Leopold and Loeb
| Nathan Leopold | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. November 19, 1904 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Died | August 29, 1971 (aged 66) Puerto Rico |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Criminal charge | Murder, kidnapping |
| Criminal penalty | Life + 99 years imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Richard Loeb | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Richard Albert Loeb June 11, 1905 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Died | January 28, 1936 (aged 30) Joliet, Illinois, United States |
| Cause of death | Homicide |
| Criminal charge | Murder, kidnapping |
| Criminal penalty | Life + 99 years imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (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 Robert Franks in Chicago. They committed the murder—widely characterized at the time as "the crime of the century"—as a demonstration of their perceived intellectual superiority, which, they thought, rendered them capable of carrying out a "perfect crime", and absolved them of responsibility for their actions.
After the two men were arrested, Loeb's family retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for their defense. Darrow's 12-hour-long summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment as 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 Franks murder has been the inspiration for several works of film, theatre, and literature, including Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play Rope and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film of the same name. Later movies, such as Compulsion—adapted from Meyer Levin's 1957 novel—and Swoon, were also based on the crime.
Nathan Leopold was born on November 19, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, to a wealthy immigrant family from Germany. A child prodigy who claimed to have spoken his first words at the age of four months, he reportedly scored an intelligence quotient of 210, though test results from that era are not directly comparable to scores on modern IQ tests. At the time of the murder he had already 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. He reportedly had studied 15 languages and spoke at least five fluently, and had achieved a measure of national recognition as an ornithologist. He and several other ornithologists identified Kirtland's warbler, an endangered songbird that had not been observed in the Chicago area in over half a century.
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