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Leopold and Loeb · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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  Discretion is advised. This is ten minuted murder. Is there a such thing
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  as the perfect crime? In nineteen twenty three, the idea across the minds
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  of two young men, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loebe. The thought would have
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  seemed more plausible one hundred years ago, before the days of fingerprinting, DNA
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  testing, and cameras on every corner. And if anyone could pull it off,
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  surely it would be two child prodigies. Nathan Leopold said his first word
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  at four months old. As a child, he would study fifteen languages.
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  At nineteen, he graduated from the University of Chicago and had plans to attend
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  Harvard Law School after a European trip with his family. He was a nationally
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  recognized ornithologist and considered in experts on certain birds. But Leopold was not an
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  attractive person. Actually, he was described as having an unusual appearance. Maybe
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  his social awkwardness and absence of athletic ability is what attracted him to someone like
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  Loebe, someone with the magnetism that he lacked. Richard Loebe started high school
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  at twelve years old. At seventeen, he became the youngest person to graduate
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  from the University of Michigan. He attended social events, He was athletic,
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  and by all accounts, considered an attractive young man. He was a rather
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  well rounded individual. In his free time, he could often be found on
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  the tennis court or reading a book about historical crimes. He was so passionate
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  about historical crimes that he enrolled in a constitutional history class at the University of
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  Chicago Law School. It was there that the relationship between Leopold and loebe blossomed.
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  Even though they both grew up in the affluent Kinwood neighborhood on the South
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  side of Chicago, it wasn't until they were both students at the university that
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  their relationship really started to develop. The details of that relationship have been long
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  debated, but it's believed that they were lovers with similar ideologies. Their conversation
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  seemed to revolve around crime. Leopold was particularly interested in Frederick Nietzsche's concept of
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  Ubermensch or superhuman, and how that affected society and its rules. The possibility
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  of an individual being extraordinary with super intellect and the ability to rise above the
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  rules that governed the general population that engulfed his daily thoughts. It wasn't long
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  before the two of them moved beyond discussing the subject. It actually started a
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  certain there perceived immunity from the restrictions that bound ordinary individuals. They started with
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  acts of petty theft and vandalism, but quickly moved on to arson. While
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  the goal had been to commit crimes that they could not be connected to,
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  they were extremely disappointed that it seemed as though their crimes were not worth mentioning
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  in any news outlets. They decided that they would commit a crime that would
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  not be ignored. Leopold and Loebe spent seven months planning what they considered to
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  be the perfect crime. They thought through every detail the method of abduction,
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  what weapon to use, how to dispose of the body, and a clever
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  way to throw everyone off. After searching for the right victim, they decided
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  on Robert Bobby Franks. On May twenty first, nineteen twenty four, Leopold
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  rented a car using the name Morton D. Ballard. He and Loebe found
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  Bobby walking to school. He only had two blocks left to walk and refused
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  their offer for a ride. Loebe eventually persuaded him to get into the car
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  by acting like he had some questions about a tennis racket. The sequence of
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  events that occurred after Bobby got into the car were never clarified. What law
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  enforcement concluded was that Leopold was driving and Bobby got in the passenger seat.
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  Loebe was sitting behind him and bashed him in the head several times with a
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  chisel, which is the weapon they had decided on. Lobe then pulled him
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  into the back seat and gagged him. With his body slouched on the floorboard
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  and out of view. Leopold drove to the site that they had picked for
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  disposal that waited until it was dark to pull his body out of the car.
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  They removed his clothes and poured hydrochloric acid on his body to disfigure his
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  face and hide the fact that he had been circumcised. They thought that even
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  if the body was eventually found, that would prolong the identification process. They
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  stuffed his body in a concrete culvert along the railroad tracks and Hammond, Indiana,
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  about twenty five miles south of Chicago. When Leopold and Lowe returned home,
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  the news of Bobby's disappearance had already spread and the police were searching for
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  him. Later that night, Bobby's parents received a call from Leopold, who
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  identified himself as George Johnson. He told them Bobby had been kidnapped, but
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  he was safe. If they wanted him returned unharmed, they needed to follow
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  the instructions of a ransom letter they would be receiving. The next morning,
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  they received a letter with detailed instructions for where to drop a package containing a
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  specific amount of money. Leopold called a second time to make sure they understood
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  the letter and would be doing exactly what was expected of them. It's been
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  debated why they sent that ransom letter. Clearly, even if the parents followed
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  the instructions exactly, they were never actually going to get Bobby back live.
