'Til Murder Do Us Part: 15 Couples Who Killed (Volume Two)
One killer is horrible, but two--words cannot even begin to describe the horror that two killers can bring. In fact, there's only one thing worse: two killers in love!
This book profiles 15 couples you'd never want to go on a double date with!
This is volume 2 of the popular series!
This book profiles 15 couples you'd never want to go on a double date with!
This is volume 2 of the popular series!
Buy Now!
|
'Til Murder Do Us Part 2 PDF and ePub |
Excerpt
Introduction
The only thing more fascinating than one killer is two killers working in tandem. One psychopath spreading fear and death is frightening enough, but two maniacs working together is a nightmare.
The fascination with such tag teams of death only grows when romance and sex are thrown into the mix. When a pair of lovers decides to start murdering for fun or profit, we get scared, repelled, and curious at the same time. The interest in deadly couples is hardly new.
Leopold and Loeb made headlines in the 1920s and inspired a popular play as early as 1929. The Long Island Borgia case involving Frances Creighton and Everett Appelgate made headlines coast to coast in 1936. The Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, still sell newspapers in Britain nearly 50 years after their killing spree came to an end.
The interest in Deadly Couples seems to grow, because new killer pairs turn up and start making headlines every year. Murder will always be more fascinating when two people are involved.
A Legendary Killer Couple: Leopold and Loeb
Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb became the most famous gay killer couple because of their cold blooded crime and the protection that their families’ wealth and influence gave them. As Leopold and Loeb, the two became infamous, possibly because their behaviors flew in the face of the social conventions of their day. The two also kidnapped and murdered a young boy for their own amusement.
In the nearly 90 years since it occurred, the Leopold and Loeb case has spawned a vast amount of interest, including two classic films and numerous books. It’s easy to see why there’s so much fascination with Leopold and Loeb – the case unfurled against a colorful backdrop the Prohibition Era of Chicago of the 1920s. The case was widely covered in the media; it involved the most colorful and famous celebrity lawyer in American history and touched on all sorts of social and political issues.
The case was almost a microcosm of the social and political tensions lurking beneath the surface of 1920s America. The issues it touched on included homosexuality, Prohibition, wild nightlife, the class system, extremes of wealth and poverty, the death penalty, political and judicial corruption, hostility towards science and education, antagonism towards foreigners, and anti-Semitism (both defendants were Jewish).
The Intellectual Machine and the Playboy
Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb were young men from wealthy Jewish families in Chicago. Leopold had a high IQ and was considered something of a prodigy. He was the nation’s leading authority on a bird called the Kirtland Warbler, and some accounts indicate that he could speak as many as 10 languages. Leopold was also cold, aloof, and arrogant, and his attorney, Clarence Darrow, described him as an “intellectual machine”.
Leopold was obsessed with the philosophy of the German writer Frederic Nietzsche. In particular, he was fascinated by Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman, a being so intelligent that he could transcend emotions and was not bound by normal moral conventions.
Richard Loeb was the lazy no-account son of Albert Loeb, the vice president of Sears Roebuck and one of the richest and most respected businessmen in America. Unlike Leopold, who was driven and brilliant, Loeb was lazy and more interested in the nightlife and card playing than his studies. By the early 1920s, Loeb was already committing petty crimes for thrills. At college, Loeb was a stereotypical fraternity boy who spent his time drinking and hanging out with his buddies.
Intense Love and Murder
Leopold and Loeb both met at the University of Chicago where they were under aged students. Both were considered bright, but they also developed an intense relationship with each other. They were so close that when Leopold transferred from the University of Chicago to the University of Michigan, Loeb followed him. After graduation, the two returned to Chicago to go to law school.
It was back in Chicago that the two privileged young men who had no history of violent crime committed an unspeakable act. On May 21, 1924, the two drove up to Robert (or Bobby) Franks, the 14-year-old son of a Chicago real estate tycoon. The two asked Franks to get in the car and he did.
As soon as he got in the car, the two killed Franks (whom they knew) by bashing in his head with a chisel. They drove to an empty marsh in Indiana that was east of Chicago, stripped Franks naked, dumped hydrochloric acid (a.k.a. “gangland vanishing cream”) on his body to burn off distinguishing features, and stuffed it in a culvert. Leopold made one mistake though. He dropped the clue that would lead police to him, his eyeglasses, next to the body.
