Leopold and Loeb Trial - The Clarence Darrow Collection

Also around 8:00 a.m. a man named Tony Manke, 18 a Polish immigrant, was taking a
short cut near Wolf Lake on his way to retrieve a watch he had taken to a shop for
repairs. As he was walking, Manke looked down towards the culvert and saw an object
that caught his eye. When he approached, he saw a pair of feet sticking out of the water
and upon closer examination he was shocked to see the body of a young boy. Manke then
became aware that some railroad workers were coming down the track on a handcar, and
he frantically got their attention.
The railroad workers went down and removed the body from the culvert. When they
turned it over, they could see the young boy was probably not a drowning victim but
instead might have been murdered. Some of the workers carried the body to the handcar.
Another worker took a look around for the boy’s clothing but he could not find any.
However, he did find a pair of eyeglasses nearby which he picked up. The eyeglasses
were later given to the police. A policeman put the eyeglasses on the victim’s head,
believing they belonged to him. The discovery of Bobby Franks’ body so soon after the
murder would greatly upset Leopold and Loeb’s detailed plan. The discovery of the
eyeglasses would nearly send them to the gallows.
Proceeding with the Ransom Plan
Leopold attended law school classes and met Loeb around 11:00 a.m. They ate lunch
with Dick Rubel, someone previously on their short list of possible victims. Around 1:00
p.m. the two drove to Leopold’s house, retrieved the rental car from down the street and
drove it into the Leopold driveway.
Sven Englund, the family chauffeur, heard noise outside and came down to find Leopold
and Loeb washing the rental car with a pail of water, a brush and Bon Ami. Loeb told
Englund that they had spilled some red wine and wanted to clean it up without his folks
finding out. Englund offered to help but they declined. Englund found their actions
unusual because he had never seen them do much work before.
Leopold got the ransom instructions from his room and they proceeded to the area where
they planned to tape a set of instructions to a Keep City Clean Box on 63rd Street. But
the tape would not stick to the surface and they had to eliminate that step in the plan.
Next they went to the Illinois Central train station and Loeb purchased a ticket for the
next train to Michigan City, Indiana. It was now about 2:10 p.m. After purchasing a ticket
for the last car on the train, Pullman Car No. 507, Loeb boarded the train even though it
was not due to leave until 3:00 p.m. Loeb went to the last car and placed a set of
instructions in the telegraph box that would tell Jacob Franks:
Dear Sir:
Proceed immediately to the back of the platform of the train, watch
the east side of the track, have your package ready, look for the first
18 Several sources spell the name as Menke; at least one spells it Minke. One source states that his real
name was Tony Mankowski but he was known as Manke at his place of employment.
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