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  Was it simply to throw everyone off the track, or were they really trying
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  to extort money for some reason. Whatever the case, their perfectly planned crime
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  was about to unravel a railroad worker noticed a foot sticking out of the culvert
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  near the tracks. The police quickly notified the Franks that Bobby's body had been
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  found before they delivered the ransom money. Word got around to Leopold and Loebe.
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  While Loebe went about his daily routines and avoided drawing any attention to himself.
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  Leopold relished in the spotlight. He shared his theories with police and the
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  media about what could have happened to Bobby. Maybe the notion that he was
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  like one of Nietzsche's superhumans encouraged him to take unnecessary risks. Leopold definitely had
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  an inflated idea of his self importance, considering his mistake would ultimately cause their
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  demise. Where they found Bobby's body, they also found a pair of glasses.
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  At that time, police work was kind of a guessing game, partly
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  and mostly intuition. However, there was little guessing to be done with the
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  glasses. There were plenty of people in Chicago that wore glasses, but these
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  glasses had a very specific hinge on them. The police were able to locate
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  the store that sold the glasses, and only three people had those exact hinges,
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  one being Leopold. The police were already familiar with him, as he
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  had inserted himself into the case. If Leopold had not lost his classes at
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  the crime scene, it's likely that he and Loeb would not have been caught.
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  During questioning, the boys confessed to the crime, although Loeb insisted not
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  only that Leopold planned the whole thing, but he was just driving. Leopold
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  was in the back seat and killed Bobby. Eventually, Loebe took the blame
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  for the killing. Leopold would later admit that he asked Loebe to confess to
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  the killing because his mopsy couldn't handle the thought of him doing it. Leopold
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  also confessed to thinking about what it would be like to murder someone, and
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  admitted he found it far less satisfying than he had hoped. Clarence Darrow was
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  hired for a very large sum of money to defend the young men. What
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  he accomplished in the process of their case would be discussed in many classes for
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  the next century. He was originally hired not just for his reputation in court,
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  but he abhorred capital punishment, and it was certain that the boys were
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  going to be facing the death penalty, even though the court case was technically
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  as sentencing since the boys had already pleaded guilty. They spent thirty two days
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  in court. Robert Crowe, the state attorney, brought in over one hundred
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  witnesses to discuss the details of the crime. The defense brought in their own
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  witnesses and discussed the boy's abnormalities, their delusions and dysfunctions. One side wanted
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  to make them seem as competent, cruel killers, while the other painted them
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  as young men with blurred lines between reality and fantasy. Darrow's summation lasted twelve
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  hours. During that time, he blamed almost everyone except for the boys,
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  for the crime that they had committed. He blamed the media and its sensationalism.
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  He questioned the motives of the college professors that taught their students about Nietzsche,
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  and he blamed the culture that had devalued human life through wars. He
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  said the wars had increased crime and cost bitterness, hatred, and cheapened the
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  cost of blood. He would go on to mention the parents good intentions and
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  working so hard to provide such a good life for their children, but at
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  what cost, Who was actually there to raise the young men and what impact
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  did they have on them? He pleaded with the judge not to encourage the
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  lust for death. His point was proven by the bloodthirsty mob outside the court
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  house. As odd as the defense may have seemed, on September tenth,
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  nineteen twenty four, Judge Cavally considered the loss of any more lives seriously and
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  sentenced Leopold and Loebe to life in prison plus ninety nine years. Even in
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  prison, their relationship continued. They both ended up in the Statesville Penitentiary,
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  where they worked together to expand the prisons school system. Loebe was killed in
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  nineteen thirty six by another inmate that inflicted fifty eight razor wounds. Leopold was
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  a model prisoner, and in nineteen fifty eight he was paroled. Many books
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  and films have been released based on the Bobby Frank's crime. Leopold even wrote
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  an autobiography called Life plus ninety nine. He spent the rest of his life
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  living in Puerto Rico, serving in ministries, social services, and bird watching.