Motive is Unknown
Much of the fascination with the Leopold and Loeb case is driven by the fact that the motive for the crime is unknown. Reports don’t say whether Franks was sexually assaulted or not.
Ransom is the best possible motive. Leopold did call Franks’ mother and told her to expect a ransom note. She later received a typed ransom note from George Johnson demanding $10,000 in cash. After murdering a young boy, the two cold blooded monsters tried to extort money from his family. The two might have been seeking funds to pay off Loeb’s gambling debts. Loeb spent a lot of time playing cards in speakeasies controlled by gangsters like Al Capone, and he may have owed money to mobsters.
Despite that obvious motive, other motives were later brought up, including the sexual relationship between Loeb and Leopold and Leopold’s desire to prove his “intellectual superiority”. Leopold’s reading of German philosophy was also pointed to as a motive; in 1924, America was rife with anti-German bigotry. Just a few years earlier during World War I, innocent German-Americans had been lynched by "patriotic" mobs. War-time propaganda even tried to blame the carnage of World War I on Nietzsche and other German philosophers. These theories didn’t stand up to the evidence, which points to a simple and sordid kidnapping for money.
Despite his arrogance, Nathan Leopold Jr. was no criminal genius. He had dropped his eyeglasses next to Bobby Franks’ body. The body was discovered by a workman, and when police examined it, they found the eyeglasses. The eyeglasses were a distinctive custom-made pair sold by just one shop in Chicago. Detectives went to the shop and learned that the glasses had been sold to Leopold.
The evidence enabled the police to get a warrant and search Leopold’s home. They discovered documents written with the same typewriter used to create the ransom note. Leopold and Loeb tried to cover their tracks with the claim that they were out cruising around in Leopold’s car looking for girls. That story fell flat when Leopold’s chauffer testified that the car never left the garage.
The intellectual supermen turned out to be inept criminals who were no match for everyday police detectives. They were arrested almost as soon as police were aware of their involvement, yet it wasn’t Leopold and Loeb’s capture or reprehensible crime that made them famous – it was their trial.
Saved by a Celebrity Attorney
Had Leopold and Loeb been working or middle class individuals with little money; they would have probably been tried, convicted and hanged, and their story long forgotten. Instead, they were saved by Leopold’s father's money, which bought the best defense money could buy.
When his son was arrested, Nathan Leopold Sr. went straight to the most famous attorney in America, Clarence Darrow, and brought his checkbook. Darrow was famous as a crusader for the poor and downtrodden, but he was always willing to help out rich clients that could pay his fees. Darrow took the case for $40,000 (many times the yearly salary of an average American in 1924) and turned it into a crusade against the death penalty.
Darrow employed a clever strategy that has become a common defense in U.S. murder trials to save Leopold and Loeb from hanging. He had the two plead guilty to murder, then appeal to the mercy of the court, or rather Judge John R. Caverly. Caverly was swayed by Darrow’s plea, which was little more than a 12-hour sermon against the death penalty. Darrow also appealed to popular prejudice by blaming philosophy taught at the University for motivating the killing.
Immorality of Leopold and Loeb
Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to life imprisonment for their crimes. Richard Loeb didn’t survive prison; in 1936, an inmate named James Day killed Loeb by slashing him in the neck with a straight razor. Day was never convicted of the crime – his defense was that he was “protecting” himself from Loeb’s homosexual advances.
Nathan Leopold spent 33 years in prison until his release in 1958. In prison, Leopold spent most of his time reading and claimed to have mastered 28 languages. After his release, Leopold moved to Puerto Rico, where he taught at a university and wrote a book about the island’s birds. Leopold died in Puerto Rico in 1971.
Leopold and Loeb have lived on in popular culture as well. Several movies, TV shows, and plays have been based on their case. The most famous are Rope, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948, and 1959’s Compulsion. The two will live on more because of Clarence Darrow’s courtroom theatrics than anything they did.
Bibliography
Linder, Douglas O. "Nathan F. Leopold Jr." n.d. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_LEOP.HTM. Biography Compiled by Law School Faculty Member. 4 May 2013.
—. "Richard Loeb." n.d. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_LOEB.HTM. Biography Compiled by Law School Faculty Member. 4 May 2013.
