View source for Leopold and Loeb

{{Short description|American kidnapper-murderer duo}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox criminal
|name               = Nathan Leopold
|image_name         = Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00652, Nathan Leopold.png
|image_caption      = Leopold in August 1924
|birth_name         = Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr.
|birth_date         = {{Birth date|1904|11|19}}
|birth_place        = [[Chicago]], Illinois, U.S.
|death_date         = {{Death date and age|1971|8|29|1904|11|19}}
|death_place        = [[Puerto Rico]]
|charge             = Murder, kidnapping
|conviction_penalty = Life + 99 years' imprisonment
|conviction_status  = 
}}
{{Infobox criminal
|name               = Richard Loeb
|image_name         = Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00652, Richard Loeb.png
|image_caption      = Loeb in August 1924
|birth_name         = Richard Albert Loeb
|birth_date         = {{Birth date|1905|6|11}}
|birth_place        = [[Chicago]], Illinois, U.S.
|death_date         = {{Death date and age|1936|1|28|1905|6|11}}
|death_place        = [[Joliet, Illinois]], U.S.
|cause              = Homicide (from 58 inflicted wounds from a razor attack)
|charge             = Murder, kidnapping
|conviction_penalty = Life + 99 years' imprisonment
|conviction_status  = 
}}
'''Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr.''' (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mocavo.com/Nathan-Leopold-1904-1971-Social-Security-Death-Index/14776609493099645561|title=Mocavo and Findmypast are coming together – findmypast.com|website=www.mocavo.com|access-date=March 7, 2014|archive-date=March 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323060537/http://www.mocavo.com/Nathan-Leopold-1904-1971-Social-Security-Death-Index/14776609493099645561|url-status=live}}</ref> and '''Richard Albert Loeb''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|oʊ|b}}; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as '''Leopold and Loeb''', were two American students at the [[University of Chicago]] who kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], United States, on May 21, 1924. They committed the murder – characterized at the time as "the [[crime of the century]]"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041113083235/http://homicide.northwestern.edu/crimes/leopold1/ Homicide in Chicago 1924 Leopold & Loeb] Retrieved July 18, 2015.</ref> – hoping to demonstrate superior intellect,<ref>{{cite book|first=Brian|last=Lane|title=Chronicle of 20th Century Murder|publisher=[[Berkley Books]]|location=New York |date=1995|isbn=978-0425146491|pages=106–107}}</ref> which they believed enabled and entitled them to carry out a "[[perfect crime]]" without consequences.

After the two men were arrested, Leopold and Loeb's families retained [[Clarence Darrow]] as lead counsel for their [[defense (law)|defense]]. Darrow's eight-hour summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential [[Capital punishment debate in the United States|criticism]] of [[capital punishment]] as [[retributive justice|retributive]] rather than [[transformative justice]]. Both 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 Freudenthal Leopold Jr. was born on November 19, 1904, in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], the third son of Florence (née Foreman) and Nathan Leopold Sr., a wealthy German-Jewish immigrant family.<ref name="nl">{{cite report |year=1924 |title=Bowman-Hulbert Psychiatric Report: Nathan Leopold Jr.|access-date= }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDR7qQbEnRoC&q=Florence+Foreman+Nathan+Leopold&pg=PA65|title=Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century|first=Hal|last=Higdon|year=1975|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|location=Champaign, Illinois|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0252068294|access-date=October 18, 2020|archive-date=August 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818072247/https://books.google.com/books?id=MDR7qQbEnRoC&q=Florence+Foreman+Nathan+Leopold&pg=PA65|url-status=live}}</ref> A [[child prodigy]], Leopold was recorded in his [[baby book]] as having spoken his first words at the age of four months and three weeks old.<ref name=nl /> Leopold began his college studies at the [[University of Chicago]], transferred to the [[University of Michigan]], but returned after a year to study at the University of Chicago.<ref>{{Cite news |title=DIFFERED IN COLLEGE LIFE.; Loeb Popular at Michigan -- Leopold Shunned Fellows. |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//timesmachine.content-tagging.us-east-1-01.prd.dvsp.nyt.net/timesmachine/1924/06/02/104039092.html?pageNumber=3 |access-date=November 20, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Linder">[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/Accountoftrial.html The Leopold and Loeb Trial:A Brief Account] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315203922/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/Accountoftrial.html|date=March 15, 2007}} by Douglas O. Linder. 1997. Retrieved April 11, 2007.</ref>

By many accounts, Leopold was sensitive about his appearance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nathan F. Leopold, Jr. (1904 - 1971) |url=https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1668-leopold |access-date=January 29, 2023 |website=famous-trials.com |archive-date=January 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129203830/https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1668-leopold |url-status=live }}</ref> He threw himself into intellectual pursuits where he met with remarkable success. Leopold had studied 15 languages and claimed to speak five fluently.<ref name="Freedom">{{cite web|first=Marilyn|last=Bardsley|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7c.html|title=Freedom|website=[[TruTV|Crime Library]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070401111735/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7c.html |archive-date=April 1, 2007|access-date=April 11, 2007}}</ref> He had achieved a measure of national recognition as an [[ornithology|ornithologist]].<ref name="Linder" /> Leopold and several other ornithologists identified nesting sites of [[Kirtland's warbler]]s and made astute observations about the parasitic nesting behavior of [[brown-headed cowbird]]s, which threatened the warblers.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Rapai | first1 = William| title = The Kirtland's warbler : the story of a bird's fight against extinction and the people who saved it | year = 2012 | publisher = [[University of Michigan Press]] | location = Ann Arbor, Michigan | isbn = 978-0472118038 | page =18 }}</ref> He maintained his interest in birds after his crime, raising birds in prison and working to help with the struggling Puerto Rican Parrot population after his release on parole.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Noel |title=The Parrots of Luquillo: Natural History and Conservation of the Puerto Rican Parrot |publisher=United States Fish and Wildlife Service |year=1987 |bibcode=1987plnh.book...13S |language=English}}</ref>

