Deadly Alliance: Leopold & Loeb - A Chicago Stories Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ธ.ค. 2024
- Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were the quintessential picture of privilege. Both brilliant and wealthy, the two University of Chicago graduate students had bright futures. But under the glossy veneer lurked something much more sinister. In 1924, after several months of meticulous planning, Leopold and Loeb kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks - Loeb’s second cousin - all for the thrill of committing a “perfect” crime. The men wanted to put their self-professed superior intellect to the test. The kidnapping and murder were quickly dubbed the “Crime of the Century” and provoked a media frenzy. In the sensational sentencing hearing that followed, they were defended by none other than Clarence Darrow, the most famous lawyer in America. This is the story of a crime that is no less compelling today than when it first captivated a horrified nation one hundred years ago.
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Gosh, such a story!
What frustrates me most is that none of them had ever expressed any shade of guilt or remorse.
So inhuman!
Leopold, felt some remorse. He wrote a book, 99 years plus life, he express some regrets.
@@Imissyoulou ….. no, Leopold wanted parole but he never felt anything, much less remorse.
@@Jasper7182009 He stated in the book, that he was ashamed of what happened and how he hurt all of the families involved.
gladly your generation is first learning this, keeps history alive
@@Imissyoulouregretted being caught, or?
The diligence of the man at the eyeglass company was astounding.
It was mandatory that those 2 were caught.
He was. Just imagine Nathan not dropping his glasses. This crime
would've gone unsolved.................
Two spoiled rich kids who thought they were above the law and because of their wealth thought they were safe...they turned out to be pretty stupid considering how VERY smart they thought they were...
There a HUGE difference between being smart & being full of hubris. The fact is they were EXTREMELY smart. You don’t get into ANY college let alone one like U of C at 14 and not be genius level smart.
Hubris on the other hand while a condition that you’ll find among people of high intelligence it had nothing to do with being smart. They made things more difficult than it needed to be and were arrogant about it. That’s what got them caught not any lack of intelligence.
I thought exactly that.
@@kenyattaclay7666awkward back door rebuttal? I’m intrigued.
You mean the difference between being stupid and dumb?
Need more from you
@@kenyattaclay7666In my experience very academically gifted people don't have much common sense
HI IQ PEOPLE USUALLY LACK WISDOM BECAUSE THEY ARE SO ARROGANT.
I’ve studied this case for years, and this documentary does give more insight. Thank you to the Franks and Loeb for the photos and the letters. I hope Bobby is at peace and that his death will continue to help solve others.
I met a woman who was gifted Leopold's cornea when he died. She had been completely blind her entire life and he made sure that even though she was an older recipient,( usually she told me the corneas are giving to children) she told me she thanked him everyday. I met by chance at a supermarket were she asked me to read what was written in small letters in a can of soup. This happened in 1969 or 70. I made a commitment to donate my own corneas because of that one encounter. I of course live in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷.
This sound so creepy- to be the given the eyes of a killer- one of the men involved in the notions killing of Bobby Franks- that would haunt me!
There is an old TV show in the UK "Tales of the Unexpected" where a man murders hiss wife in order to marry his mistress. The mistress is blinded in a car crash but is given the gift of sight when she receives the donated eyes of a recently deceased person.
The final scene shows her bandages removed to reveal THE MURDERED WIFES EYES staring back at him!
He should never have been allowed to leave prison!!!
No justice for the Frank's family😢
He fits the profile of the clinically depressed person in the "deadly dyad," led by the by the psychopath. Apparently the court decided that he deserved to be. There is rarely justice in this world, because no matter the sentencing, there aren't any visiting hours in heaven.
The home of Bobby Franks that is shown, is how it looks now. It is condos, 4 of them I think. It is a beautiful structure. The fence of the Loeb's home is still there. The garage that Leopold said his car was in, is still there. However, the Loeb and Leopold homes have been torn down. With some research, you can see pictures of their homes. Loeb had the BIGGEST and he was the richest.
