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These-spoiled-rich-kids-KILL-for-FUN-Leopold-Loeb · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's story is about a crime so notorious it has
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: been dubbed the crime of the Century, but the reason
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: for its notoriety has less to do with the crime
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: itself and more to do with who committed it. But
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: before we get into that story, if you're a fan
• 0:18
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• 0:21
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  Speaker 1: weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: evening of Wednesday, May twenty first, nineteen twenty four, a
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  Speaker 1: man named Jacob Ranks walked up the steps to his mansion,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and right as he went to open his door, his
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  Speaker 1: butler opened it up, welcomed him inside, and Jacob smiled
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  Speaker 1: at the butler and stepped in. Jacob had just spent
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a long day at his office in Chicago, Illinois, doing
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  Speaker 1: a big real estate deal, and now he was just
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  Speaker 1: happy to be home with his wife and his three kids.
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  Speaker 1: Jacob was an incredibly successful business person who had made
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  Speaker 1: a name for himself first in the early nineteen hundreds
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  Speaker 1: when he ran a bank that specialized in giving out
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  Speaker 1: these enormous loans to gamblers. But it wasn't until he
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  Speaker 1: was named the president of the Rockford Watch Company and
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  Speaker 1: he expanded into real estate that he became outrageously wealthy.
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  Speaker 1: His fortune in today's dollars would have been around seventy
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  Speaker 1: million dollars. But now that Jacob was so well established
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  Speaker 1: in the business world in Chicago, he was trying to
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  Speaker 1: make a more conscious effort to spend more time at
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  Speaker 1: home with his wife and kids, and so as soon
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  Speaker 1: as he walked past his butler into his mansion, he
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  Speaker 1: hung up his hat and his jacket and he went
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  Speaker 1: to find his wife, Flora to tell her about an
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  Speaker 1: idea he had for a trip for that upcoming weekend.
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  Speaker 1: But when Jacob found Flora, she was not remotely interested
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  Speaker 1: in talking about their weekend plans because Flora was very
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  Speaker 1: worked up about their youngest son, Bobby. Bobby, who was
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  Speaker 1: fourteen years old, was supposed to come home right after school,
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  Speaker 1: but it was now six pm and he still hadn't
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  Speaker 1: shown up and she had no idea where he was,
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  Speaker 1: and Jacob's reaction to this news was just to feel
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: kind of aggravated. Bobby was generally a really good kid.
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  Speaker 1: He was a student at a prestigious boys' school right
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  Speaker 1: down the road, and his teacher was convinced that Bobby
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  Speaker 1: was the smartest kid in his entire grade. Bobby was
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  Speaker 1: a member of the school's debate team and regularly beat
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  Speaker 1: the older kids. And Bobby was just a natural leader
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  Speaker 1: and very hard working and kind. But Bobby could also
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  Speaker 1: be fairly irresponsible, sometimes specifically in terms of coming home
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  Speaker 1: on time. This was not the first time that Bobby
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  Speaker 1: had not come home by curfew, so Jacob told Flora,
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  Speaker 1: you know, don't worry about it. This is something Bobby does.
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  Speaker 1: He likely lost track of time, and as Jacob and
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  Speaker 1: Flora are having this discussion, Bobby's older brother came into
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  Speaker 1: the room and suggested to his dad Jacob, that perhaps
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  Speaker 1: Bobby was across the street at Richard's house. Richard was
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  Speaker 1: Bobby's cousin, playing tennis on their private court. Richard and
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  Speaker 1: Bobby were quite close, even though they were four years apart.
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  Speaker 1: Richard was eighteen Bobby was fourteen, but they really bonded
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: over tennis, and so that was something they did all
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the time. And so Jacob said he would go across
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  Speaker 1: the street and see if Bobby was there. And he
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  Speaker 1: also told his wife Flora, to just continue to call
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: around town and see if anybody knew where Bobby might be.
