Leopold and Loeb

Nathan Leopold, Jr. (19 November, 1904 - 30 August, 1971) and Richard Loeb (11 June, 1905 - 28 January, 1936) are better known as Leopold and Loeb. They were both wealthy Jewish students from the University of Chicago, and were both incredibly smart. Using their superior intellect, they attempted to perform "the perfect crime", for no reason other than excitement. In 1924 they murdered another Jewish boy, Bobby Franks, by kindapping him, hitting him in the head wth a chisel, and then suffocating him. They hid the body and burned it with hydrochloric acid, to make identfication more dffcult. Following the murder, to avoid a homicide investigation, they wrote a ransom note to his family to the amount of ten thousand dollars. However, Franks' body was found before the ransom could be paid, and the two men were discovered when a pair of eyeglasses found on the body were traced back to Nathan. They also found a connection between his papers written at university, and the ransom note, which were typed on the same typewriter.
The trial was the first to ever be called the "trial of the century" and cased a great uproar in the Jewish community, as well as a rise in anti-semitism which was kept in check only by the fact that Franks was also Jewish. The two men pled guilty and seemed to enjoy the publicism, and after a twelve hour speach by their lawyer were sentenced to life in prison plus 99 years for the kidnapping. Loeb was killed while in prison, but Leopold lived and was released after 33 years. He later wrote and published a book titled "Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years". He died of a heart attack in 1971 at the age of 66.


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