The Murder
Loeb and Leopold spent 7 months planning every detail of the murder, the disposal of the body, and the method of receiving money with little to risk of being caught. They put their plan into action on Wednesday May 21st, 1924 and finally decided on a young boy named Robert "Bobby" Franks. Bobby Franks was the son of millionaire Jacob Franks and also a neighbor and second cousin of Richard Loeb.
Bobby attended Harvard School for boys in Kenwood and one afternoon after school was let out, the two boys lured Bobby into their rented car; once he was in the car, a sock was stuffed in his mouth and was struck in the head four times with a chisel and he died soon after due to blood loss. The two boys stripped Bobby Franks of his clothes, covered his body with acid to make it hard to identify, and concealed the body in a culvert at the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. Soon after the murder Loeb and Leopold called Frank's mother and told her that her son has been kidnapped and that her and her husband would be receiving a ransom note soon and that they better pay it if they were to ever want to see their son again. After the call, the men burned their clothes that were spotted with blood and attempted to clean the blood out of their rented car and spent the rest of their night playing cards. Before the Franks had a chance to pay, the dead body of their son was discovered by Tony Minke, a polish immigrant. Detective Hugh Patrick Byrne discovered a pair of eyeglasses at where the body had been discovered and only three people in the city had purchased those exact glasses, one of which was Nathan Leopold. Leopold had claimed that he lost his glasses bird watching and that Loeb had been with him the night of the murder. Their cover story was that they picked up two women in Leopold's car but his chauffeur confirmed that Leopold's car was in his garage all night. During the questioning their alibis fell apart, Loeb confessed first, followed by Leopold; each blamed each other for the actual killing. Money was not their motive for the death, both men admitted that they were driven by the thrill of the kill and desire to commit the "perfect crime". |