Leopold and Loeb: The 1924 Crime of the Century

Two wealthy, prodigy-level teenagers from Chicago's elite Kenwood neighborhood threw everything away to commit what they believed would be the perfect crime, simply to prove they were smarter than everyone else. This episode examines the 1924 kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, a case the press dubbed the crime of the century. We trace their toxic dynamic, fueled by Leopold's distorted reading of Nietzsche's Superman and Loeb's compulsive thrill-seeking.After seven months of obsessive planning, the pair lured Bobby into a rented car and killed him, yet their meticulous scheme unraveled within 24 hours. A pair of custom-hinged eyeglasses dropped at the scene led police straight to Leopold. Legendary attorney Clarence Darrow, a fierce opponent of capital punishment, pleaded them guilty and delivered an eight-hour summation that helped spare their lives, making the case a landmark in the debate over mercy and the death penalty.How a shared delusion removed the moral guardrails for both young menThe escalation from cheating at bridge to burglary, arson, and murderThe custom eyeglass hinge that cracked the case openDarrow's strategy of pleading guilty to remove the jury entirelyLoeb's violent prison death and Leopold's complicated later life