several experimental malaria treatments. He later wrote that all his good work in prison and after his release was an effort to compensate for his crime.

Leopold in Stateville Penitentiary, 1931.

In the early 1950s, author Meyer Levin, a classmate at the University of Chicago, requested Leopold's cooperation in writing a novel based on the Franks murder. Leopold responded that he did not wish his story told in fictionalized form, but offered Levin a chance to contribute to his own memoir, which was in progress. Levin, unhappy with that suggestion, went ahead with his book alone, despite Leopold's express objections. The novel, titled Compulsion, was published in 1956. Levin portrayed Leopold (under the pseudonym Judd Steiner) as a brilliant but deeply disturbed teenager, psychologically driven to kill because of his troubled childhood and an obsession with Loeb. Leopold later wrote that reading Levin's book made him "physically sick... More than once I had to lay the book down and wait for the nausea to subside. I felt as I suppose a man would feel if he were exposed stark-naked under a strong spotlight before a large audience."

Leopold's autobiography, Life Plus 99 Years, was published in 1958 as part of his campaign to win parole. In beginning his account with the immediate aftermath of the crime, he engendered widespread criticism for his deliberate refusal (expressly stated in the book) to recount his childhood or to describe any details of the murder. He also was accused of writing the book solely as a means of rehabilitating his public image by ignoring the dark side of his past.

Leopold being frisked.

Leopold's post-prison years ~

After thirty-three years and numerous unsuccessful petitions, Leopold was paroled in March 1958. The Brethren Service Commission, a Church of the Brethren-affiliated program, accepted him as a medical technician at its hospital in Puerto Rico. He expressed his appreciation in an article: "To me the Brethren Service Commission offered the job, the home, and the sponsorship without which a man cannot be paroled. But it gave me so much more than that – the companionship, the acceptance, the love which would have rendered a violation of parole almost impossible." He was known as "Nate" to neighbors and to co-workers at Castañer General Hospital in Adjuntas, where he worked as a laboratory and X-ray assistant.

Later in 1958, Leopold attempted to set up the Leopold Foundation, to be funded by royalties from Life Plus 99 Years, "to aid emotionally disturbed, retarded, or delinquent youths." The State of Illinois voided his charter, however, on grounds that it violated the terms of his parole.

In 1959, Leopold sought to block production of the film version of Compulsion on the grounds that Levin's book had invaded his privacy, defamed him, profited from his life story, and "intermingled fact and fiction to such an extent that they were indistinguishable." Eventually the Illinois Supreme Court ruled against him, holding that Leopold, as the confessed perpetrator of the "crime of the century", could not reasonably argue that any book had injured his reputation.

Subsequently, Leopold moved to Santurce and married a widowed florist. He earned a master's degree at the University of Puerto Rico, then taught classes there; became a researcher in the social service program of Puerto Rico's department of health; worked for an urban renewal and housing agency; and did research on leprosy at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. Leopold was also active in the Natural History Society of Puerto Rico, traveling throughout the island to observe its birdlife. In 1963, he published Checklist of Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. While he spoke of his intention to write a book titled Reach for a Halo about his life following prison, he never did.

Leopold died of a diabetes-related heart attack on August 29, 1971, at the age of 66.

In popular culture ~

The Franks murder has inspired works of film, theatre, and fiction, including the 1929 play Rope by Patrick Hamilton, performed on BBC television in 1939, and Alfred Hitchcock's film of the same name in 1948. A fictionalized version of the events formed the basis of Meyer Levin's 1956 novel Compulsion and its 1959 film adaptation. In 1957, two more fictionalized novels were released: Nothing but the Night by James Yaffe and Little Brother Fate by Mary-Carter Roberts. Never the Sinner, John Logan's 1985 play, was based on contemporary newspaper accounts of the case, and included an explicit portrayal of Leopold and Loeb's sexual relationship. In 2019, the story was fictionally retold again in the third season of The Sinner.

In his book Murder Most Queer (2014), theater scholar Jordan Schildcrout examines changing attitudes toward homosexuality in various theatrical and cinematic representations of the Leopold and Loeb case.

