cuas a

319.

lost

Leopold and Loeb Trial: 1924

not Ions ine, zed

Defendants: Nathan F. Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb Crimes Charged: Murder and kidnapping Chief Defense Lawyers: Clarence Darrow, Benjamin Bachrach, and Walter Bachrach Chief Prosecutors: Robert E. Crowe, Thomas Marshall, Joseph P. Savage, John Sbarbaro, and Milton Smith Judge: John R. Caverly Place: Chicago, Illinois Dates of Trial: July 23-September 10, 1924 Verdict: Guilty Sentences: Life imprisonment for murder; 99 years for kidnapping

was cted ~ted the

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. -.

I

n h l a ) ~1924, 18-year-old "Dickie" L,oeb was the youngest graduate of t h e 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

L

Over several years, Leopold and Loeb had developed a homosexual relationship. In the fall of 1923, they devised a plan for t h e perfect murder, to be committed for t h e sake of its thrill. T h e more they detailed their plan, t h e 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 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

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GREAT

AMERICAN TRIALS

clothes, and push the body deep into this funnel-shaped culvert, through which the water flowed, expecting the body to entirely deconlpose and ne\.er b e found." O n >Lay- 21, 1921, Leopold and Loeb renced a car. With Loeb in the back seat. I,eopold drove slowly past t h e 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. L o e b 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. T h e n they w e n t to t h e culvert, near the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and carried o u t their plan. Next they buried Franks' shoes, belt buckle, jewelry, and t h e 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 t h e bloodstains from che car and phoned t h e Franks' home to say that Bobby Franks was safe, and instructions were on t h e way. Unable to reach Bobby's father t h e next morning, t h e y quickly learned why: Newsboys were hawking extras announcing discovery of the boy's body. A railroad workman had noticed a human foot protruding from t h e culvert. Another worker had found a pair of eyeglasses. T h e police soon traced t h e glasses to Leopold. H e admitted recent birdwatching near t h e culvert. His alibi for his whereabouts on May 2 1 Birdwatching with Richard Loeb, then a ride around Lincoln Park in his car with' Loeb and a couple of girls. But t h e Leopold chauffeur said h e had been repairing Leopold's car all day, and in t h e evening h e had seen t h e 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 ~ r i t t e non it. Leopold said he owned a Hammond typewriter, but Chlcago D a i f ~i V m reporters ~ checked with his college classmates and learned that when they borrowed "Babe's" typewriter 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 t h e 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, t h e 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. T h e state is ready to go to trial immediately."

308

Clarence Darrow was already t h e nation's foremost criminal lawyer. ( T e n nessee's famous Monkey Trial, which would bring him world\vide fame, was still a year away.) H e had saved some 50 accused murderers, many of whom were

I lack 'hey usin and

~und arlia belt and ed a shed 3bby rned ly. A Xn-

~ird. tird~ith ring loor 'ark I he vith Pe0th old

! I

guilty be)-ond the shadow of a doubt, from execution. H e told t h e Leopold and Loeb fam~liesh e {rould take the case for a $100.000 fee. Darrow thretb h ~ senerg\, and that of a battery of assistants, Into researching the minds of his clients. Since State's Actorney Crowe had already lined up Chicago's \lest-knot\-r~psychiarrists to examine the accused, Darrow turned to such national figures as the president of t h e American Psychiatric .issociation and the super\-isor of the ps!-chiarric clinic at Sing Sing Prison. Prominent psychiatrists Karl Bo~r-man and Harold S. Hulbertdeveloped profiles that revealed the defendants' mental instability and confused personalities. T h e doctors' extensixx report came to several thousand pages and was supplemented by thousands more from t h e other psychiatrists.

1924 Leopold and Loeb Trial

"They Should Be Permanently Isolated from Society" 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 of t h e rich had nothing better to do than kill younger rich kids for t h e thrill of it, t h e country wanted an eye for a n eye. Darrow knew that no jury would settle for less. Standing before Chief Justice John K. Caverly, h e went right to the point: "We want to state frankly here that no one believes these defendants should be released. W e believe they should be permanently isolated from society. After long reflection, we have determined to make a motion for each to withdraw our plea of not guilty and enter pleas of guilty to both indictments." Flabbergasted, the prosecution realized that Darrow had instantly wiped 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 the mental condition of these young men. \Ve wish to offer this evidence in mitigation of punishment." T h e prosecution objected ~,iolently,but Judge Caverly said h e would hear evidence of mitigation. "I want to gibe you all the leeway I can," h e said. "I want to get all the cloctors' testimony. T h e r e is no jury here, and I'd like to b e advised as fully as possible."

