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Evil Summer: Babe Leopold, Dickie Loeb, and the Kidnap-Murder of Bobby Franks (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology)

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I have been aware of this heinous crime for several decades, but have never read a book about its specifics. Therefore, I am assuming this book is correct in its facts. It is certainly an interesting read. Two teen-agers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, decide they are intellectually superior to anyone else, and decide to test their theory by murdering a child at random. By the grace of God they lost track of the first boy they spotted coming home from school, and finally settled on 14 year old Bobby Franks. One of the two murderers was playing tennis with him the day before, not knowing that Bobby would be the victim. Clarence Darrow defended Leopold and Loeb by introducing "three wise men from the east" to cast doubt on the sanity of the defendants. Besides the victim you really have to feel for the parents of Bobby Franks. His mother remained in denial repeating that "Bobby will be home soon." Several photographs are included to supplement the text. This despicable crime took place in Chicago in 1924 during the Capone and O'Banion beer wars, and it reminds me of a similar twosome, Robert Tulloch and James Parker, of Chelsea, Vermont, who murdered two Dartmouth professors in 2001 in a thrill killing. Both partners in crime most likely wouldn't have committed the crime without the support of the other, and both believed their intellectual superiority would prevent them from being arrested. Both are very tragic stories. Considering I don't have any other book on Leopold and Loeb to compare it to I would highly recommend this book.

What would make two wealthy, seemingly well-raised teenagers gleefully kidnap and murder another neighborhood boy? Each generation has asked this question during the eighty-three years since this event became the "crime of the century," and John Theodore has, to the extent possible, provided an answer in Evil Summer. Theodore begins with his own childhood recollection of becoming aware of the murder, then recreates the 1920s and the atmosphere of wealthy Hyde Park, Chicago, always depicting the humanness of the parents of both victim and perpetrators. The story is interesting throughout; I especially enjoyed the informative and eerie epilogue.

This is an excellent book, well written and researched. Much of it reads like a novel. I was of course, vaguely familiar with the names Leopold and Loeb, but I had only a superficial understanding of their historical significance. I stumbled upon this book quite inadvertently, however, upon reading the editorial review, I was intrigued and so I ordered it on impulse. The book arrived promptly, and I read it all in one sitting as I was completely immersed in the privileged, decadent, Jazz Age world of Leopold and Loeb.
Richard A. Loeb (b.1905-d.1936) and Nathan F. Leopold, Jr.(b.1904-d.1971) were the pampered teenaged sons of the wealthy Chicago elite in the early decades of the 20th Century. They are responsible for one of the most senseless and despicable crimes of the 20th century, the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks,(b.1909-d.1924) the 14-year-old son of wealthy Chicago Industrialist Jacob Franks. On Wednesday, May 21, 1924, Leopold and Loeb kidnapped young Bobby Franks as he was walking home to have dinner with his family after participating in a after school baseball game. The boy was abducted only two blocks away from his home. Bobby Franks was then brutally assaulted with a chisel, strangled and murdered, his killers then removed his clothing, hiding his naked body underneath a railroad culvert at the Illinois/Indiana state border.
The youthful murderers were apprehended soon thereafter, and the ensuing media circus dubbed the sensational case the "Trial of the Century" which took place during the summer of 1924. Leopold and Loeb were represented by the famous Clarence Darrow,(b.1857-d.1938) aka "The Attorney of The Damned" and "damned" they were. The people of the City of Chicago were outraged and wanted the murderers hanged, but Darrow, through a series of legal maneuverings, managed to get both offenders' sentences commuted to "Life plus 99" i.e. life for the murder, and 99 years for the kidnapping.
By all the traditions of justice, Leopold and Loeb should have gone to the gallows in 1924. There was just nothing to offer in extenuation of their crime and Darrow offered nothing. He said that they were mere boys, and that pretty much saved them. Never mind that they were dangerous sociopaths devoid of empathy or remorse. The populace of Chicago had the right idea, the death penalty for Leopold and Loeb would have been the most appropriate expiation for their heinous deed. But that's just my opinion.
In my continued research of this particular case, I've discovered that much has been written about Leopold and Loeb, they've been lionized to a point that I find very disturbing while the victim, Bobby Franks, is often overlooked by history, thereby rendering him incidental within the context of his own story. Although all of these events took place long ago,(85 years) and far away, people ought to be remembered, especially victims such as young Franks. I'm sure that there is a special place in Hell for the likes of Leopold and Loeb. Indeed, while the names of the killers have achieved a sort of perverse immortality, Bobby Franks is a mere footnote in history, the eternal child, trapped on the ascent of the ladder of his life, a Peter Pan of sorts, and, like his fictional counterpart, he remains a young boy forever.

