The Murder of Bobby Franks

This episode delves into the chilling and notorious murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by his cousin Richard Loeb and accomplice Nathan Leopold.

1. The episode details the premeditated nature of Bobby Franks' murder, emphasizing the cold calculation of Loeb and Leopold.
2. It explores the psychological background and dynamics between the two murderers, including their intellectual profiles and personal relationship.
3. The podcast discusses the impact of the case on legal practices, particularly in how psychological defenses are used in court.
4. The societal reactions to the sentencing and the broader implications for the American legal system are examined.
5. The episode provides insight into the role of media in sensationalizing crime and influencing public opinion.

1: The Abduction

Bobby Franks is kidnapped on his way home from school by Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold. Despite his proximity to home, Bobby is lured into a car and subsequently murdered. Rob Scragg: "It isn't until a voice from inside the vehicle calls out that Bobby stops, turns, and squints against the low sun."

2: Planning the Perfect Crime

The episode outlines the initial criminal activities of Richard and Nathan, their planning for the murder, and how they executed their plan to make it look like a kidnapping. Lindsey Graham: "But Richard and Nathan soon realized that a targeted killing would be too risky."

3: The Investigation

The discovery of Bobby’s body and the swift action by the police lead to a breakthrough in the case when Bobby's glasses lead to Nathan Leopold. Rob Scragg: "Detectives immediately set about tracing the owner of the glasses."

4: The Trial

The trial of Leopold and Loeb is detailed, focusing on Clarence Darrow's defense, which ultimately spared them from the death penalty. Lindsey Graham: "Clarence Darrow's victory shocks America, and the validity of his arguments are hotly debated in legal circles."

This episode does not provide direct actionable advice as it focuses on a historical criminal case. Listeners are instead encouraged to reflect on the moral and legal complexities presented in the story.

May 21, 1924: In an effort to commit what they consider to be the “perfect crime,” Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks.

People

Bobby Franks, Richard Loeb, Nathan Leopold

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

Graphic descriptions of a murder; viewer discretion is advised.

Lindsey Graham
There are more ways than ever to listen to history daily ad free listen with wondery in the Wondry app as a member of R@R.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of history daily, plus other fantastic history podcasts@intohistory.com. Dot it's May 21, 1924, in Kenwood, a neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Dream past 14 year old Bobby Franks as he walks home from school after a long day in the classroom, Bobby daydreams about the supper he hopes his mom will have ready for him. But Bobby is so lost in his thoughts that he doesn't hear a car.

Rob Scragg
Slow down alongside him. It isn't until a voice from inside the vehicle calls out that Bobby stops, turns, and squints against the low sun. It takes him a moment to recognize. The passenger in the back of the car. It's his 18 year old cousin, Richard Loeb.

The driver, though, is a young man Bobby doesn't recognize. Richard reaches forward and opens the passenger door, telling Bobby to jump in, that theyll give him a ride home. Bobby shakes his head and says, no. His house is practically around the corner. A ride hardly seems worth it.

Bobby starts to walk again, but Richard. Calls him back, repeating his offer of. A ride, and says he wants to ask Bobby about his new tennis racket. Bobby takes one last look up the street. His cousins seem so insistent, so Bobby shrugs and gets into the car.

But as soon as the car pulls away from the curb, Richard clamps his hand over Bobby's mouth. Bobby struggles, but Richard has a strong grip. As Bobby panics, he notices the car turns south, away from his house, away from the home that he'll now never return to.

Within moments of his abduction, Bobby Franks will be dead. The brutal murder case will hit the headlines and shock the entire nation, and not just because one of the killers will be identified as Bobbys relative. The two murderers will also turn on each other, and the resulting trial will grip the country before Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold are finally brought to justice for the murder of 14 year old Bobby Franks on May 21, 1924.

Lindsey Graham
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Lindsey Graham
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Rob Scragg
You ever watch an f one race? Thrilling. Totally get the appeal, but they only. Last a few hours and often air at inconvenient times. So instead I get my thrills in a lower dose, stretched out over hours.

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Lindsey Graham
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Rob Scragg
From noiser and airship. I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is history daily.

History is made every day on this podcast. Every day we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is May 21, 1924, the murder of Bobby Franks.

It's the night of November 10, 1923, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, six months before Bobby Franks is abducted and killed. Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold stare through the windshield of their car at a dark building across the street. It's the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house at the University of Michigan, where Richard used to study. Richard is only 18, but he's a. Child genius who left Ann Arbor last.

Year as the University of Michigan's youngest ever graduate. He then took postgraduate classes at the University of Chicago, and thats where he. Met another 18 year old child genius. Who had also completed his high school studies early, Nathan Leopold. The two young men became friends and then lovers.

