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New York Evening Post Friday, May 23, 1924.
Abnormal Criminal Sought as Poisoner of Kidnaped Youth Horn Rimmed Spectacles Found near Body of Robert Franks Expexted to lead to arrest. Slayer Cultures, say police:Scholl instructors Quizzed Fellow Pupils of Millionaire's Dead son Helping Authorities-Think Assailant was known to victim Chicago-May 23. Clues leading both to high culture and to abnormal criminality mystified police, who are trying to solve the kidnaping, murder, and attempt of ransom of Robert Franks, Fourteen , son of Jacob Franks, millionaire Chicago manufacturer. Franks started to walk three blocks to his home late Wednesday, after umpiring a ball game at the ewxclusive Harvard School, and was not seen again until his body was found, nude and bruised, under a culvert several miles away.The Franks Murder occured on May 21st, 1924. The story broke across the country on May 23. |
Fail to Trace Phone Call
The injunction about tracing calls was disregarded, but their source was not located. Next morning about the time the body was discovered, the damily received a letter, evidently written by a well educated person demanding $10,000 ransom.
Chief of Detectives Hughes and Samuel A. Ettelson, former city corporation counsel, agreed on the participation of a person of abnormal mentality in the crime.
"There is no question in my mind but that the boy was enticed away by someone he knew very well on leaving school wednesday," said Cheif Hughes.
When the owner of a pair of horn rimmed spectacles found near the body has been discovered one of the murderers will, in all probability, have been discovered, Cheif Hughes said. The spectacles did not belong to the boy, but are of small size.
Police are enliosting the help of Franks schoolmates in the hunt for his slayer. Irvin Hartman, eleven, said he saw the boy leave the school Wednesday and saw a big grey automobile standing at the curbing.When he looked again, Irvin said, the car was starting but Robert was not in sight.
Instructor questioned
Richard P Williams, athletic instructor at the school, which is a fashionable private institution, when questioned, said he left the school about 4"45 PM Wednesday in company with Thomas Skillman, a pupil. He said he went to the Skillman home, where he remained during the evening.
Mott Kirk Mitchell, English instructor, said he left the school after 4"15PM and went to his home.
Neither Williams nor Mitchell knew anything of the movements of the Franks boy after he left rhe ball grounds, they said.
Three small bottles founf in the home of Williams, the athletiuc instructor, were seized.
Dead before Letter was Written
Dr Springer said he believed the ransom letter was not written until 2 AM Thursday. This was about nine hours after the boy disappeared. He said close examination of the body indicated that the boy was dead a 9 o clock Wednesday night, before the letter was written.
Dr W D McNally, coroner's chemist, examined the boy's vital organs todat and announced that the discoloration of the lips might indicate poison. He said there was some indication of the presence of acid in the stomach.
"From present indications I am inclined to believe this was the cause oif death," he said.
The physicians believe a sponge was saturated with acid and pressed to the boy's mouth.
Chauffeur Not Held
Seven hours after the body had been found an attempt was made ro collect the demanded ransom. A taxicab was sent to the Franks home, the driver insisting that he had no instructions except to call for Mr Franks who was to direct him where to ho. Charles Robinsin, driver of the cab, told detectives last night rhe person oerdering the taxicab represented himself to be Franks. Robinson was allowed to go after questioning.
Letter of Kidnapers.
The letter sent to the Franks home read as follows;
Rewards totaling $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the boy's slayer have been offered. The boy's father offered $5000 and a smiliar offer was made by the Chicago Herald and Examiner.
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The Leopold and Loeb case was a national story in 1924. As a result, almost every daily at the time will have coverage., often AP articles and news off the wire. Many libraries keep local papers on microfilm and larger city and college libraries will have copies of the more national papers, like the New York Times. |
July 17th, 1924. New York Times
HAD LOEB'S BROTHER ON LIST OF VICTIMS.
Slayers of Franks Feared by Families Who Do Not Want Them Freed
CHICAGO- July 16- Nathan F Leopod Jr and Richard A Loeb, awaiting trial on Aug 4 for kidnaping and slaying Robert Franks, once considered Ernest Loeb, the eleven year old brother of Richard, as a victim of their search for a thrill, according to defense attorneys.
"For this reason there is no one who wants to see the boys freed." Clarence Darrow, chief of counsil for the defense, said today. "The family and lawyers are actually afraid of the boys and it is for the sake of society that the parents fo not want the boys freed."
The theory of the defense, it is indicated, after numerous examinations by alienists and experts have been completed, is that the killing of the Franks boy was in response to an irresistable mandate of two coincidentally insane impulses. The victim was merely a subject for an emotional experiment in the eyes of the youths, defense attorneys and their alienists say.
