Part of the plan was the creation of Morton D. Ballard and Louis Mason.
They had decided they would need a car for the crime. Nathan's car was bright red- too noticable. Loeb's car was smashed up. Stealing a car would be too risky. So they decided to rent a car.
Of course, they would not rent a car using their real names. They needed anonymity for their perfect crime. Thus, the creation of Morton D. Ballard.
First. Rent a room at the Morrison Hotel under the name Morton D Ballard. Tell them to hold any mail you may recieve. This task was accomplished on May_____ by Richard Loeb, while Nathan sat outside in his car. Loeb checked in, went to the room (he brought a suitcase along. To give the suitcase added weight, he tossed in some books- they were library books from the University of Chicago- they had his name in them.) Loeb stayed in the room for what he considered a reasonable ammount of time, left the suitcase, and rejoined Nathan outside.
They then drove to the Hyde Park State Bank. This was Loeb's bank, the same bank at which that morning he had withdrawn $100.29 for their plans. Leopold went in to the bank and opened up a checking account as Morton D Ballard. He used the Morrison Hotel as his address, and deposited $100. The bank clerk seemed unnerved by Mr Ballard and made a note "watch for uncollected funds".Secure with their address and their bank account, they then went to the Rent a Car in Joliet. Loeb got out across the street at a drugstore. Nathan asked to rent a Willis Knight and presented his identification, including references. The car rental clerk called the reference- Louis Mason, who was really Richard Loeb at the drugstore. Leopold provided his friend's phone number, actualy the drugstore phone number. Loeb, aka "Mason", assured the rental clerk that "Ballard" was thoroughly reliable. They were given the car, drove it around for a few hours, and returned it. Leopold asked that an ID card be sent to his address at the Morrison hotel, so that he would have no trouble renting a car the next time he was in town. (Morton D Ballard was a travelling salesman who worked for the Chick Manufacturing company).
The next day Loeb returned to the hotel to see if Mr Ballard had recieved any mail. He hadn't. Loeb went to the room, and found the suitcase missing. He panicked and left without paying the bill.
He and Leopold then moved on to the Trenier hotel where Leopold told the clerk he had planned to stay there but had a change of plans. Could they please hold any mail for Morton D Ballard? They agreed. They then phoned the Rent a Car and asked that the ID card be sent to Trenier instead.
Leopold and Loeb also mailed a few joke letters to the Trenier, yet no mail ever arrived for them there either.
On the day of the crime however, the clerk remembered Mr Ballard and there was no problem in their securing the car again.
The Perfect kidnaping of Charlie Ross
Leopold and Loeb created another identity for their kidnaper; George Johnson. George Johnson was the name of the man perportedly to have kidnaped Charlie Ross in the 1800's, a "perfect" crime that had interested Richard Loeb very much.
And I My Lord, May I say Nothing?
Pierre Louys told a story of how two of Oscar Wilde's friends, Alfred Taylor and Charles Mason, performed marriage ceremony together.
When Dick Loeb and Nathan Leopold needed to create a 'friend' for their fictitious Morton D Ballard, the name they choose was Louis Mason. Alfred Taylor was tried alongside Oscar Wilde in the Old Bailey, charded with procusing boys for Wilde, for running, as the Judge said, "a kind of male brothel." Taylor and Wilde were both sentenced to the maximum two years hard labor, a sentence, said the Judge, "totally inadequate for such a case as this."
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