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  The story of Leopold and Loebe leaves us with more questions than answers.
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  Who is to blame for the crimes committed? What responsibility does society hold?
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  Why do we find movies, games, and books that involve crime so appealing?
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  Does it desensitize us to the actual acts being committed? Is war to
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  blame? And what about the parents that are supposed to teach their children right
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  from wrong? Or is there no blame, but the actual person that commits
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  the crime. And finally, is there a such thing as a perfect crime?
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  Considering that there are currently two hundred thousand unsolved murders in the US alone,
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  there's a good chance that someone would say yes. That's ten Minute Murder
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  for today, brief and binge able true crime. I'm Joe the host,
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  and thank you so much for listening today. If you're new to ten Minute
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  Murder, I am super excited that you're here and chose this podcast to check
• 11:31
  out. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe now. That way you can
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  more easily catch up on all the back episodes and never miss any of the
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  new ones. You can also connect with me on social media see the pictures
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  of what we're talking about here in the podcast, and if you like this
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  episode, leave a rating and review on Apple, Spotify, Audible, any
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  place that that's possible. And now our email question for today. Hi Joe,
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  I love listening to your podcast Ten Minute Murder. I have a question
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  for you. Do you ever have nightmare? Is about the murders you research?
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  I did. Actually, while it was about a serial murder case you
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  presented, my nightmare was long before ten minute murder existed. I was a
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  newly wed when Jeffrey Dahmer was in the national news. On more than one
• 12:13
  occasion, I thought about how horrific it would be to discover a family member
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  was a monster. When Jeffrey Dahmer's evil deeds were discovered, I shuddered to
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  think a person could be related to the likes of him. Those thoughts were
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  on my mind that night when I went to bed. Shortly after falling asleep,
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  I dreamed that I got up to get a snack. Upon opening the
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  refrigerator, I found it filled with the body parts of young men. With
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  sheer terror, I turned around to find my new husband standing there, his
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  face covered with guilt, and even greater horror dawned on me as I realized
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  just who my new husband was. With my heart pounding, I whispered,
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  it was you, wasn't it. Suddenly, and thankfully, I woke up
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  my new and kind husband snoring quietly beside me. Thirty two years of marriage
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  later, I can assure you that my husband is not a monster. He
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  was the safest person my mind could use to work through the horror I felt
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  at the thought that someone could have a family member like Jeffrey Dahmer, So
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  I ask you, have you had any nightmares about the monsters you have researched
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  Kelly, and Kelly didn't leave a state or city, so it's just Kelly
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  out there in the middle of somewhere in the United States. Kelly, First,
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  thank you so much for listening, and thank you for the email.
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  Yes, I've definitely had nightmares about the research I've done for this podcast.
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  I've talked about it in the past. It's been a little while since I've
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  mentioned it. But John Wayne Gaycy, I have a thing about clowns.
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  That one got me because you have to look up for all the pictures and
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  stuff, and those pictures of John Wayne Gaycy, they're really happy about putting
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  them on the Internet. They'll put all of them up there, and so
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  I've seen all of them. And honestly, I don't know if I should
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  mention this, but it probably at once a month I'll have a nightmare after
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  researching stuff for this case, like once a month. And in the before
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  times before Ten Minute Murder, almost no nightmares. But there is a little
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  trick that I use when I know that I've researched something really heavy and it's
• 14:05
  going to be on my mind. When I go to sleep. I'll put
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  on stand up comedy on my phone on my nightstand, I'll just put stand
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  up comedy on repeat, and I'll listen to that as I'm falling asleep.
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  And then I almost always wake up in the middle of the night because that's
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  who I am as a person. I'll just wake up and it's still playing,
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  so as I go back to sleep, it's comedy. Some people do
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  white noise or lullabies, you know, whatever kind of I do stand up
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  comedy. All right, that's gonna do it. That is today's ten minute
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  Murder. Thank you so much for listening.