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  Speaker 1: And so Jacob left his mansion and began walking across
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  Speaker 1: the street towards Richard's family's mansion to see if his
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  Speaker 1: son was there. Now, this neighborhood that Jacob lived in
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  Speaker 1: was one of the most exclusive neighborhoods really in the
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  Speaker 1: entire country, but definitely within Chicago's city limits. It was
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  Speaker 1: called South Kenwood, and basically, imagine a street where every
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: house is a huge mansion, and every mansion is home
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  Speaker 1: to some business tycoon or famous person, and all the
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  Speaker 1: families who lived in this neighborhood had a full staff
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  Speaker 1: of maids and butlers and drivers and fleets of private cars.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, these people who lived in South Kenwood were
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  Speaker 1: literally the richest of the rich. And so Jacob he
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  Speaker 1: gets across the street. He's standing in front of Richard's
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  Speaker 1: family's mansion, and he looks around the side and he
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  Speaker 1: can see the private tennis court where his son and
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  Speaker 1: Richard would always play, but it's totally vacant, and in fact,
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  Speaker 1: the house is just totally quiet. No one's home. When
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  Speaker 1: Jacob got back to his own home, he found his
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  Speaker 1: wife pacing around in the parlor looking really concerned, and
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  Speaker 1: so Jacob immediately asked her, you know what you learn
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  Speaker 1: what's going on? And she would tell Jacob that she
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  Speaker 1: had spoken to one of Bobby's friends, who told her
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  Speaker 1: that Bobby had umpired a baseball game after school and
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  Speaker 1: had left to walk back home at around five pm.
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  Speaker 1: The school and the baseball field where Bobby would have
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  Speaker 1: been was only about three blocks away from their home,
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  Speaker 1: and now it was six thirty pm, so it's been
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  Speaker 1: an hour and a half since Bobby had supposedly began
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  Speaker 1: his walk home, and so by now he certainly should
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  Speaker 1: be here, but of course he wasn't. At this point,
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  Speaker 1: Jacob went from feeling aggravated with his son to being
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  Speaker 1: concerned for his son's safety, despite the fact that he's thinking, Okay, well,
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  Speaker 1: my son is likely somewhere in this neighborhood in South Kenwood,
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  Speaker 1: one of the safest, richest, best places in the country.
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  Speaker 1: He's got to be okay, but I really want to
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  Speaker 1: find him. And so Jacob would call one of his
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  Speaker 1: very close friends who lived in this neighborhood, who also
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  Speaker 1: happened to be a former state senator, and he asked
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  Speaker 1: him to come over and basically look around the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: for Bobby. When the state senator friend arrived at Jacob's house,
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  Speaker 1: the two men left and began walking down the street
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  Speaker 1: lined with mansions, making their way towards the school where
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  Speaker 1: Bobby supposedly had been umpiring. And when they got there,
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  Speaker 1: they saw there was no baseball game happening and the
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  Speaker 1: school was and closed for the night. But Jacob and
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  Speaker 1: his friend decided that, you know, maybe it was possible
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  Speaker 1: that after umpiring this game, when Bobby had begun his
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  Speaker 1: walk home, maybe he had taken a detour into the
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  Speaker 1: school to get something, and then perhaps the doors got
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  Speaker 1: shut and locked on him. And so Jacob and his
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  Speaker 1: friend went to the school and looked for a way
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  Speaker 1: to basically break into the school, and sure enough, they
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  Speaker 1: would find an open window, they'd open it up, they
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  Speaker 1: would climb inside, and they would search the entire school,
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  Speaker 1: but Bobby was not in there. At this point, Jacob
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  Speaker 1: was really starting to panic. His friend was trying to
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  Speaker 1: calm him down, but Jacob is now thinking something is
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  Speaker 1: terribly wrong with my son. And so the two men
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  Speaker 1: actually ran from the school back to Jacob's house, and
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  Speaker 1: when they went inside, Jacob immediately called out to his
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  Speaker 1: wife to see if maybe she had located Bobby, but
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  Speaker 1: when he called Flora's name, there was no response, and
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  Speaker 1: so Jacob and his friend they run inside and they
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  Speaker 1: make their way towards the parlor, which is where they
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  Speaker 1: had last seen Flora before they left, and when they
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  Speaker 1: walked in there, they found Flora lying on the ground,
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  Speaker 1: totally lifeless, with the phone off the hook right next
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  Speaker 1: to her hand, and so Jacob and the Senator they
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  Speaker 1: run over and they begin shaking Flora, and suddenly she
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  Speaker 1: wakes up with a gasp, and she looks up at
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  Speaker 1: Jacob and just begins sobbing hysterically, And after Jacob finally
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  Speaker 1: calmed her down, she would tell him that after they
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  Speaker 1: had left to go to the school, she had received
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  Speaker 1: a phone call, and at first she thought it was
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  Speaker 1: Bobby calling to check in, but when she answered it