=== Richard Loeb ===
Richard Albert Loeb was born on June 11, 1905, in Chicago, the third of four sons of Anna Henrietta (née Bohnen) and [[Albert Henry Loeb]], a wealthy lawyer and retired vice president of [[Sears, Roebuck & Company]].<ref name=rl>{{cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/richard-loeb-227821|title=Richard Loeb biography|work=[[The Biography Channel]]|year=2012|access-date=December 16, 2012|archive-date=January 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102233824/http://www.biography.com/people/richard-loeb-227821|url-status=live}}</ref> His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/5d.html |title=Leopold and Loeb |access-date=May 1, 2014|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140501235849/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/5d.html |archive-date=May 1, 2014 }}</ref> Like Leopold, Loeb was exceptionally intelligent. He was an avid reader, with a passion for history and crime stories. At age 12, he entered the innovative [[University of Chicago Laboratory Schools|University of Chicago High School]]. With the encouragement of his governess, he completed his high school education in two years. In 1923,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Loeb: UM Alumni Card · Online Exhibits |url=https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/lgbtheritage/item/1576 |access-date=November 20, 2023 |website=apps.lib.umich.edu |archive-date=November 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120062454/https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/lgbtheritage/item/1576 |url-status=live }}</ref> at the age of 17,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Loeb (1905 - 1936) |url=https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1669-loeb |access-date=January 29, 2023 |website=famous-trials.com |archive-date=January 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129203838/https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1669-loeb |url-status=live }}</ref> he would reportedly become the [[University of Michigan]]'s youngest graduate. Following graduation from Michigan, Loeb enrolled in a few history classes at the University of Chicago.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Linder |first1=Douglas |title=The Leopold And Loeb Trial: An Account |url=https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1741-home |website=Famous Trials |access-date=March 4, 2022 |archive-date=March 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220304222323/https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1741-home |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Adolescence and early crimes ==
The two young men grew up with their families in the affluent [[Kenwood, Chicago|Kenwood]] neighborhood on Chicago's [[South Side, Chicago|South Side]]. The Loebs owned a summer estate (the farm part of which is now called [[Castle Farms]] and is a popular wedding venue) 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 the spring of 1920;<ref name="AmExper">{{cite web |date=April 10, 2018 |title=The Perfect Crime: In Love with Murder – Transcript |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/perfectcrime/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416151330/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/perfectcrime/ |archive-date=April 16, 2018 |access-date=April 11, 2018 |website=[[PBS]]}}</ref> their relationship flourished at the University of Chicago, as part of a mutual friend group. Their sexual relationship began in February 1921 and continued until the pair was arrested.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Rebain |first=Erik |title=Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of Nathan Leopold |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2023 |isbn=978-1538158609 |pages=22}}</ref>

Since childhood Loeb had been stealing small things from friends, family and stores. He would sometimes show off his pick-pocketing skills to friends in high school in an attempt to impress them.<ref name=":1">Transcript of the State of Illinois vs. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, 4104-4113.</ref> When Loeb met Leopold the pair began to steal things together, and worked out a system to cheat their friends and family during games of [[Contract bridge|bridge]], though it was largely unsuccessful.<ref name=":1" /> They also upgraded to larger crimes, including breaking into people's homes to steal things like wine, piano benches and vacuum cleaners.<ref>Rebain (2023). p. 35</ref> The pair would also drive around throwing bricks through car and store windows and committed several acts of arson, enjoying setting a building on fire, driving away, changing clothes, and then chatting with others who came out to watch the firefighters attempt to put out their blaze.<ref name=":1" />

While Loeb seems to have been content to do these things for fun, Leopold felt the need to justify them philosophically. He was an individual [[Hedonism|hedonist]], as he explained it, he would weigh all of the pleasure or pain he would receive from an action, and do what would give him the most pleasure. This extended to every arena of his life, including his eventual decision to commit murder. As he explained to a psychiatrist: "Making up my mind to commit murder was practically the same as making up my mind whether or not I should eat pie for supper, whether it would give me pleasure or not."<ref name=":1" />

Leopold was also interested in [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s concept of "supermen" (''[[Übermensch]]en''), 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.<ref name="Linder" /> Leopold believed it was possible that he and Loeb could become 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.<ref name="Linder" /> 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."<ref name="Baatz">{{cite book |last=Baatz |first=Simon |title=For the Thrill of It |date=2009 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0060781026 |location=New York}}</ref>

After robbing Loeb's old fraternity house at the University of Michigan, where they stole penknives, a camera, and a typewriter that they later used to type the [[ransom]] note for their murder victim, Bobby Franks, Loeb proposed they should commit a "[[perfect crime]]" that would garner public attention and confirm their superiority to others.<ref>Higdon (1975), pp. 150–154</ref>

== Murder of Bobby Franks ==
[[File:Bobby Franks alone.jpg|alt=|thumb|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 the disposal of the body. To obfuscate the actual nature of their crime and their motive for it, they decided to make a ransom demand, and they also devised an intricate plan for collecting the ransom, which involved a long series of complex instructions that would be communicated, one instruction at a time.

After a lengthy search for a suitable victim, mostly on the grounds of the Harvard School for Boys in the Kenwood area,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM82VC_Leopold_Loeb_kill_Bobby_Franks_Chicago_IL|title=Leopold & Loeb kill Bobby Franks – Chicago, IL|work=Waymarking.com|access-date=January 28, 2013|archive-date=October 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003073157/http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM82VC_Leopold_Loeb_kill_Bobby_Franks_Chicago_IL|url-status=live}}</ref> the pair decided upon Robert "Bobby" Franks, the 14-year-old son of wealthy Chicago watch manufacturer Jacob Franks. Bobby Franks was an across-the-street neighbor of Loeb's who had played tennis at the Loeb residence several times.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/arts/18deutsch.html|title=Armand S. Deutsch, Hollywood fixture, dies at 92|author=Purdum, Todd S.|author-link=Todd Purdum|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 18, 2005|access-date=August 20, 2010|archive-date=April 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402222552/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/arts/18deutsch.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

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,<ref>Map of the Scene of the Kidnapping and Murder of Bobby Franks. [https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1750-map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602214443/https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1750-map|date=June 2, 2021}}. Retrieved August 22, 2014.</ref> 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. Loeb struck Franks, who was sitting in front of him in the passenger seat, several times in the head with the handle-end of a chisel, then dragged him into the back seat and gagged him, where he died.<ref name="loeb-statement">[http://homicide.northwestern.edu/docs_fk/homicide/5866/LoebStatement.pdf Statement of Richard Loeb] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000032/http://homicide.northwestern.edu/docs_fk/homicide/5866/LoebStatement.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }} Northwestern University Retrieved October 30, 2007.</ref>

With the body on the floor of the back seat, out of view, the men drove to their predetermined dumping spot near [[Wolf Lake (Indiana–Illinois)|Wolf Lake]], in the extreme south side of Chicago. After nightfall, they removed Franks's 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 [[circumcision|circumcised]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bardsley |first1=Marilyn |title=Leopold & Loeb – Enter Clarence Darrow |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/darrow_4.html |website=Crime Library |archive-date=February 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210043015/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/darrow_4.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> as circumcision was unusual among non-Jews in the United States at the time.