Other works influenced by the case include Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son, the Matlock episode “The Sisters”, the Columbo episode "Columbo Goes To College" (1990), Tom Kalin's 1992 film Swoon, Michael Haneke's 1997 Austrian film Funny Games and the 2008 International remake, Barbet Schroeder's Murder by Numbers (2002), Daniel Clowes's 2005 graphic novel Ice Haven, Stephen Dolginoff's 2005 off-Broadway musical Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story, and the film Scream (1996).

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Bobby Franks ~

Bobby Franks and his father, Jacob Franks.

Clarence Darrow ~

Crime Scene ~

Police at the scene where the body of Bobby Franks was discovered.

Site of body.

Bobby Franks' Funeral ~

Classmates carried the casket.

Leopold & Loeb ~

Richard Loeb ~

Nathan Leopold ~

Entering prison.

Writing autobiography.

Leopold released from prison.

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Darrow's Plea of Guilty ~

Clarence Darrow Enters a Plea of Guilty in the Leopold and Loeb Case

Clarence Darrow:

Your honor, in the case of general number 33623 and 33624, where the defendants, Nathan F. Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb, are indicted for murder and kidnapping, these cases are set for this morning for any motions we might wish to make.

Of course it is unnecessary to say that this case has given us many perplexities and sleepless nights. Nobody is more aware than we are of what this means and the responsibility that is upon us. . . . No one. . . will doubt for a moment that we have deepest sympathy for everyone of the three families involved.

Of course, this case has attracted very unusual attention on account of the weird, uncanny and terrible nature of the homicide. We have meant to consider it from the standpoint of the defendants, but we must also consider it first of all from the standpoint of their families – and by the families I include all three-and from the standpoint of the public, who are rightfully interested in this proceeding.

We want to state frankly here that no one in this case believes that these defendants should be released. We believe they should be permanently isolated from society and, if we as lawyers thought differently, their families would not permit us to do otherwise.

We know, your honor, the facts in this case are substantially as have been published in the newspapers and what purports to be their confession, and we can see we have no duty to the defendants, or their families, or society, except to see that they are safely and permanently excluded from the public. .

After long reflection and thorough discussion. . . we have determined to make a motion in this court for each of the defendants in each of the cases to withdraw our plea of not guilty and enter a plea of guilty. . . .

The statute provides that evidence may be offered in mitigation of the punishment and we shall ask at such time as the court may direct that we may be permitted to offer evidence as to the mental condition of these young men, to show the degree of responsibility they had and also to offer evidence as to the youth of these defendants and the fact of a plea of guilty as further mitigation of the penalties in this case.

With that we throw ourselves upon the mercy of this court and this court alone.

Judge Caverly Warns Leopold and Loeb That They Could Face Death

Judge Caverly: Nathan Leopold Jr., if your plea is guilty, and the plea of guilty is entered in this case, 33623, the court may sentence you to death; the court may sentence you to the penitentiary for the term of your natural life; the court may sentence you to the penitentiary for a term of years not less than fourteen. Now, realizing the consequence of your plea, do you still desire to plead guilty?

Nathan Leopold: I do.

Judge Caverly: Let the plea of guilty be entered, Mr. Clerk, in indictment number 33623, charging Nathan Leopold Jr. with murder. . . .

Now, Nathan Leopold, in indictment number 33624, in which you are charged with kidnapping for ransom, the court desires to inform you that if you plead guilty, the court may sentence you to death, to the penitentiary for the term of your natural life or for a term of years. . .What is the minimum in kidnapping? [asking his clerk, Ferdinand Scherer].

Robert Crowe: There is, no minimum, your honor.

Judge Caverly: . . . any term up to life. Now, realizing the consequences of that plea do you now wish to withdraw your plea of not guilty in that case and plead guilty?

Nathan Leopold: I do.

Judge Caverly: Mr. Clerk, let the record show that Mr. Nathan Leopold, Jr., in indictment number 33624 charging kidnapping for ransom, desires to withdraw his plea of not guilty and have a plea of guilty entered, after being warned by the court of its consequences.