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't Bobby. It was a man's voice she didn't recognize,
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  Speaker 1: who told her that Bobby had been kidnapped. He was
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  Speaker 1: safe for now, but if they went to police, something
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  Speaker 1: terrible would happen to him. This mystery man also told
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  Speaker 1: Flora that they would be in touch soon with more information,
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  Speaker 1: and then they hung up, and Flora had been so
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  Speaker 1: overwhelmed by what she was told that she had fainted
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  Speaker 1: and that was why they found her on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: That night, Jacob, Flora, and the state Senator friend stayed
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  Speaker 1: up late going over you know, what they should do.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, they wanted to go to police, but this
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  Speaker 1: felt like a credible threat that Bobby could be harmed
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  Speaker 1: if they did that, and so they just went back
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  Speaker 1: and forth and back and forth over how to handle
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  Speaker 1: this horrible situation. But by two am they had made
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  Speaker 1: a decision. The state senator had some close friends and
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  Speaker 1: connections in the police department, and so they decided that
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  Speaker 1: they would go talk to the police, but they would
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  Speaker 1: swear them to secrecy, so the kidnapper or kidnappers wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: know the police were investigating. And so a few hours later,
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  Speaker 1: when the police department opened up, Jacob and the state
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  Speaker 1: Senator friend went to the police. They spoke to the
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  Speaker 1: highest ranking officer who was sworn to secrecy, and then
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  Speaker 1: that morning the police would begin a quiet investigation into
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  Speaker 1: Bobby's kidnapping. At the same time this investigation was beginning,
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of May twenty second, nineteen twenty four,
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  Speaker 1: a man named Morton D. Ballard drove through downtown Chicago
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  Speaker 1: in a luxury car known as a Willis Knight. He
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  Speaker 1: pulled this luxury car into a parking lot right next
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  Speaker 1: to a rental car company, and after parking the car,
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  Speaker 1: Morton got out. He went inside of the shop and
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  Speaker 1: he handed the keys over to the clerk behind the desk.
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  Speaker 1: The clerk would ask Morton, you know, how did it
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  Speaker 1: go with your rental car, and Morton would say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: it was perfect, went totally fine. After that, Morton thanked
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  Speaker 1: the clerk. He turned around and walked outside where another
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  Speaker 1: luxury car was waiting for him, being driven by his
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  Speaker 1: good friend Lewis Mason, and once Morton had climbed inside,
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  Speaker 1: the two men smiled and drove off and disappeared into traffic.
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  Speaker 1: That same morning, Jacob and Flora received a letter from
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  Speaker 1: the kidnapper or kidnappers demanding ten thousand dollars in small,
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  Speaker 1: unmarked bills and if they gave this money over they
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  Speaker 1: would get their son back. And immediately Jacob went to
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  Speaker 1: the bank and got the money. But before he could
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  Speaker 1: actually deliver the money to the kidnappers at the location
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  Speaker 1: they had specified in this letter, the police, who were
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: quietly investigating, discovered a clue that would break the case
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  Speaker 1: wide open. It would take over a week to un
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: ravel this bizarre clue, but it all started to come
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: together when the police brought in Morton D. Ballard and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Lewis Mason for questioning. Here is the shocking story that
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  Speaker 1: detectives were finally able to piece together about what happened
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: to Bobby Franks. On May seventh, nineteen twenty four, so
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: two weeks before Bobby went missing, Morton D. Ballard walked
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  Speaker 1: into a hotel in Chicago called the Morrison and rented
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  Speaker 1: room ten thirty one. He would tell the front desk
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that he wanted them to hold his mail for him,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and over the next couple of days, Morton would come
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: in and he would get his mail from the front desk,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: but he didn't appear to ever actually go up to
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: his room. Finally, a suspicious maid at the Morrison Hotel,
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  Speaker 1: who had been going into room ten thirty one every
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: day to clean it, only to discover that Morton was
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: not in there, and the room was totally untouched and
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  Speaker 1: clean already. She went in one morning and saw Morton
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: was not in there, and she would actually just open
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  Speaker 1: up one of more suitcases that he had left inside,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and instead of the suitcase containing clothes or toiletries, it
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: just contained a bunch of random library books. As it happened,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: after this maid found this strange suitcase full of books,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Morton stopped coming to the hotel. He stopped getting his mail,
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  Speaker 1: he did not claim his luggage, and he didn't pay
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the bill. He just kind of banished. On May ninth,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: so just a couple of days after Morton first booked
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  Speaker 1: that room at the Morrison Hotel, Morton also opened a
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: bank account in Chicago. He also made his first appearance
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: at that car rental company where he asked for the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Willis Knight car. The rental company would not just let