[[File:Leopold and Loeb's ransom note for Bobby Franks.jpg|thumb|The ransom note]]
By the time the two men returned to Chicago, word had already spread that Franks was [[missing person|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 Franks' clothes, then cleaning the blood stains from the rented vehicle's upholstery, they spent the remainder of the evening playing cards.<ref>''Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century'' {{ISBN|0-252-06829-7}} p. 106</ref>

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 delivery of the ransom payment. The intricate plan was stalled almost immediately when Franks's father 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 the same day that Franks's body had been found by workmen along the railroad track.<ref>{{cite book |title=Murder Cases of the Twentieth Century |author=David K. Frasier |page=290 |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=1996 |isbn=0-7864-0184-2 |edition=illustrated}}</ref> Leopold and Loeb destroyed the typewriter and they also burned a car robe (lap blanket) which they had used to move the body.<ref name="leopold-statement">[http://homicide.northwestern.edu/docs_fk/homicide/5866/LeopoldStatement.pdf Statement of Nathan F. Leopold] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233209/http://homicide.northwestern.edu/docs_fk/homicide/5866/LeopoldStatement.pdf|date=March 3, 2016}} Northwestern University Retrieved October 30, 2007.</ref><ref name="loeb-statement" /> They then went about their lives as usual.<ref>''Chronicle of 20th Century Murder'' {{ISBN|978-0-425-14649-1}} p. 107</ref>

Chicago police launched a thorough investigation; [[bounty (reward)|rewards]] were offered in exchange for information. Leopold and Loeb both enjoyed chatting about the murder with their friends and relatives. Leopold discussed the case with his professor and a female friend, joking that he would confess and give her the reward money.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Krum |first=Morrow |date=June 2, 1924 |title=Find U. of C. Co-ed Friend of Leopold |pages=1, 8 |work=The Chicago Tribune}}</ref> Loeb helped a couple of reporter friends of his find the drugstore he and Leopold had tried to send Mr. Franks to, and when asked to describe Bobby he replied: "If I were to murder anybody, it would be just such a cocky little son of a bitch as Bobby Franks."<ref>{{cite news |title=Darrow Will Drop Carefully Reared Insanity Defense |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=V8wmAAAAIBAJ&pg=3859%2C823580 |newspaper=The Sunday Morning Star |date=July 27, 1924 |page=1 |access-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-date=August 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818081559/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=V8wmAAAAIBAJ&pg=3859%2C823580 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Police found a pair of eyeglasses near Franks's body. Although the prescription and the frame were common, they were fitted with an unusual hinge, which was only purchased by three customers in Chicago, one of whom was Leopold.<ref name="AmExper" /><ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_GLAS.HTM The Glasses: The Key Link to Leopold and Loeb] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505070223/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_GLAS.HTM |date=May 5, 2007 }} UMKC Law. Retrieved April 11, 2007.</ref> When questioned, Leopold offered the possibility that his glasses might have dropped out of his pocket during a bird-watching trip the previous weekend.<ref>''[[Chicago Daily News]]'', June 2, 1924</ref>

Leopold and Loeb were summoned for formal questioning on May 29.<ref>''Urbana Daily Courier'', October 28, 1924</ref> 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 afternoon of the murder.<ref name="AmExper" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crimearchives.net/1924_leopold_loeb/html/interrogation.html|title=CrimeArchives: The Leopold-Loeb Case – Interrogation|website=www.crimearchives.net|access-date=November 27, 2017|archive-date=December 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201043137/http://www.crimearchives.net/1924_leopold_loeb/html/interrogation.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The destroyed typewriter was recovered from the [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park Lagoon]] on June 7.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/leopold-and-loeb-gain-national-attention|title=Leopold and Loeb gain national attention – May 21, 1924|website=History.com|date=November 13, 2009 |access-date=November 16, 2017|archive-date=May 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529191055/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/leopold-and-loeb-gain-national-attention|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://chicagology.com/2015/11/18/leopold-loeb/|title=Leopold & Loeb|website=chicagology.com|date=November 18, 2015|access-date=November 16, 2017|archive-date=June 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618052653/https://chicagology.com/2015/11/18/leopold-loeb/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Confession ===
Loeb was the first to confess.<ref name="AmExper" /> He asserted that Leopold had planned everything and had killed Franks in the backseat of the car while he (Loeb) drove. Leopold's confession followed swiftly thereafter.<ref>''[[Chicago Daily News]]'', September 10, 1924, p. 3.</ref> He insisted that he was the driver and Loeb the murderer. Their confessions otherwise corroborated most of the evidence in the case.<ref name="leopold-statement" /><ref name="loeb-statement" /> Both confessions were announced by the [[state's attorney]] on May 31.<ref>{{cite news |title=Two Rich Mens' Sons Confess to Franks Murder |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ceRPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2lQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6273%2C3287490 |access-date=December 26, 2021 |work=[[The Evening Independent]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=May 31, 1924 |location=St. Petersburg, Fla. |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227040016/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ceRPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2lQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6273,3287490 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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."<ref>Leopold, N. ''Life Plus 99 Years''. Doubleday (1958), p. 66. {{ISBN|1131524608}}</ref> Most observers believed that Loeb did strike the fatal blows.<ref name="Noe">{{cite web |author=Noe |first=Denise |date=February 29, 2004 |title=Leopold and Loeb's Perfect Crime |url=http://crimemagazine.com/leopold-and-loebs-perfect-crime-0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180428194636/http://crimemagazine.com/leopold-and-loebs-perfect-crime-0 |archive-date=April 28, 2018 |access-date=February 3, 2013 |work=Crime Magazine}}</ref> Some circumstantial evidence, including testimony from eyewitness Carl Ulvigh, who claimed that he saw Loeb driving and Leopold in the back seat minutes before the kidnapping, suggested that Leopold could have been the killer.<ref>''Leopold, Loeb & The Crime of the Century'', by Hal Higdon, p. 319</ref>