"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 b u t that justice and humanity would be served by reaching a thorough understanding of their peculiar mental stares. H e introduced psychiatrist witnesses who had found that Richard Loeb was a habitual liar. Since t h e age of 10, h e had fantasized about crimes and imagined himself, the "Master Mind" directing others, always outsmarting the world's best detectives; h e had cheated a t 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. " T h e total lack of appropriate emotional

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GREAT AMERICAN TRIALS

response is one o f the most striking features of his present condition," said the Bowman-Hulbert report, noting that Loeb felt no remorse for his actions. "He has gradually projected a n o r l d of-P~ntas)-o w r into the xt-orld o f reality, and at times eben confused the tb4o." Reviewing the reports on Leopold, Darrou- noted thac the young man had been strongly influenced b y a go\.erness u h o encouraged h i m to steal, so that she could blackmail him, and who "gabe him the wrong conception about sex, about theft, about right or cvrong, about seltishness, and about secrecy." T o 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. H e preferred to be the slave who could sax9ethe life o f the king, then refuse the reward o f freedom. Richard Loeb was his king. H e had been i n 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 o f the food and drink he takes because Icannot come as close to h i m as does his food and drink." AS to the kidnapping and murder, said the report, Leopold "got no pleasure from the crime. W i t h h i m it was an intellectual affair devoid o f any emotion. H e had no feeling o f guilt or remorse." For a month, as State's Attorney Crowe's psychiatrists insisted that Leopold and 1,oeb were entirely sane and normal, Darrow pressed his psychiatris't witnesses to testify that the legal sanity o f the defendants was undisputed, but that mental instability was not insanity and was not normal. Finally, for 12 hours Clarence Darrow pleaded for mitigation o f punishment. H e noted that, while the prosecution charged the murderers \vith k i d napping Bobby Franks to get money to pay o f f gambling debts, testimony had proved that both boys had ample money and could get more from their extremely wealthy parents at an); time.

"They Killed Him Because They Were Made That Way" "Why did they k i l l little Bobby Franks?" asked Darrow. " T h e y killed h i m as they might k i l l a spider or a fly, for the experience. They killed h i m because they were made that way. Because somewhere i n the infinite processes that go to the making u p of the boy or the man, something slipped. T h a t happened, and i t calls not for hate but for kindness, for charity, for consideration."

31 0

Darrow said h e was astonished that the prosecution asked the judge for the death sentence. "Your Honor, if a boy o f 18 and a boy o f 19 should be hanged i n violation o f the law that- places boys i n reformatories instead o f prisons-then we are turning our faces backward toward the barbarism which once possessed the world. Your Honor stands between the past and the fucure. You may hang these boys b y the neck until they are dead. But you will turn your face toward the past. 1 am pleading for the future, for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts o f men, when we can learn by reason and judgment and understand-

1

ing and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man."

lad 7at 'X,

TO LC0

As Darrow ended his summation, no sound was heard in the courtroom. Tears were screaming down the face of Judge Caverly. His verdict, two days later, sentenced Leopold and L o e b each to life imprisonment for murder, plus 99 years for kidnapping. "In choosing imprisonment." he said, "the court is moved chiefly by the age of the defendants." T h e prisoners were taken to t h e Illinois State Prison at Joliet. In 1936, Richard Loeb was slashed to death by a fellow prisoner during an argument. After World War 11, Governor Adlai Stevenson reduced Nathan Leopold's original sentence, thus making him eligible for parole, in gratitude for his contribution to testing for malaria during t h e war. Freed in 1958, Leopold migrated to Puerto Rico, worked in hospitals and church missions, married, earned a master's degree, and taught mathematics. H e died in 1971. Clarence Darrow was forced to dun the Leopold and Loeb families repeatedly. Of t h e $100,000 fee agreed to, he collected $40,000 before he died in 1938. -Bernard

1924 Leopold and Loeb

Trial

Ryan, Jr.

Suggestions for Further Reading Avrnar, Brandr 2nd Edward Sagartn. '3 PtctonalHzsrory ofrhe U'orMi Great 7hals. Nexi York: Bonanza Books, 1985.

Leopold and Loeb were

Leopold. Nathan F., Jr. LIfp Plus 99 Years. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday 8( Co.. Inc.. 1958.

each sentenced to life tor

Stfakis, Carl. Z'br Errcyc/opedia ofAmerican Crime. New York: Faccs On F ~ l e ,1982.

the murder 01 Bobby Franks and 99 years for h ~ skidnapping. (APiWide World Photos)