What do Eric Harris, Dyland Leopold, Ted Kaczynski, Nathan Leopold, and Richard Loeb all have in common? They were intellectual killers with high IQs who thought ordinary people were idiots and useless.
This form of thinking led Nathan Leopold, 18, and Richard Loeb, 19, to solidify their friendship and form a relationship. Both men came from wealthy families and graduated college in their late teens.
In college, Leopold learned of Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of “supermen,” which claimed that supreme persons have unusual and uncommon abilities whose greater understandings permitted them to escalate above the laws and moral rules that bound average society.
Based on Leopold’s understanding of Nietzsche, he believed that he and Loeb were the supermen the philosopher touted. Therefore, they were not subject to the same conduct as the ordinary person. In a letter to Loeb, Leopold 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.”
Armed with their entitlement as supermen, both set out to accomplish petty crimes, such as vandalism, to prove their theory. When nothing happened, they broke into a fraternity house at the University of Michigan. They stole penknives, a camera, and a typewriter they would later use. But no one seemed to care. Soon, the teens turned to more serious crimes, including arson. But again, they received no media attention. Insulted by the lack of notoriety, the two set out to commit a perfect crime that would get everyone’s attention, but rack the brains of the authorities for a lifetime.
The men met several times to organize the kidnapping and murder of a young kid. They planned the abduction and prepared for how they would dispose of the body. Loeb rented a car and then chose a chisel as the murder weapon. But it wasn’t enough. Although the men did not need money, they devised an elaborate ransom plan that requested old bills in small denominations. To make matters worse, the men devised a detailed route for the parents to follow before dropping the money off. Yet, the parents would never find their child alive.
On May 22, 1924, Leopold and Loeb put their dastardly plan in motion. They settled on a young man they were familiar with, but on that date, the boy had a dentist appointment and did not follow his regular path home. Disgruntled, they happened upon a neighbor, Bobby Franks was Loeb’s second cousin, and frequented their home to play tennis.
At first, Bobby refused a ride home since he only had a few blocks to walk, but Loeb insisted. He then asked Bobby if he wanted to see the new tennis racket he purchased. Since Bobby lived across the street from Loeb, he accepted the ride. According to public records, Leopold drove while Loeb sat in the back seat. Bobby rode in the front. After a few minutes of chit-chat, Loeb smashed a cloth with chloroform over Bobby’s mouth, but the boy fought it off. Loeb then whacked the boy’s head with a chisel, but again, the boy did not die. After a few minutes of struggling, Loeb pulled Bobby to the back seat and stuffed the chloroform cloth into his mouth. Bobby suffocated and died soon after.
Leopold drove to a pre-planned spot at Wolfe Lake in Indiana, twenty-five miles from Chicago. Leopold knew where to dump the body, since he had frequented the area several times as an expert bird watcher. After pouring acid over his face, chest, and genitals, they attempted to stuff Bobby into a trench.
But Bobby turned out to be a worthy opponent. Unable to maneuver him into the opening, Leopold set his jacket aside and continued the task. However, Leopold picked up the jacket from the bottom, and his eyeglasses slipped from the pocket near Bobby’s body.
When they returned home to Chicago, Bobby Franks’ parents were out looking for their son. While Mr. Franks searched the area, Leopold phoned Bobby’s mother using a fake alias and revealed he had kidnapped her son. Loeb cleaned the blood from the rental car, and both men spent the evening playing cards. The next day, the Franks received the ransom letter detailing the mock ransom plan devised by Leopold and Loeb.
Meanwhile, a man walking home from work found Bobby and called the authorities. While Mr. Franks withdrew the funds from the bank, a call came to him that a boy’s body was found and needed identification.
Leopold and Loeb ditched the ransom plan and destroyed the typewriter and the blanket they used to carry the body. The men sat back and watched the media frenzy. Unable to keep their excitement down, the men soon talked to family and friends about the murder. Loeb even went as far as telling reporters what he would do if he murdered someone.
After searching the area, the authorities found Leopold’s glasses. Although the glasses didn’t have any remarkable detail, they included a specialized hinge only owned by three people, one being Nathan Leopold.
Both held to their alibi about their whereabouts the day of the murder. They told police they drove around in their car, picked up women, and then dropped them off at a golf club before returning home. Yet Leopold’s chauffeur told the police that he had worked on their car all day, and it never left the garage.
Loeb, the weaker of the two, broke down and confessed to the murders, stating that Leopold had organized the entire scheme. He drove the vehicle and watched Leopold murder Bobby. But Leopold claimed Loeb mastermind the entire plan, and Loeb dealt Bobby the fatal blow.
Both Leopold and Loeb’s parents hired Clarence Darrow. They promised him a million-dollar paycheck if they could convince the judge to let the children free. However, Darrow, a staunch opponent of the death penalty, promised only to argue against capital punishment and nothing else. And Darrow succeeded. After an emotional and lengthy closing statement, the judge removed the death penalty from the table and sentenced both men to life in prison, plus 99 years for the kidnapping. Darrow only received seventy-thousand dollars for his accomplishment.
In the following years, Loeb continued his pompous attitude and treated other prisoners contemptuously. His actions led to a beating that caused his death.
However, Leopold felt remorse for his actions and would serve his sentence as a model prisoner. He taught literacy classes and developed a correspondence course for prisoners nationwide. In time, he earned his Master’s degree, became an X-ray technician, and worked at the medical facility. After thirty-three years in jail, the Brethren Service Commission petitioned for his release, and Leopold was a free man.
Leopold moved to Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, where he married and lived out his life doing medical research. He lived to be sixty-six years old and died in 1971.
Okay, friends. Look out for a holiday email for a special on my new books.
Until then,
HG
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