Adolescence, Nietzsche, and early crimes[edit]

The two young men grew up with their respective families in the affluent Kenwood neighborhood
on Chicago's South Side. The Loebs owned a summer estate, now called Castle Farms,
in Charlevoix, Michigan, in addition to their mansion in Kenwood, two blocks from the Leopold
home.
Though Leopold and Loeb knew each other casually while growing up, their relationship
flourished at the University of Chicago, particularly after they discovered a mutual interest
in crime. Leopold was particularly fascinated by Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of supermen
(bermenschen)transcendent individuals, possessing extraordinary and unusual capabilities,
whose superior intellects allowed them to rise above the laws and rules that bound the
unimportant, average populace. Leopold believed that he was one of these individuals, and as
such, by his interpretation of Nietzsche's doctrines, he was not bound by any of society's normal
ethics or rules.[6] Before long he had convinced Loeb that he, too, was an bermensch. In a letter
to Loeb, Leopold wrote, "A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in
him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may
do."[11]
The pair began asserting their perceived immunity from normal restrictions with acts of
petty theft and vandalism.[12] Breaking into a fraternity house at the university, they stole
penknives, a camera, and a typewriter that they later used to type their ransom note.
Emboldened, they progressed to a series of more serious crimes, including arson,[13] but no one
seemed to notice. Disappointed with the absence of media coverage of their crimes, they
decided to plan and execute a sensational "perfect crime" that would garner public attention, and
confirm their self-proclaimed status as "supermen".[14]

Murder of Bobby Franks[edit]

Bobby Franks with his father in 1924

Leopold (then 19 years old) and Loeb (18) settled on the kidnapping and murder of a young boy
as their perfect crime. They spent seven months planning everything from the method of
abduction to disposal of the body. To obfuscate the precise nature of their crime and their motive,
they decided to make a ransom demand, and devised an intricate plan for collecting it, involving
a long series of complex delivery instructions to be communicated, one set at a time, by phone.
They typed the final set of instructions involving the actual money drop in the form of a ransom
note, using the typewriter stolen from the fraternity house. A chisel was selected as the murder
weapon, and purchased.[15]

After a lengthy search for a suitable victim, mostly on the grounds of Harvard School For Boys in
the Kenwood area,[16] where Loeb had been educated, they decided upon Robert "Bobby" Franks,
the 14-year-old son of wealthy Chicago watch manufacturer Jacob Franks. Loeb knew Bobby
Franks well; he was his second cousin, an across-the-street neighbor, and had played tennis at
the Loeb residence several times.[note 1][17][18]
The pair put their carefully crafted plan in motion on the afternoon of May 21, 1924. Using an
automobile that Leopold had rented under the name "Morton D. Ballard", they offered Franks a
ride as he walked home from school. The boy refused initially, since his destination was less than
two blocks away;[19] but Loeb persuaded him to enter the car to discuss a tennis racket that he
had been using. The precise sequence of the events that followed remains in dispute, but a
preponderance of opinion placed Leopold behind the wheel of the car, while Loeb sat in the back
seat with the chisel. Loeb struck Franks, sitting in front of him in the passenger seat, several
times in the head with the chisel, then dragged him into the back seat, where he was gagged and
soon died.[20]
With the body on the floorboard out of view, they drove to their predetermined dumping spot
near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana, 25 miles (40 km) south of Chicago. After nightfall they
removed and discarded Franks' clothes, then concealed the body in a culvert along
the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks north of the lake. To obscure the body's identification they
poured hydrochloric acid on the face, and on a distinctive abdominal scar, as well as the genitals
(to conceal the fact that he was circumcised).[21]

Ransom note

By the time the two men returned to Chicago, word had already spread that Franks was missing.
Leopold called Franks's mother, identifying himself as "George Johnson", and told her that
Franks had been kidnapped; instructions for delivering the ransom would follow. After mailing the
typed ransom note, burning their blood-stained clothing, and cleaning the bloodstains from the
rented vehicle's upholstery as best they could, they spent the remainder of the evening playing
cards.
Once the Franks family received the ransom note the following morning, Leopold called a second
time and dictated the first set of ransom payment instructions. The intricate plan stalled almost
immediately when a nervous family member forgot the address of the store where he was
supposed to receive the next set of directions; and it was abandoned entirely when word came
that a man named Tony Minke had found the boy's body.[15][20] Their kidnapping ruse exposed,
Leopold and Loeb destroyed the stolen typewriter and burned a robe used to move the body.[15]
[20]
Convinced that they had done everything they could to hide their tracks, they went about their
lives as usual.
Chicago police launched an intensive investigation; rewards were offered for information. While
Loeb went about his daily routine quietly, Leopold spoke freely to police and reporters, offering
theories to any who would listen. He even told one detective, "If I were to murder anybody, it
would be just such a cocky little son of a bitch as Bobby Franks".[22]

Police found a pair of eyeglasses near the body. Though common in prescription and frame, they
were equipped with an unusual hinge mechanism[23] purchased by only three customers in
Chicago; one was Nathan Leopold.[24] When questioned, Leopold offered the possibility that his
glasses (now owned by the Chicago History Museum[25]) might have dropped out of his pocket
during a bird-watching trip.[26] The destroyed typewriter was discovered soon thereafter.
The two men were summoned for formal questioning on May 29.[27] They asserted that on the
night of the murder, they had picked up two women, Edna and May, in Chicago, using Leopold's
car, then dropped them off sometime later near a golf course without learning their last names.
Their alibi was exposed as a fabrication when Leopold's chauffeur told police that he was
repairing Leopold's car that night, while the men claimed to be using it. The chauffeur's wife later
confirmed that the car was parked in the Leopold garage on the night of the murder.