Leopold and Loeb revisited: Book takes a new look at the infamous kid killers

It was a perfect crime, or so the smug perps thought.

Witnesses saw them drive away from the murder scene, where they left evidence. Their alibis didn’t hold up. Still, when the brilliant playboy sons of millionaires were arrested, the country was shocked.

But no one was more surprised than Nathan Leopold, the killer convinced he was too smart to catch.

The story of Leopold and Richard Loeb has been told before and inspired plays, novels, and movies. In “Nothing But the Night,” Greg King and Penny Wilson tell it again.

But their book goes further, promising “The Truth Behind the Murder that Rocked 1920′s America.” And it spotlights little-known facts and uncovers more – including the murderers’ other crimes.

“After a century it’s time to take a fresh look at the original Crime of the Century,” King and Wilson write. “The Leopold and Loeb case remains relevant today, encompassing as it did so many issues still in headlines: the death penalty; mental illness; anti-Semitism; homophobia, and the corrupting influence of money on the justice system.”

Leopold and Loeb were born rich in turn-of-the-century Chicago and raised according to the Victorian customs of their class. Their prominent fathers busied themselves with making millions. Their elegant mothers left parenting to the help.

That’s when things started going disastrously wrong.

Loeb came under the care of a controlling Scottish governess. She told him his brothers were against him, and even that his parents disliked him. She discouraged him from playing with other children. She pushed him to achieve, insisting he excel in everything.

Not surprisingly, Loeb grew up emotionally needy, easily influenced by others, and desperate for approval. His one escape was reading crime novels.

Leopold’s childhood was more gruesome. His German governess was an exhibitionist who liked taking him into her bath. Later, she started taking him into her bed. By 12, Leopold was having sex with a neighbor boy. Later, he would tie up and abuse another younger boy for fun.

“Nathan linked violence with sexual satisfaction,” the authors write. “He spent hours thinking up ways to torture those he disliked; his disturbed mind was always quick to seize on the gruesome details of famous crimes. These scenarios began consuming Nathan’s thoughts. He was especially interested in crucifying someone.”

Leopold and Loeb grew up in the same neighborhood and became friends as teenagers at the University of Chicago, where they realized they complemented each other. Loeb loved planning crimes. Leopold enjoyed committing them and claimed he was above the law.

They began by throwing bricks through store windows. They quickly progressed to burglary. King and Wilson suggest other, more violent acts followed, although few can be definitively linked to them.

In the most gruesome case, one man, Charles Ream, was pulled into a car by a pair of masked kidnappers and drugged with ether. He woke up hours later, on the edge of the Illinois prairie — castrated. Somehow, he survived.

The newspapers dubbed it “the gland robbery.” The police never solved it. Much later, when Ream saw a story on Leopold and Loeb in the newspapers, he said they were his assailants and brought a civil suit. Leopold and Loeb denied it, but their parents settled.

But by then, their sons had already become infamous for another crime, the 1924 abduction and murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks.

Bobby was Loeb’s second cousin. So it was easy for Loeb to lure the boy into a car he and Leopold rented. Once inside, Bobby was beaten with a chisel. An ether-soaked rag was shoved down his throat. It took the boy 15 minutes to die.

Then his kidnappers drove 20 miles into the country, stripped the corpse, burned it with acid, and hid it in a ditch. After, they phoned the Franks, announcing the abduction and demanding $10,000. They also sent a typewritten ransom note.

But their supposedly perfect crime was already falling apart.

The body was discovered with an unusual pair of eyeglasses nearby; only three had been sold in Chicago, one to Leopold. Meanwhile, Loeb drew suspicion by involving himself in the investigation, offering reporters his theories on the crime.

“This is what comes from reading detective stories,” he explained.

Police soon brought the two in for questioning.

Confronted with mounting evidence — their alibis didn’t check out, an eyewitness saw Loeb driving the car, and the ransom note from Leopold’s typewriter — Loeb caved. Sequestered in a separate room, the cocky Leopold held out longer, blindingly secure in his privilege.

“Let me ask you a hypothetical question,” he coolly asked the state’s attorney. “Supposing John Doe had committed this murder, and John Doe’s family was as wealthy and influential as mine is, and could hire able lawyers and get a friendly judge and bribe the jury – don’t you think he could beat it?”

“Well, Nathan,” the attorney replied, “I will let you find out.”

He told him Loeb had already confessed and that the two were being charged with murder. At that point, Leopold calmly lit a cigarette and gave his confession. The only difference? Loeb had sworn Leopold wielded the chisel. Leopold blamed Loeb.

Loeb’s family hired famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow to take the case. Darrow insisted both defendants forego a trial and plead guilty. There was absolutely no doubt, Darrow argued, that they would be convicted. Their only hope — his only job — was to save them from the gallows.

Besides their guilt, much was against them. That both defendants were of Jewish heritage set off the bigots (although Loeb’s mother was Catholic, and Leopold was a Nietzsche-quoting atheist). Their wealth was also resented.

The public was disgusted when it became known they were in a sexual relationship. The press referred to them as perverts. When their homosexuality came up during sentencing, the judge ordered female spectators to leave the courtroom.

Meanwhile, Darrow spent three days begging for their lives.

He railed against capital punishment. He emphasized the youth and intelligence of his two clients. He even, offensively, minimized the life of Bobby Franks, implying he might not have gone on to accomplish much and his pain had been brief.

“These two are the victims,” he insisted.

On Sept. 10, 1924, the judge sentenced them to life plus 99 years.

After, the convicted killers celebrated in the Cook County Jail. Leopold ordered the sheriff to get a couple of thick steaks. “And be sure they are smothered in onions!” Loeb added. “Bring every side dish that you can find. This may be our last good meal!”

It certainly would be for Richard Loeb. He died in 1936, slashed in the prison showers by a razor-wielding inmate.

Leopold, though, survived. He dedicated himself to winning parole, playing the model prisoner, always insisting Loeb was the real killer. Released in 1958, Leopold moved to Puerto Rico, where he worked in a hospital.

His arrogance never faded. He sued Meyer Levin, author of the roman-a-clef “Compulsion,” for damaging his reputation. Leopold lost, given that the court recognized he had no reputation to damage. His memoir, “Life Plus 99 Years,” did not sell. He married unhappily and died in 1971. Leopold was 66.

Among his possessions was a framed photo of Richard Loeb.