True Crime Studies: Leopold & Loeb and the Crime of the Century
Famous, or rather infamous, for a number of reasons. Nietzsche fanboys spoiled rotten since birth and twisted lovers, they were pretentious little brats that murdered a 14-year-old boy out of sheer boredom. Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two young Chicago men who introduced the world to “thrill killings.” The ’20s really were a roaring decade.
Leopold & Loeb: The Crime of the Century by Hal Higdon is probably the most informative book you’ll ever find on the topic. Among the thousands of true crime books published since Leopold and Loeb’s reign of fame, a very small percentage are actually about them. The murder of Bobby Franks is extremely well documented as are the court proceedings that followed. Just about every minor detail about the case are easily available to anyone interested with Hidgon’s book being the official textbook on the subject. Leopold & Loeb: The Crime of the Century is a heavily researched, 380-paged true crime document that you’ll come away from feeling like an absolute expert on all things Leopold and Loeb.
Some true crime books format themselves like novels where the events unfold in an actual narrative, and others are a strictly factual listing of periodic events. This one follows the latter. The bulk of it reads like an extended Wikipedia page where it’s a mixture of actual dialogue and peers/eye-witnesses/investigators recounting everything they know, which is a lot. As I said, both they and their crime are well documented because their one victim was found with relative ease and their confession was offered up on a silver platter. They gave everything up just to brag about it, describing each detail of their ridiculously complicated master plan with excitement burning in their eyes.
Here’s a simplified breakdown:
- Kidnap and kill the chosen victim (Franks was picked at the last minute), must be rich enough to warrant sending the family a ransom note.
- Send ransom note demanding $10,000
- Call family and demand the father, or head of household, to wait for a cab that will drive to a drugstore where further instructions would be waiting.
- Instructions will say to go to the train station where they’re to look in the telegraph box
- Inside would be a note instructing them to board the train and throw the money off the last carriage.
- Leopold and Loeb, watching from afar, would go fetch it later.
The plan might as well have come out of a Perry Mason episode. You just know one of them was masturbating while reading it over in their little bedrooms. The many steps in the plan were on account of them trying to make it clever. Whether or not they got the money was never a concern.
It all starts in 1923, with a robbery at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house. Two masked figures familiar with the layout break-in and steal whatever they can fit in their pockets: money, pencils, a pin, a watch, a knife, metals and pens. The only thing they worked at carrying out was an Underwood typewriter. About a year later, that same typewriter would be used to write a ransom note sent to the family of Bobby Franks, after the boy’s body was already dumped in a culvert north of Wolf Lake.
In 1924, Bobby Franks willingly got into a car in broad daylight and was bludgeoned to death. His body was found on May 22, 1924, and the half-assed manhunt began. Bobby had suffered blunt force trauma to the head but apparently died from asphyxiation. Suffocated from either a gag or from being stuffed in the culvert. In an attempt to obscure his identity, hydrochloric acid was poured on his face and genitals to disguise the fact that he had been circumcised, or rather to hide that he was Jewish but all that did was start a rumor of molestation. Many schoolteachers were targeted and accused of pedophilia.
Despite the large gaps in police intelligence, it didn’t take that long for them to track the murder back to Leopold and Loeb. The smoking gun that led police to their door was a pair of bird-watching spectacles Leopold dropped near Wolf Lake and the font and print pattern of the ransom note which matched the stolen typewriter taken from Richard Loeb’s former fraternity house, Zeta Beta Tau. It took about a week to trace the crime back to them.
“We decided to pick the most likely-looking subject that came our way.” Richard Loeb commented in his version: “The plan was broached by Nathan Leopold, who suggested that as a means of having a great deal of excitement, together with getting quite a sum of money.”
Leopold and Loeb
There are three chief reasons why Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb have lived on in true crime history so prominently and it’s because they were rich young men, their actions were the first time most people ever heard of murder without a proper motive, and they were in a romantic relationship. Though “romantic” is a bit of a stretch. They were in a weird Natural Born Killers type of relationship built off loneliness and co-dependency.
