Leopold and Loeb

Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971)[1] 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"[2] – hoping to demonstrate superior intellect,[3] which they believed enabled and entitled them to carry out a "perfect crime" without consequences.

Nathan Leopold
Leopold in August 1924
Born
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr.

(1904-11-19)November 19, 1904
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedAugust 29, 1971(1971-08-29) (aged 66)
Puerto Rico
Criminal chargeMurder, kidnapping
PenaltyLife + 99 years' imprisonment
Richard Loeb
Loeb in August 1924
Born
Richard Albert Loeb

(1905-06-11)June 11, 1905
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJanuary 28, 1936(1936-01-28) (aged 30)
Joliet, Illinois, U.S.
Cause of deathHomicide (from 58 inflicted wounds from a razor attack)
Criminal chargeMurder, kidnapping
PenaltyLife + 99 years' imprisonment

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.[4][5] A child prodigy, Leopold claimed to have spoken his first words at the age of four months.[4] 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.[6] Leopold had reportedly studied fifteen languages, claimed to speak five fluently,[7] and had achieved a measure of national recognition as an ornithologist.[6] 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.[8] (He evidently maintained his interest in birds after his crime, writing to the Field Museum from his prison cell regarding specimens he had donated.)[9]

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.[10] His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.[11] 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.[12]

Compared to Leopold, Loeb was not overly interested in intellectual pursuits, preferring to socialize, play tennis, and read detective novels.[6][13]

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,[13] 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.[6] 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."[14] There is considerable evidence, including a letter found during the police raid on Nathan Leopold’s home following the murder of Bobby Franks, that Leopold and Loeb were engaged in a homosexual romantic relationship. Historian Simon Baatz claims “there was an arrangement that Richard would agree to have sex with Nathan, if Nathan accompanied Richard when he did his crimes.”

The pair began asserting their perceived immunity from normal restrictions with acts of petty theft and vandalism.[13][15] 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,[16] 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".[17]

Murder of Bobby Franks
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.[18]

After a lengthy search for a suitable victim, mostly on the grounds of the Harvard School for Boys in the Kenwood area,[19] 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.[20]

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,[21] 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.[22]

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.[23]

Ransom note

By the time the two men returned to Chicago, word had already spread that Franks was missing. Leopold called Franks's 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.[24]

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.[18][22] They then went about their lives as usual.[25]

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 anyone 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."[26]

Police found a pair of eyeglasses near Franks's 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.[13][27] When questioned, Leopold offered the possibility that his glasses might have dropped out of his pocket during a bird-watching trip the previous weekend.[28]

Leopold and Loeb were summoned for formal questioning on May 29.[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 some time 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.[13][30] The destroyed typewriter was recovered from the Jackson Park Lagoon on June 7.[31][32]

Confession

Loeb was the first to confess.[13] 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,[33] but he insisted that he was the driver and Loeb the murderer. Their confessions otherwise corroborated most of the evidence in the case.[18][22] Both confessions were announced by the state's attorney on May 31.[34] 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."[35] While most observers believed that Loeb did indeed strike the fatal blows,[15] 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.[36]

Both Leopold and Loeb admitted that they were driven by their thrill-seeking, Übermenschen (supermen) delusions, and their aspiration to commit a "perfect crime".[6] 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.[37]

Trial
Defense attorney Clarence Darrow

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."[38] 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[39] for his services, but he was actually paid $70,000[40] (equivalent to $1,100,000 in 2021). Darrow took the case because he was a staunch opponent of capital punishment.

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.[39] 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.[41]

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.[6][13] One piece of evidence was a letter written by Leopold claiming that he and Loeb were having a homosexual affair. Both the prosecution and the defense interpreted this information as supportive of their own position.[42] 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.[13]

Darrow's speech

Darrow's impassioned, twelve-hour-long "masterful plea"[43] at the conclusion of the hearing has been called the finest speech of his career.[44] Its principal arguments were that the methods and punishments of the American justice system were inhumane, and the youth and immaturity of the accused:[13][45][46]

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.

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.[13][39] A little over a month later, Loeb's father died of heart failure.[47]

Prison
Leopold (top) and Loeb (bottom)

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.[48]

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.[6][48]

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"[49][50] – no evidence has been found that this lead was ever published, and actual copy from that date reads otherwise.[51] 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.[52]

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.[53] 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.[54]

Leopold's prison life
Leopold in Stateville Penitentiary, 1931

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.[55] He later wrote that all his good work in prison and after his release was an effort to compensate for his crime.[48]

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,[56] 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."[57]

Leopold's autobiography, Life Plus 99 Years, was published in 1958[58] as part of his campaign to win parole.[14] 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.[59] 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.[60]

Leopold's post-prison years
Nathan Leopold in 1958

After thirty-three years and numerous unsuccessful petitions, Leopold was paroled in March 1958.[6][7] 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."[61] 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.[62]

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."[6][7][63] The State of Illinois voided his charter, however, on grounds that it violated the terms of his parole.[64]

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."[62][65] Eventually the Illinois Supreme Court ruled against him,[66] holding that Leopold, as the confessed perpetrator of the "crime of the century", could not reasonably argue that any book had injured his reputation.[60][62]

