American Monsters: Leopold and Loeb
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening. Now.
Speaker 2: True Crime with the dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange in the darkly comic. A podcast that's about
Speaker 2: more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension,
Speaker 2: home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories,
Speaker 2: the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it
Speaker 2: all just so long as it's kind of murdery. Hello, everybody,
Speaker 2: welcome to Kind of Murdery. I'm your host, Zevin Odelberg.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes people think that our predilection for and
Speaker 2: the media's predilection for hyperbole is a modern thing, fueled
Speaker 2: by social media and the Internet and the twenty four
Speaker 2: hour news cycle, et cetera. But the truth is Americans
Speaker 2: have nearly always had a lot of affair with hyperbole,
Speaker 2: with exaggeration. In fact, there are three different trials that
Speaker 2: the media dubbed the Trial of the Century and that
Speaker 2: are often referred to by legal scholars as the Trial
Speaker 2: of the Century. What's a little bit funny as it
Speaker 2: relates to our love affair with exaggeration is that all
Speaker 2: three of these trials took place within a decade of
Speaker 2: each other, two of them within a year of each other.
Speaker 2: Perhaps they should have been competing for Trial of the Decade,
Speaker 2: but indeed the stakes were high and the participants famous.
Speaker 2: The three trials I'm referring to, of course, nineteen twenty
Speaker 2: four's Leopold and Loeb case, nineteen twenty five's John Scopes
Speaker 2: monkey trial, and nineteen thirty four's Lindbergh baby trial for
Speaker 2: a triplet of trials of the century that all happened
Speaker 2: within a decade of each other. These cases are all
Speaker 2: very different. Two of them, however, have one key thing
Speaker 2: in common. Famous, or perhaps, depending on who you ask,
Speaker 2: infamous defense attorney Clarence Darrow would defer the accused in
Speaker 2: both the Leopold and Loeb case and the John Scopes
Speaker 2: monkey trial. The crimes themselves were wildly unlike. However, Leopold
Speaker 2: and Lobe were accused of horrific child murder with a chisel,
Speaker 2: no less, John Scopes of teaching evolutionary science to his students.
Speaker 2: If you're wondering which trial we're going to cover today,
Speaker 2: this is kind of murdery. So it will not be
Speaker 2: the John Scopes evolution trial. We are, in fact going
Speaker 2: to wade into what some still consider to be the
Speaker 2: most notorious crime in American history, the Chicago Horror. Leopold
Speaker 2: and Lobe kind of murdery starts now. It was a
Speaker 2: pleasant sunny spring afternoon in Chicago on May twenty first,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty four, and fourteen year old Robert Franks was
Speaker 2: on his way home from school. He made the kind
Speaker 2: of progress that alloy in that era would make on
Speaker 2: a day like this. There were steam shovels to inspect,
Speaker 2: baseball games to be umpired, new bikes to be tried out.
Speaker 2: He didn't return home right away, well so what that
Speaker 2: was to be expected, and certainly no cause for alarm.
Speaker 2: His parents had learned to accept with patience his boyish
Speaker 2: refusals to return home on time. If Robert's parents were
Speaker 2: worried at all, it was only that he make at
Speaker 2: home in time for dinner, and in this duty Robert rarely,
Speaker 2: if ever failed. The Franks were a wealthy family who
Speaker 2: lived in a large mansion and employed a live in
Speaker 2: serving staff. At a little after six o'clock that evening,
Speaker 2: mister Frank sent two of the house servants in search
Speaker 2: of his prodigal son. During their absence, father and mother
Speaker 2: sat down to supper, and, with a few quiet words,
Speaker 2: agreed upon the plan of further impressing upon their youthful
Speaker 2: wanderer the importance of being prompt and responsible. By seven o'clock,
Speaker 2: their anxiety had developed into profound worry. Missus Franks begged
Speaker 2: her husband to inquire into the reasons for Robert's prolonged absence.
Speaker 2: She worried that something might have happened to him, but
Speaker 2: mister Franks was inclined to regard it lightly. He sought
Speaker 2: to dispel her doubts with the suggestion that Robert might
Speaker 2: have gone to a playmate's house and been persuaded to
Speaker 2: remain there for supper. But I'm sure he would call me,
Speaker 2: persisted the mother. Mister Franks put on his coat and
Speaker 2: hat and strode out the door of his massive home
Speaker 2: in search of the air to his million. While mister
Speaker 2: Franks was out, the servants returned. They were empty handed.
Speaker 2: Robert had left the Harvard School, a private boys institution
Speaker 2: located four blocks away, at the regular hour of dismissal.
Speaker 2: This they had gleaned from the boys and groups of
Speaker 2: girls still playing in the neighboring streets. Despite inquiring from
Speaker 2: door to door, they found out nothing further. Robert, by
Speaker 2: all appearances, had simply and completely disappeared. The lines on
Speaker 2: missus Frank's face deepened. She began to pace the floor
Speaker 2: for one whom Riches dispelled. All domestic details in difficult
Speaker 2: Missus Frank suddenly became conscious of them. Previously, the telephone
Speaker 2: had been well, perhaps just a means of communication, a
Speaker 2: convenient household equipment, and more often a necessary nuisance. She
Speaker 2: looked at it hungrily. Would it bring news of Robert?
Speaker 2: Perhaps it was out of order. She picked it up,
Speaker 2: lifted the receiver, and heard the operators reassuring soprano greeting.
Speaker 2: So the telephone was working, but why didn't somebody call?
Speaker 2: She studied the great oak door that led out into
Speaker 2: a spacious area that was more like a palace portico
Speaker 2: than a porch. Who would be the first to come
Speaker 2: through that door? Her son? Her husband? She gasped, Would
Speaker 2: it be an ambulance attendant? At the thought, Missus Frank
Speaker 2: swayed and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
Speaker 2: The servants rushed to her. Her limp form was carried
Speaker 2: to a sofa, and trembling hands worked over it. Down
Speaker 2: the block, Jacob Franks was ringing the bell at the
Speaker 2: door of Samuel Edleston, Corporation Council for the City of Chicago,
Speaker 2: and a warm friend of Frank's. They were confidences, and
Speaker 2: as soon as he was admitted to the house, mister
Speaker 2: Franks informed her friend of the undue absence of his son,
Speaker 2: But Jacob remonstrated, mister Edelson, it isn't yet nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're over anxious about this. Come. Chances are
Speaker 2: Robbi's decided to see a movie twice through. No. No,
Speaker 2: The father was sure he knew his son Robert wouldn't
Speaker 2: do this. No, he's never absent in himself without a
Speaker 2: word of explanation, nothing like this. I'm worried. Put your
Speaker 2: hat on, we'll take a walk and look around. The
Speaker 2: two sauntered off, one of the pair occasionally halted a
Speaker 2: passing boy. Have you seen my son Robert? No, mister,
Speaker 2: I ain't seen him, as he lost. They moved on,
Speaker 2: the friend consoling and the father unconsolable. Have you seen Robert?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: The question began to burn. The voice quivered. The boys
Speaker 2: were blunt with their answers. It was nope or uh uh,
Speaker 2: and just a shake of the head. Darkness was beginning
Speaker 2: to envelop the streets. Gradually, mister Edelson was forced to
Speaker 2: agree with Jacob Franks. The situation was serious. From that
Speaker 2: hour on, the situation for mister Franks was to be
Speaker 2: more than serious. It was to be a star and
Speaker 2: haunting tragedy, a tragedy that no friend smiles, comfort or
Speaker 2: pity could soften, tragedy that would slay him by torturous degrees.
