RICHARD LOEB

Richard Loeb

At the age of 14, a highly intelligent young man named Richard Loeb was admitted to the University of Chicago. There he met Nathan Leopold, a charismatic former child prodigy, who was also much younger than the other students at the University. The two quickly became inseparable and are thought to have been lovers.

Both Leopold and Loeb were obsessed with committing the perfect crime. On May 21, 1924, when Loeb was 18 and Leopold was 19, they decided to carry it out. The pair drove around looking for a victim before settling on Loeb’s neighbor, 14-year-old Bobby Franks, who they kidnapped and struck him over the head with a chisel. They then disposed of the body and delivered a ransom note to Franks’ parents, who had already contacted the police.

As it turned out, “the perfect crime” wasn’t quite so perfect. The pair were arrested and turned on each other, accusing the other of masterminding of the crime. On September 24, 1924, they were both given a life sentence for murder and an additional 99 years for kidnapping.

While in prison, guards were ordered to keep the pair apart but they eventually ended up together. In 1932, they started a school in prison and began teaching other inmates. Then, on January 28, 1936, Loeb was attacked in the shower by his cellmate, James E. Day, who slashed him 50 times with a straight razor. Day claimed the attack was triggered when Loeb made a pass at him, but this motive has been widely questioned, since Loeb’s throat was slit from behind.

Leopold washed the blood from his best friend’s body. In 1958, he was paroled and moved to Puerto Rico. He died in 1971, at the age of 66, from a heart attack. The Leopold and Loeb case would become the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 classic, Rope.