Subsequently, Leopold moved to Santurce and married a widowed florist.[6][7] 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.[67] 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.[68] While he spoke of his intention to write a book titled Reach for a Halo about his life following prison, he never did.[69]

Leopold died of a diabetes-related heart attack on August 29, 1971, at the age of 66.[6][7]

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,[70] and Alfred Hitchcock's film of the same name in 1948.[71] A fictionalized version of the events formed the basis of Meyer Levin's 1956 novel Compulsion and its 1959 film adaptation.[71] In 1957, two more fictionalized novels were released: Nothing but the Night by James Yaffe and Little Brother Fate by Mary-Carter Roberts.[14] Never the Sinner, John Logan's 1985 play,[72] was based on contemporary newspaper accounts of the case, and included an explicit portrayal of Leopold and Loeb's sexual relationship.[73] 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.[74]

Other works said to be influenced by the case include Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son,[75] the Matlock episode “The Sisters”, the Columbo episode "Columbo Goes To College" (1990),[76] Tom Kalin's 1992 film Swoon,[77] Michael Haneke's 1997 Austrian film Funny Games and the 2008 International remake,[78] Barbet Schroeder's Murder by Numbers (2002),[79] Daniel Clowes's 2005 graphic novel Ice Haven,[80] Stephen Dolginoff's 2005 off-Broadway musical Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story,[81] and the film Scream (1996).[82]