Speaker 2: An hour more of tireless tramping around found mister Franks
Speaker 2: and his friend before the darkened windows of the Harvard School.
Speaker 2: A suspicion that perhaps Robert Franks might, under certain unexplainable circumstances,
Speaker 2: have been locked in the school building occurred to both men,
Speaker 2: and they tried various doors, but with no avail. Not
Speaker 2: to be frustrated so easily, they decided upon an unconventional
Speaker 2: method of injury. Here is where the story does something
Speaker 2: that we call crossing the rubicon. The disappearance of Robert
Speaker 2: Franks is no longer a private matter, a forgettable family incident.
Speaker 2: By virtue of the fact that a prominent millionaire and
Speaker 2: a senior public official climbed through the window of a
Speaker 2: school building at night, the case of missing boy Robert
Speaker 2: Franks became news, but not yet. For now. We stay
Speaker 2: with the panicked father and his friend as they wearily
Speaker 2: search for the young boy. Eventually they give up on
Speaker 2: the school. They had covered every room, they had shouted
Speaker 2: and called, until the tremor of fear in their voices
Speaker 2: gave back such mournful echoes that they became silent and depressed.
Speaker 2: They departed from the building and made their way to
Speaker 2: mister Frank's home, hopeful, though discouraged, apprehensive, and yet totally
Speaker 2: unprepared for the shock that was to greet them. Why
Speaker 2: are all the lights on, said mister Franks as they
Speaker 2: mounted the steps. I'll bet your long lost son has
Speaker 2: returned to the fold, Mister Edison ventured, but they were
Speaker 2: met with a state of affairs that nearly sent the
Speaker 2: father reeling. The occupants of the house were panic stricken,
Speaker 2: and their hysterical explanations unintelligible. Missus Franks was dangerously ill, stammering,
Speaker 2: the maid managed to share that there had been a
Speaker 2: telephone call. It had come while mister Franks was out.
Speaker 2: The atmosphere of the home was charged with excitement. Who
Speaker 2: leaded the frantic father, searching the eyes about him. Uh A,
Speaker 2: mister Johnson, the maid stuttered, Robert has been kidnapped. Such
Speaker 2: was the beginning of the end. Life for the Frank's
Speaker 2: family had been a sweet, happy existence before this day.
Speaker 2: Henceforth it was a process of dying and dying broken hearted.
Speaker 2: All the days of their lives were bound up in
Speaker 2: the bright, affectionate character of their son, Robert. Mister Edelson
Speaker 2: took charge of affairs when Missus Franks had recovered her
Speaker 2: composure sufficiently to speak, He questioned her concerning the phone call.
Speaker 2: When she lifted the receiver, a strange voice answered her
Speaker 2: by name and said, this is mister Johnson speaking. As
Speaker 2: you probably understand, your son has been kidnapped. You can
Speaker 2: be sure no harm will come to him. Robert has
Speaker 2: been stolen for ransom. Tomorrow morning you will get complete
Speaker 2: instructions for the drop. The voice ceased abruptly, and Missus
Speaker 2: Franks went limp. Efforts were made to trace the call,
Speaker 2: but the connection had been broken long before telephone authorities
Speaker 2: could be advised. A doctor was summoned to the bedside
Speaker 2: of the boy's mother, and the father and mister Edison
Speaker 2: began to talk it over. I believe it's a prank,
Speaker 2: suggested mister Edison consolingly. I hope to God, murmured his friend.
Speaker 2: I hope to God you're right, but I'm afraid not. Oh,
Speaker 2: I am afraid not. The best thing we can do,
Speaker 2: I believe is see the police, said mister Edelson. I'd
Speaker 2: rather not. Mister Franks objected, I believe Robert is in
Speaker 2: a serious predicament. To employ the police might jeopardize his life.
Speaker 2: We'd better wait till morning for the letter. Sam murmured
Speaker 2: Robert's father in a startlingly different voice. Do you do
Speaker 2: you think Robert is dead? The friend, a wonderful friend,
Speaker 2: met the question masterfully. Come now, Jacob, your nerves are
Speaker 2: running away with you. Listen. The police have every facility
Speaker 2: for tracing Bobby. Now's the time to put them to work.
Speaker 2: If we wait, we take unnecessary chances. If we strike
Speaker 2: back swiftly, everything will be in our favor. Here, here's
Speaker 2: your coat, let's be off. Mister Franks and mister Edelson
Speaker 2: drove directly to the Detective Bureau at one eighty North
Speaker 2: La Saul Street. It was a gloomy, dingy structure, laden
Speaker 2: with the dust of the streets. Three reporters inside were
Speaker 2: on duty, one from the City Press, another from the
Speaker 2: Chicago Tribune, and a third from the Chicago Herald Examiner.
Speaker 2: Chief of Detective Michael Hughes, known to his friends and
Speaker 2: admires go get a mic was in his office. Well
Speaker 2: hello there, Sam, he greeted, when he caught sight of
Speaker 2: mister Edison. What are you doing in a place like
Speaker 2: this at this time of night? Chief retorted the visitor solemnly.
Speaker 2: This is mister Franks, president of the Rockford Watch Company.
Speaker 2: You know him. Of course, something terrible's happened to a
Speaker 2: mister Franks. There's been a kidnapping. And what come in here?
Speaker 2: Step into my office, Jim Gortland, Oh Gartland, listen, Jim
Speaker 2: get Rid of those reporters. This is serious business. I
Speaker 2: don't want any newspapers around. Take them out to lunch. Now,
Speaker 2: come and be seated, gentlemen, say nothing of any of
Speaker 2: this to anyone. Mister Franks began on the way down here.
Speaker 2: I gave my friend the impression that I would put
Speaker 2: this matter in the hands of the police. But I've
Speaker 2: been thinking it over and I've decided otherwise. I'm willing
Speaker 2: to take your advice. I'm about ready to take anybody's advice,
Speaker 2: but this this mister Johnson warned me of the consequences
Speaker 2: of going to the police. Well, I can assure you,
Speaker 2: said the detective. But the best detective talent in Chicago
Speaker 2: will help you out. Well, yes, yes, I appreciate that,
Speaker 2: answered mister Franks. But I'm thinking of my son, don't
Speaker 2: you see, I'm afraid of the risk. Well, I believe
Speaker 2: he's right, Chief, interposed Edelson. I believe the wisest thing
Speaker 2: we can do is go along with these men, these kidnappers. God,
Speaker 2: the word makes me shudder. Here's the deal, Chief. When Robert,
Speaker 2: mister Frank's son, failed to return home from school, his
Speaker 2: father called on me and we went hunting for him.
