The high-profile case of two perspective law students of wealthy families took place over 80 years ago. But it still gives the creeps. Two students of University of Chicago decided to commit a perfect crime so that one could guess they were guilty. Their victim became a 14-year-old Robert Franks. It is still disputable why those perspective and the smartest guys decided to kill an innocent teenager. According to the most widespread version Leopold and Loeb were lovers. Moreover both of them were followers of Nietzschean philosophy and accepted themselves as supermen. Leopold was attracted to Loeb and agreed to participate in the crime.
It took them at least a half a year to plan their perfect crime. Robert Franks was a child to wealthy parents who knew Leopold and Loeb very well. In fact Franks knew both Loeb and Leopold. That’s why he easily got into their car where he was attacked and killed by a chisel.
After it Loeb and Leopold wrote a ransom note and sent it to Franks parents. In fact they didn’t need the money. But sooner the body of Franks was found. The detectives found also a pair of eyeglasses. It was an undoubted evidence. The eyeglasses had very distinct hinge system. Only three people in the city had such eyeglasses. Among them was Leopold.
Both Loeb and Leopold were sentenced to life imprisonment. They managed to avoid death penalty as were defensed by Clarence Darrow who transformed a trial into a show. Darrow tried to persuade the judge that both men were simply living the philosophy of Nietzsche.
In 12 years Loeb was killed by another prisoner. Leopold was released on parole in 1958. He moved to Puerto Rico where he got married a widow. Leopold died at the age of 66 in 1971.