LOEB SLAYER, HE ADMITS
July 19, 1924. The New York Times
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Chicago Church Federation Protests Proposed Trial Broadcasting CHICAGO- July 18- Richard A Loeb has admitted that he was the actual slayer of Robert Franks, the Chicago Herald and Examiner said tonight. Loeb and Leopold made nearly identical confessions except that each said he drove the automobile while the other did the killing. The newspaper said that Loeb, learning the penalty was the same regardless of whether he drove the car or struck the fateal blows, admitted being the murderer.
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The proposal of a Chicago newspaper to broadcast by radio the proceedings in the trial of Leopold and Loeb was severely criticised by the Chicago Church Federation today, while Judge Denis E Sullivan and Judge Philip L Sullivan of the Executive Committee of the Circuit and Superior Courts declared such a course might cause a reversal of any verdict renderred.
Loeb Turns "Teacher"
Millionaire's Son, in Prison Garb, Gives Negro Writing Lesson.
Leopold Still Hard and Reserved; Ignores Bullpen Ball Game.
The Chicago Daily News, 3 June 1924
A polite, soft-spoken white boy, in the brown dungarees of a prisoner, leaned over a table in the county jail schoolroom to-day guiding the hand of an untutored young Negro through a writing lesson.
The white boy was Richard Loeb; the Negro was one of the hundred-odd minors who are to be table companions and playmates of Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr., in the jail. Loeb was giving the writing lesson as a way of breaking into the routine of jail life.
Leopold, prouder and more self-centered, didn't take the shock of their first day in jail so graciously. While Loeb sat in Miss Florence Scully's dreary little classroom, winning the teacher's favor with his politeness and consideration, Leopold sat by himself in the "bullpen," reading a paper while a game of indoor baseball went on.
Loeb Loses Street Clothes
For both boys the first day was a hard one. Loeb had to give up his natty clothes, for he had picked up vermin in some police cell room. Leopold, luckier, so far, kept his own clothes.
They slept in the crowded receiving ward within a few feet of the gallows chamber to which State's Attorney Crowe had sworn to send them for the murder of little Robert Franks. Tough lads from city areas far different from gracious Hyde Park were their roommates through the first night in jail and their companions in the depressing routine of the first long, long day.
The hardness of jail beds, the roughness of jail blankets, the horrible heaviness of jail air-- they learned about those things to-day, and from them seemed to get a fuller realization of their prospects.
"I feel creepy in here," Loeb admitted. Leopold, darkly sullen, had nothing to say, but he showed his distress.
Help "Police" Wardroom
They were out of their hard, lumpy cots at 6 a.m.-- an unholy hour by the standards they knew in their luxurious lives as the sons of millionaires. They didn't have to eat the Spartan jail breakfast-- food was delivered to them from the outside-- but with various "Rats" and "Spikes" and "Gips" they had to police up the wardroom and make the beds.
They found themselves the objects of rather scornful curiosity, but their fellow prisoners treated them as no better than themselves. They had to do their bit of the common work.
At 8:30, the wardroom clean and the air heavy with the odor of mop water, they were sent up for examination by the jail physician. From 8:30 to 11:30 the "regulars" have exercise in the "bullpen," but Loeb and Leopold, as new prisoners, had to go through a few formalities first.
The dinner hour was 11:30. Then at 1:30 came another "bullpen" period, lasting until 3:30. After that, its back to the cells again.
Both Paired With Robbers
The two killers were assigned to cells in the juveniles' section of the jail to-day. Warden Westbrook assigned cell 717 to Loeb, with Edward Donker, a youngster charged with three robberies, as bunkmate. Leopold's assignment was cell 604. His elected buddy is Thomas Doherty, 17, an alleged robber.
The slayers were transferred to the jail at 5:30 o'clock last evening in accordance with the order of Judge Caverly which released them from the custody of the police, denied them bond, and ordered them to the sheriff's care.
Lilies are Sent to Leopold
A mysterious "Jane" sent large boxes of white lillies to Nathan Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb this afternoon and with them notes of ambiguous wording.
"I think these are most appropriate in view of the outlook," read the note from "Jane" to Loeb.
"Will send you a sheaf of these when the trial is over. Jane." the card in Leopold's box read.
The flowers were delivered to Sheriff Hoffman's office in the county building and brought by an office boy tothe Criminal court building. Since jail rules forbid prisoners having flowers, the sheriff impounded them.
Leopold Shows That Pine Warbler Exists Most Elusive of Its Family Is Found and Tamed by Murder Suspect.