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: anybody take a Willis Knight car. You needed a reference
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: to show that you were someone who could pay for
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: this type of vehicle. And so Morton's friend Lewis Mason,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: would give him that reference and allow him to rent
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the Willis Knight car about a week and a half later,
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  Speaker 1: on May twenty first, So the day Bobby went missing,
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  Speaker 1: Morton and Lewis were driving around South Kenwood in their
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Willis Knight car when they spotted Bobby by himself walking
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: down the road. Now, Lewis recognized Bobby, and he knew
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that Bobby was an incredible tennis player, and Lewis had
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a question for Bobby about a particular tennis racket. And
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: so Lewis, who was in the front seat of the car,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: told Morton, who was driving, to pull over so Lewis
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: could talk to Bobby. And so Morton pulled over. Lewis
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: rolled his window down, he called over to Bobby. Bobby
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: came over, and before long Lewis and Bobby were talking
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: about this tennis racket. And then when that conversation naturally
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: wrapped up, Lewis offered Bobby a ride the rest of
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the way home, because that was where Bobby was walking
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to when they stopped him, and so Lewis climbed into
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  Speaker 1: the backseat. Morton stayed in the driver's seat, and Bobby
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: climbed inside and sat in the front seat, and then
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: once those two were situated, Morton pulled away from the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: curb and began driving towards Bobby's house. And as they
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: were driving to Bobby's house, Bobby just kind of continued
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: talking about this tennis racket, because that was the thing
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: they were talking about. And as he was missed sentence, Louis,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: from the back seat, reached into his pocket, pulled out
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a chisel, and then lunged forward and began smashing Bobby
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: in the back of the head over and over again
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: with this chisel. And as Bobby is screaming in pain
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and trying to protect himself, Louis lunges forward, grabs Bobby,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: drags him into the back seat, and then holds him down,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: pulls a rag out of his pocket and jams it
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: into Bobby's throat, and then he closes Bobby's mouth and
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: holds it shut until Bobby goes still. After that, Lewis
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: kind of grimaced at all of Bobby's blood all over him,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and he kind of pushed Bobby down onto the floorboards below,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and then Louis calmly climbed back into the front seat
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and sat down. And meanwhile, Morton has not remotely reacted
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to what's just happened. This is just business as usual.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Morton and Louis did not go to Bobby's house, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: instead drove towards Indiana, and on their drive to Indiana,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: they would stop at a roadside restaurant and eat hot
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: dogs and root beers with their car parked right near
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: this restaurant, with Bobby's body just totally exposed laying out
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: on the floorboards of the back seat. Morton and Lewis
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: would eventually get into Indiana and they would head to
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: this particular forest that Morton was familiar with because he
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: was a bird watcher and often came out here. And
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: when they got to this forest, they parked in this clearing.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: They got out, they checked on Bobby and confirmed that
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: he was dead, so they pulled him out. They stripped
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: all of his clothes off of him, they rolled him
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: up in a rug, and then they dragged him over
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to this drainage pipe that sat underneath some railroad tracks
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: in this swampy area, and they jammed him inside of it,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: and then they got back in their car. They drove
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: back to Chicago, at which point Morton called Bobby's mother, Flora,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and informed her that her son was kidnapped but alive
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: even though he wasn't and don't call the police, will
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: be in touch soon. That night, Morton and Lewis would
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: burn all of the clothes they had stripped off of Bobby.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: They would also clean the interior of their Willis Knight
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: rental car, and then they would play a game of
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: cards together before going to bed. The next day, May
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: twenty second, so the same day that police began their
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: quiet investigation into Bobby's kidnapping, Morton and Lewis would send
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: that letter to Jacob and Flora demanding ten thousand dollars
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: for the safe return of Bobby. But unfortunately, before Lewis
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and Morton could claim their ransom money, Bobby's body was discovered.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: In fact, that day, he was discovered a walker was
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: cutting through the woods in Indiana and saw Bobby in
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the pipe. And so when Morton and Lewis realized that,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: you know, the jig is up, the family's never going
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: to pay for their son because he's dead, they just
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: returned their Willis Knight rental car and went back to
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: their normal lives as if nothing had ever happened. But
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: unbeknownst to him. Morton had accidentally dropped his eyeglasses right
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: next to Bobby's body when they dumped him in the
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: woods in Indiana, and Morton's eyeglasses were very unique. In fact,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: there was only one store in the world that sold