Speaker 2: Robert goes to the Harvard School, a private boy school
Speaker 2: a few blocks from his home. Mister Franks lives at
Speaker 2: fifty to fifty two Ellis Avenue. Well, we canvass the
Speaker 2: neighborhood for the next two hours, but without any success.
Speaker 2: Finally we went over to the school building, and we
Speaker 2: crawled through an open window and searched the place from
Speaker 2: top to bottom, hoping that maybe Robert had fallen asleep
Speaker 2: after being locked in. There was no sign of him. Well.
Speaker 2: A little after nine o'clock, mister Johnson calls Frank's home
Speaker 2: on the telephone, and Missus Frank answers, and here's what
Speaker 2: he said. Edilson handed Chief Hughes a penciled transcript of
Speaker 2: the message that had caused Missus Franks to faint. Are
Speaker 2: these the exact words? I'm reasonably certain they are, said
Speaker 2: mister Edison. Hmm, mused Chief Hughes. This is a very
Speaker 2: serious matter. Personally, I think we ought to assigned the
Speaker 2: police to the case, whether it seems like proper procedure
Speaker 2: or not. For a quarter of an hour or more,
Speaker 2: the three debated the delicate problem, any decision about which
Speaker 2: seemed fraught with unspeakable dangers to the life and well
Speaker 2: being of young Robert Franks. In the end, the father
Speaker 2: went out His persistency in the belief that if the
Speaker 2: police interfered, his son would be murdered, eventually broke down
Speaker 2: the arguments of the other two. Something in the nature
Speaker 2: of a compromise was affected. Instead, mister Franks consented to
Speaker 2: have the police investigate in a sort of indirect way,
Speaker 2: but there were to be no attempts to get in
Speaker 2: direct contact with the kidnapper. It was midnight when mister
Speaker 2: Franks and mister Edison headed back to mister Frank's home.
Speaker 2: They made ready for an all night vigil beside the
Speaker 2: telephone at the beheat of the police. The telephone authorities
Speaker 2: supervised all calls coming into the Frank's home. While the
Speaker 2: mysterious mister Jacob had stated that he would furnish further
Speaker 2: instructions in the morning, he had neglected or perhaps expressly omitted,
Speaker 2: to say just when he would supply that precious formula
Speaker 2: that would bring back Robert Franks. Hence, it was an
Speaker 2: all night vigil that the father and the friend kept
Speaker 2: through the black, pressing silence of the early mone hours.
Speaker 2: They kept vigil, talking softly for a time and then
Speaker 2: lapsing into seemingly endless intervals of complete quiet, during which
Speaker 2: period's no doubt the fondest hopes developed the hue of
Speaker 2: false illusion. Hey everybody, we're back. Thank you for taking
Speaker 2: a moment to support the brands that support kind of Murdery. Whew,
Speaker 2: this is a heavy story. It's hard to tell. I
Speaker 2: can think of no greater horror than losing your child.
Speaker 2: But it's also one of the most famous cases in
Speaker 2: US history and a pretty interesting study of a time
Speaker 2: period and of horrible criminal minds. I'd like to take
Speaker 2: a moment now to remind you, as I often do,
Speaker 2: of the free three digit number nine eight eight that
Speaker 2: you can call to immediately receive counseling for substance use,
Speaker 2: mental health, or suicidal thoughts. Dial ninety eight and your
Speaker 2: call will immediately be answered by someone who cares. Please
Speaker 2: program it into your phone and always remember that the
Speaker 2: world is a better place with you in it. And
Speaker 2: if you're not going through a crisis, but if you'd
Speaker 2: just like to make a connection with another human being
Speaker 2: or have somebody to talk to, please feel free to
Speaker 2: reach out to me Kindomurdery at gmail dot com. Also
Speaker 2: as a reminder, I have cerebral palsy and I would
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Speaker 2: of that is just that we all share our unique
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Speaker 2: community gets to be exposed to ideas and thoughts and
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Speaker 2: can humanize each other, the more empathy we can achieve.
Speaker 2: So whether or not you're disabled, feel free again to
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Speaker 2: is all about, and bringing us all together is what
Speaker 2: I hope to do with Kind of Murdery. And with that,
Speaker 2: let's get back to this terrible, horrible, no good, very
Speaker 2: bad story. Buckle up for the Chicago horror, Leopold and Lobe,
Speaker 2: because kind of murdery resumes now. Through the black, pressing
Speaker 2: silence of the early morning hours, they kept vigil talking
Speaker 2: softly for a time, and then lapsing into seemingly endless
Speaker 2: intervals of complete quiet, during which periods, no doubt the
Speaker 2: fondest hopes developed the hue of false illusion. At nine
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning, there was a noise of swift
Speaker 2: feet on the stairs, and the doorbell was rung vehemently.
Speaker 2: Mister Edison was met by a mail boy bearing a
Speaker 2: special delivery letter addressed to mister Franks. It was torn
Speaker 2: open by a trembling hand, and its contents were as follows.
Speaker 2: Dear Sir, as you know by this time your son
Speaker 2: has been kidnapped, you need fear no physical harm for him,
Speaker 2: provided you live up carefully to the following instructions and
Speaker 2: such others as you will receive by future communications. Should you, however,
Speaker 2: disobey any of our instructions even slightly, his death will
Speaker 2: be the penalty. For obvious reasons. Make absolutely no attempt
Speaker 2: to communicate with either the police, authorities or any private agency.
Speaker 2: Should you have already communicated with the police, allow them
Speaker 2: to continue their investigations, but do not mention this letter
Speaker 2: secure before noon today ten thousand dollars. This money must
Speaker 2: be composed entirely of old bills of the following denominations
Speaker 2: two thousand and fifty dollars bills eight twenty dollars bills.
Speaker 2: The money must be old. Any attempt to include any
Speaker 2: new or marked bills will render the entire venture feudal.
Speaker 2: The money should be placed in a large cigar box, or,
Speaker 2: if that is impossible, in a heavy cardboard box, securely
Speaker 2: wrapped and bound in white paper. The wrapping paper should
Speaker 2: be sealed at all openings with sealing wax. Remain at
Speaker 2: home until one o'clock PM. See that the telephone is
Speaker 2: not in use. As a final word of warning, this
Speaker 2: is a strictly commercial proposition, and we are prepared to
Speaker 2: put our threat into execution should we have reasonable grounds
Speaker 2: to believe that you have committed one infraction of the
Speaker 2: above instructions. However, should you carefully follow the instructions to
Speaker 2: the letter, we can assure you that your son will
Speaker 2: be safely returned to you within six hours after receipt
Speaker 2: of the money, yours truly, George Johnson. Mister Johnson had
Speaker 2: scored heavily. If his inns were terrorization, he achieved them
Speaker 2: over and over again. Not a robust man, mister Franks
Speaker 2: could hardly contain himself. He sank into a chair, trembling
Speaker 2: as though he were about to be seized with hysteria.
