Richard A. Loeb

Wealthy and intellectually brilliant (Leopold had graduated from the University of Chicago at 18, Loeb from the University of Michigan at 17), the two had committed several petty acts of theft and arson before attempting the "perfect murder"--in the kidnap of Bobbie FRANKS in a rented automobile on May 21, 1924, on Chicago's south side; Loeb, the more ruthless of the two, hit the boy on the head with a chisel and stuffed a gag in his mouth; the boy died within minutes. They half-buried the body in a railway culvert and, by phone and notes, demanded $10,000 in ransom from the boy's wealthy parents. The body, however, was unexpectedly found, and several clues, including the discovery of Leopold's eyeglasses at the culvert, led the police to Leopold and Loeb. They quickly confessed.

Pleading guilty, they were defended in a bench trial by famed lawyer Clarence DARROW, who secured them life imprisonment rather than execution. Son of Sear & Roebuck vice president. (Encyclopedia Judaica XI p. 441.)

Daniel E. LOEB