Robert Emanuel Franks
September 19, 1909-May 21, 1924

Evil Summer: Babe Leopold, Dickie Loeb, and the Kidnap-Murder of Bobby Franks
Author: John Theodore
232 Pages
Grade: A+

Recommended Viewing: Movies based explicitly or otherwise on the Leopold and Loeb crime, in chronological order.

1. "Rope" (1948) Directed by the Legendary Alfred Hitchcock.
2. "Compulsion"(1959) Starring Dean Stockwell, and Orson Welles portrays Clarence Darrow.
3. "Swoon"(1992) This film is the most historically accurate, however, the director did take some liberties for the sake of drama.
4. "Murder by Numbers" (2002) Directed by Barbet Schroeder, and starring Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt as Leopold and Loeb.

DOCUMENTARIES:
1. "In Search of History" Leopold and Loeb: Born Killers (1998)
2. "Perfect Crimes" (1999)
3. "Haunted History" "Haunted Chicago" (2000)

*Note: Visitors, groundskeepers, and curators of Chicago's Rosehill Memorial Cemetery where Bobby Franks is buried have reported sightings of a young boy dressed in early 20th Century clothing frolicking among the graves near his own crypt.

SEE ALSO: "A Grave for Bobby" by James Deakin, The Kidnap-Murder of Bobby Greenlease, Jesse James Hollywood ("Alpha Dog"), The Kidnap-Murder of Nicholas Markowitz, The Lindbergh Baby, George Weyerhaeuser, Charles Mattson

As a young girl growing up in Chicago I remember watching Nathan Leopold on television when he was released from Statesville prison. I asked my Mother who he was and she told me he and another young man had killed a boy name Booby Frank. I became interested in the Crime of the Century and read the books Compulsion as well as Life plus 99 years and the Crime of the Century and now add this book to my collection. You can feel Chicago in 1924 and the hysteria that was to be the trial of two young men who held such promise that summer. The question why still haunts after all these years as does the human toll on the boys families..the Franks, The Leopolds and the Loebs. Babe on his way to Europe and the pride of his family with his intellect and potential for greatness. Dickie..handsome, charming, loved by all who meet him collide with Babe to do the unthinkable for what seemed to be just a thrill. Together they could do what as individuals they could not kidnap and kill a superior crime or so they thought. Darlings of the media who sought their every words and then gleefully waited for the hangman to put his noose around their necks. Enter Clarence Darrow the Old lion who surprises by pleading his clients guilty avoiding a jury trial and pleads for his young clients lives instead. The book covers the crime, the trial and the aftermath.. Babe and Dickie slowly adjusted to prison life and found redemption in the library and taught at the prison. Dickie killed in prison by James Day who was upset that his prison bank account could no longer be funded by the Loebs. Babe would continue the work they started until his parole many years later. Nathan Leopold is often used right or wrongly as an example that a prisoner no matter how heinous the crime can be rehabilitated. The sadness of all this is the greatness both Babe and Dickie might have given the world if not for a seemingly innocent ride in a roadster.

The Leopold and Loeb case brought every conceivable public emotion into play. Mr. Darrow was the preeminent legal mind of the period, these young men were from good wealthy Jewish Chicago families, brought together in a hot summer trial of the century. Thrill killers thought they were smarter than the authorities, proven wrong. Caught within 24 hours by stupidity and fate.