Speaker 2: Bewildered and overwhelmed, he could only give a wild stare
Speaker 2: of terror in answer to the repeated pleadings of his friend,
Speaker 2: who sought to console and sustain him. The cool, deliberate
Speaker 2: tone of the letter was terrorizing. The character of its composition, too,
Speaker 2: was baffling. Who with sufficient intelligence to write such a
Speaker 2: letter would abduct and threaten to murder harmless little Robert Franks?
Speaker 2: Where and how did such a monster exist? Equally frightening
Speaker 2: was the self confidence of the kidnapper or kidnappers. He
Speaker 2: was sure of his ground, apparently, for he was content
Speaker 2: to let the police continue their investigations in the event
Speaker 2: they had already been employed. There remained, in the end
Speaker 2: but one course to accede wholly to the wishes of
Speaker 2: mister Johnson. In his hands was the precious fate of
Speaker 2: little Robert. Like a shield, the very life of the
Speaker 2: boy stood between the kidnapper and his victims, rendering them
Speaker 2: as helpless and powerless as the boy who had been kidnapped.
Speaker 2: It was like shooting into a dark room where one
Speaker 2: could not distinguish between friend and foe and fight back.
Speaker 2: Mister Franks set off for the bank to draw out
Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars. The press, the neglected press, the newspaper
Speaker 2: men were still waiting for the break, which is to say,
Speaker 2: any break. The city editor was munching today's hard apple.
Speaker 2: Mister Ryan at High Park was drawing joy and nectar
Speaker 2: from a narrow bottle and poking fun at the government.
Speaker 2: Then the hell that puts the newspaper world on its
Speaker 2: toes transformed some tranquil editorial rooms into madhouses. Broke loose
Speaker 2: in a bust that jarred reporterdom. The story of the hour,
Speaker 2: the crime of the century. It was just the beginning.
Speaker 2: Mister Ryan heard about it, requested his informers to quit kidding,
Speaker 2: and laid down in a pure whiskey stoopor, which he
Speaker 2: hoped would and did last for two days. Now it
Speaker 2: was time for the police to let loose everything was
Speaker 2: out and everything would have to be in the open.
Speaker 2: Chief Morgan A. Collins summoned the detective officials into conference.
Speaker 2: He told them that this was the opportunity of their lives.
Speaker 2: Detective Lieutenants William Shoemaker and Michael Grady were put in
Speaker 2: active charge, with the authority to draw upon such of
Speaker 2: the powers of the Police Department as would be in
Speaker 2: the interest of their investigations. I believe, and you can
Speaker 2: correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Shoemaker
Speaker 2: was one of the police detectives involved in the strange
Speaker 2: case of Harry Church, the man who murdered the car
Speaker 2: salesman so that he wouldn't have to pay for the car.
Speaker 2: If you haven't listened to that one, go ahead and
Speaker 2: listen to it. It's called the strange tale of Harry Church.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's called the strange tale of Harvey Church.
Speaker 2: So anyway, William Shoemaker and Michael Grady were put in
Speaker 2: active charge, with the authority to draw upon such of
Speaker 2: the powers of the Police Department as would be in
Speaker 2: the interest of their investigations. Thus, while mister Franks faced
Speaker 2: with dread a foe he had never seen, Chief Hughes
Speaker 2: prepared to run him down, cost what it might and
Speaker 2: necessitate what it would. Simultaneously, a dozen detective squads were
Speaker 2: assigned to strategic points throughout the city in the scheme
Speaker 2: of covering up, which is the procedure of tapping all
Speaker 2: possible sources of information by an indirect process of elimination.
Speaker 2: The detective squads boiled the Frank's case down to the
Speaker 2: point where it became fairly obvious that the kidnapping was
Speaker 2: not the work of organized criminals or gangsters. While the
Speaker 2: nature of the ransom letter gave rise to this assumption,
Speaker 2: the work of the detectives added logic to the supposition
Speaker 2: because they were able to give a reasonable account of
Speaker 2: the conduct of all the gangs, and especially those that
Speaker 2: were in the kidnapping business. The motive for the kidnapping
Speaker 2: of Robert Franks, declared Chief Hughes in a statement issued
Speaker 2: to the press after he had heard the reports of
Speaker 2: his detective squads, is ransom money. Ten thousand dollars is
Speaker 2: not a lot of money for kidnapping, but the kidnappers
Speaker 2: appear to be of judicious persons. It's logical that they
Speaker 2: did not ask for fifty thousand dollars for fear that
Speaker 2: the father would resist or find it inconvenient to raise
Speaker 2: the sum. Such official admissions as these, issued as they
Speaker 2: were at various times, by detectives, investigators, and criminologists, fanned
Speaker 2: the fires of sensation in every newspaper reader's breast. It
Speaker 2: was like some dramatic detective novel. In a brief time,
Speaker 2: a city of three million people had completely forgotten about
Speaker 2: sales projects, time clocks, and daily traction controversy to play
Speaker 2: investigator and Sherlock Holmes against real live kidnappers in a
Speaker 2: quote million dollar unquote atmosphere. Police officials were ready to
Speaker 2: swear to this truth, for with the passing hours, the
Speaker 2: developments of the case brought an avalanche of amateur sleuths
Speaker 2: and freelance investigators down upon the city's head, until the
Speaker 2: town was fairly overrun with mail order operatives and self
Speaker 2: authorized agents of the long arm of the law. Indeed,
Speaker 2: there was an imminent danger that length and growth would
Speaker 2: be the arms undoing, and there was need of restraint
Speaker 2: upon the activities of these persons. Many of them were
Speaker 2: squelched in the beginning. Others persisted doggedly and perhaps contributed
Speaker 2: to the official undertaking. Maybe attention was focused upon the
Speaker 2: ransom missive. Its outward character was that of the conventional letter.
Speaker 2: It for a Chicago dateline, and the salutation was the
Speaker 2: formal dear Sir. The stamp of the registry at the
Speaker 2: post office was two PM at the Hyde Park station,
Speaker 2: which meant that the letter had been mailed but a
Speaker 2: few blocks from its final destination. Here, in the opinion
Speaker 2: of the detectives was an example of sheer daring or
Speaker 2: abysmal ignorance. This was not only the familiar coming back
Speaker 2: to the scene of the crime, but it was returning
Speaker 2: before the crime had been fully committed. That deduction only
Speaker 2: served to further complicate a complex situation. Copies of the
Speaker 2: faithful letter were given to the press for publication. Suddenly,
Speaker 2: the secretary to the detective chief and a newspaper man
Speaker 2: noted the similarity of the letter to another in some
Speaker 2: way or another. Where had they seen it before? The
Speaker 2: secretary suddenly remembered a story that had been running serially
Speaker 2: in a detective magazine. The Kidnapping Syndicate was the title.
