Leopold and Loeb Trial - The Clarence Darrow Collection

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so appealing because Leopold needed to compensate for the loneliness he felt. The Superman is the best and highest type of man, much better than the lot of common people that trod though a dreary existence. His superiority places him above the rules of society that the inferior must follow. Leopold came to believe Loeb was closer to a “Superman” than anyone else he had encountered. Another Crime On the night of November 10, 1923, the pair traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan in Leopold’s Willys-Knight sports car, a trip of about 300 miles. Arriving at about 3:00 a.m. the next morning they went to Loeb’s old fraternity house, the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity for Jewish students at the University of Michigan. The Michigan football team had just beaten the Marines from Quantico and the students at Zeta Beta Tau had partied into the night. By the time Leopold and Loeb showed up, the students in the fraternity house were all asleep. Wearing masks, the two crept into the fraternity house. They wanted to avoid detection but carried handguns in case they were discovered. They moved through the lower floors of the house, rifling through pockets of discarded clothing and taking items that caught their attention. They did not stay long and when they left they had stolen $74, a bottle of liquor and, of all things, a portable Underwood typewriter. They had planned to burglarize another fraternity house but decided it looked too dangerous. The Kidnapping Plan Absent a few minutes of excitement, the burglary was a disappointment to Leopold and Loeb. On the drive back to Chicago from Ann Arbor they began to hatch the plan for the perfect crime. Loeb dismissed the fraternity house burglary as too easy: [T]hey should commit a perfect crime, a crime so intricate and complicated that planning and calculating its flawless execution would be a challenge. They would leave no clues for the police; they would leave no trace of their involvement; it would stand forever as an audacious act that admitted no solution. 12 “For Robert’s Sake” During the return to Chicago from Ann Arbor, Loeb and Leopold got into a heated argument which lasted for hours. They both criticized the other’s actions during the robbery and other aspects of their relationship. The argument threatened to end their friendship. Realizing that each benefited from the relationship, they patched things up with a compromise. They decided to put in place certain rules that made Leopold subservient to Loeb’s commands. When Loeb asked for something to be done “for Robert’s sake” Leopold was supposed to fulfill the request. This was often a request to 12 FOR THE THRILL OF IT, supra note 3, at 60. 6
participate in some type of crime with Loeb. If Leopold fulfilled the request, then he was allowed to have sexual relations with Loeb. Over the coming weeks and months, they began to discuss how they could pull off a much more complicated crime. They decided on a kidnapping for ransom. They would kidnap a child and then demand a ransom. Collecting the ransom and getting away with the crime would be a tremendous achievement. They would have to kill the child because they could not take a chance on the victim being able to identify them. Having settled on the basic crime, a kidnapping for ransom and a murder, they spent the coming weeks and months discussing and discarding numerous plans and actions for carrying it out. They spent two or three days each week drinking and discussing the plan. Choosing a Victim To carry out their perfect crime they needed a victim. But who should they choose? They had to choose a child of wealthy parents because the parents needed to be able to raise the ransom money quickly. It would also be easier to lure a boy they knew, but this meant they would have to kill the victim to avoid identification. Later, reports by defense psychiatrists, called alienists, would claim that Leopold and Loeb first considered kidnapping Loeb’s younger brother; this idea was dropped because in the aftermath of the crime, Loeb would not be able to leave his family to get the ransom money. Later they thought about kidnapping one of their own fathers, but again it would have been impossible for one of them to leave the family to get the ransom money. Prosecutor Robert Crowe would forcefully argue these were deliberate falsehoods by the defense to make Leopold and Loeb appear mentally defective and avoid the death penalty. They discussed kidnapping Hamlin Buchman who had worked during the summers in Charlevoix, Michigan near the Loeb’s summer home. They had an additional motive to target Buchman—he had spread rumors about Leopold and Loeb being gay. But Buchman was older and bigger, and Leopold and Loeb both being slight of build did not want to take on someone who could present a threat. Another potential victim was Billy Deutsch, the grandson of Sears, Roebuck and Company’s President Julius Rosenwald. They decided against it because it might hurt the business of Loeb’s father. Next, they considered a friend named Richard Rubel but decided against him because the boy’s father was a “tightwad” who might be reluctant to pay the ransom. Leopold had a different idea. He told Loeb that they should kidnap a young girl and rape her because one of his vivid fantasies was watching German soldiers raping a young French girl during the war. But Loeb thought kidnapping a girl was more risky because they were more closely watched than boys. Other potential victims included Irving Hartman Jr., the son of another wealthy businessman who owned Hartman Furniture Company, Johnny Levinson whose father was a successful attorney, and the sons of Clarence Coleman and Walther Baer. 7
Page 1 and 2: Introduction Leopold and Loeb Case
Page 3 and 4: endangered species. 5 The practice
Page 5: So thoroughly had Loeb ingratiated
Page 9 and 10: Leopold knew of a great place to st
Page 11 and 12: victim. 14 At about 5:15 p.m., as t
Page 13 and 14: notify the police and they went to
Page 15 and 16: LARGE red brick factory situated im
Page 17 and 18: victim. They found a ready talker i
Page 19 and 20: most likely suspects. There were al
Page 21 and 22: early stage of the investigation su
Page 23 and 24: Leopold was asked what kind of type
Page 25 and 26: front seat and threw him on a rug i
Page 27 and 28: newly confessed murderers get “la
Page 29 and 30: were both in deep shock, as would b
Page 31 and 32: Accusations that the family was abl
Page 33 and 34: Illinois in 1917 who possessed many
Page 35 and 36: system was believed to have profoun
Page 37 and 38: are scattered, disordered, unrelate
Page 39 and 40: ody was found in Lake Michigan. Wol
Page 41 and 42: Leopold early on displayed a concei
Page 43 and 44: phantasies but that he actually enj
Page 45 and 46: followed his example in staying cle
Page 47 and 48: evidence as to the youth of these d
Page 49 and 50: to show that Leopold and Loeb were
Page 51 and 52: Scopes trial, the NAACP considered
Page 53 and 54: White: “Well, I think he has made
Page 55 and 56: Court: “It would be public, if th
Page 57 and 58:
showed no remorse, no regret, no co
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[U]nless we assume that every man w
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I was pretty well disgusted with my
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argued that “only gloating or boa
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Savage described the scene when the
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Darrow designated as a ‘roundup.
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Bobby Franks’ Murder not Cruel Da
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from its beginning, not one single
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Endocrinology Darrow was convinced
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and left after he was dead, but, yo
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But you cannot destroy thought beca
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From that day I have never gone thr
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‘humanitarian,’ who believes in
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Take away the millions of the Loebs
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Judge Forces “Ladies” to Leave
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And if it is the fate of these two
Page 89 and 90:
Darrow had ridiculed Crowe’s argu
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alone for these two young men. He s
Page 93 and 94:
have been possible to set up succes
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losses since the Franks’ loss was
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they never went away. This aspect o
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Ed Lahey at the Chicago Daily News,
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former Cook County Jail assistant w
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motion for summary judgment and jud
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It appears that most analysis of Da
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Wigmore then identified the cause o
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sufficient horror of that—everybo
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stand).” 158 Another significant
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discuss sex crimes against boys, as
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through the mazes which only childh
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aside completely the opinions of 12
Page 119 and 120:
when he was strangled with the tree
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The defendant was convicted of a mu
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In some very sensational cases in w
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What is most disturbing about the m
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A judge sentencing for a D.C.Code v
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The remark was improper, and had th
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overstepping the bounds of propriet
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Leopold and Loeb Trial - The Clarence Darrow Collection

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