Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. and Richard A. Loeb were two wealthy University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924.
Leopold, age 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb, 18, believed they could commit a "perfect crime." Leopold had already completed college, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and was attending law school at the University of Chicago. Loeb was the youngest graduate in the history of the University of Michigan and was planning on attending U of C law school as well.
They spent a year planning the murder, and then on Wednesday, May 21, 1924, they lured Franks, a neighbor and extended relative of Loeb, into a rented car, and murdered him.
They are tripped up by one fatal mistake. A pair of eyeglasses were found near the body, which just happened to have a unique hinge mechanism. In Chicago, only three people had purchased glasses with such a mechanism, and one of them was Nathan Leopold.
Loeb is his alibi. He tells the police that Leopold was with him the night of the murder. The two men claim 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 them, that is another mistake. Leopold's car was being repaired by his chauffeur that night.
While this story is making headlines around the world, and the Chicago newspapers are helping to solve the crime, Chicago becomes the center of the universe. It is living through the Roaring 20s, but it also has a first place baseball team on the North Side.
Behind the pitching of Grover Cleveland Alexander (who wins his 300th game this season), and the hitting of catcher Gabby Hartnett, centerfielder Jigger Statz, and second baseman George Grantham, they are the toast of the town.
Unfortunately, as Leobold's and Loeb's story unravels, the 1924 Cubs go into the tank as well. SS Charlie Hollocher is dealing with a strange stomach ailment that will end his career after this season. Catcher Bob O'Farrell suffers a skull fracture after wearing the wrong equipment and getting a foul ball to the face, and left fielder Denver Grigsby loses a ball in the sun and it hits him in the face, breaking his sunglasses.
Meanwhile, after intense press scrutiny and thorough police questioning, the murderers Leopold and Loeb finally buckle. Loeb confesses first, followed by Leopold.
They hire Clarence Darrow (photo) to defend them in court, and Darrow convinces them to plead guilty (instead of pleading temporary insanity), and then gives an impassioned argument to the judge, hoping to spare them from being hanged.
This is a portion of Darrow's speech: "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."
Leopold and Loeb are spared the death sentence by Cook County Circuit Court Judge John R. Caverly. He sentences them to life in prison instead. They both die behind bars at Joliet Prison.
On January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked by fellow prisoner James E. Day with a straight razor in the prison's shower room, and died from his wounds. Day claimed afterward that Loeb had attempted to sexually assault him. Newsman Ed Lahey wrote this lead for the Chicago Daily News: "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition."
Leopold died of a heart attack on August 29, 1971 at the age of 66.