Speaker 2: It was a strikingly gruesome yarn having to do with
Speaker 2: the kidnapping of a rich man's wife by a gang
Speaker 2: calling itself the syndicate that there was a pronounced, if
Speaker 2: only intangible, relation between this kidnapping of fiction and the
Speaker 2: one of fact was strangely evident in the two letters,
Speaker 2: whose contents were too identical for coincidence. The numerous points
Speaker 2: of resemblance between this and the letter quoted earlier will
Speaker 2: be readily observed, and might well be noted because of
Speaker 2: its later significance. The fictional ransom note from the fixtional
Speaker 2: story the kidnapping syndicate read as follows. Your wife is
Speaker 2: in our custody, and so long as your conduct toward
Speaker 2: us warrants, she shall be treated with every courtesy and respect,
Speaker 2: and in so far as the circumstances permit, will be
Speaker 2: made comfortable. Any change in this attitude will be the
Speaker 2: result of your own defiance to our terms, which are
Speaker 2: number one, that you make no appeal to the police
Speaker 2: or to any private detective agency. In that event, the
Speaker 2: amount stated below is automatically doubled, and let us assure
Speaker 2: you it will avail you nothing and only bring great
Speaker 2: anguish to yourself and your wife. Upon receipt of fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in bills of ten and twenty dollars denominations,
Speaker 2: delivered at the time and place under the conditions you
Speaker 2: will receive later. Missus Griswold will be returned to you
Speaker 2: within a few hours thereafter. Acceptance of these terms are
Speaker 2: to be conveyed to us as follows. You will leave
Speaker 2: your house tomorrow morning wearing a white carnation on the
Speaker 2: lapel of your coat, and wear it all day. Following this,
Speaker 2: we shall send you further instruction as to how, when
Speaker 2: and where the money shall be paid. Signed the kidnapping Syndicate.
Speaker 2: When the kidnap as A Robert Franks captured, said Chief Hughes,
Speaker 2: after comparing the notes, a copy of that magazine, while
Speaker 2: that particular page in the magazine will be found on
Speaker 2: their property of person, insomuch as the point about the
Speaker 2: finding of the magazine was not conceived in the conventional
Speaker 2: police elements. So to speak, Chief Hughes was a prophet
Speaker 2: with honor in a foreign realm. However, later developments which
Speaker 2: brought up successive contradictions of the Chief's reconstruction of the crime,
Speaker 2: deflated confidence that the kidnappers would ever be captured and
Speaker 2: substantiated if only temporarily, but this was not because of
Speaker 2: incompetence or negligence on the part of the police. This was,
Speaker 2: after all, the crime of the century. Satisfied that they'd
Speaker 2: gotten all out of the letter that their eyes could
Speaker 2: see and their brains could detect, the police solicited the
Speaker 2: aid of science to give the letter a last microscopic
Speaker 2: examination for what further clues it might have held. An
Speaker 2: expert employed by the Royal Type Writer Company H. P.
Speaker 2: Sutton was engaged by the police to study it with
Speaker 2: the view of determining the make of the machine used
Speaker 2: to type it. After a few hours of research, mister
Speaker 2: Sutton reported on the typographical clues. He asserted that it
Speaker 2: was written on an underwood machine. Another expert later declared
Speaker 2: a corona was used. The various light and heavy impressions
Speaker 2: of the type letters revealed that the writer was an
Speaker 2: inexperienced typist. Here was mister Sutton the expert's commentary. The
Speaker 2: letter was typed by the four finger process. Mister Sutton stated,
Speaker 2: when the touch system is used, the impressions are uniformly
Speaker 2: heavier light, never both. In this case, the tendency for
Speaker 2: the writer was to hit some keys harder than others.
Speaker 2: In many instances, the keys made such depressions as to
Speaker 2: almost perforate the paper. This shows that the writer was
Speaker 2: hesitant and deliberate. Asked outright if he could identify the machine.
Speaker 2: The experts said that he could. Hence it was written
Speaker 2: into the official police program look out for this typewriter
Speaker 2: an Underwood. As mentioned, the first police developments in the
Speaker 2: search for the kidnapp came with the technical arrest of
Speaker 2: several instructors at the Harvard School where Robert was a student.
Speaker 2: The faultless composition of the letter, the police said, did
Speaker 2: suggest the hand of an educated person, and they were
Speaker 2: unwilling to omit the school supervisors from suspicions. Instructors R. P.
Speaker 2: Williams and M. N. Mitchell, teachers of English, were taken
Speaker 2: to a nearby police station and questioned by Lieutenant Grady.
Speaker 2: They vigorously denied every inference of guilt. At the same time,
Speaker 2: the testimony of a number of boys students implicated one
Speaker 2: of the school's teaching staff in alleged acts of perversion.
Speaker 2: The detectives seized upon this as a logical motive for
Speaker 2: the kidnapping of the boy, but with the intention of
Speaker 2: murder rather than of ransom. This angle of investigation, however,
Speaker 2: fell through, and the personnel of the school were wholly
Speaker 2: absolved of guilt and released within a few hours of
Speaker 2: being taken into custody. Their release knocked every pillar of
Speaker 2: support from under the police case, with the result that
Speaker 2: the kidnapping mystery became deeper and more baffling than ever before.
Speaker 2: In truth, the ACE investigators and the veteran detectives, with
Speaker 2: scores of solved kidnapping cases to their credit, were forced
Speaker 2: to admit that they were stumped. Simply confronted with a big,
Speaker 2: blank wall and nothing on the other side. They were
Speaker 2: not even able to establish a motive. Why, asked commentators
Speaker 2: in the press, would the kidnappers abduct a fifteen year
Speaker 2: old boy for the ten thousand dollars ransom when by
Speaker 2: selecting a boy of five or six years old they
Speaker 2: could eliminate the possibility of being identified by their captor.
Speaker 2: While this served to clear the atmosphere a little, it
Speaker 2: also contradicted every previous theory and depreciated immeasurably the value
Speaker 2: of the few clues that the police had succeeded in obtaining.