Higdon studies the relationship between them from a distance whilst looking at it from under a microscope. It’s their relationship that makes this story so engaging and it’s also about 50% of the book’s focus.
“Leopold considered himself inferior to Loeb, but Loeb considered himself inferior to Leopold.”
Honestly, every page that features real dialogue between the boys, paired with personal accounts of their behavior, makes them sound like an old married couple. The two openly admitted to planning the other’s death only to immediately change their minds because…who else would they hang out with?
The Crime of the Century points out the gay panic that ruled a lot of young men during that time, murderers included. Upon capture, Loeb was especially reluctant to be labeled a homosexual. He and Leopold were apparently having “sexual liaisons”, as the book calls them, since 1921. But according to Loeb, their “liaisons” were just part of a business agreement where he would offer sex to Leopold in exchange for partnership in crime. Two things contradict this claim: Loeb implied to vague sexual encounters with other men prior to this and their agreement was set up in 1923, two years after their “liaisons” supposedly began.
There was also a whole master/slave fantasy going on, not as sexual as it sounds, between them which would take up too much time to discuss in full so here’s a link to some info on that.
“The alienist felt that the Franks homicide could be understood only by examining the interplay of these two personalities as they related to each other. ‘Dickie needed an audience. In his fantasies, the criminalistic gang was his audience. In reality, Babe [Leopold] was his audience.’”
“Leopold needed Loeb to compliment him and serve his alter ego.”
One can easily say that the murder was a direct result of their relationship. Not only the assumption that they wouldn’t have killed if they never met, but their reason for killing Bobby Franks was directed at one another.
A good film to watch for the Leopold and Loeb relationship is Barbet Schroeder’s Murder by Numbers from 2002. The film goes off track from the actual crime and doesn’t follow any sort of historical accuracy but the relationship between the two boys is more on the mark than in Compulsion, Swoon, and Rope. I can assume that screenwriter Tony Gayton actually read this book before penning Murder by Numbers, only to merge it with a random Sandra Bullock cop drama, which is what ruined it.
The Hearing
A lot of Leopold & Loeb: The Crime of the Century is dedicated to the hearing. Quick correction, this case is often referred to as the “trial of the century” but it’s not actually a trial because there was no jury, making it a hearing. Leopold and Loeb pleaded guilty so the question of their guilt was already confirmed.
The hearing was about their punishment, whether or not they should get the death penalty. The famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, a fervent opposer of capital punishment, defended them in what would become his most famous case. This part of the book is long, and as someone who hates all things related to court, boring. There are at least two chapters dedicated solely to their psych evaluations, most of which are dated because psychology was still new and many illnesses were incapable of a proper diagnosis.
As I mentioned above, a good film to see Leopold and Loeb’s dynamic is Murder by Numbers, but if you’re interested in the hearing and Darrow, then I recommend Compulsion from 1959. It’s a somewhat accurate portrayal of the hearing and features a good enough replica of Darrow’s famous closing argument.
Verdict
There is a lot of information given in this book. You can tell that many years went into the research of it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t off much of anything new but only expands upon on facts that are already widely available. Everything mentioned in The Crime of the Century, I had already heard in some form although the book does develop the case more and fills in some of the blanks.
One of the most interesting sections of The Crime of the Century takes place in Part 3: “Nothing but the Night.” The section is set during their time in prison, they went to the same prison, and shows how incarcerated life has affected them.
(3.5 / 5)
We are nearly there, dear readers! This is our two-part finale of the mystery thriller series Monastery. While our group of makeshift detectives have gone through some serious challenges in the previous instalments, this one takes them to new heights. Yes, I didn‘t think that was possible either and yet here we are. But that’s enough of me talking, I’ll let the story speak for itself. Let’s dive back in!
Plot
We pick up right where we left off in the last part. David and Henry are on their way to confront Francis in order to get Rocky back. To no one’s surprise, Francis is not playing around this time. He is willing to kill David so he can get the key to his father’s money. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he’s also holding Nicole hostage.
Speaking of hostages, they’re not the only ones at peril. Rick, who is now a full-on Francis’s sidekick has Thomas and Alfie. It’s not a great way for our protagonists to start the grand finale, that’s for sure. We also have a secondary storyline of Nana Beth, who feels she has had enough of this world. Despite her granddaughters’ protests, she is resigned that her time has come.