Both Leopold and Loeb admitted that they were driven by their thrill-seeking, ''Übermenschen'' (supermen) delusions, and their aspiration to commit a "[[perfect crime]]".<ref name="Linder" /> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Joint Report of All Psychiatrists|year=1924|location=Northwestern University Archives|pages=16}}</ref>

== Trial ==
[[File:Clarence Darrow.jpg|thumb|upright|Defense attorney [[Clarence Darrow]]]]
The trial of Leopold and Loeb at Chicago's [[Courthouse Place|Cook County Criminal Court]] became a media spectacle and the third to be labeled "the [[trial of the century]]," after those of [[Harry Kendall Thaw#Murder of Stanford White|Harry Thaw]] and [[Sacco and Vanzetti]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Linder |first=Douglas |title=The Trial of Leopold and Loeb |url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/trials5.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101103143040/http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/trials5.htm |archive-date=November 3, 2010 |access-date=November 1, 2007 |website=JURIST}}</ref> The Leopold and Loeb families hired the renowned criminal [[defense (law)|defense]] attorney [[Clarence Darrow]] to lead the defense team. It was rumored that Darrow was paid $1 million<ref name="geis">{{Cite book |last1=Geis |first1=Gilbert |title=Crimes of the Century |last2=Bienen |first2=Leigh B. |year=1998 |location=Boston}}</ref> for his services, but he was actually paid $65,000<ref>{{Cite book |title=Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1957 |isbn=0226136507 |editor-last=Weinberg |editor-first=A. |pages=17–18}}</ref> (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|65000|1925}}}} in {{inflation/year|US}}).{{inflation/fn|US}} 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.<ref name="geis" /> 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]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Darrow's plea of guilty |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/darrowsplea.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101172138/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/darrowsplea.html |archive-date=January 1, 2018 |access-date=August 22, 2014 |website=University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law}}</ref>

The trial, technically an extended sentencing hearing, as their guilty pleas had already been accepted, ran for 32 days. The state's attorney, [[Robert E. Crowe]], presented 88 witnesses, documenting details of the crime. The defense presented extensive psychiatric testimony in an effort to establish mitigating circumstances, including physical abnormalities, an over-abundance of money and, in Leopold's case, [[sexual abuse]] by a governess.<ref name="Linder" /><ref name="AmExper" />

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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hardwick |first=Courtney |date=August 30, 2021 |title=QUEER CRIME: The Not-So-Perfect Partnership of Leopold and Loeb |url=https://inmagazine.ca/2021/08/queer-crime-the-not-so-perfect-partnership-of-leopold-and-loeb/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231225002242/https://inmagazine.ca/2021/08/queer-crime-the-not-so-perfect-partnership-of-leopold-and-loeb/ |archive-date=December 25, 2023 |access-date=September 23, 2022 |website=IN Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Darrow called a series of [[expert witness]]es, who offered a catalog of Leopold's and Loeb's abnormalities. One witness testified to their dysfunctional [[endocrine gland]]s, another to the delusions that had led to their crime.<ref name="AmExper" />

=== Darrow's speech ===
Darrow's impassioned, eight-hour-long "masterful plea"<ref>''Urbana Daily Courier'', September 10, 1924</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rebain |first=Erik |title=Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of Nathan Leopold |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2024 |isbn=978-1538158609 |pages=106}}</ref> at the conclusion of the hearing has been called the finest speech of his career.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Linder |first=Douglas |title=Famous American Trials: Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopold.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011050511/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopold.htm |archive-date=October 11, 2018 |access-date=March 7, 2012 |website=University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law}}</ref> Its principal arguments were that the methods and punishments of the American justice system were inhumane, and the youth and immaturity of the accused:<ref name="AmExper" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Darrow's summation for the defense |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_SUMD.HTM |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006171106/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_SUMD.HTM |archive-date=October 6, 2018 |access-date=August 22, 2014 |website=University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law}}</ref><ref name="scopes">{{Cite book |last=Scopes |first=John Thomas |title=World's greatest court trial |date=1925 |publisher=National Book Co. |location=Cincinnati, OH |pages=178–179, 182}}</ref>

{{blockquote|We read of killing one hundred thousand men in a day [during [[World War I]]]; probably exaggerated, but what of it?

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, and I need not tell your honor this, because you know, I need not tell you how many upright, honorable young boys have come into this court charged with murder, some saved and some gone to their death, boys who fought in this war and learned how cheap human life was. 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, at least, if ever. I know this, for I have studied these things, that after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] in 1865, crimes of this sort increased, marvelously increased. 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 it today; I know it has followed every war; and I know it has influenced these boys so that blood was not the same blood to them that it would have been if the world had not been bathed in 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 individual?

...

Has the court any right to consider anything but these two boys?

Yes.

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 and the little sister; for those broken ties that cannot be mended.

All I can hope and wish is that some good may come from it.

But as compared with the families of Leopold and Loeb, they are to be envied. They 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, he cared for him, he worked for him; he was brilliant and accomplished, he educated him, and he thought that fame and position awaited him, as it should have. It is a hard thing for a father to see his life's hopes crumbling into the dust.

...

And Loeb's, the same. The faithful uncle and brother, who have watched here day by day, while his father and his mother are too ill to stand this terrific strain, waiting for a message which means more to them than it can mean to you or me. Have they got any rights?

...

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 the 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 'till 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.