Speaker 2: It was at this stage that the Chicago Press sent
Speaker 2: in its reporters and journalistic experts with the very natural
Speaker 2: newspaper idea of forcing along a great story that was
Speaker 2: tottering perilously on its last legs. Criminologists, private investigators, and
Speaker 2: famous detectives were hired by the dozens to write discussions
Speaker 2: of the case and to analyze each new development. Police
Speaker 2: reporters were paired with their colleagues, who did the writing
Speaker 2: while the beatman did the investigating. Working hours for the
Speaker 2: nightmen soon overlapped the hours of the day men, until
Speaker 2: at one time there were as many as one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty reporters working on the case together. The competition
Speaker 2: was keen, and it was not long before the whole
Speaker 2: group sent the individual intentions of each member to get
Speaker 2: the scoop first. Frequently their paths costs with unkind words
Speaker 2: and verbal fisticuffs. As consequence, there was no time for
Speaker 2: physical combat, much as these functionaries might have wanted to
Speaker 2: indulge in it. The prize would come only to the
Speaker 2: swift and sure. In contrast to this, of course, the
Speaker 2: attitude of mister Ryan of High Park was in gross
Speaker 2: violation of every newspaper principle of news gathering. Concerted efforts
Speaker 2: on the part of several of his friends to wake
Speaker 2: mister Ryan from his alcoholic dreams were pathetically futile. If
Speaker 2: you'll remember, mister Ryan was the drunk reporter sitting in
Speaker 2: a bar, passed out for two days. When the story began.
Speaker 2: Big Story, mister Ryan would repeat, quirking his brow with
Speaker 2: great labor, Big story, huh say, I've been right here
Speaker 2: for sixty six hours. Don't kid me boys, life too short,
Speaker 2: too short, And in a voice laden with pathos, mister
Speaker 2: Ryan would tell of the vision in which he saw
Speaker 2: his old, gray haired mother scrubbing and washing a path
Speaker 2: to her lonely grave and dragging a heavy, cumbersome coffin
Speaker 2: behind her. After this, he would subside, take another swig
Speaker 2: of an almost empty bottle, and fall asleep. But mister
Speaker 2: Ryan's conduct was far from typical. Indeed, it was quite
Speaker 2: the exception industry of the most fervent and dynamic quality
Speaker 2: characterized every other newspaper man's associations with the case. Home
Speaker 2: was a place you made split second renewal of old
Speaker 2: and familiar acquaintances. Coffee was the antidote for sleep. Ham
Speaker 2: sandwiches and malted milk substituted for the more nourishing but
Speaker 2: inconvenient foods. Eating and sleeping, in short, were looked upon
Speaker 2: as vicious alien habits and an indulgence that was regarded
Speaker 2: with professional abhorrence. What the hell do I care if
Speaker 2: you haven't eaten, declared an outrage city editor in answer
Speaker 2: to a reporter's gasperonomic prayer. The only thing that's getting
Speaker 2: fed around here is the press. By the time the
Speaker 2: legions of reporters had run down the various sets of
Speaker 2: clues and publish their stories, certain angles of the official
Speaker 2: investigation were promising important developments. Relentless house to house canvassing
Speaker 2: and questioning established, to the satisfaction of Captain WILLIAMS. Shoemaker
Speaker 2: of the Chicago Detective Bureau, that Robert Franks had been
Speaker 2: kidnapped in broad daylight at the corner of forty ninth
Speaker 2: Street and Ellis Avenue. Close upon the heels of this
Speaker 2: came the statement of a servant working in a home
Speaker 2: located at the corner that had barely seen the figure
Speaker 2: of a boy stepping into a machine. A peculiar angle
Speaker 2: of vision prevented her from seeing what type of car
Speaker 2: it was. Or from noting the size or age of
Speaker 2: the boy. She said her disclosure gave rise to the
Speaker 2: assumption that Robert had been lured away by someone who
Speaker 2: knew him and whom the boy knew as well. A
Speaker 2: sage wrote many years ago that out of every human
Speaker 2: chaos rise as a genius to be the valiant hero
Speaker 2: of the situation. Whether it's a national conflict or a
Speaker 2: crisis at an Irish wake, Xercees or Officer Moriarty will
Speaker 2: surely appear in the guise of the Goddess of victory
Speaker 2: or peace and bring solid order out of hopeless chaos.
Speaker 2: Such a genius was sorely needed in this the most
Speaker 2: trying hour of the investigation into the terrifying kidnapping of
Speaker 2: a rich man's son. And then the genius came, or
Speaker 2: rather they did, in the persons of an Irish and
Speaker 2: a Jewish cub reporter on the staff of the Chicago
Speaker 2: Daily News sitting plain henre. Sitting was the chiefly life's
Speaker 2: purpose for these two cubs previous to the discovery of
Speaker 2: the crime of the century. Usually it was sitting on
Speaker 2: the edge of a desk when they were inspired to
Speaker 2: do bigger things. On the other hand, the city editor
Speaker 2: told them they could sit on the desk's middle Rarely
Speaker 2: did duty ever impose more than this. For James Mulroy
Speaker 2: and Alvin Goldstein were Cubs beginners, freshmen, but opportunity was
Speaker 2: sneaking up on them from behind. Mulroy and Goldstein were
Speaker 2: following the newspaper accounts of the Frank case with wolfish eyes.
Speaker 2: They devoured every item of the story and added in
Speaker 2: their imagination what they thought would make it complete. Hence,
Speaker 2: they did not miss the significance of an incidental report
Speaker 2: from the coroner's office that the nude body of a
Speaker 2: boy had been found in a swamp in Switch, an
Speaker 2: unsettled territory fringing on Chicago's southern extremities. On May twenty second,
Speaker 2: a Boss Mulroy stammered Goldstein, and I got a whale
Speaker 2: of an idea on this Frank's case. Will you assign us?
Speaker 2: I'm almost sure we can produce. That's a large order,
Speaker 2: Mulroy answered the city editor. At least half a dozen
Speaker 2: of your seniors here would get the preference. Give me
Speaker 2: the tip anyway, and we'll have it checked up. Say Boss,
Speaker 2: interposed Goldstein. If you knew what we had would solve
Speaker 2: the Frank's case. Would you assign it to us? Well, now,
Speaker 2: the man drawled. If that's the way you feel about it,
Speaker 2: I suppose I have no choice in the matter. Okay,
Speaker 2: shouted mulroy and Goldstein, seizing their collegiate hats and dashing
Speaker 2: out the door. O'Connor and Goldberg, as the two cubs
Speaker 2: were henceforth addressed by the editor, hailed a cab and
Speaker 2: directed the driver to the home of mister Frank's brother
Speaker 2: in law. In a few moments, the relative was riding
Speaker 2: beside them on the way to an undertaking establishment in
Speaker 2: South Chicago. You think the body is that of Robert,
Speaker 2: asked Robert's uncle, the brother of Missus Franks. The police
Speaker 2: descript Robert, and the coroner's description of the body tally
Speaker 2: so well that we can't get it off our minds,
Speaker 2: responded mulroy. It was a forbidding scene in the dismal
Speaker 2: undertaker's mordue. Gathered around a clothed form stretched on a slab,
Speaker 2: were the two reporters, nervous with excitement, the uncle of
Speaker 2: Robert Franks fearful, apprehensive, and the policeman and the undertaker
Speaker 2: the sheet was thrown back to reveal a spectacle that
Speaker 2: caused every watcher to gasp and shudder. And we'll find
Speaker 2: out just what that spectacle was after the break. Gathered
Speaker 2: around a clothed form stretched on a slab, were the
Speaker 2: two reporters, nervous with excitement, the uncle of Robert Franks fearful, apprehensive,
Speaker 2: and the policeman and the undertaker. The sheet was thrown
Speaker 2: back to reveal a spectacle that caused every watcher to
Speaker 2: gasp and shudder. The body was caked with hard mud,
Speaker 2: and the face was nearly indistinguishable, but not. The uncle
Speaker 2: leaned over, peered closely. It's Robert, Robert, Robert, Oh, Robert.