What a psychopath to feed a mother bird and her babies only to return the next day to kill them all(and to also dig up the tree that housed them). His parents failed massively bringing up their son to become such a monster 😬
He was born that way. He had a massive bird display that was in the a history museum. I think it is in the Museum of Science and Industry.
I understand your emotion there, Littlemouse884. But they were born psychopaths. Their brains are wired this way from birth.
@@Imissyoulou💯agree. Some are born wired wrong.
@TaurusMoon-hu3pd while I 100% agree with that to an extent I believes these two men were bought up right from birth with a huge sense of entitlement and superiority that gave them an arrogance beyond belief which resulted in their lack of empathy towards others
Psychopath without conscience
This was very well put together little documentary. I really found it interesting❤
we are glad you approve hun
I found a dumpy old dusty book from the 1960s on this case in a tiny Oklahoma rural library in 1980 when I was 9 yrs old, stuck there visiting great-grandparents during a summer break from school. I became absolutely obsessed with the case. Fast-forward 10 yrs, I'm a freshman in college. This case, incredibly, came up in conversation the 1st time my new boyfriend & I had dinner w/his mom & her (lawyer) husband. The step-dad made us stop at Blockbuster on the way back from dinner, where he rented a VCR and the movie 'Compulsion,' which he made us watch immediately in their hotel room with his extensive commentary on Clarence Darrow's closing argument. Crazy how this story captivates so many to the point that it has had a serious impact on our lives.
Do you think Leopold had Loeb moved to Statesville so he could have him killed essentially blaming him for the murder in his plea to the parole board?
Another high quality documentary! Thank you PBS!
I wasn't signed into TH-cam when I came across this channel. I had a very hard time finding it. I'm so thankful I did
ok
Its because it goes against the narrative of today..
Darrow was ahead of his time - the original Affluenza Defense, the first Abuse Excuse . Truly an innovative advocate. I’ve always found it funny (if anything about this case can actually be considered funny) that after all of Darrow’s soaring oratory, the judge actually ruled, “Yeah, I just think they’re too young to be executed. I’m gonna go with age.”
He was ahead of his time in many ways ... except where it came to women serving on juries.
It always amazes me at how you have people who are extremely intelligent and seemingly have everything and think they can get away with a crime like this. Thankfully hubris always overrides intelligence. They made things way more difficult & overly complicated than it needed to be. That hubris also led them to not get rid of the key evidence. They could’ve easily overcome the glasses but keeping the typewriter & letter was their nail in their coffins.
They need a challenge cos they’re bored with normalcy
But they thought they were so much smarter and clever than those dumb cops.
@ that’s what hubris is.
I believe they were sociopaths.
Arrogance &
Entitlement
1920s to 2020s and its still the same.
Look at what is happening [on a larger scale] in Palestine this minute.
And the whole world sits and watches.
My stepfather knew Bobby Franks. He and his father brought turkey to the The Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans every Thanksgiving. My stepfather lived at the orphan home at that time.
Bobby continue resting in peace.
I think he's unlikely to do anything else for the foreseeable furure
@@splinterbyrdlol. True. Either one believes he is in heaven with the gawd in some paradise, is that considered resting in peace? Or the belief is there is nothing after death, like the nothing before we are born, does one rest there?
It’s just a stupid saying either way. One that is said for the benefit of the living, not the dead.
@@Ajhcr Yes it is for the benefit of the living not the dead. But if it's a fantasy which helps people to cope with bereavement, I'd say it's valid.
I'm reminded of what a bishop once said to a mother who'd lost her only 2 children in an accident. When she asked him where her 2 daughters were and what they were doing, he simply replied
"Anybody who gives you a straight answer to that doesn't know what they're talking about."
RIP Bobby Franks and to all his family. ❤
Murder creates lasting pain, doesn’t it?
Kudos. This is a super well put together documentary. I live abroad but my heart is always with The Windy City of my birth. Thank you.