—. "The Leopold and Loeb Trial: A Brief Account." 1997. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/accountoftrial.html. Account of the Trial. 4 May 2013.
Wikipedia. "Leopold and Loeb." n.d. en.wikipedia.org. Online Encyclopedia Entry. 4 May 2013.
The only thing more fascinating than one killer is two killers working in tandem. One psychopath spreading fear and death is frightening enough, but two maniacs working together is a nightmare.
The fascination with such tag teams of death only grows when romance and sex are thrown into the mix. When a pair of lovers decides to start murdering for fun or profit, we get scared, repelled, and curious at the same time. The interest in deadly couples is hardly new.
Leopold and Loeb made headlines in the 1920s and inspired a popular play as early as 1929. The Long Island Borgia case involving Frances Creighton and Everett Appelgate made headlines coast to coast in 1936. The Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, still sell newspapers in Britain nearly 50 years after their killing spree came to an end.
The interest in Deadly Couples seems to grow, because new killer pairs turn up and start making headlines every year. Murder will always be more fascinating when two people are involved.
A Legendary Killer Couple: Leopold and Loeb
Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb became the most famous gay killer couple because of their cold blooded crime and the protection that their families’ wealth and influence gave them. As Leopold and Loeb, the two became infamous, possibly because their behaviors flew in the face of the social conventions of their day. The two also kidnapped and murdered a young boy for their own amusement.
In the nearly 90 years since it occurred, the Leopold and Loeb case has spawned a vast amount of interest, including two classic films and numerous books. It’s easy to see why there’s so much fascination with Leopold and Loeb – the case unfurled against a colorful backdrop the Prohibition Era of Chicago of the 1920s. The case was widely covered in the media; it involved the most colorful and famous celebrity lawyer in American history and touched on all sorts of social and political issues.
The case was almost a microcosm of the social and political tensions lurking beneath the surface of 1920s America. The issues it touched on included homosexuality, Prohibition, wild nightlife, the class system, extremes of wealth and poverty, the death penalty, political and judicial corruption, hostility towards science and education, antagonism towards foreigners, and anti-Semitism (both defendants were Jewish).
The Intellectual Machine and the Playboy
Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb were young men from wealthy Jewish families in Chicago. Leopold had a high IQ and was considered something of a prodigy. He was the nation’s leading authority on a bird called the Kirtland Warbler, and some accounts indicate that he could speak as many as 10 languages. Leopold was also cold, aloof, and arrogant, and his attorney, Clarence Darrow, described him as an “intellectual machine”.
Leopold was obsessed with the philosophy of the German writer Frederic Nietzsche. In particular, he was fascinated by Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman, a being so intelligent that he could transcend emotions and was not bound by normal moral conventions.
Richard Loeb was the lazy no-account son of Albert Loeb, the vice president of Sears Roebuck and one of the richest and most respected businessmen in America. Unlike Leopold, who was driven and brilliant, Loeb was lazy and more interested in the nightlife and card playing than his studies. By the early 1920s, Loeb was already committing petty crimes for thrills. At college, Loeb was a stereotypical fraternity boy who spent his time drinking and hanging out with his buddies.
Intense Love and Murder
Leopold and Loeb both met at the University of Chicago where they were under aged students. Both were considered bright, but they also developed an intense relationship with each other. They were so close that when Leopold transferred from the University of Chicago to the University of Michigan, Loeb followed him. After graduation, the two returned to Chicago to go to law school.
It was back in Chicago that the two privileged young men who had no history of violent crime committed an unspeakable act. On May 21, 1924, the two drove up to Robert (or Bobby) Franks, the 14-year-old son of a Chicago real estate tycoon. The two asked Franks to get in the car and he did.
As soon as he got in the car, the two killed Franks (whom they knew) by bashing in his head with a chisel. They drove to an empty marsh in Indiana that was east of Chicago, stripped Franks naked, dumped hydrochloric acid (a.k.a. “gangland vanishing cream”) on his body to burn off distinguishing features, and stuffed it in a culvert. Leopold made one mistake though. He dropped the clue that would lead police to him, his eyeglasses, next to the body.
Motive is Unknown
Much of the fascination with the Leopold and Loeb case is driven by the fact that the motive for the crime is unknown. Reports don’t say whether Franks was sexually assaulted or not.
