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Leopold and Loeb Trial: 1924 Not Ions Ine, Defendants: Nathan F cu- as a 319. lost Leopold and Loeb Trial: 1924 not Ions ine, Defendants: Nathan F. Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb zed Crimes Charged: Murder and kidnapping Chief Defense Lawyers: Clarence Darrow, Benjamin Bachrach, and Walter was Bachrach Chief Prosecutors: Robert E. Crowe, Thomas Marshall, Joseph P. cted Savage, John Sbarbaro, and Milton Smith Judge: John R. Caverly ~ted Place: Chicago, Illinois Dates of Trial: July 23-September 10, 1924 the Verdict: Guilty Sentences: Life imprisonment for murder; 99 years for kidnapping SlGNlFlCANCE Clarence Darrow, America's foremost criminal lawyer at the time, saved the defendants from execution for their "thrill murders" by changing their pleas from not guilty to guilty. The change took the case away from a jury so it was heard only by the judge, giving Darrow the opportunity to plead successfully for mitigation of punishment-life imprisonment rather than execution. The bizarre nature of the crime and the wealth of the victim and the defendants focused the nation's attention on the courtroom for nearly two months. -. n hla)~1924, 18-year-old "Dickie" L,oeb was the youngest graduate of the I University of blichigan and already a postgraduate student at the University of Chicago. "Babe" Leopold, at 19 a law student at Chicago, had earned his Phi Beta Kappa key with his Bachelor of Philosophy degree. Each came from a wealthy and well-known Chicago family. Each believed his mental abilities set him apart as a genius superior to other people. Each dwelt in a fantasy world. The Perfect Murder. for Its Thrill Over several years, Leopold and Loeb had developed a homosexual rela- tionship. In the fall of 1923, they devised a plan for the perfect murder, to be committed for the sake of its thrill. The more they detailed their plan, the stronger their compulsion to carry it out became. In March 1924, according to a report later prepared by leading psychiatrists for their defense, "they decided to L get any young bov whom they knew to be of a wealthy family, knock him unconscious, take him to a certain culvert, strangle him, dispose of all his - clothes, and push the body deep into this funnel-shaped culvert, through which GREAT the water flowed, expecting the body to entirely deconlpose and ne\.er be AMERICAN found." On >Lay- 21, 1921, Leopold and Loeb renced a car. With Loeb in the back TRIALS seat. I,eopold drove slowly past the exclusire Han-ard Preparatory School. The?- saw 14-year-old Bobby Franks, like them a son of a millionaire and also a cousin of Loeb, and offered him a ride. Within minutes. Loeb grabbed Franks and bashed his skull four times with a hea1.y chisel. After wrapping the boy's body in Leopold's lap robe, the two drove around Chicago until dark. Then they went to the culvert, near the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and carried out their plan. Next they buried Franks' shoes, belt buckle, jewelry, and the bloodstained lap robe, stopped off for dinner, and burned the lad's clothes in the furnace at Loeb's house. Later, they mailed a special-deli\-ery ransom note to Franks' father and, at Leopold's house, washed the bloodstains from che car and phoned the Franks' home to say that Bobby Franks was safe, and instructions were on the way. Unable to reach Bobby's father the next morning, they quickly learned why: Newsboys were hawking extras announcing discovery of the boy's body. A railroad workman had noticed a human foot protruding from the culvert. An- other worker had found a pair of eyeglasses. The police soon traced the glasses to Leopold. He admitted recent bird- watching near the culvert. His alibi for his whereabouts on May 21Bird- watching with Richard Loeb, then a ride around Lincoln Park in his car with' Loeb and a couple of girls. But the Leopold chauffeur said he had been repairing Leopold's car all day, and in the evening he had seen the boys washing the floor of a strange car. Next the police pulled a beat-up Underwood t>-pewriterfrom Jackson Park Harbor and proved that the ransom note had been v~rittenon it. Leopold said he owned a Hammond typewriter, but Chlcago Daif~iVm~ reporters checked with his college classmates and learned that when they borrowed "Babe's" type- writer to type their papers, it was an Underwood. Now came the grilling. Through a day of intensive questioning, both Leopold and Loeb stuck to their story. But the next day, thinking that Leopold had betrayed him, Loeb angrily confessed. "I Have a Hanging Case" Now State's Artorney Robert E. Crowe tackled Leopold, surprising him with facts that could have come only from Loeb. Nathan l,eopold confessed. Before noon, the confessions of each