He spent more than 24 hours interrogating Nathan Leopold, but Leopold had an alibi for the night of the murder. He had been driving around in his red Willys-Knight with his good friend Richard Loeb.
Eighteen-year-old Richard Loeb center also grew up in Kenwood and attended the University of Chicago, where he met Leopold in After police discovered a letter from Leopold to Loeb suggesting the two were lovers, Crowe grew suspicious of Leopold's alibi and brought Loeb in for questioning as well. The Leopold family chauffeur not pictured told investigators that Nathan's car was being worked on in the garage the entire day of the murder, thus disproving the boys' alibi.
Under increased pressure from Crowe, Leopold and Loeb confessed to murdering Franks. Leopold fourth from left and Loeb not pictured led investigators and journalists through each step of the murder, from the hardware store where they purchased the chisel they used to bludgeon Franks to the culvert where they disposed of his body. Leopold and Loeb admitted to spending months planning the murder, claiming they did it for the thrill, believing they were like Friedrich Nietzsche's mythical supermen, bound by neither the law nor morality.
After the boys confessed, their families hired famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow, a staunch opponent of the death penalty who would come to be known as the "attorney for the damned. After the trial began Darrow changed the not-guilty plea to guilty, thus avoiding the risk of a trial by jury and going straight to the sentencing phase. Judge John Caverly had the sole responsibility of deciding the fates of Leopold and Loeb. The sentencing hearing began on July 23, with Prosecutor Crowe calling emphatically for the death penalty.
Darrow pushed for life in prison, using the extensive evidence gathered about his clients to argue that the boys suffered from a myriad of physical and mental deficiencies that caused them to commit the crime. Darrow began his closing argument on Friday, August For three days Darrow explained why his young clients should be spared, continuously reminding Judge Caverly and the court that no one under the age of 23 had ever been sentenced to death on a guilty plea in the state of Illinois.
On September 10, the court reconvened to hear Judge Caverly sentence Leopold and Loeb to life in prison for the murder of Bobby Franks and an additional 99 years for the kidnapping. Caverly made a point of denying that Darrow's scientific evidence had not affected his decision to avoid the death penalty, rather his primary reason was Leopold and Loeb's youth. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb left the courtroom, shaking Darrow's hand, and were escorted to their cells at Joliet State Penitentiary the following morning.
Many Americans were outraged by Caverly's sentence, believing that the boys' wealth had saved their lives. Nathan Leopold was paroled and released from prison in , after more than 33 years behind bars. After his release he moved to Puerto Rico, where he wrote a monograph on the birds of the island and married Trudi Feldman de Garcia Quevedo in He died of a heart attack in Puerto Rico on August 29, In , Richard Loeb was killed in Stateville Prison's shower room by fellow inmate James Day, who claimed Loeb had made unwanted sexual advances.
The trial of Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant who was charged and convicted of Kidnapping the Lindbergh baby in New York Law School.
The Hauptmann Trial featured the prosecution of Bruno Hauptmann, a German immigrant who was charged and convicted of Kidnapping the Lindbergh baby in Wilentz, the prosecution used primarily circumstantial evidence to support their case.
The jury found Hauptmann guilty and sentenced him to death. Some reporters and independent investigators came up with numerous questions regarding the way the investigation was run and the fairness of the trial. Advanced Search. Privacy Copyright.
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