The Loeb and Leopold families hired Clarence Darrow and Benjamin Bachrach to represent the two boys. Darrow took the case in large part because it gave him a platform to attack the death penalty, which he had called "an abomination."
They half-buried the body in a railway culvert and, by phone and notes, demanded $10,000 in ransom from the boy's wealthy parents. The body, however, was unexpectedly found, and several clues, including the discovery of Leopold's eyeglasses at the culvert, led the police to Leopold and Loeb. They quickly confessed.
On January 28, 1936, while in the prison shower, Loeb was fatally assaulted by another inmate, James Day, with a straight razor.
12-hourThe famous Chicago lawyer, who was born this week, delivered a stunning 12-hour closing argument during the Leopold and Loeb trial of 1924 that helped spare the two accused men from the death penalty.
The killers, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, were wealthy and intelligent teenagers whose sole motive for killing Franks was the desire to commit the “perfect crime.” Leopold, who graduated from the University of Chicago at age 18, spoke nine languages and had an IQ of 200, but purportedly had perverse sexual desires.
Bobby Frank Cherry (June 20, 1930 – November 18, 2004) was an American white supremacist, terrorist, and Klansman who was convicted of murder in 2002 for his role in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963....Bobby Frank CherryPartner(s)Robert Edward Chambliss Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr.12 more rows
Compulsion is a 1959 American crime drama film directed by Richard Fleischer. The film is based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Meyer Levin, which in turn was a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb murder trial.
Both young 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....Leopold and Loeb.Richard LoebCause of deathHomicide (from 58 inflicted wounds from a razor attack)Criminal chargeMurder, kidnappingPenaltyLife + 99 years' imprisonment5 more rows
Leopold and Loeb were involved in a secret relationship with each other. Part of that relationship had them committing crimes in order to prove their love to one another and to keep the spark of passion alive.
What argument and claims does Darrow make in this excerpt? Darrow argues against the boys being put to death; he claims they are too young to be held responsible for their crimes and that they were left without appropriate guidance as they grew up.
Ossian Sweet, a doctor, and three members of his family were brought to trial, and after an initial deadlock, Darrow argued to the all-white jury: "I insist that there is nothing but prejudice in this case; that if it was reversed and eleven white men had shot and killed a black man while protecting their home and ...
In 1958, after thirty-four years of confinement, Leopold was released from prison. To escape the publicity accompanying the release of Compulsion, a movie based on the 1924 crime (and which Leopold and his lawyer, Elmer Gertz, challenged in a lawsuit as an invasion of privacy), Leopold migrated to Puerto Rico.
The trial of Leopold and Loeb at Chicago's Cook County Courthouse became a media spectacle and the third—after those of Harry Thaw and Sacco and Vanzetti —to be labeled "the trial of the century ." Loeb's family hired the renowned criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow to lead the defense team. It was rumored that Darrow was paid $ 1 million for his services, but he was actually paid $70,000 (equivalent to $1,000,000 in 2020). Darrow took the case because he was a staunch opponent of capital punishment .
(November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb ( / ˈloʊb /; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who in May 1924 kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago, ...
On September 10, 1924, he sentenced both Leopold and Loeb to life imprisonment for the murder, and an additional 99 years for the kidnapping. A little over a month later, Loeb's father died of heart failure.
These included reorganizing the prison library, revamping the schooling system and teaching its students, and volunteer work in the prison hospital. In 1944, Leopold volunteered for the Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study; he was deliberately inoculated with malaria pathogens and then subjected to several experimental malaria treatments. He later wrote that all his good work in prison and after his release was an effort to compensate for his crime.
While Loeb went about his daily routine quietly, Leopold spoke freely to police and reporters, offering theories to any who would listen. He even told one detective, "If I were to murder anybody, it would be just such a cocky little son of a bitch as Bobby Franks.". Police found a pair of eyeglasses near the body.
They spent seven months planning everything from the method of abduction to disposal of the body.
Loeb was especially fond of history and was doing graduate work in the subject at the University of Chicago at the time of the murder. Unlike Leopold, he was not overly interested in intellectual pursuits, preferring to socialize, play tennis, and read detective novels.
For 33 days in July–August 1924, Darrow, hired by Leopold’s father, defended the two before Judge John R. Caverly, offering an eloquent appeal against capital punishment. The judge finally sentenced them each to life imprisonment for murder and 99 years for kidnapping.
June 11, 1905, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.—d. January 28, 1936, Stateville Penitentiary, Illinois) were defended in a bench trial by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, who secured them life imprisonment rather than execution. Wealthy and intellectually brilliant ( Leopold had graduated from the University of Chicago at 18, ...
Leopold was paroled in 1958 and worked as a hospital technician in Puerto Rico, where he married a widow in 1961. He died of a heart attack 10 years later.
Clarence Darrow, lawyer whose work as defense counsel in many dramatic criminal trials earned him a place in American legal history. He was also well known as a public speaker, debater, and…
The Leopold and Loeb Trial. In the Leopold and Loeb trial of 1924, attorney Clarence Darrow achieved what many thought impossible. He saved the lives of two cold-blooded child-killers with the power of a speech. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were teenagers living in a wealthy Chicago suburb when they were arrested for murder.
Inspired by this odd mix of nihilistic philosophy, detective fiction, and misguided love, Leopold and Loeb hatched a plan to commit the "perfect crime.". It was not so much the idea of murder that attracted them, but the idea of getting away with murder. On May 21, 1924, Leopold and Loeb lured a young neighbor boy, 14-year-old Bobby Frank, ...
Chicago's WGN radio considered broadcasting the trial live, but decided it wasn't appropriate "entertainment" to send to families in their living rooms. The trial reached its climax with Clarence Darrow's closing argument, delivered over twelve hours in a sweltering courtroom.
He defended John Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee law. WGN radio did send their microphones to Dayton, Tennessee. It seemed a much better idea to cover a trial over ideas than to broadcast a sensational murder. In 1936 Richard Loeb was killed in a prison fight with another inmate.
Awkward-looking Nathan Leopold tended to hide in his friend's shadow. But the two young men formed a powerful bond. Nathan was in love with Richard and would do anything he wanted for sexual favors. He later wrote, "Loeb's friendship was necessary to me — terribly necessary.".
Police traced the glasses to a Chicago optometrist who had prescribed them for Nathan Leopold. If he hadn't lost his glasses, Leopold and his friend Loeb might have indeed gotten away with murder. Leopold's and Loeb's parents hired the best, and most expensive, criminal attorney they could find — Clarence Darrow.
Law professor Phillip Johnson describes Darrow's argument this way: "Nature made them do it, evolution made them do it, Nietzsche made them do it. So they should not be sentenced to death for it.". Darrow convinced the judge to spare his clients. Leopold and Loeb received life in prison.