Editing Leopold and Loeb (section)

== 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' 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' 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' 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' 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' 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>