The cruel trick of two billionaire students

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb caused the kidnapping and extortion with a meticulous plan, leaving no trace just to “test the police’s crime-solving skills”.

On May 21, 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was walking home from school when a car suddenly pulled up in front of him. After talking, Bobby got into the car and no one saw the boy since.

Not seeing him come back, Mrs. Flora Franks was a little surprised that Bobby was at home at this hour every day. She guessed that her son had an appointment with friends today, so she didn’t think much about it and went to prepare dinner. Dinner was over, Bobby still hadn’t come home and hadn’t called to inform him. At this time, the mother began to feel that something was wrong.

Flora frantically called Bobby’s classmates, while her husband, Jacob, contacted the principal because he might be too busy playing, so he was trapped in the school. But all those efforts have not yielded results. No one knows where Bobby is.

Throughout the evening, the family split up looking for places he could go but still couldn’t find it. At about 10 p.m., Flora was at home on the phone when she received a call from a man named Johnson saying that Bobby had been kidnapped and was in good health. Further notifications will be sent the next morning.

Bobby’s family is running a pawn shop, which brings in quite a bit of money. The neighbors are all bankers or lawyers. Although they are not as rich as their neighbors, they do not cause enmity with anyone. So Bobby’s kidnapping is extremely strange.

The next morning, Bobby’s family received a letter demanding a ransom of $10,000, which had to be used and transferred by that afternoon. The kidnapper also asked the family to put the money in a large cigar box or in a carton; Wrap with white paper, seal carefully.

At the end of the letter was signed by a man named George Johnson with a promise that if he received the money, Bobby would return home in good health. Bobby’s parents didn’t know what to do, but they finally decided to prepare money and call the police.

However, at the same time, police reported that the body of the boy, possibly Bobby, was found in a sewer near Wolf Lake. The family was invited to identify.

At the same time, the family’s lawyer received a phone call from Johnson, asking him to go to the drug store at 1465 63 East Street. The lawyer immediately informed Mr. Jacob. However, in the midst of panic, both men were unable to remember the exact address the kidnapper had requested.

About an hour later, Jacob’s brother announced from where the boy’s body had been found, confirming that the victim was Bobby.

According to the results of the investigation, the sewer leads to Wolf Lake. A railroad employee stumbles upon Bobby’s unclothed body and lifts it out of the sewer.

Police did not find the boy’s clothes in the surrounding area but found a pair of eyeglasses nearby, but they were not Bobby’s.

According to the forensic doctor, Bobby died of suffocation, suffered many wounds, some strange chemicals were sprayed on his face and genitals…

The ransom note was typed from a Hammond typewriter by an amateur typist but appeared to be a qualified person, because the writing was quite sharp.

From here, the police focused their investigation on 3 teachers at Harvard, where Bobby attended. After interrogating and searching their residences, the police had to release all 3 because there was nothing suspicious.

The case seems to be at an impasse. Investigators now think about the glasses found at the scene. It is a pair of glasses for people who specialize in research, large, thick round glasses and the joints of the frames are very special and rare.

Meanwhile, a team of police officers visited the manager of the play area around Wolf Lake and learned that 19-year-old Nathan Leopold was a regular bird researcher. Immediately, Nathan was summoned to the police station. However, the information that Nathan provided during the bird observation at the lake was not questionable.

Exactly 8 days later, the police discovered an important detail. The glasses found at the scene were sold in very small quantities, only 3 in Chicago. It was a coincidence that one of the people who owned the glasses was Nathan.

Speaking to police, Nathan said that on Saturday, a few days before Bobby was kidnapped, he went to the Wolf Lake area with two friends as usual and stumbled, possibly falling out of his chest pocket.

Hearing this, one of the officers put glasses in Nathan’s chest pocket and suggested that he redo the fall. However, despite trying many times with many positions, the glasses still did not fall out.

When asked what he did on the day of the murder, Nathan initially replied in a roundabout manner but later claimed to have spent most of his time hanging out with his close friend Richard Loeb, a 19-year-old student at the University of Chicago, who was Bobby’s neighbor.

The evening of Bobby’s abduction, Nathan said he drove Richard to the bar to pick up the girls and hung out until late at night before coming home. Seemingly to give alibi evidence, he said that he drank too much alcohol, so he only vaguely remembered and did not know the details of what he did that night.

Richard was also questioned, but not much suspicious information was revealed from Richard.

Investigators still found anything suspicious from these two young men. They found out information from Nathan’s classmates and learned that this boy often wrote essays on a Hammond typewriter. Comparing them to the inscriptions written on the blackmail letter, they found they belonged to the same category; The use of words and some symbols also have many coincidences.

Explaining that the typeface on the research papers and the typeface in the blackmail letter were identical and used the same Hammond typewriter, Nathan said it was just a coincidence because although he used the typewriter, it was not his property.

Nathan’s maid claimed to have seen the machine in the corner of the house a few weeks ago, but when the police searched it, it was no longer in the house.

Meanwhile, Nathan’s driver testified that on the day of the murder, the owner and Richard did not drive because the car was repairing the engine that day. The driver’s wife also confirmed that the car was lying in Nathan’s garage that night.

From here, the two students had to confess everything. Accordingly, they followed Bobby for several weeks, on May 21, 1924, deciding to carry out the plan to kidnap and murder.

The two rented a car with a fake name and fake documents. They also covered the license plates, just in case someone saw them and reported it to the authorities, and followed Bobby home from school and stopped to invite him to a game of tennis.

Bobby no doubt happily sat in the seat in front of Nathan. Shortly after being seated, the 14-year-old boy was murdered.

Nathan and Richard drive to Wolf Lake, a remote swamp about 40 kilometers from downtown Chicago, thinking no one can find the body. Water will constantly flow through and the body will easily decompose…

After finishing, the two students called Jacob to inform him that his son had been kidnapped. They sent a ransom note to his house and left for Nathan’s house. That night, the two of them went gambling late into the night, thinking that they were going to have a large sum of money.

Very confident in the plan, the next day they went to the public phone booth to call Mr. Jacob to tell him the address of the drug store, but they still didn’t see it until the appointment time, so they understood that the blackmail plan had fallen apart.

However, what surprised the police the most was the motive for the crime. According to Richard’s testimony, the entire crime was set up as an intellectual test, a test of the police’s ability to solve the case.

The case shocked the United States when both were children of a tycoon family and had a glorious family. Richard’s father and Nathan’s father are both billionaires.

The trial opened in 1926 is considered the trial of the century. Nathan and Richard were sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and 99 years in prison for child abduction.

While serving his sentence, Richard was killed by his fellow inmates. Meanwhile, Nathan was commuted and released in 1958. He moved to Puerto Rico and died of a heart attack in 1971.