Just bc one is wealthy doesn’t mean they’re a good person
It's an indication of the opposite, in many cases.
and a decade before the world tried solving the major problem of similiar hebrews
True......just look at Donald Trump
Yup. Look at the Clintons and all the people they've murdered
@@DavidChavez-gf2om idiot. Trump won. Get over it
A high quality piece.
Such a well put together documentary. It was fascinating, so glad I stumbled upon it.
RIP
Bobby Franks
🙏
The Hitchcock film Rope was 'inspired' by this case.
“Rope” is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Thank you. Right when I saw them in this documentary I suddenly thought of "Rope". Interesting fact, thanks for telling us.
Richard Loeb was a distant cousin of Bobby Franks, and lived across the street from him.
Second cousin.
I remember back in the 1960s When I Was A Just A Kid, Watching The Movie 🍿, Compultion (1960) .
That's When I First Also Heard about The Evil Murder of Bobby Franks.
What a Terrible Thing to do To a Child.
As I Felt Then,
As I Still Feel Now,
I Think Both
Leopold and Loeb
Should've Definitely Received The Death Penalty For What They Did To Poor Bobby Franks.
At least Richard Loeb Was Paid For His Part in The Murder, Very Violently.
They Were Nothing But 2 Cold Hearted Lowlife Child Murders.
R.I.P.
Robert Franks 🙏🏻🌹
God Bless/Rest His Soul. 👍🏻
Yep both trash. This is the thing with rich people children. Parents never raise them producing narcissist and psychopaths
@@brianpress1392I saw that movie. Chilling
Both psychopaths 🤦🏽♀️
Two self-absorbed members of the tribe. If they hadn't been rich they would have hanged in two seconds.
Aipac would have been outraged.
@rdred8693
AIPAC would have been proud of them especially in the way (true to their racial traditions) they both tried to sheet home the responsibility to the other party.
Antisemitism
Is it just me, or were the 1920’s wild AF
Feel most postwar decades are, people act out thinking they just overcame something and that adrenaline brings out the BS
They were referred to as the "Roaring 20s"
@ The obvious bot weighed in. Do you think I’m stupid?
@ derp.
Man servant thought he was helping his young 'master' by claiming," They didn't have the car that night, I did". 😂
They may have escaped justice in this life, but non escapes God's justice, which is far worse
Charlevoix rang a bell. It’s where Jon Benet Ramsey’s family were going to originally go the morning JBR was found dead. Turns out the Loeb estate and the Ramsey one are an eight minute drive from each other.
Charlevoix, is a BEAUTIFUL place. Some of the Loeb family members still live there. That section is not open to the public. Weddings and other events are still held in other areas of the estate.
JBR and her family lived in Colorado ... were the Ramsey family driving out of state?
@ They had some kind of second home in Charlevoix. This video mentions it in the first few minutes. th-cam.com/video/_VS0yEC1bl4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=QejyONT10px87MJH It was bought by John and Patsy, then sold by Patsy (not sure why John was left out) after JBRs death.
@@heatherbeach4696they were flying there on a private plane. Probably had to get to that house and hide evidence.
I have studied the case for years, been to the neighborhood and to the Franks' mausoleum. This is the best documentary I have seen on this case.
Michigander here, my grandpa was friends with a butler's son who worked for the Loeb family, who had nothing but nice things to say about the entire family and Master Richard, going as far to say he left this earth unconvinced that Loeb was involved in this horrific unnecessary crime.
Neither one should ever have been released from prison
This young boy was brutally murdered
Death penalty for
Premeditated Murder😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Those short pants the young boys wore are called knickers. My brother wore them and how he hated them!
Knickerbockers they were called. They were the fashion for kids in the 80s along with pedal pushers which were tighter than the knickerbockers.
Thank you for doing this. I watched the one on PBS and it was great to get a different perspective, espically the Chicago perspective.
It's always about privilege. Nothing changes.
That little boy was viciously r@ped, how Clarence Darrow managed to keep the physical evidence of that out of Court is beyond me. I don't believe this "Perfect Murder" theory, l think it was a clumsy stupid crime. R.l.P. Bobby 🌹
No. Bobby Franks was not sexually assaulted. The coroner determined that. This was not a sex killing. Franks was just unlucky. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and Loeb knew him.