Ransom is the best possible motive. Leopold did call Franks’ mother and told her to expect a ransom note. She later received a typed ransom note from George Johnson demanding $10,000 in cash. After murdering a young boy, the two cold blooded monsters tried to extort money from his family. The two might have been seeking funds to pay off Loeb’s gambling debts. Loeb spent a lot of time playing cards in speakeasies controlled by gangsters like Al Capone, and he may have owed money to mobsters.
Despite that obvious motive, other motives were later brought up, including the sexual relationship between Loeb and Leopold and Leopold’s desire to prove his “intellectual superiority”. Leopold’s reading of German philosophy was also pointed to as a motive; in 1924, America was rife with anti-German bigotry. Just a few years earlier during World War I, innocent German-Americans had been lynched by "patriotic" mobs. War-time propaganda even tried to blame the carnage of World War I on Nietzsche and other German philosophers. These theories didn’t stand up to the evidence, which points to a simple and sordid kidnapping for money.
Despite his arrogance, Nathan Leopold Jr. was no criminal genius. He had dropped his eyeglasses next to Bobby Franks’ body. The body was discovered by a workman, and when police examined it, they found the eyeglasses. The eyeglasses were a distinctive custom-made pair sold by just one shop in Chicago. Detectives went to the shop and learned that the glasses had been sold to Leopold.
The evidence enabled the police to get a warrant and search Leopold’s home. They discovered documents written with the same typewriter used to create the ransom note. Leopold and Loeb tried to cover their tracks with the claim that they were out cruising around in Leopold’s car looking for girls. That story fell flat when Leopold’s chauffer testified that the car never left the garage.
The intellectual supermen turned out to be inept criminals who were no match for everyday police detectives. They were arrested almost as soon as police were aware of their involvement, yet it wasn’t Leopold and Loeb’s capture or reprehensible crime that made them famous – it was their trial.
Saved by a Celebrity Attorney
Had Leopold and Loeb been working or middle class individuals with little money; they would have probably been tried, convicted and hanged, and their story long forgotten. Instead, they were saved by Leopold’s father's money, which bought the best defense money could buy.
When his son was arrested, Nathan Leopold Sr. went straight to the most famous attorney in America, Clarence Darrow, and brought his checkbook. Darrow was famous as a crusader for the poor and downtrodden, but he was always willing to help out rich clients that could pay his fees. Darrow took the case for $40,000 (many times the yearly salary of an average American in 1924) and turned it into a crusade against the death penalty.
Darrow employed a clever strategy that has become a common defense in U.S. murder trials to save Leopold and Loeb from hanging. He had the two plead guilty to murder, then appeal to the mercy of the court, or rather Judge John R. Caverly. Caverly was swayed by Darrow’s plea, which was little more than a 12-hour sermon against the death penalty. Darrow also appealed to popular prejudice by blaming philosophy taught at the University for motivating the killing.
Immorality of Leopold and Loeb
Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to life imprisonment for their crimes. Richard Loeb didn’t survive prison; in 1936, an inmate named James Day killed Loeb by slashing him in the neck with a straight razor. Day was never convicted of the crime – his defense was that he was “protecting” himself from Loeb’s homosexual advances.
Nathan Leopold spent 33 years in prison until his release in 1958. In prison, Leopold spent most of his time reading and claimed to have mastered 28 languages. After his release, Leopold moved to Puerto Rico, where he taught at a university and wrote a book about the island’s birds. Leopold died in Puerto Rico in 1971.
Leopold and Loeb have lived on in popular culture as well. Several movies, TV shows, and plays have been based on their case. The most famous are Rope, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948, and 1959’s Compulsion. The two will live on more because of Clarence Darrow’s courtroom theatrics than anything they did.
Bibliography
Linder, Douglas O. "Nathan F. Leopold Jr." n.d. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_LEOP.HTM. Biography Compiled by Law School Faculty Member. 4 May 2013.
—. "Richard Loeb." n.d. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/LEO_LOEB.HTM. Biography Compiled by Law School Faculty Member. 4 May 2013.
—. "The Leopold and Loeb Trial: A Brief Account." 1997. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/leoploeb/accountoftrial.html. Account of the Trial. 4 May 2013.
Wikipedia. "Leopold and Loeb." n.d. en.wikipedia.org. Online Encyclopedia Entry. 4 May 2013.