Speaker 2: Over and over he spoke the name, until the sheet
Speaker 2: was once again laid over the form of Robert Franks,
Speaker 2: and the party retired to the front room. Mulroy seized
Speaker 2: a telephone. Dearborn one one one one. He called then
Speaker 2: city editor. Hello, it's Mulroy. Robert Franks has been found.
Speaker 2: He was murdered, and the body was officially identified. Boss.
Speaker 2: This is a scoop on every paper in town. At
Speaker 2: precisely the same hour, the father of Robert Franks was
Speaker 2: waiting beside his telephone in his home. In his hands
Speaker 2: he held a sealed cigar box containing ten thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in bills of fifty and twenty dollars denominations. Mister Johnson
Speaker 2: would call at any moment now with the directions for
Speaker 2: delivering the ransom money and obtaining the stolen boy. The
Speaker 2: telephone rang Hello. Mister Edison grabbed it up. This is
Speaker 2: mister Johnson, said the voice. In five minutes, a yellow
Speaker 2: cab will come to your door. The driver has been
Speaker 2: instructed as to your destiny. Goodbye. A click told that
Speaker 2: the speaker had hung up, but not quite soon enough.
Speaker 2: They were tapping wires over which he had been speaking.
Speaker 2: Telephone authorities traced the call to the original exchange office,
Speaker 2: but they were not able to pick up any more
Speaker 2: than that the call had come from a drug store
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood of sixty third Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.
Speaker 2: Exactly five minutes afterward, a yellow cab drew up to
Speaker 2: the curb before Frank's mansion. Mister Edelson went out in response,
Speaker 2: and before talking to the driver, made a mental note
Speaker 2: of the CAB's number, which he later said was either
Speaker 2: fourteen ninety two or nineteen forty two? Who sent you here,
Speaker 2: mister Edelson asked, Branch office over at Cottage Grove Avenue,
Speaker 2: answered the driver supposed to pick up mister Franks. Where
Speaker 2: were you ordered to take him? I don't know, responded
Speaker 2: the driver. Them's all the orders I got. At this juncture,
Speaker 2: mister Edison was called into the house by a servant
Speaker 2: to answer a telephone summons. He had informed the servants
Speaker 2: they were not to call mister Franks to answer the
Speaker 2: telephone or doorbell. It was the wish of the friend
Speaker 2: that the father have as little to worry him as possible.
Speaker 2: Although mister Franks had not express agreed to any such arrangement,
Speaker 2: he seemed willing to refrain from these duties. So great
Speaker 2: had been the strain of the terrific ordeal. It was
Speaker 2: the grace of God. Mister Edison told a friend later
Speaker 2: that mister Franks did not answer this particular phone call.
Speaker 2: Its message cut like a sword and shattered forever. The
Speaker 2: only remaining faint hope erased, the only prayer that had
Speaker 2: nightly been lifted to Heaven from the quiet of the bedchamber,
Speaker 2: where the father and the mother could never find the sweet,
Speaker 2: peaceful oblivion of sleep. It stirred a home from its
Speaker 2: anxious loneliness, only to pitch it deeper into the undying
Speaker 2: sorrows of death, into despair, which no amount of ransom
Speaker 2: money would dispel or ever alay. Even as the dread
Speaker 2: words came over the instrument into the friend's ears, he
Speaker 2: could see the tidally wrapped cigar box with its puny,
Speaker 2: meaningless ten thousand dollars. The irresistible force futility was riding
Speaker 2: down on the seemingly immovable object hope, in a truly
Speaker 2: tragic clash of the Titans. The news of Robert's death
Speaker 2: was correspondingly horrible in its significance and feeble in its
Speaker 2: effect upon the boy's parents. The source of their emotions
Speaker 2: had long since been drained through hope and then through despair.
Speaker 2: On being told of the fate of his son, mister
Speaker 2: Franks merely shook and then bowed his head. Not a
Speaker 2: sob escaped from his lips, Not a sound betrayed the
Speaker 2: presence of the anguish that must have seized him. Fearful
Speaker 2: relatives postponed telling the mother she was still seriously ill,
Speaker 2: suddenly reminded of his interview with the taxi driver, mister
Speaker 2: Edelson hurried outside, but the cab was nowhere in sight.
Speaker 2: He turned back into the house and telephoned detective headquarters.
Speaker 2: Discovery of the murder of Robert Frank startled the whole world.
Speaker 2: Associated press despatches flashed the sensational news to all civilization,
Speaker 2: and newspapers headlined them on the front page with monstrous captions.
Speaker 2: Reports to reach the ear of mister Ryan of High Park,
Speaker 2: although in the throes of a murderous hangover, he managed
Speaker 2: to struggle to a telephone and call his city editor.
Speaker 2: On being connected, he was sharply informed that no such
Speaker 2: person as mister Ryan worked for the City Press, and
Speaker 2: that if he came into the office, the city editor
Speaker 2: would be obliged to kick him down the stairs. Others, however,
Speaker 2: were leaving off where Ryan had just begun. Scores of
Speaker 2: them were racing to the scene of the finding of
Speaker 2: the boy's mutilated body, while an almost equal number of
Speaker 2: photographers followed on their trail. Molroy and Goldstein had already
Speaker 2: been upon the scene and were interrogating a handful of
Speaker 2: curious spectators who happened to be by. When a railroad
Speaker 2: laborer espied the dead body. The present theater of events
Speaker 2: constituted no more than a wide expanse of swamp and weed,
Speaker 2: which could only be approached from the beaten path by
Speaker 2: way of a railroad embankment. There was a small path
Speaker 2: which led from the rails to a wood colvert stretched
Speaker 2: across a small stream. The body of Robert had been
Speaker 2: stuffed under the colvert. The finder of the body stated
Speaker 2: that it was so lodged that half the body, which
Speaker 2: was not submerged in watter, was jammed securely against the
Speaker 2: culvert's bottom at the point where the culvert joined the
Speaker 2: stream's bank. So inaccessible was the place, and so well
Speaker 2: hidden was the body that all who were gathered there
Speaker 2: agreed that its finding was some determined act of providence.