@@rongenungYep. Also the sordid details of L&L's intimate life with each other are such that it didn't include that particular act, so I highly doubt it would've occurred to them to do that to their victim even if this crime had been directly se_ually motivated (which it wasn't).
Excellent video. I have seen a few on these 2 and this one contained some new details.
Thank you for this documentary. There are a lot of details here that I didn't know about this case.
Leopold really was a sick young man. Anyone who discover a nest of rare birds, care for them lovingly, then return the next day and kill them, thats the epitome of warped thinking. Soulless.
He was, but alas I doubt that was aberrant from an ornithology perspective back then. It was a half-century before any kind of animal rights/welfare/ethics was even a concept in most people's minds.
What monters they were. Poor little Bobby, a victim of psychotic-affluenza.
So very sad for the parents
It makes you wonder how anyone could represent those 2 scumbags.
Obviously Darrow was also a scumbag bleeding heart liberal .🙄
Monster's rich spoiled pure evils 😡😠🤬
A life sentence plus 99 years for the kidnapping, is out on parole !!???
The combination of a couple of sociopaths together equaled murder. Poor Bobby Franks.
Subbed 👍🏼
EDIT: wondering if CPD would have been as eager to solve this case, had the victim been of a “lower” socioeconomic status? 🤷🏻♀️
No, of course not. Money talks
No one cares for the poor.
Hell no. They were RICH, Jewish, and lived in an elite neighborhood.
Of course they would.They got lucky,with the glasses,and Sven the witness.The case was solved quickly,because of that,not because the family was rich.
What's interesting is in watching two docs on this film there's over 5 angry posts exclaiming how they would have not gotten the same defense. There's no anger that they might have been kyllers only that they wouldn't have gotten the same defense. I think you're just race-bayting.
Thanks for this posting. I minored in history in college, back in the 1970s. I wrote a paper on the Leopold and Loeb trial. I realize there was so much that I was not aware of, at that time. I was, also, amazed that hanging was still a form of execution, in Illinois, in the 20th century. I thought, by this time the electric chair was the accepted method in Northern states. Hanging, I thought, was typical in states like Arizona or New Mexico.
I think the erroneous, subconscious assumption is deeply rooted in our culture: 'My pleasure is more important than your wellbeing.' After all the bravado, they're common, conscienceless narcissists. 'Since I'm superior, the rules don't apply to me.' Wonder, how many of our social problems originate with these people?
Excellent point. Poor Bobby Franks 🖤😪
Fascinating... Thanks
Fascinating & well-made documentary. I'd heard the names Leopold & Loeb before but don't remember how - maybe a song... I didn't know anything about this story. Before their time, in the worst possible way.
They're mentioned in Seinfeld.
They aren't that intelligent cause they got caught for one. and two, they lack common sense.
Common sense would have told them not to do that. Many murderers get caught.
I agree
This documentary focusses more on these two disgusting pigs than the poor baby that was murdered and his family. And don’t believe for a moment Leopold died of a “heart attack”! How can someone die of a heart attack if they don’t have one?
I have just watched the two killers, Leopoldo and Loeb murder of Bobby Franks. Well after watching this case of 1924 the story is so similar to the Lyle and Erik case where they murdered their parents in1989. Jose and Kitty Menendez. Amazing that the cases are so similar of what happened after they were sentenced life in prison, and not hanged. Similarities that were so joined together. Watch this programme and you will see how the two cases came together after they were sentenced! 😮
So, Nathan kills a rare bird. He prefers it dead than alive. First he feeds it, then kills it !
Crazzzy that they were able to get out of the Death penalty
10,000 in 1924 strangely only inflates to around 185,000 today.
[Edit]
And WHY are the presenters smiling?
It was a good documentary, but please do not smile and sound giddy when describing the terrible nature of murderers, and the horrific death of a child. That was a little disturbing, to have some of the presenters sound so happy about this case.