Nana Beth’s character is an interesting tool to portray one’s outlook on death. The entire aspect of death is a huge theme of the story, considering Albert narrates it from beyond the grave. Nana Beth knows she has lived a fulfilling life with her soulmate and is meeting death on her terms and with grace. It also adds a bit of breathing room during all the chaos.
A lot of the story in this instalment takes place during the double hostage situation. This is not the first time we genuinely worry about the gang’s safety but the first time we’re facing the threat head-on. After all, this is the end, and anything could happen.
It doesn’t mean we don’t get some interesting character exploration. After all, it’s a question we’ve been asking – why do both Francis and Rick act the way that they do? I found that fascinating because the narrative makes it clear that their actions cannot be excused in any way. Despite that though, their dialogues explain how they justify their actions to themselves. It’s so unsettling to stare into the psyches of deeply messed-up people. We know family can be difficult, but Francis’s hatred is on a whole other level.
Fred continues to be the unexpected underdog as he shows up to save David and Nicole. He even ends up taking a bullet for his cousin. I do wonder if we will get some sort of a conclusion to the love triangle mess. I know, I know – it’s not a priority right now but colour me curious.
As for our head detective Thomas, he is not afraid to challenge Rick on his crap, even if that means he gets a head wound. But ultimately, that is not how they escape – Madam Witch happens to come to the rescue. Some could argue that apart from the Monastery werewolf (a completely normal thing within the universe), this has been the first proper face-to-face instance with a supernatural being. Let’s just say I would not want to be Rick right now.
Once Thomas rescues David from joining Fred in the Shot and Tortured Men Department, the group ensues on a car chase as Francis tries to finish the job. This sequence had me on my toes and I could not help but cheer when they managed to escape. The joy makes Martin’s kidnapping shortly after sting even harder. We know that Francis is not afraid to stoop lower if that’s even possible. I am genuinely scared of what is going to happen when the group faces him again. One can only hope that they’re all going to make it out okay.
We end the instalment with a bit of a bittersweet note as we witness Cassandra suffocating Nana Beth, with her permission of course, so that she could meet Pop Dennis in the afterlife. I found it to be a heartbreaking but beautiful moment and a fitting end to the episode.
Overall thoughts
A lot has already been said, but this part of Monastery was easily the most spine-tingling tense one yet. It kept me entertained in the best possible way and it made me realise just how much I care for each and every member of the gang. I can only hope that one day they can heal both their physical and emotional scars from this whole ordeal. Provided that they all make it, of course.
With the next instalment being the last one, I realised that we’re still nowhere near discovering what exactly happened to Albert. The story is now about so much more than that but considering how it was the catalyst event for everything, we have to find out the truth, right? Right? We will see…
(5 / 5)
More thoughts from the author:
1. Something that happens a lot throughout the episode is David and Thomas trying to rationalise why Francis and Rick are acting the way they are, all while being held hostage. How do you find the balance in putting in that character development/revelation while still keeping the tension?
Simple – I work the tension into the development and revelations. Or, I use those developments and revelations to further escalate the tension. Francis revealing the motives behind his actions leads to David rebuffing his arguments, which leads to more and more back-and-forth and doesn’t stop till somebody gets shot in the gut. While Thomas realising the role Rick played in the death of a loved one leads to a heated confrontation, which nearly ends with a child getting their throat slashed. That’s the beauty of story serving story – everything comes together, and everyone goes apeshit.
2. Your take on death and the afterlife in this story is quite beautiful in a bittersweet way, as portrayed by Nana Beth. What inspired you to take this angle and does it ever get uncomfortable writing about death in general?
Never – it’s a most soothing experience. Truth is, I never met my grandfather – he died the year before I was born. So, to use the character of Albert to put a witty, spiritual, and bittersweet spin on my grandfather’s own tale, based on everything that’s been handed down to me through the years of what his life was like, is almost spiritual. I choose to believe some of Albert’s voice, humour and musings come directly from my grandfather. A few of the other characters who pass away in this book series are modelled after people who have sadly also passed in the real world, so I like to think I’m honouring their memory by addressing both their lives and potential afterlives – my way of ensuring they go on.