In doing it you are making it harder for unborn children. You may save them and it makes it easier for every child that some time may sit where these boys sit. It makes 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.|source=Trial Transcript of The State of Illinois vs. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, 4104-4113}}<ref name=":1" />
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.<ref name="AmExper" /><ref name="geis" /> A little over a month later, Loeb's father died of [[heart failure]].<ref>''Daily Illini'', University of Illinois, October 28, 1924</ref>

Darrow's handling of the law as defense counsel has been criticized for hiding psychiatric expert testimony that conflicted with his polemical goals and for relying on an absolute denial of free will, one of the principles legitimizing all criminal punishment.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Greg |title=Nothing but the Night: Leopold and Loeb and the truth behind the murder that rocked 1920s America |last2=Wilson |first2=Penny |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2022}}</ref>

== Imprisonment ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12794, Nathan Leopold und Richard Loeb.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Leopold (upper) and Loeb (lower), 1924]]
Leopold and Loeb were initially held in [[Joliet Correctional Center|Joliet Prison]] and did menial labor, Leopold working in the prison's [[rattan]] factory and Loeb in the chair factory. Although they were kept apart as much as possible, the two of them managed to maintain their friendship. Leopold was transferred to [[Stateville Correctional Center|Stateville Penitentiary]] in 1925 for an appendectomy, where he worked in the shoe factory and then in the library as a clerk for the prison's Protestant chaplain. He was caught violating prison rules and sent to solitary confinement many times, at one point possibly being involved in the escape of seven prisoners.<ref>Rebain (2023), p.122</ref> In Joliet, Loeb worked in the yard delivering messages before being promoted to clerk for the deputy warden. He was transferred to Stateville in 1930, where he began to work in the prison's greenhouse and landscaping the prison yard.<ref>Rebain (2023), p. 133</ref> Once Leopold and Loeb were in the same prison, the pair began to spend much of their time together. They did sociological research together and expanded the prison's school system, adding a high school and junior college curriculum.<ref name="prison" >[http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7b.html ''Life & Death In Prison''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070330225758/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7b.html |date=March 30, 2007 }} by Marilyn Bardsley. Crime Library&nbsp;– Courtroom Television Network, LLC. Retrieved April 11, 2007.</ref>

=== Loeb's death ===
On January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked with a [[straight razor]] in a shower room by his fellow inmate James Day; he died in the prison hospital soon afterward. Day claimed that Loeb had attempted to [[sexually assault]] 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 that Loeb had propositioned Day;<ref name="Linder" /><ref name="prison"/> some praised Day for his actions.<ref>''Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century'' {{ISBN|0-25206829-7}} p. 301</ref>

Though several prison officials including the Warden believed that Loeb had been murdered, Day was found not guilty by a jury after a short trial in June 1936.<ref name="Linder" /><ref name="prison" /> 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]].<ref>''Leopold, Loeb & The Crime of the Century'', p. 302</ref> 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.<ref>''Leopold, Loeb & The Crime of the Century'', p. 293</ref>

Several weeks after the killing, [[Mark Hellinger]] wrote in his [[syndicated column]], "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..."<ref>''[[Syracuse Journal]]'', February 19, 1936</ref> While some sources state [[Edwin A. Lahey|Ed Lahey]] had previously written in the ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'', "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition",<ref>{{cite web |author=Ink |first=Dr. |date=August 23, 2002 |title=Ask Dr. Ink |url=http://www.poynter.org/archived/ask-dr-ink/2048/bold-leads/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022005706/http://www.poynter.org/archived/ask-dr-ink/2048/bold-leads/ |archive-date=October 22, 2013 |publisher=Poynter Online }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book
| publisher=Follett Pub. Co
| last = Murray
| first = Jesse George
| title = The madhouse on Madison Street
| year = 1965
| page =344
}}</ref> no evidence has been found that this was ever published, and actual copy from that date reads otherwise.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Farrell |first1=John Aloysius |title=Leopold, Loeb and the Curious Case of the Greatest Newspaper Lead Never Written |url=https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/john-farrell/2009/12/01/leopold-loeb-and-the-curious-case-of-the-greatest-newspaper-lead-never-written |access-date=June 26, 2019 |newspaper=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |date=December 1, 2009 |archive-date=June 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626032138/https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/john-farrell/2009/12/01/leopold-loeb-and-the-curious-case-of-the-greatest-newspaper-lead-never-written |url-status=live }}</ref> 

=== Leopold's years in prison ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10970, USA, Nathan Leopold in Stateville Penitentiary.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Leopold in the [[Stateville Correctional Center|Stateville Penitentiary]], 1931]]
Leopold continued his work expanding the school and teaching after Loeb's death. In 1944, Leopold volunteered for the [[Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study]]. He was deliberately inoculated with [[malaria]] pathogens and subjected to several experimental malaria treatments.<ref>Higdon, H. ''The Crime of the Century'' (1975). New York: Putnams. {{ASIN|B000LZX0RO}} pp. 281–317.</ref> He later wrote that all his good work in prison and after his release was an effort to compensate for his crime.<ref name="prison" />

In the early 1950s, author [[Meyer Levin]], a graduate of the University of Chicago, requested Leopold's cooperation in the writing of a novel that was based on the murder of Franks. Leopold responded to Meyer Levin's request by stating that he did not want his story to be told in a fictionalized form, but offered Levin a chance to contribute to his own memoir, which was in progress. Though the pair met to discuss the possibility, Leopold rejected Levin's help and Levin went ahead with his book alone, despite Leopold's express objections. The novel, titled ''[[Compulsion (Levin novel)|Compulsion]]'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levin |first=M. |title=Compulsion |date=May 21, 1996 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0786703199 |location=New York}}</ref> was published in 1956.

Levin portrayed Leopold, under the pseudonym Judd Steiner, as a brilliant but a deeply disturbed teenager, psychologically driven to kill because of his abnormal sexuality, 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."<ref>''In Nathan Leopold's Own Words''. [http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_LEOW.HTM UMKC archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101172214/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_LEOW.HTM |date=January 1, 2018 }}.  Retrieved August 1, 2014.</ref>

Leopold's autobiography, ''Life Plus 99 Years'', was published in 1958<ref>Leopold, N. ''Life Plus 99 Years'' (1958). New York: Doubleday & Co. {{ISBN|1131524608}}</ref> as part of his campaign to win [[parole]].<ref name=Baatz/> His book was on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list for 14 weeks.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 7, 1958 |title=The New York Times Best Seller List |url=http://hawes.com/1958/1958-07-06.pdf |access-date=October 15, 2023 |archive-date=December 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228112547/http://hawes.com/1958/1958-07-06.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> While the book received generally positive reviews, some accused him of writing the book solely as a means of rehabilitating his public image by ignoring the dark side of his past.<ref name="Larson">Larson EJ. ''Murder Will Out: Rethinking the Right of Publicity Through One Classic Case''. [http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~review/vol62n1/Larson_v62n1.pdf Rutgers Law Review archive] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707184157/http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~review/vol62n1/Larson_v62n1.pdf |date=July 7, 2010 }}. Retrieved February 11, 2015.</ref>