3:47 Bobby is stated to be the youngest but then at 11:33 says his brother Jack was a year younger than him.
There is a thin line between genius and insanity!
As an internet detective, hearing that someone's glasses were in a remote area that HE knew, WOULD make him a suspect, not exclude him. It's an area he was obviously familiar with. AND you live a baseballs throw from his house?
As they mentioned, if you were paying attention, the glasses could’ve easily been explained away. The glasses in of themselves didn’t point to guilt; they only led to someone that needed to be investigated and/or questioned. It was the typewriter, the rental car, the letter & their story that got them. If they had gotten rid of the typewriter and not tried to make things difficult by renting a car they would’ve gotten away with it because at the end of the day the glasses didn’t mean a whole lot, at least not as much as the other evidence.
Also, being a baseballs throw away didn’t mean a whole lot here either. Not only am I from Chicago but I was born at the university hospital where they were in school. I went to high school a few blocks away from where they lived. The Kenwood/ Hyde Park neighborhood are right next to Bronzville which had a COMPLETELY different class of people living there even in 1924. They also live “a baseballs throw” away.
@@kenyattaclay7666 The eye glasses were the beginning of their investigation. Only 3 were made with a certain type of of hindge. One belonged to a woman, the other belonged to a man that was out of town and the other pair belonged to Leopold. I am from Chicago also and have heard about and researched this case.
@ as I said & they mentioned in the documentary, at the end of the day the glasses weren’t that important or at least as Maya’s people want to put on them. If you have researched this case as you say you have then you know that he was out there all the time. Yes they were rare because of the hinge. Yes it put him on the list of people to talk to but just like the other two people because of his activities out in that area that evidence would’ve led to nowhere had they not made so many other mistakes. The typewriter is the most important pice of evidence because that is what they used to type the note. The typewriter, NOT the glasses is the proverbial smoking gun.
@ also, if you have studied this like you say you have then you’d also know they were ready to charge one of Frank’s teachers for the murder. It wasn’t until they found the letter that they became suspicious of them because the glasses had no real evidentiary value because of his leading bird watching groups at that spot.
Any Hitchcock fans, they were the inspiration for Rope, one of his best films.
Yaaaaaassss
Everyone always comments about the way they look, but their attorneys tell them not to react and to stare straight ahead. The only time you see emotion is when they're on the witness stand or standing before the judge.
Nathan Leopold had dead eyes.
That’s my boi cocopuck voicing Leopold!!! 🔥
It 13:37. The male commentator refers to the nudity of the victim, inspiring the idea that the person was gay and a predator… Most people do not know that 97% of predators are self identified as heterosexual, and are usually people who know the victim. In other words, predators are generally heterosexual and many times the sex of the victim is unimportant to them. This comment was inappropriate to say the least.
Whatever the sex of the victim, that is what a predator basically does - hunts the victim. Leopold and Loeb also happened to be in a gay relationship. I didn't find it inappropriate at all.
Those were the ideas of that time, doesn't mean we have to agree with it.
But it seems we haven't learned a bit from those times accusing people of being predators who don't present as a hetero normative. That is what bothers me personally.
What is being described is the assumption and belief of that time period!
The narrator said it all, if they were poor, they would have hung!
Ain't no "Parole" later, once you've been hung!
Justice is blind, but it can aparently count!
Count $$$!
This is a stunningly excellent documentary. It still resonantes to this day with the Menéndez brothers.
Terrible disgusting story with every day psychopaths.
Some people are so smart that they are crazy.
And they both were, totally nuts!
That study of the shapes of their heads fell in line with 'The Eugenics ideology" that was pushed at the time.
I knew he was guilty as soon as i heard he killed that bird that was so rare. Then cut down the tree for his collection. Cared for nothing but himself
WTTW is still the best!
Props to that inmate with the shanck..,
They said they didn’t know until that day of the murder who they were going to kill and yet they had typed a letter the day before with the boys address on it
Beware the unibrow😮😂😂😂😂😂
They let him out??? My mind is boggled.
He should have got the penalty, then he would not have been set free! Child killer!!