3. Lastly, this is the instalment where we see quite a display of supernatural when Madam Witch saves Thomas and Alfie from Rick. It’s kind of implied that she knew they needed help the whole time but was waiting for the right moment. Is it possible that she knows exactly how everything will play out and the second part of the finale will feature even more supernatural as the gang go to save Martin?
To the first part of that question – yes, it is heavily implied that Madam Witch knows everything, especially from the chessboard and pieces at her place. The last episode will feature a great deal of Madam Witch (from the very first scene in the teaser) and we will even scratch out an unanswered question that namechecks her…
As for the second part, while we will see more supernatural occurrences and the gang will rush to save Martin, the two will not intersect – the rescue party will be very grounded in reality. Well, as realistic as the folks in Monastery can get.
Amazon insert:
Book Reviews
What Feasts at Night: An amble through Romanian folklore.
“Salt on the floor, threads on the walls, and iron under the pillow.”
Sword Soldier 2: What Feasts at Night, a review.
Published in February 2024, What Feasts at Night is the second book in T. Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier duology. If you’re curious, you can find my review of the first installment, What Moves the Dead – a chilling reimagining of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher – here.
What Feasts at Night into Romanian folklore, weaving a tale that grapples with PTSD and the enduring impact of trauma, or what our main character calls ‘soldier’s heart’.
The Plot.
In What Feasts at Night, Alex Easton returns from his unsettling encounter with the Ushers and sets his sights on a quiet retreat to his Galacian cottage. Accompanied by his loyal companion, Angus, and his faithful steed Hob, he arrives to find the caretaker mysteriously deceased and the local villagers shrouded in fear and silence. Undeterred, Alex presses on, enlisting the aid of the superstitious Widow Botezatu to prepare his home for the arrival of his friend, Eugenia Potter.
As the story moves forward, the tranquility of the cottage is disrupted, and a sinister presence begins to cast its shadow. The Widow Botezatu’s son, Bors, begins to exhibit the same disturbing symptoms that the deceased caretakers suffered through. According to his mother, these symptoms align with the terrifying legend of the moroi.
Highlights.
Including the traditional Romanian folklore was a real highlight of this story. This is not limited to the presence of the shape-shifting, nocturnal moroi. Kingfisher has also included various superstitions from this region believed to ward off evil, such as weaving red thread and placing knives beneath pillows.
As a sworn soldier, Alex Easton has played his part in many wars. Kingfisher mentioned ‘soldier’s heart’ briefly in What Moves the Dead, in this installation we are able to see how this trauma response affects Alex. There is a beautiful insight into trauma that should not be left out of any review of this book.
“I sometimes think the fundamental disconnect with civilians is that they think the war is an event, something neatly bound on either end by dates. What anyone who’s lived through one can tell you is it’s actually a place. You’re there and then you leave, but places don’t stop existing just because you aren’t looking at them. The war’s still there. I don’t live in it anymore, but it’s right over there, just on the other side of… I don’t know.” (87)
Drawbacks.
In comparison with the first installment of this series, What Feasts at Night lacked peaks and troughs, feeling like a slow and steady amble to the final scenes. Although Kingfisher manages to pack her pages with atmosphere and a sense of foreboding, there is a lack of solid action here until the last few pages of the story. For those who enjoy a slow burn, this will not necessarily be a drawback, but I have grown to expect a certain level of movement from Kingfisher’s stories and found it was missing here.
The Final Take.
My love of T Kingfisher is no secret. I find her stories engaging, atmospheric and generally a little brain bending. However, What Feasts in the Night is perhaps my least favourite of those I have read. The plot was a little slow and the characters lack luster. I did still enjoy this story, in particular Kingfishers take on PTSD. I cannot say that this is an original idea but traumatic experience as a place rather than a time period is one that really makes sense to me.
There are whispers that suggest this series might grow into a trilogy next year. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble Alex Easton gets into next.
(3 / 5)
