On this date in 1924, two spoiled sociopaths in Chicago, IL committed what they thought would be the perfect crime; all to prove their status as Nietzschean supermen. Nathan Leopold, 19, and Richard Loeb, 18, kidnapped and murdered 14 year old Bobby Franks. They might have gotten away with it, had their perfect crime been just a little more… perfect. But perfection is hard to achieve, especially when you do things like:
-Hide the body where it will be quickly found
-Drop your (very unique) glasses at the body dump location
-Build your alibi around going for a drive in a car that could be shown to have been in the shop at the time
It didn’t take long for the alibi to break down and for both men to confess. So much for supermen, Nietzschean or otherwise.
Famed trial attorney Clarence Darrow was brought in to defend the indefensible. He couldn’t get his clients acquitted, but he did manage to head off a death sentence. Both men were sentenced to life in prison.
Loeb died in prison in 1936, the victim of a razor attack by another inmate. Leopold was paroled in 1958. He moved to Puerto Rico, where worked in a hospital. He died in 1971, at the age of 66.
Further reading:
truTV – Leopold & Loeb
Famous Trials – Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb
Nobody Move! 
Reblogged this on theThumpHouse.
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Thanks.
theThumpHouse? Is that a new name for your blog?
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You’re welcome.
I have been under attack of some sort and in fact, only a couple of minutes ago the same thing but, an article was erased concerning use of US Special Forces globally for some unlawful operations, and another article that I just cannot remember was along with it, also erased. Something is going on or, maybe somebody feels that I am not the run of the mill blogger and has some kind of juice (?).
I tried to make a second blog to transfer the original blog over to but wordpress would not allow it, and the link to my article and comments are here.
A “Thump House”, is where either intelligence people or, organized crime, would cover the place in poly vapor barrier plastic, and people had to be very careful of their actions and words, or risk going “thump” onto the floor. I felt it matched the header of bullets used as chess pieces, and globally, the games every nation is engaged in, have similar consequences should something go wrong.
http://brittius.com/2014/05/19/chasing-my-tail/
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John D.:
I remember this story from last year…still amazes me that DARROW would get into it…
And the fact that these two “supermen” would make SUCH easy mistakes.
Glad the justice system did what it was supposed to do and not give them a second chance.
Good story.
Brittius:
Sorry to hear about your blog…guess freedom of speech isn;t as “free” as we’re supposed to believe.
We (as Americans) need to change that.
Stay safe out there.
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Darrow loved the limelight. A case like this one was perfect for him.
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