[Caverly asked the same questions and gave the same warnings to Loeb, who also plead guilty.]

Attorneys Debate Whether Psychiatric Evidence Can Be Introduced at a Hearing to Consider Evidence in Mitigation of Sentence

Benjamin Bachrach (defense attorney): ....The ordinary hearing of insanity in criminal trials, is much in the nature of a vaudeville show. It looks like high-class arguments, bickerings, denials, one set of alienists say one thing, another set of alienists say another thing," It brought disrepute on everyone involved. Each set of psychiatrists impugned the honesty of the other; psychiatry was regarded by the public as a laughingstock, less a serious science than an exercise in charlatanism and buffoonery, and the attorneys-never reluctant to purchase testimony from expert witnesses to say whatever served their purpose-were damned in the public eye as corrupt and venal. ...[We suggest before the hearing begins] a joint conference of the alienists of the defendants and the state.

Robert Crowe: Now, just a minute....

Benjamin Bachrach: Well, before. . ,

Robert Crowe: Just a moment. Is there a plea of guilty entered here by two sane men or is the defense entering a plea of guilty by two insane men? ..."

Benjamin Bachrach: Now, I ask counsel not to interrupt until I finish. . .

Robert Crowe: I know, but what I want to know is whether the contention is here the boys are sane or insane?

Benjamin Bachrach: I am not to be sidetracked. We ask counsel for the other side to assume that we are in good faith. . . . What we desire to do is to determine the degree of mental responsibility of the defendants. When the court hears all of the evidence it is his duty to fix the penalty. I think it comes with bad grace for the state's attorney to try to shut me off at this time. . . . What these alienists that we have talked to want to do is to meet with the alienists of the state and talk it over with them and see if they can iron out whatever differences there may be among them. Maybe our alienists will be won over to their side; maybe it will be the other way, but at any rate they want to present a joint matter.

Judge Caverly: Well, the court, of course. . . has no power to require the state's attorney to do that.

Robert Crowe: The state's attorney is in a position to prove by evidence beyond all reasonable doubt that these boys are not only guilty, but that they are absolutely sane under the law and should be hanged, and the state will introduce evidence beginning Wednesday morning to that effect.

Judge Caverly: All right. We will suspend, gentlemen, then, until Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock. All be here promptly at ten.

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The Trial ~

Crowd outside Chicago's Criminal Courts Building as trial begins.

Crowe and Darrow in trial.

Crowe and Darrow.

Crowe signals touchdown.

Crowe, staff with Leopold and Loeb at confession.

Darrow argues the Leopold-Loeb case before Judge Caverly.

Darrow makes a point.

Defense psychiatrists examine Nathan Leopold.

The judge passes sentence.

Leopold and Loeb approaches the bench to hear their verdict.

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In Nathan Leopold's Own Words ~

Leopold's Motive:

My motive, so far as I can be said to have had one, was to please Dick. Just that--incredible as it sounds. I thought so much of the guy that I was willing to do anything--even commit murder--if he wanted it bad enough. And he wanted to do this--very badly indeed. For the commission of the crime itself, I had no enthusiasm. Instead, I had a feeling of deep repugnance. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

It was just an experiment. It is as easy for us to justify as an entomologist in impaling a beetle on a pin. (Chicago Tribune, 1924)

Thoughts After the Murder:

"Well," I said to myself, "it's over. There's no turning back now. How on earth could I ever have got involved in this thing? It was horrible--more horrible even than I figured it was going to be. But that's behind me now. Somehow I never believed that it would happen--that we'd actually go through with it. "But it's done. "And now, at least, there aren't any decisions to make. I'll be able to put all my thought on not making any slips--on staying one jump ahead of the police. But that's nonsense! Nobody's ever going to suspect me. "I wish it weren't over with--that there were still time to change my mind. But what's the use of wishing things that are impossible? The thing I've got to do now is be careful to do all the ordinary, normal things just as I've always done them. I'll stop at a drugstore and call Connie to confirm our date for tomorrow night." (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

On Loeb:

You just couldn't figure the fellow out. Those quick alternations of mood, those sudden changes of mind. But then that was nothing compared to the real, fundamental contradiction in his character. Everybody went for the guy--and rightly so. There wasn't a sunnier, pleasanter, more likable fellow in the world. Why, I thought more of Dick than of all the rest of my friends put together. His charm was magnetic--maybe mesmeric is the better word. He could charm anybody he had a mind to. Lots of people who thought the world of him would be surprised to know his real thoughts about them. He looked down on nearly everybody. But they never knew it. And he was at home with everybody. College presidents or hobos, it was all the same to Dick. He fitted in with everybody, became instantly a charter member of any group. He blended with his environment as some moths and butterflies do. And all this he did so effortlessly. He seemed to have the inborn knack of making friends, of winning everyone's affection. I'd try deliberately to copy his mannerisms, to be consciously charming. I couldn't come close. More often than not I'd just alienate people, more so than if I hadn't made a conscious effort. But Dick didn't have to try. He just seemed able to push an imaginary button and turn on the charm. And he could be generous to a fault. But then there was that other side to him. In the crime, for instance, he didn't have a single scruple of any kind. He wasn't immoral; he was just plan amoral--unmoral, that is. Right and wrong didn't exist. He'd do anything--anything. And it was all a game to him. He reminded me of an eight-year-old all wrapped up in a game of cops and robbers. Dick, with his brilliant mind, with his sophistication! (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

On Darrow:

I grew to know Clarence Darrow well in those three emotion-laden months. I sat beside him daily in that sweltering courtroom charged with the heat of summer, charged perhaps even more with the heat of men's passions. I was privileged to see him in action in what were perhaps the most trying hours of his long and illustrious career. Yet how can I hope to describe his many-faceted character? Mr. Darrow was sixty-seven--what the world calls an old man. But he did not give the impression of age. Rather, there was about his craggy face, his unruly iron-gray hair, and his loose-jointed, shambling figure a certain air of timelessness. You simply did not think of his age. Instead you knew from his deeply lined face that he had lived--richly and deeply. Mr. Darrow was many things--philosopher, humanitarian, lawyer, defender of the rights of the underdog--so many things that it is hard to decide which aspect of his character made the deepest impression. To me, at least, Mr. Darrow's fundamental characteristic was his deep-seated, all-embracing kindliness. You couldn't look at the man without being struck almost instantly by this keynote of his character. Clarence Darrow was far from being sure that life, under the happiest circumstances, is worth living; he knew sorrow and trouble intimately; his instantaneous reaction toward people--especially people in trouble--was the welling forth of that tremendous, instinctive kindliness and sympathy. It was so genuine, so immediate, so unforced. And it embraced the whole world. Or, at least, nearly the whole world. The only things Mr. Darrow hated were what he considered cruelty, narrow-mindedness, or obstinate stupidity. Against these he fought with every weapon he could lay a hand to. And unfortunate was the individual who, in Mr. Darrow's opinion, stood for any of those qualities. His merciless scorn, his blistering sarcasm, his rapier-like thrusts of irony must have made many an opponent squirm.... He was a deep and original thinker. Although he was widely read and possessed of an amazing store of the world's knowledge, the most striking characteristic of his thought was its originality. In many fields he was a generation ahead of his times. He hated superficiality; he refused to conform for conformity's sake. One result was that he often espoused unpopular causes. It may be said of him that he was one of the best-hated as well as one of the best-loved men of his day . Clarence Darrow came to visit me a few months before his death. Physically, he had grown feeble; the mark of death was on his face. But age and illness had not dimmed that piercing inner light. His wisdom, his kindliness, his understanding love of his fellow man shone out from under the wrappings of his flesh as brilliantly on this last day I saw him as it had on the first. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

Reaction to Sentence:

Actually, neither Dick nor I reacted very strongly . There was some slight feeling of relief, but relief from the tension of uncertainty rather than from any particular dread of the extreme penalty. As to sober thought of the future, there was none. I had no conception of what prison would be like, nor did I make any effort to think about it. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