But Richard and Nathan share more than just a privileged background and above average intelligence. They both have a passion for criminology, and their interest goes beyond theory. Tonight, theyre taking their first steps into a life of crime Richard and Nathan slip on masks to conceal their identities. And after quietly opening and closing the car doors, they creep toward the fraternity house carrying rope, a chisel, and a revolver. Theyve come prepared to use force if they have to, but no one hears them break in.

Richard uses his knowledge of the house to lead Nathan around its rooms. Although there are slim pickings for the two thieves. They return to the car with a meager haul of $80, a few watches, and a typewriter. On the six hour drive back to Chicago, Nathan is in a foul mood. The thrill of the break in has passed, and now he complains that the trip has been a waste of time for such little reward.

But Richard manages to calm Nathan down by directing the conversation onto a more sinister topic. Rather than breaking an entry in burglary, Richard harbours ambitious of more serious lawbreaking. He confides his desire to carry out what he calls the perfect crime. Richard wants to commit a murder, and he wants to get away with it. He knows that revealing his desire to kill is a risk.

But Nathan isn't appalled by Richard's confession. In fact, Nathan seems intrigued by the idea. Almost immediately, Richard and Nathan begin planning their murderous project. Initially, they propose killing a former fraternity brother, one who Richard has had a falling out with. But Richard and Nathan soon realized that a targeted killing would be too risky.

Detectives would easily be able to suss out the motive and track the murder back to them. So instead, Richard and Nathan decide they'll choose a random victim. Ideally one who will be easy to overpower. And to throw the police off the scent. They'll make the murder seem like a kidnapping.

So Richard and Nathan begin to devise a ransom drop that they think is foolproof. They'll direct the family of their victim to throw a package containing $10,000 in cash from a moving train at a specified point along the track. Nathan and Richard will be waiting nearby to collect it and then make good on their escape. But they have no intention of letting their victim go. They plan to kill them almost immediately.

Next, Richard and Nathan pick a second location where they'll dispose of the body. They select a remote culvert near Wolf Lake, Indiana, a half hour drive south of Chicago. So with a plan in place, Richard. And Nathan devise fake identities and use. Them to hire a corpse.

The rental company hands over the keys with only a minimum of checks on the forged documents. And then the young men use the car to go buy a rope, a chisel, and hydrochloric acid, which they plan to pour on the body. To make it more difficult to identify. Last but not least, Nathan uses the typewriter stolen from the fraternity house to write out the ransom note. The following day, on May 21, 1924, Richard and Nathan cruised the streets of suburban Chicago in their rental car.

Theyre still unsure who their victim might be. Its pure chance that they spot Richards cousin, Bobby Franks, walking home from school. Although Richard and Nathans plan was to abduct a random pedestrian, the opportunity to coax Bobby into the car is too good to turn down. And after Bobby gets into the front seat, hes quickly subdued and hit repeatedly over the head with the chisel. Richard and Nathan then dump Bobbys body near Wolf Lake and then return to Chicago, confident that everything has gone according to plan.

But despite their self assurance, Richard and Nathan have not committed the perfect crime. They've made mistakes. And thanks to these errors, it won't be long before the police will come. Knocking on their door.

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Rob Scragg
It's 09:00 a.m. On May 22, 1924, in Wolf Lake, Indiana, around 16 hours after Bobby Franks was kidnapped and killed, a laborer whistles as he ambles to work, following the path of a dirt road where it crosses the Pennsylvania railroad. As he dodges puddles left by last nights heavy rain, the laborer glances into the culvert by the side of the road, and his jolly whistle dies on his lips. Something is sticking out of the gutter, and it looks like a human foot. The laborer wonders if someone has fallen into the culvert after drinking too much the night before, so he carefully climbs down the grassy bank, slipping on the wet mud.

But as he gets closer, the laborers worst fears are confirmed. Its a dead body, but not of a man. Its a boy. The laborer runs to the nearest telephone and alerts. The police officers arrive within minutes, and they quickly see that this death was no accident.

The boy is naked and has what looks like burn marks on his face. But its not immediately obvious how the boy died, and the only other clues the officers find at the scene are a single stocking and a pair of horn rimmed glasses. The body is taken away for further examination. At the same time, 25 miles north in Kenwood, Chicago, Jacob Franks nervously opens a letter thats just been delivered by the mailman. Jacob is Bobby Franks father, and hes not slept a wink.

Bobby didnt return home from school yesterday, and late in the evening, Jacob received a telephone call from a man claiming hed abducted Bobby. The man told Jacob to await instructions to pay a ransom that would arrive in the mail. Now, after an anxious night, a ransom note has just been delivered. Jacob carefully opens the letter. It says he must pay $10,000 if he wants to see his son again, and that instructions as to when and where he must leave the cash will follow.