The Chicago Daily News, 2 June 1924
It is a sort of extra sense that protects the wild creatures on the fringe of a menacing civilization-- an instinct unerring, unexplainable. Experts of the Audubon society recalled this to-day as they displayed portions of one of the most remarkable moving pictures of bird life ever filmed. To one unacquainted with such things the reel, which was released from the files of the Michigan state department of natural history, is merely a picture of a student feeding little birds which hop about on his hands and fly fearlessly about his head. But the plot of this film has a dramatic development, an almost uncanny atmostphere and a real climax. The crank turns. The little bird in the picture is the rarest of the American warblers, the Kirtland or pine warbler, a mite of a thing which has constantly refused to become reconciled to man. The habitat of the pine warbler is waste and of the type upon which the works of man are constantly encroaching and of recent years the bird has become so fugitive a creature, so shy even in its maturity, that its very existence has been questioned.
Thought It Exterminated.
Many ornithologists until a year ago inclined to the theory that the bird had joined those other creatures of American wilds exterminated or at best in a desperate last stand against our merciless civilization. And then came a student to the scrub pine districts of Michigan to set aside the myths of the pine warbler and to accomplish what science had believed impossible. This student was more than an ornithologist, as his accomplishments speedily proved. Alone among the dunes of the pack-pine wastes of Montmorency county he wandered by day and camped by night listening for the seldom-heard song of this most secretive of American birds. Ten months ago, he located a nest. The birds, which, according to theory, should have disappeared at the approach of man, flew out and looked at the interloper inquisitively. He fed them, examined their home and looked at their young.
Goes for Camerman.
The next day he went back to a camp of the Michigan natural history department and brought back cameramen and a moving picture outfit. He stood by convincing the skeptical birds that no harm was intended by the intrusion on their privacy, keeping their confidence even while the camera clicked out 1,000 feet of film. During the making of the picture the parent birds ate out of the student's hand or sat on his shoulder loooking perkily at the camerman. The ornithologists with the party stood amazed at the performance despite the old and tired theory that instinct protects the wild creatures and that a sense sharper than that of humans apprises birds of a kind and sympathetic nature. So much for the picture. The student who won the confidence of the pine warblers, who stood the test of their uncanny penetration, was Nathan Leopold, facing the hangman's noose for the murder of a little boy.
Slayers Write Kin of Hope of Future
Loeb Tells Mother He Seeks Salvation; Leopold Sees Enormity of His Crime.
The Chicago Daily News, 15 September 1924, by James W. Mulroy.
Joliet, Ill., Sept. 15-- Sobered by prison life, "Dickie" Loeb and "Babe" Leopold wrote their first letters to an outside world to-day and agreed that Joliet was doing them a world of good.
"Dickie's" letter was to his mother, Mrs. Albert Loeb at Charlevoix, Mich.
"Confinement is doing me a world of good," he wrote. "I got down on my knees last night and prayed to God to give me strength and goodness. I am trying to find God, at last. Prison life, I think, will help me to become a good man."
Realizes Crime's Enormity
"I have come to realize for the first time the real enormity of my crime," his note said.
"Last night another prisoner lent me a book, and I hope to read many volumes here. I think that prison will make a new man of me. Anyway, I am entering this new life hoping to get all the best out of it."
Each prisoner was allowed only one sheet of writing paper. They are not permitted tor write agin until two weeks from to-day. The boys covered both sides of the rude stationery with closely scrawled writing.
A letter from Foreman Leopold, "Babe's" brother, arrrived this morning, and after reading it Warden Whitman said that he would give it to his prisoner some time this evening. At noon to-day the boys were permitted to talk to Rabbi David Rosenbaum, who visited the prison.
Old Timers Sneer at Slayers.
The boys so far have created a favorable impression upon every one in the jail except a few hard-boiled old-timers, who sneer at their youth and culture. These worthies call them "pikers."
"Model prisoners."
And that was the description tersely given them by Capt. C.A. Bigsford, deputy warden.
The jibe "pikers" came from a group of mature murderers-- men who never heard of psychoses and never slept with teddy bears-- like Walter Stevens and Dick Rosenbaum and Jerry Conners-- mostly men who received their sentences before psychiatry joined the law to produce mitigation.
The "model prisoners" appelation came equally sincerely. Capt. Bigsford had watched the boys very carefully over the week end. He said to-day that in his opinion they were sincerely endeavoring to behave and that he expected they would continue to be respectful, obedient and willing.
"They have the right idea," he said. "Prison to any man is what he makes it. These boys will come out clean."
All Frills Removed.
The boys really began prison life to-day. Heretofore it had been something of a rehearsal. The novelty took the edge off routine and the red tape of entrance consumed weary hours. But to-day all the frills were off. "Babe" and "Dickie" got to work.
No more visitors are on their calling list for some time. They are far off the beaten track, not available to casual observation.
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