References

Citations
  1. "Mocavo and Findmypast are coming together – findmypast.com". www.mocavo.com. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  2. Homicide in Chicago 1924 Leopold & Loeb Retrieved July 18, 2015.
  3. Lane, Brian (1995). Chronicle of 20th Century Murder. New York: Berkley Books. pp. 106–107. ISBN 978-0425146491.
  4. "Nathan Leopold biography". The Biography Channel. 2012. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
  5. Higdon, Hal (1975). Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252068294. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2020 – via Google Books.
  6. The Leopold and Loeb Trial:A Brief Account Archived March 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine by Douglas O. Linder. 1997. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  7. Bardsley, Marilyn. "Freedom". Crime Library. Archived from the original on April 1, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  8. Rapai, William (2012). The Kirtland's warbler : the story of a bird's fight against extinction and the people who saved it. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0472118038.
  9. Rings, Gretchen (May 12, 2017). "Spring Migration Notes...By a Murderer". Field Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
  10. "Richard Loeb biography". The Biography Channel. 2012. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
  11. "Leopold and Loeb". Archived from the original on May 1, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  12. Linder, Douglas. "The Leopold And Loeb Trial: An Account". Famous Trials. Archived from the original on March 4, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  13. "The Perfect Crime: In Love with Murder – Transcript". PBS. April 10, 2018. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  14. Baatz, Simon (2009). For the Thrill of It. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060781026.
  15. Denise Noe (February 29, 2004). "Leopold and Loeb's Perfect Crime". Crime Magazine. Archived from the original on April 28, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
  16. Higdon (1975), p. 151
  17. Higdon (1975), pp. 150–154
  18. Statement of Nathan F. Leopold Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Northwestern University Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  19. "Leopold & Loeb kill Bobby Franks – Chicago, IL". Waymarking.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  20. Purdum, Todd S. (August 18, 2005). "Armand S. Deutsch, Hollywood fixture, dies at 92". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  21. Map of the Scene of the Kidnapping and Murder of Bobby Franks. Archived June 2, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  22. Statement of Richard Loeb Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Northwestern University Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  23. Bardsley, Marilyn. "Leopold & Loeb – Enter Clarence Darrow". Crime Library. Archived from the original on February 10, 2015.
  24. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century ISBN 0-252-06829-7 p. 106
  25. Chronicle of 20th Century Murder ISBN 978-0-425-14649-1 p. 107
  26. "Darrow Will Drop Carefully Reared Insanity Defense". The Sunday Morning Star. July 27, 1924. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  27. The Glasses: The Key Link to Leopold and Loeb Archived May 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine UMKC Law. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  28. Chicago Daily News, June 2, 1924
  29. Urbana Daily Courier, October 28, 1924
  30. "CrimeArchives: The Leopold-Loeb Case – Interrogation". www.crimearchives.net. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  31. "Leopold and Loeb gain national attention – May 21, 1924". History.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  32. "Leopold & Loeb". chicagology.com. November 18, 2015. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  33. Chicago Daily News, September 10, 1924, p. 3.
  34. "Two Rich Mens' Sons Confess to Franks Murder". The Evening Independent. St. Petersburg, Fla. Associated Press. May 31, 1924. Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  35. Leopold, N. Life Plus 99 Years. Doubleday (1958), p. 66. ISBN 1131524608
  36. Leopold, Loeb & The Crime of the Century, by Hal Higdon, p. 319
  37. Joint Report of All Psychiatrists. Northwestern University Archives. 1924. p. 16.
  38. JURIST – The Trial of Leopold and Loeb Archived November 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Prof. Douglas Linder. Retrieved November 1, 2007.
  39. Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, Crimes of the Century (Boston, 1998).
  40. Weinberg, A (ed.). Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom. Simon & Schuster (1957), pp. 17–18. ISBN 0226136507.
  41. Darrow's plea of guilty. University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law Archived January 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  42. Hardwick, Courtney (August 30, 2021). "QUEER CRIME: The Not-So-Perfect Partnership of Leopold and Loeb". IN Magazine. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  43. Urbana Daily Courier, September 10, 1924
  44. Famous American Trials: Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law Archived October 11, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Prof. Douglas Linder. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  45. Darrow's summation for the defense. University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law Archived October 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  46. Scopes, John Thomas (1925). World's greatest court trial. Cincinnati, Ohio: National Book Co. pp. 178–179, 182.
  47. Daily Illini, University of Illinois, October 28, 1924
  48. Life & Death In Prison Archived March 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine by Marilyn Bardsley. Crime Library – Courtroom Television Network, LLC. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  49. Dr. Ink (August 23, 2002). "Ask Dr. Ink". Poynter Online. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013.
  50. Murray, Jesse George (1965). The madhouse on Madison Street. Follett Pub. Co. p. 344.
  51. Farrell, John Aloysius (December 1, 2009). "Leopold, Loeb and the Curious Case of the Greatest Newspaper Lead Never Written". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  52. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century ISBN 0-25206829-7 p. 301
  53. Leopold, Loeb & The Crime of the Century, p. 302
  54. Leopold, Loeb & The Crime of the Century, p. 293
  55. Higdon, H. The Crime of the Century (1975). New York: Putnams. ASIN B000LZX0RO pp. 281–317.
  56. Levin, M. Compulsion (1956). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0786703199
  57. In Nathan Leopold's Own Words. UMKC archive Archived January 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
  58. Leopold, N. Life Plus 99 Years (1958). New York: Doubleday & Co. ISBN 1131524608
  59. Higdon H. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century. University of Illinois Press (1999), p. 262. ISBN 0252068297
  60. Larson EJ. Murder Will Out: Rethinking the Right of Publicity Through One Classic Case. Rutgers Law Review archive Archived July 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  61. "The Companionship, the Acceptance." The Brethren Encyclopedia. Vol. 2 1983. Print.
  62. "E-mailed comment". Law.umkc.edu. Archived from the original on February 3, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  63. Daily Defender; May 29, 1958; p9
  64. Chicago Daily Tribune, July 16, 1958 p. 23
  65. Leopold v. Levin, et al. (Supreme Court of Illinois 1970).Text
  66. Leopold v. Levin, 259 N.E.2d 250, 255–256 (Ill. 1970); Gertz, supra note 48, at 166.
  67. Higdon (1975), p. 332
  68. Leopold, Nathan Jr. (1963). Checklist of Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. University of Puerto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station. ASIN B006D31YB2.
  69. Higdon (1975), p. 361
  70. "Rope (1939)". IMDb.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  71. Jake Hinkson (October 19, 2012). "Leopold and Loeb Still Fascinate 90 Years Later". criminalelement.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  72. Logan, John (1999). Never the Sinner. Samuel French, Inc. ISBN 978-0573626715. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  73. Christiansen, Richard. "Revised 'Never the Sinner' An Even More Riveting Work". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 30, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  74. Schildcrout, Jordan (2014). Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472072323. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  75. Butler, Robert (2005). "The Loeb and Leopold Case: A Neglected Source for Richard Wright's "Native Son"". African American Review. 39 (4): 555–567. ISSN 1062-4783. JSTOR 40033693. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  76. King, Susan. "Falk Still Gets His Kicks From Alter-ego Columbo". Greensboro News and Record. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  77. "Swoon". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  78. Lybarger, Jeremy (July 26, 2018). "Reopening the Case Files of Leopold and Loeb". The Paris Review. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  79. Ebert, Roger (April 19, 2002). "Murder by Numbers movie review (2002)". rogerebert.com/. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  80. "Graphic Novelist Daniel Clowes". NPR.org. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  81. Shenton, Mark (January 15, 2015). "Stephen Dolginoff Musical Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story Will Get London Revival". Playbill. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  82. "'Scream' Screenwriter Kevin Williamson Confirms Billy and Stu's Queer-Coded Relationship Was Based on Real Gay Killers". January 12, 2022. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.

Bibliography
  • Leopold, Nathan F. Life plus 99 Years, 1958 (Introduction by Erle Stanley Gardner)
  • Baatz, Simon. For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago (HarperCollins, 2008).
  • Baatz, Simon. "Criminal Minds," Smithsonian Magazine 39 (August 2008): 70–79.
  • Higdon, Hal. Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century, University of Illinois Press, 1999. (originally published in 1975) ISBN 0252068297
  • Kalin, Tom (director), Swoon. Film, 1990
  • Levin, Meyer. Compulsion, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1996. (originally published in 1956). ISBN 0786703199
  • 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 0822221020
  • Morita, Yoshimitsu (director). Copycat Killer. Film, 2002
  • Leopold, N.F. 1963. Checklist of the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leopold and Loeb.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.