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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two young rich boys (18 and 17 and already college graduates), who thought they were smart enough to commit the perfect crime. In 1924, they kidnapped, and killed, a 14 year old boy named Bobby Franks, just for fun. Leopold left his glasses at the scene of the crime, and both boys soon confessed to the crime.
Their lawyer, Clarence Darrow, had the boys plead guilty. He then went on to argue that the boys should not be put to death, but should get life in prison. A mob rioted, in protest. In his closing arguments, Darrow said that the public wanted the boys executed because they were rich. He made many other aguments, including his personal belief that capital punishment was wrong, and including the fact that no one that young had ever been executed in Illinois (where the crime took place). In the end, Leopold and Loeb were sentenced to life plus 99 years.