Nathan Leopold jnr and Richard Loeb murdered a 14-year-old neighbour, Bobby Franks
It led to “the trial of the century”, or one of them, in the US. But it began, 100 years ago this week, with a random murder designed to be the perfect, unsolvable crime.
On the afternoon of May 21st, 1924, they coaxed a 14-year-old neighbour, Bobby Franks, also from a wealthy family, into the passenger seat of their car. Money was not a prime motivation – they had more than enough already – and anyway, the ransom plot was quickly abandoned when police found the body. In another sphere, vindicating his Christian names, he had also established himself as one of Chicago’s leading Irish republicans.
Darrow considered it inevitable that his clients would be convicted so persuaded them to plead guilty and fought instead only to avoid the death penalty.
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