== Leopold's post-prison years ==
[[File:Confidential Magazine cover June 1958 - Nathan Leopold.jpg|thumb|Nathan Leopold in 1958]]
After 33 years and numerous unsuccessful petitions, Leopold was released on parole on March 13, 1958.<ref>"Leopold, Paroled After 33 Years, Becomes Ill at Shock of Freedom", ''Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle'', March 14, 1958, p.1</ref><ref name="Linder" /><ref name="Freedom" /> 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{{snd}}the companionship, the acceptance, the love which would have rendered a violation of parole almost impossible."<ref>"The Companionship, the Acceptance." ''The Brethren Encyclopedia''. Vol. 2 1983. Print.</ref> He was known as "Nate" to neighbors and co-workers at Castañer General Hospital in [[Adjuntas, Puerto Rico|Adjuntas]], where he worked as a laboratory and X-ray assistant.<ref name="e-mailed comment">{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopoldemail.html|title=E-mailed comment|publisher=Law.umkc.edu|access-date=October 29, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203141623/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/leopoldemail.html|archive-date=February 3, 2011}}</ref>

Later in 1958, Leopold attempted to set up the Leopold Foundation, to be funded by [[royalty payment|royalties]] from ''Life Plus 99 Years'', "to aid emotionally disturbed, retarded, or delinquent youths."<ref name="Linder" /><ref name="Freedom" /><ref>''Daily Defender''; May 29, 1958; p9</ref> The State of Illinois voided his charter on grounds that it violated the terms of his parole.<ref>''Chicago Daily Tribune'', July 16, 1958, p. 23</ref>

In 1959, Leopold sought to block production of the [[Compulsion (1959 film)|film version of ''Compulsion'']] on the grounds that Levin's book had [[privacy law|invaded his privacy]], [[defamation|defamed]] him, profited from his life story and "intermingled fact and fiction to such an extent that they were indistinguishable."<ref name="e-mailed comment" /><ref>{{cite court|litigants=Leopold v. Levin, et al.|court=Supreme Court of Illinois|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_SUIT.HTM|date=1970|access-date=August 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320120958/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_SUIT.HTM|url-status=live}}</ref> After 11 years and many appeals, the [[Illinois Supreme Court]] ruled against him,<ref>Leopold v. Levin, 259 N.E.2d 250, 255–256 (Ill. 1970); Gertz, supra note 48, at 166.</ref> holding that Leopold, as the confessed perpetrator of the "crime of the century," could not reasonably argue that any book had injured his reputation.<ref name="Larson" /><ref name="e-mailed comment" />

Leopold moved to [[Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico|Santurce]] and married a widowed florist, Gertrude (Feldman) García de Quevedo, on February 5, 1961. Judge Ángel M. Umpierre presided over the wedding at a civil ceremony, which was held at the Brethren Service Project in Castañer, Puerto Rico.<ref name="Linder" /><ref name="Freedom" /> Despite his marriage, Leopold had many gay relationships in Puerto Rico, some continuing from those which he started in prison, and he enjoyed frequenting gay bars and male prostitutes.<ref>Rebain (2023), pp. 243-244</ref> He also continued to commit crimes, though he was never caught or prosecuted, including offenses of statutory rape and charity fraud.<ref>Rebain (2023), p. 235</ref>

Leopold earned a master's degree at the [[University of Puerto Rico]]. He became a researcher in the Social Service Program of Puerto Rico's Department of Health. He also worked for an urban renewal and housing agency, and he conducted studies on [[leprosy]] at the [[University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine]].<ref>Higdon (1975), p. 332</ref>

Leopold was an active member of the Natural History Society of Puerto Rico, he traveled throughout the island to observe [[List of birds of Puerto Rico|its birdlife]]. In 1963, he published ''Checklist of Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Nathan Jr.|last=Leopold|title=Checklist of Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands|date=1963|publisher=University of Puerto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station|asin=B006D31YB2}}</ref> While he spoke about his intention to write a book about his life since his release from prison, which he titled ''Reach for a Halo'', he never completed it.<ref>Higdon (1975), p. 361</ref>

Leopold died of a [[diabetes]]-related [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] on August 29, 1971, at the age of 66.<ref name="Linder" /><ref name="Freedom" />

== In popular culture ==
The Franks murder has inspired works of film, theatre and fiction, including the 1929 play ''[[Rope (play)|Rope]]'' by [[Patrick Hamilton (writer)|Patrick Hamilton]] and [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s [[Rope (film)|film of the same name]] in 1948.<ref name="Hinkson">{{Cite web |last=Hinkson |first=Jake |date=October 19, 2012 |title=Leopold and Loeb Still Fascinate 90 Years Later |url=http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/10/leopold-and-loeb-still-fascinate-90-years-later-jake-hinkson-true-historical-film-adaptation-orson-welles-legal-wrangling-suffer-the-children?WT.mc_id=10144&et_cid=29706250&et_rid=497979563&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.criminalelement.com%2fblogs%2f2012%2f10%2fleopold-and-loeb-still-fascinate-90-years-later-jake-hinkson-true-historical-film-adaptation-orson-welles-legal-wrangling-suffer-the-children%3fWT.mc_id%3d10144 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929093300/https://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/10/leopold-and-loeb-still-fascinate-90-years-later-jake-hinkson-true-historical-film-adaptation-orson-welles-legal-wrangling-suffer-the-children?WT.mc_id=10144&et_cid=29706250&et_rid=497979563&linkid=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.criminalelement.com%2Fblogs%2F2012%2F10%2Fleopold-and-loeb-still-fascinate-90-years-later-jake-hinkson-true-historical-film-adaptation-orson-welles-legal-wrangling-suffer-the-children%3FWT.mc_id%3D10144 |archive-date=September 29, 2017 |access-date=October 23, 2012 |publisher=criminalelement.com}}</ref> A fictionalized version of the events formed the basis of Meyer Levin's 1956 novel ''Compulsion'' and its 1959 [[Compulsion (1959 film)|film adaptation]].<ref name="Hinkson" /> In 1957, two more fictionalizations were published: ''Nothing but the Night'' by James Yaffe and ''Little Brother Fate'' by Mary-Carter Roberts.<ref name=Baatz /> ''Never the Sinner'', [[John Logan (writer)|John Logan]]'s 1985 play,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Logan |first=John |author-link=John Logan (writer) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMyxVz3zfmoC |title=Never the Sinner |publisher=[[Samuel French, Inc.]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0573626715 |access-date=August 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818080410/https://books.google.com/books?id=nMyxVz3zfmoC |archive-date=August 18, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> was based on contemporary newspaper accounts of the case, and included an overt portrayal of Leopold and Loeb's sexual relationship.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Christiansen |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Christiansen (critic) |date=September 22, 1995 |title=Revised 'Never the Sinner' An Even More Riveting Work |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1995/09/22/revised-never-the-sinner-an-even-more-riveting-work/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130830154218/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-09-22/news/9509220369_1_nathan-leopold-john-logan-richard-loeb |archive-date=August 30, 2013 |access-date=August 10, 2013 |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref>