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: this particular eyeglasses, and so when detectives got the call
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: about Bobby's body being found, they would also find these glasses.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: And that was the big clue because these glasses led
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: detectives to the store where they were sold, and the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: owner of the store was able to say that, yep,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: those particular glasses were sold to Morton, and when detectives
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: went to Morton, Morton immediately pointed the finger at Lewis,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: saying that Morton didn't do anything to Bobby. Lewis did.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: But about a week later, on May thirty, first, both
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Morton and Lewis would confess to police that they murdered Bobby.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: But far more shocking than what Morton and Lewis had
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: done was who they were. Because Morton and Lewis were
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: not their real names. The two men who killed Bobby
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Franks were rich kids just like Bobby, who lived in
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: South Kenwood. They created two fake names. Morton d Ballard
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and Lewis Mason, and then they booked room ten thirty
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: one at the Morrison Hotel. Now, they had no intention
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of actually staying at this hotel, and so they just
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: left that suitcase full of books inside of the room
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: to make it appear like they were staying there. But
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: in reality, the only reason they booked that room is
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: they needed a physical mailing address that was connected to
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: their fake personas, and so after booking this room, they
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: began sending mail to Morton, D. Ballard and Lewis Mason
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: at the Morrison Hotel, room ten thirty one. And then
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: after collecting that mail, which served as a sort of
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: proof of legal name and address, they were able to
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: open a bank account in Chicago. They dumped some money
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: into that, and then again they used their proof of
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: legal name and address to rent that Willis Knight car
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and then used money from their phony bank account to
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: pay for it. And then once they had their luxury car,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: it was time to go kill. In reality, Morton was
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: actually a nineteen year old prodigy named Nathan Leopold. He
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: spoke five languages, he had already graduated from college, and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: he was a nationally respected ornithologist which is someone who
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: studies birds. Nathan's IQ was so high it literally couldn't
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: be measured. His father was the president of a very
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: successful steamship company, and Nathan was planning to attend Harvard
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: University in the fall to get yet another college degree.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: And Lewis was actually eighteen year old Richard Loeb, who
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: was Bobby's cousin and one of his best friends. Bobby
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and Richard played tennis together all the time in Richard's
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: private court, which is where Bobby's father went first to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: go looking for his son. Like Nathan, Richard was also
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a genius. He was the youngest person ever to have
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: graduated from the University of Michigan. He graduated at seventeen
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: years old. And to celebrate the occasion, Richard's father, who
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: in today's dollars, was worth about one hundred and seventy
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: five million dollars, he was a retired vice president for
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the major retail store Seers. He bought Richard a custom
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: golf course. He built him his own golf course. That
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: was his graduation present. And at the time of Bobby's murder,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Richard was actually enrolled at the University of Chicago's law school.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Studying to become a lawyer. Nathan and Richard would very
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: proudly tell investigators that they didn't kill Bobby to get
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: money out of his parents. Nathan and Richard were fabulously wealthy,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the money meant nothing. Instead, they had come up with
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: this scheme and killed Bobby because of their belief in
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the philosopher Nietzsche's concept of supermen, men whose superiority allows
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: them to rise above all ordinary rules, ethics, and laws. Basically,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Nathan and Richard believed they were so much better than
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: everybody else in the world that if they wanted to
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: kill someone, they should be able to, and Bobby seemed
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: like a pretty easy target. After Nathan and Richard confessed,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: they were put under arrest, but a chauffeur was allowed
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to come to the police station and drop off silk
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: jet as for them to wear in custody, and instead
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: of being held in a cell, they were allowed to
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: stay in a hotel. But ultimately they both were sentenced
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to life in prison. Bobby's family never recovered from his murder,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: and his father, Jacob, would die just four years after
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: his son died. As for Nathan, he would be murdered
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in prison in nineteen thirty six by another inmate, and
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: as for Richard, he would serve his time and get
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: paroled and then die of natural causes in nineteen seventy one. Today,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the murder of Bobby Franks is often referred to as
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the crime of the century. So that's going to do it.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: If you got something out of today's episode and you
• 20:43
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• 20:50
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