A few minutes later, Jacobs telephone rings. Its one of the abductors. He gives Jacob a convoluted set of instructions he must follow to find the ransom drop location. Jacob sends a family member out to follow the directions, but the instructions are so complicated that the family member soon becomes lost. Then, just before 03:00 p.m.

Jacob receives another phone call. But this one makes the ransom demand meaningless. The police have found a body, and they suspect it's Bobby's. Distraught, Jacob heads for the mortuary to confirm the identification. It's a harrowing experience for Jacob, but his visit to the mortuary provides the first break in the case.

That's because Jacob reveals that the glasses found at the crime scene did not belong to Bobby. Detectives immediately set about tracing the owner of the glasses. And in a stroke of luck, it turns out that only three such pairs have been sold in the entire Chicago area. Over the next few days, two of the three owners are easily ruled out. And the remaining buyer then becomes the chief suspect, Nathan Leopold.

Eight days after Bobby's murder, Nathan is brought in for questioning. But Nathan knows the case against him is circumstantial, and he provides an alibi. On the afternoon that Bobby went missing, Nathan says he was driving around town with his friend Richard Loeb, and the two men were on the lookout for girls. Nathans Alibi is undermined, though. When officers search his home and find love letters exchanged by the two young men, its enough to make the detectives doubt Nathans story, and they haul Richard in for questioning the following day.

Richard initially corroborates Nathans story. Then he slips up and reveals several details only the murderer would know. Under increasing pressure from investigators, Richard cracks and confesses shortly after. Nathan also admits his part. But both men claim it was the other who instigated the plot and actually killed Bobby.

As details of the case filter out in the press, the murderer dominates the headlines in Chicago. For weeks, readers are gripped by the story of two privileged lovers who killed killed an innocent boy simply because they thought they were clever enough to get away with it. Neither suspect shows remorse, and prosecutors soon announce theyll be seeking the death penalty. But Nathan and Richards parents have other plans. Despite their own shock at their sons cold blooded crime, Richard and Nathans families are wealthy enough to hire the best defense money can buy.

They will engage the services of a high profile attorney and entrust him to use every trick in the book to keep their sons away from from the hangman's news.

Lindsey Graham
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Rob Scragg
It's August 22, 1924, at Cook County Criminal Court in Chicago. Three months after the arrest of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, 67 year old Clarence Darrow pushes himself to his feet and addresses the judge. Clarence is a defense attorney with a formidable reputation, but he's found few cases tougher than the one he's currently on because sitting beside him are two self confessed and unrepentant murderers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold. 33 days ago, when the case came to court, Clarence persuaded his clients to enter a guilty plea. It was a choice that surprised most, but Clarence had sound reasoning.

The plea removed the need for a trial where twelve civilians on a jury would have decided Richard and Nathan's fate. Instead, the case went straight to a sentencing hearing, with the decision on punishment made by a judge alone. Clarence believed he had a greater chance of saving the pair from execution by. Arguing his case to a single judge. Rather than a jury.

And now it's time for closing remarks. Clarence begins by tackling a legal point of order. Richard and Nathan have confessed their parts in the plot, but only one of them is the actual killer. Both men claim the other was responsible, and prosecutors have been unable to work out who dealt the fatal blows. Clarence argues that if it's impossible to identify the actual murderer, then neither man should hang.

Clarence then moves on to mitigating factors. He casts doubt on the state of Richard and Nathan's mental health. He claims that both men were abused by their governesses. And Clarence draws upon medical experts to suggest that defective endocrine glands contributed to Richard and Nathan's behavior and state of mind. All told, Clarence preaches to the judge for almost 8 hours.

Prosecutors try their best to counter Clarence's arguments. But three weeks later, when the judge delivers his verdict, Clarence has pulled off what most legal experts believed was impossible. Richard and Nathan are spared the death penalty. Instead, they're both sentenced to life for the murder, with an additional 99 years for kidnapping. Clarence Darrow's victory shocks America, and the validity of his arguments are hotly debated in legal circles, where they will set precedents that impact capital cases for decades to come.

But many ordinary people are just angry that Richard and Nathan have avoided execution. The two killers began their incarceration at Joliet prison in Illinois, and after serving twelve years, Richard Loeb will be murdered himself by a fellow inmate in 1936. Nathan Leopold will survive his time in prison, though, and will serve a total of 34 years before being released on parole. Hell, live out his remaining years in Florida and die in 19, 71. 47 years after his part in the brutal kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks on May 21, 1924.

Next on History daily. May 22, 1968. The nuclear powered submarine USS Scorpion disappears in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with 99 men on board.

From noiser and airship, this is History daily. Hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham. Audio editing by Mohammad Shaziba. Sound design by Matthew Fuller. Music by Thrum.

This episode is written and researched by Rob Scragg. Edited by Scott Reeves. Managing producer, Emily Burke. Executive producers are William Simpson for airship, Pascal Hughes for R.

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