In his book ''Murder Most Queer'' (2014), theater scholar Jordan Schildcrout examines changing [[Societal attitudes toward homosexuality|attitudes toward homosexuality]] in various theatrical and cinematic representations of the Leopold and Loeb case.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schildcrout |first=Jordan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fa0aBQAAQBAJ&q=%22The+Scene+of+the+Crime%3A+Leopold+and+Loeb+on+Trial%22&pg=PA40 |title=Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater |date=2014 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0472072323 |access-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818080729/https://books.google.com/books?id=fa0aBQAAQBAJ&q=%22The+Scene+of+the+Crime%3A+Leopold+and+Loeb+on+Trial%22&pg=PA40 |archive-date=August 18, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Other works said to be influenced by the case include [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]]'s 1940 novel ''[[Native Son]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Robert |date=2005 |title=The Loeb and Leopold Case: A Neglected Source for Richard Wright's "Native Son" |journal=African American Review |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=555–567 |issn=1062-4783 |jstor=40033693 }}</ref> the ''[[Columbo]]'' episode "[[Columbo Goes to College]]" (1990),<ref>{{Cite news |last=King |first=Susan |date=December 8, 1990 |title=Falk Still Gets His Kicks From Alter-ego Columbo |url=https://greensboro.com/falk-still-gets-his-kicks-from-alter-ego-columbo/article_fdbb62a1-cbcb-575f-85eb-14eebd7c1673.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930111827/https://greensboro.com/falk-still-gets-his-kicks-from-alter-ego-columbo/article_fdbb62a1-cbcb-575f-85eb-14eebd7c1673.html |archive-date=September 30, 2021 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |work=Greensboro News and Record |language=en}}</ref> [[Tom Kalin]]'s 1992 film ''[[Swoon (film)|Swoon]]'',<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Swoon |url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/swoon |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930111824/https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/swoon |archive-date=September 30, 2021 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en}}</ref> [[Michael Haneke]]'s 1997 Austrian film ''[[Funny Games (1997 film)|Funny Games]]'' and the 2008 International [[Funny Games (2008 film)|remake]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lybarger |first=Jeremy |date=July 26, 2018 |title=Reopening the Case Files of Leopold and Loeb |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/26/reopening-the-case-files-of-leopold-and-loeb/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127062212/https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/26/reopening-the-case-files-of-leopold-and-loeb/ |archive-date=November 27, 2021 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |website=The Paris Review |language=en}}</ref> [[Barbet Schroeder]]'s ''[[Murder by Numbers]]'' (2002),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=April 19, 2002 |title=Murder by Numbers movie review (2002) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/murder-by-numbers-2002 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930111825/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/murder-by-numbers-2002 |archive-date=September 30, 2021 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |website=rogerebert.com/ |language=en}}</ref> [[Daniel Clowes]]'s 2005 graphic novel ''[[Ice Haven]]'',<ref>{{Cite news |title=Graphic Novelist Daniel Clowes |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4715648 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930111826/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4715648 |archive-date=September 30, 2021 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |work=NPR.org |language=en}}</ref> the ''[[Murdoch Mysteries]]'' episode "[[Big Murderer on Campus]]", [[Stephen Dolginoff]]'s 2005 [[off-Broadway]] musical ''[[Thrill Me|Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shenton |first=Mark |date=January 15, 2015 |title=Stephen Dolginoff Musical Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story Will Get London Revival |url=http://www.playbill.com/article/stephen-dolginoff-musical-thrill-me-the-leopold-loeb-story-will-get-london-revival-com-340525 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930115651/https://www.playbill.com/article/stephen-dolginoff-musical-thrill-me-the-leopold-loeb-story-will-get-london-revival-com-340525 |archive-date=September 30, 2021 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |website=Playbill |language=en}}</ref> Micah Nemerever's ''These Violent Delights'' (2020),<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 11, 2020 |title=Seattle author Micah Nemerever reinvents the story of homicidal duo Leopold and Loeb in 'These Violent Delights' |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/seattle-author-micah-nemerever-reinvents-the-story-of-homicidal-duo-leopold-and-loeb-in-these-violent-delights/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026134418/https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/seattle-author-micah-nemerever-reinvents-the-story-of-homicidal-duo-leopold-and-loeb-in-these-violent-delights/ |archive-date=October 26, 2023 |access-date=October 26, 2023}}</ref> and the [[Ghostface (identity)|Ghostface]] killers in ''[[Scream (1996 film)|Scream]]'' (1996).<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 12, 2022 |title='Scream' Screenwriter Kevin Williamson Confirms Billy and Stu's Queer-Coded Relationship Was Based on Real Gay Killers |url=https://pridesource.com/article/billyandstu/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220115062737/https://pridesource.com/article/billyandstu/ |archive-date=January 15, 2022 |access-date=January 15, 2022}}</ref>