Hanging:

It had been my own personal preference at the outset to make no attempt to avoid the extreme penalty. I had desired to plead not guilty and, by refraining from offering any defense whatsoever, positively to court execution. My reasons for this view were twofold: first, I believed, and evidently Judge Caverly agreed, that speedy execution of the death penalty would be much easier for us defendants than the slow, day-by-day torture of spending the rest of our lives in prison. Second, I felt that the pain to our families and the humiliation and shame they must suffer would, in the long run, be less if we were hanged than if we were sentenced to life imprisonment. The shock and the grief were enormous in either event, but I hoped that with Dick and me removed from the scene the wound might begin slowly to heal and the memory to become gradually less vivid and painful. So long as we were alive and in prison I feared that we should be a festering sore, that we should be subjected to periodic bursts of publicity in the newspapers, and that the anguish we had caused our families would never be allowed to abate. I might say that in the thirty-three years that have elapsed I have found no reason to change my mind. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

Remorse:

Looking back from the vantage point of today, I cannot understand how my mind worked then. For I can recall no feeling then of remorse. Remorse did not come until later, much later. It did not begin to develop until I had been in prison for several years; it did not reach its full flood for perhaps ten years. Since then, for the past quarter century, remorse has been my constant companion. It is never out of my mind. Sometimes it overwhelms me completely, to the extent that I cannot think of anything else. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

Sufficient Punishment:

"I've spent 32 years here. Is that sufficient punishment for what I did? I don't know the answer to that because I don't know how to measure punishment. I know that I have lost those near and dear to me while I was here. My father, my aunt who was a second mother to me, my brother. I know that I have forfeited any chance of amounting to anything. I've forfeited every chance for happiness. I've forfeited a chance for a family. Whether this is sufficient, I don't know. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

Reaction to Compulsion:

The impact of Compulsion on my mental state was terrific. It made me physically sick--I mean that literally. More than once I had to lay the book down and wait for the nausea to subside. Emotionally, it caused me terrific shame and induced what I guess the doctors would call a mild melancholia. I felt as I suppose a man would feel if he were exposed stark-naked under a strong spotlight before a large audience. I kept to myself as much as possible. Every stranger I eyed with the unspoken question in my mind: Wonder if he's read it. I hope--I know--that I am in no sense today the same person as that horrible, vicious, conceited, "super-smart"--and pathetically stupid--Judd Steiner in the book. There's only one trouble. I share a memory with the monster; a memory, that is, covering those things that actually did happen. I have been taken firmly by the arms and forced to live through, step by step, in horrible, graphic detail, the worst three years of my life. It has been a traumatic experience. But then, undergoing major surgery without benefit of an anesthetic might be expected to be painful. I can only hope that, like the surgery, this experience, too, may involve some therapy. (Leopold, Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years)

On Freedom:

Merely to have my freedom restored was, in itself, the greatest single thing that could have happened in my life. Nothing has ever been more important to me. Sometimes in prison and a number of times since my release I have tried to figure out at what point in time the whole business has become worthwhile. If I had died the day after my release, obviously it would not have been worthwhile to serve the 33 years. What about a week then? A month? A year? By certain esoteric calculations of my own, that wouldn't make sense to anyone else, I came to the conclusion that on September 15, 1963, I reached the point where it all became worthwhile: that the joy of being a free man again equalled the grief of those 33 years. (Higdon, The Crime of the Century)

On Helping Others:

Helping others has become my chief hobby. It's how I get my kicks. (Higdon, The Crime of the Century)

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Their Homes ~

The home of Bobby Franks.

Nathan Leopold's home.

The home of Richard Loeb.

Graves ~

Bobby Franks is entombed in the family mausoleum.

NOTE:

After Richard Loeb was killed in prison, his remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered. Nathan Leopold was buried somewhere in South America where he was working after his prison release.

Charts ~

MISC. ~

The eyeglasses found at the crime scene.

The glasses are now on display.

The typewriter after it was discovered.

Harvard School for Boys in Chicago. Bobby Franks attended classes here.

Newspapers at the time ~

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