The fact that she said they had servants as if was normal shows how w ppl minds work
Most "w" people didn't have servants. Only rich ones. Don't judge all w people like that lol😊
It always helps to have a few millions.
Something odd about this case (to me) is that it's never really mentioned/emphasized that there really wasn't that much of an age gap between Franks and L&L.
Sure, they had already graduated college and there was perhaps a vast intelligence/academic achievement gap there (as there was between L&L and basically most of the entire country), but the way the popular narrative of the case makes it seem (to this day, largely), you'd think these were two grown men who killed a small child, but the victim and perpetrators were all teenagers at the time of the crime. This aspect/discrepancy between the facts/reality and sensationalistic portrayal of the case is especially strange when even the judge spared L&L from execution because of their young ages. In a lot of places at that time (can't remember if this was the case in Chicago or not) they too would've been minors, as the age of majority was 21.
Not that that excuses anything,of course, or makes it less heinous really, it's just curious how nobody really points that out in a century of popular discourse around this case. I think it says a lot about how we as a society conceptualize juvenile crime and how certain things get sensationalized in the media.
Thank you
They were monsters.
Alfred Hitchcock's "The Rope" with James Stewart is a Lerner and Loeb tale 1950's style.
I'm looking at this video 📹 about this criminal case in May 15th , 1921 in Chicago, Illinois and those murderous thugs should be imprisonment for the rest of their lives without parole or pardon 😳.
It reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock film : “The rope”.
I like many first became aware of this story around 40 years ago through watching the Hitchcock movie "Rope" which was inspired by the case. It piqued my interest and I found out the basic facts of the case. My interest was reignited when the Internet and You Tube exploded.
This documentary is one of the best I've seen- it has a degree of detail missing in most others I've viewed (although it also omits a lot of information).
2024 is the 100th anniversary of the murder of Bobby Franks and I fully expected to see a big budget movie or a TV serial by NETFLIX or HBO- Ryan Murphy came other mind!
We've had Bundy, Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers given the big budget TV show treatment. Leopold & Loew is the perfect subject matter for such a show!
Nothing is perfect on Earth. Thats for our Creator. Everything comes to light, even the darkest, tho they cant enter it.
No contacts in those days 😂 41:55
Morbid but fascinating!
What songs and movies was about this?
Is there a Chicago Story about the Chicago 7?
I feel so sorry for Roberts parents . What a nightmare.
There’s an eerie parallel between these two and the two Columbine perpetrators, and how they psychologically coalesced for something wicked
Sounds like a sex crime to me
You didn’t watch it all did you?
@@annegiorgio5602Of course not😂
Well, it doesn't mean they needed to abuse the victim to make it a sex crime of sorts. It may have been arousing for those two sick individuals.
Yes and no. Not in the conventional sense it wasn't, but Leopold was definitely motivated by an obsession with Loeb that was certainly mainly psychosexual in nature.
Is this the first known case of which would be known as, "The OJ defense" (no matter what you do (with fame, $, and arrogance), you can buy your way out?
No. They pleaded guilty and we're sentenced to prison for life. OJ went scot free after butchering two people.
Leopold regretted it because of the life and accomplishments he could've had. Not because of the life that Franks and his loved ones missed. And Loeb killed Franks. Leopold was driving. The public says it's not known in most of these docs, but Leopold had a car and always drove. Where Loeb was always chauffeured around. And Loeb was the one that wanted to do it by far more than Leopold. Leopold went along because he was infatuated with Loeb. Plus, his reasoning with how he'd live with it afterwards was Nicci's philosophy of the intellectual was beyond regular morals.
They thought they were so smart. Yet a pair of glasses got them caught.
Bobby was Dick’s cousin.
Menendez brothers idols
100 years ago people. 100 years😳
For me is not a surprised that Leopold had been m*lested. Back then predators generally went unpunished because the victims were too afraid to say anything or if they did they wouldn’t be believed. Plus, it was such a taboo subject. a child could not accuse an adult of having taken advantage of them