In the [[Warner Bros. Television Studios|WB]] series ''[[Riverdale (American TV series)|Riverdale]]'', Archie is incarcerated in the "Leopold & Loeb Institute for Delinquent Youth."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reilly |first=Kaitlin |title="Riverdale" Just Made A Wild Connection To Real-Life Murders |url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/10/213476/riverdale-leopold-loeb-murders |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130013926/https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/10/213476/riverdale-leopold-loeb-murders |archive-date=January 30, 2024 |access-date=January 30, 2024 |website=www.refinery29.com |language=en}}</ref>

Prior to becoming the [[Chief Creative Officer]] of [[Archie Comics]], [[Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa]] wrote an unauthorized play in which the fictional teenager [[Archie Andrews]] had a [[homosexual relationship]] with Nathan Leopold. Before it could open, Aguirre-Sacasa was forced to stop the production after being served a [[cease and desist]] from Archie comics. The production eventually opened under the name ''Weird Comic Book Fantasy''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holman |first=Curt |title=Theater Review - Arch humor |url=https://creativeloafing.com/content-180708-theater-review---arch-humor |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617052049/https://creativeloafing.com/content-180708-theater-review---arch-humor |archive-date=June 17, 2021 |access-date=April 13, 2024 |website=Creative Loafing |language=en}}</ref>

In the season six episode titled "[[Plan and Execution]]" from American crime drama series ''[[Better Call Saul]]'', [[Howard Hamlin]] accuses [[Saul Goodman]] and [[Kim Wexler]] of being like Leopold and Loeb due to them framing him as a drug addict for the sole purpose of their own enjoyment.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fogarty |first=Paul |date=May 24, 2022 |title=Howard's Leopold and Loeb Reference in Better Call Saul Explained |url=https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/05/24/leopold-and-loeb-better-call-saul-howard-reference-explained/ |access-date=December 4, 2023 |work=HITC}}</ref>

Leopold and Loeb are also referenced in the season four episode of [[Seinfeld]] titled "[[The Junior Mint]]". [[Jerry Seinfeld (character)|Jerry Seinfeld]] and [[Cosmo Kramer]] bickered over a [[Junior Mints|Junior Mint]] while observing a surgery. The ensuing quarrel led to Seinfeld pushing a mint out of Kramer's hands which landed in the person being operated on. The surgeons were oblivious to what had happened. The patient's condition deteriorated after surgery. Fearing that the mint would kill the patient, Seinfeld wanted to come clean to the doctor. As Kramer resisted the idea, Seinfeld implied they're both complicit by saying they're like Leopold and Loeb.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheJuniorMints.htm | access-date=January 16, 2025}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
===Primary sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Leopold |first=Nathan F. |title=Life plus 99 Years |year=1958 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeplus99years00leop}} (Introduction by [[Erle Stanley Gardner]]) <!-- ISBN code was introduced in the 70s -->
* {{cite book |last=Leopold |first=N. F. |year=1963 |title=Checklist of the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands |publisher=University of Puerto Rico |location=Rio Piedras}}
{{refend}}

===Secondary sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Baatz |first=Simon |title=For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2008 |isbn=9780060781026}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Baatz |first=Simon |title=Criminal Minds |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |volume=39 |date=August 2008 |pages=70–79}}
* {{cite book |last=Barrett |first=Nina |title=The Leopold and Loeb Files |year=2018 |publisher=Agate Publishing, Incorporated |isbn=9781572842403}}
* {{cite book |last=Higdon |first=Hal |title=Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1999 |orig-year=1975 |isbn=0252068297}}
* {{cite AV media |people=[[Tom Kalin|Kalin, Tom]] (director) |title=[[Swoon (film)|Swoon]] |type=Film |year=1990}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Meyer Levin |last=Levin |first=Meyer |title=Compulsion |publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers |year=1996 |orig-date=1956 |isbn=0786703199}}
* {{cite AV media |people=[[John Logan (writer)|Logan, John]] (author) |title=Never the Sinner |type=Play |publisher=Samuel French |year=1987}}
* {{cite book |last=Rebain |first=Erik |title=Arrested Adolescence: The Secret Life of Nathan Leopold |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2023 |isbn=978-0345487018}}
* {{cite AV media |people=[[Stephen Dolginoff|Dolginoff, Stephen (author/composer)]] |title=[[Thrill Me]]: The Leopold & Loeb Story |work=Play |publisher=Dramatists Play Service |isbn=0822221020}}
* {{cite AV media |people=[[Yoshimitsu Morita|Morita, Yoshimitsu]] (director) |title=[[Copycat Killer]] |type=Film |year=2002}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Leopold and Loeb}}
* [http://homicide.northwestern.edu/crimes/leopold Northwestern University Archives]
* [http://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/catalog/inu-ead-nua-archon-167 Harold S. Hulbert Papers] from Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois
* [http://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/catalog/inu-ead-spec-archon-1458 "Leopold and Loeb Collection"] from Northwestern University Special Collections, Evanston, Illinois
*{{cite news
| author = Charles DeLacy
| title = Inside Facts on the Leopold-Loeb Crime
| date = August 1930
| work = [[True Detective Mysteries]]
| url = https://archive.org/stream/TrueDetective0830#page/n31/mode/2up
| access-date =May 7, 2014
}}
*[[iarchive:loebleopoldcasew00loeb|''The Loeb-Leopold case : with excerpts from the evidence of the alienists and including the arguments to the court by counsel for the people and the defense (1926)'']] stored on Archive.org
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110209114409/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEOPOLD.HTM Leopold and Loeb Trial Home Page] by Douglas Linder. Famous American Trials{{snd}}''Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb''. University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School. 1997. Retrieved September 14, 2008.
* [https://loebandleopold.wordpress.com/ The Loeb and Leopold Wordpress] by Erik Rebain
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20021201081033/http://crimelibrary.com/loeb/loeb/loebmain.htm Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, Crime of the 20th Century] by Marilyn Bardsley. Crime Library{{snd}}Courtroom Television Network. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
* [http://www.thrillmethemusical.com/ ''Thrill Me:The Leopold and Loeb Story'']{{snd}}main site/CD ordering
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051124204759/http://www.yorktheatre.org/ThrillReview.htm ''Thrill Me:The Leopold and Loeb Story'' Review quotes] from York Theatre Company

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{{Clarence Darrow}}
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