were read to them, admitting they had killed Bobby Franks for the thrill of it. Said Crowe, "I have a hanging case. The state is ready to go to trial immediately." Clarence Darrow was already the nation's foremost criminal lawyer. (Ten- nessee's famous Monkey Trial, which would bring him world\vide fame, was 308 still a year away.) He had saved some 50 accused murderers, many of whom were guilty be)-ond the shadow of a doubt, from execution. He told the Leopold and 1924 Loeb fam~lieshe {rould take the case for a $100.000 fee. I Leopold and Loeb Darrow thretb h~senerg\, and that of a battery of assistants, Into re- lack ! searching the minds of his clients. Since State's Actorney Crowe had already Trial 'hey lined up Chicago's \lest-knot\-r~psychiarrists to examine the accused, Darrow I usin turned to such national figures as the president of the American Psychiatric and .issociation and the super\-isor of the ps!-chiarric clinic at Sing Sing Prison. Prominent psychiatrists Karl Bo~r-manand Harold S. Hulbertdeveloped profiles ~und that revealed the defendants' mental instability and confused personalities. The arlia doctors' extensixx report came to several thousand pages and was supplemented belt by thousands more from the other psychiatrists. and ed a shed "They Should Be Permanently Isolated from Society" 3bby By July 23, \\-hen the trial opened, all America except Clarence Darrow and his team expected Leopold and Loeb to hang. Shocked by the idea that the sons rned of the rich had nothing better to do than kill younger rich kids for the thrill of it, ly. A the country wanted an eye for an eye. Darrow knew that no jury would settle for Xn- less. Standing before Chief Justice John K. Caverly, he went right to the point: "We want to state frankly here that no one believes these defendants should be ~ird. released. We believe they should be permanently isolated from society. After tird- long reflection, we have determined to make a motion for each to withdraw our ~ith plea of not guilty and enter pleas of guilty to both indictments." ring Flabbergasted, the prosecution realized that Darrow had instantly wiped loor out the chance of a jury con\;iction. Now the judge alone would consider the case. Darrow \vent on. "We ask that the court permit us to offer evidence as to 'ark the mental condition of these young men. \Ve wish to offer this evidence in I he mitigation of punishment." vith The prosecution objected ~,iolently,but Judge Caverly said he would hear Pe- evidence of mitigation. "I want to gibe you all the leeway I can," he said. "I want to get all the cloctors' testimony. There is no jury here, and I'd like to be advised 0th as fully as possible." old "Total Lack of Appropriate Emotional Response" At that point, Darrow had earned his fee. His job now was to convince the judge that Leopold and Loeb not only did not deserve to be executed but that justice and humanity would be served by reaching a thorough understanding of their peculiar mental stares. He introduced psychiatrist witnesses who had found that Richard Loeb was a habitual liar. Since the age of 10, he had fantasized about crimes and imagined himself, the "Master Mind" directing others, always outsmarting the world's best detectives; he had cheated at cards, shoplifted, stolen automobiles and liquor, thrown bricks through store windows, and only last November-with Ldeopold, each carrying loaded revolvers-had burglarized his own fraternity house. "The total lack of appropriate emotional 309 response is one of the most striking features of his present condition," said the GREAT Bowman-Hulbert report, noting that Loeb felt no remorse for his actions. "He AMERICAN has gradually projected a norld of-P~ntas)-owr into the xt-orld of reality, and at times eben confused the tb4o." TRIALS Reviewing the reports on Leopold, Darrou- noted thac the young man had been strongly influenced by a go\.erness uho encouraged him to steal, so that 1 she could blackmail him, and who "gabe him the wrong conception about sex, about theft, about right or cvrong, about seltishness, and about secrecy." To Leopold, said Darrow, "selfishness was the ideal life. Each man was a law unto himself." Nathan Leopold's main fantasy was a king-and-slave relationship. He preferred to be the slave who could sax9ethe life of the king, then refuse the reward of freedom. Richard Loeb was his king. He had been in love with Loeb since they were 15 and 14 years old. "Ifelt myself less than the dust beneath his feet," Leopold had told the psychiatrists. "I'm jealous of the food and drink he takes because Icannot come as close to him as does his food and drink." AS to the kidnapping and murder, said the report, Leopold "got no pleasure from the crime.
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