Speaker 2: The two reporters lost no time in joining detectives from
Speaker 2: the nearest police station in a minute examination of the
Speaker 2: territory for possible clues. Sleuth in klined spectators also lent
Speaker 2: a hand so that a fair sized congregation of policemen,
Speaker 2: civilians and reporters were engaged in the hunt. One civilian,
Speaker 2: Paul Korf, caught sight of a gleaming object lying in
Speaker 2: the mud under the colvert Mulroy was standing near when
Speaker 2: Korf leaned down to study the object. Both recognized it
Speaker 2: as a pair of horn rimmed spectacles, whereupon Mulroy judiciously
Speaker 2: took charge of them, explaining that he was a newspaper
Speaker 2: reporter and that if anything developed he would let kaorif know.
Speaker 2: The police were not told, Mulroy hurriedly informed his colleague
Speaker 2: of the find, and while Korff had been given to
Speaker 2: understand that something might come of those glasses, Mulroy pocketed
Speaker 2: the spectacles and renewed the search for further clues. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: doctor Joseph Springer, physician for the coroner of Cook County,
Speaker 2: arrived accompanied by a horde of news hungry reporters and
Speaker 2: pictures starved photographers. He had made his cursory examination of
Speaker 2: the body and wanted a final study of the colvert spot. Plainly,
Speaker 2: the doctor was puzzled. I haven't even determined the cause
Speaker 2: of death yet, he told reporters. There's a small abrasion
Speaker 2: on the head in the front and an apparent laceration
Speaker 2: at the base of the skull. The wounds do not
Speaker 2: appear to be serious enough to have caused death. On
Speaker 2: the other hand, there's a light seapius stain about the mouth.
Speaker 2: It is possible that he was poisoned, although I did
Speaker 2: not detect the presence of any poison in the stomach.
Speaker 2: Doctor Springer also disclosed that the face had been burned,
Speaker 2: as if by an acid solution. The physician then proceeded
Speaker 2: to question Tony Mink, the laborer who came upon the body,
Speaker 2: after which he made a close examination of the colvert spot.
Speaker 2: While thus engaged, he was accosted by a young man
Speaker 2: bearing a metal bar eight inches long. Found it just
Speaker 2: beyond the covert, announced the youth carelessly. Doctor Springer took
Speaker 2: it gingerly, produced a handkerchief, and laid the bar in
Speaker 2: it wound about one in was a batch of adhesive tape.
Speaker 2: The covering was fairly clean, indicating that it had not
Speaker 2: lain in the swampy ground for long. I believe, declared
Speaker 2: doctor Springer, turning to the waiting reporters, that this was
Speaker 2: the instrument that killed Robert Franks, Goldstein and Molroy waited
Speaker 2: no longer, Jumping into the cab they'd kept waiting, they
Speaker 2: were off toward the city, the precious glasses safe in
Speaker 2: their possession. They had two anxieties, the glasses and the
Speaker 2: unspeakable amount of the cab bill. Public reaction to press
Speaker 2: reports that Robert Franks had been murdered and the body
Speaker 2: had been found was unstinted. People of all races and
Speaker 2: ages were roused, as a crime had never roused them before.
Speaker 2: The gruesome grave, the brutal circumstances of his apparent death,
Speaker 2: and the savage act of the kidnappers in and leading
Speaker 2: the father to believe that he was ransoming his son,
Speaker 2: his son, who was already dead, stirred the heart of
Speaker 2: every newspaper reader. Prominent men spoke their feelings freely. Detectives
Speaker 2: and investigators pledged themselves to solve the crime and bring
Speaker 2: the perpetrators to justice swiftly and surely. Deeper indignation followed
Speaker 2: substantial reports to the effect that the body had been attacked.
Speaker 2: The police were spurred to a frenzy of activity, and
Speaker 2: the state's attorney was assigning his best assistance to the investigation.
Speaker 2: Science was consulted in the person of criminologists, psychologists, and chemists,
Speaker 2: the latter being given all such objects and articles for
Speaker 2: analysis as might yield valuable clues. A question and answer
Speaker 2: symposium of the opinions of Chicago's best detectives and the
Speaker 2: circumstances of the kidnapping and the murder of the Franks
Speaker 2: Boy went something like this. Question who killed Robert Franks? Answer?
Speaker 2: A kidnapper seeking ransom or a moron? Question what killed him? Answer?
Speaker 2: After making every possible examination, the coroner's physician says, it
Speaker 2: must have been caused by suffocation. But why suffocation? Answer?
Speaker 2: The boy had been choked or strangled, He had not
Speaker 2: been poisoned. He had been hit on the head with
Speaker 2: a blunt instrument, but not hard enough to cause death.
Speaker 2: He was found in two feet of water, and although
Speaker 2: his lungs were copper colored, he had not been drowned.
Speaker 2: Suffocation seems the only possible way by which he could
Speaker 2: have come to his death. Well, question, how was he suffocated? Answer?
Speaker 2: Probably by a handkerchief or a hand pressed to his
Speaker 2: nose and mouth for a period of about two minutes.
Speaker 2: Why was the boy killed? Now this is a debatable question.
Speaker 2: If he was killed by a moron or several of them,
Speaker 2: he probably was killed accidentally while in a struggle with them,
Speaker 2: a struggle which induced hemorrhages of the lungs from which
Speaker 2: he died, or they may have killed him to cover
Speaker 2: up their crime, to keep the boy from telling. Question
Speaker 2: what if he was killed by the kidnappers? Answer then also,
Speaker 2: probably in a struggle with his captors, and from a
Speaker 2: hemorrhage of the lungs induced by a hand pressed over
Speaker 2: the nose and mouth. Indications are that the kidnappers would
Speaker 2: not have deliberately killed the boy so quickly, at least
Speaker 2: not until negotiations showed signs of failing, and they must
Speaker 2: make a getaway. Question When was Robert killed? Answer? Probably
Speaker 2: within a few minutes after he was abducted or lured
Speaker 2: away while he was struggling for his freedom. Question Where
Speaker 2: was he killed? Answer? Probably in an automobile in the
Speaker 2: three block stretch between his school and his home. The
Speaker 2: theory is that he could not have been kidnapped or
Speaker 2: lured away on foot without some of his companions becoming
Speaker 2: aware of it. Well, what sort of person must the
Speaker 2: police seek in the murder? Answer A scholarly person, a
Speaker 2: master of English. None but such a person could have
Speaker 2: written the famous letter received by mister Franks. Its grammar
Speaker 2: was faultless. Question was there any peculiarity in the letter?
Speaker 2: Answer yes. The spelling of the word kidnapped spelled kidnaped.
Speaker 2: The strictly English version of the word includes two p's
Speaker 2: question if the boy was killed by kidnappers, why did
Speaker 2: they persist in their demands for a ransom long after
Speaker 2: the boy was dead and his unidentified body recovered? Answer?
Speaker 2: They did not know the body had been recovered and
Speaker 2: attempted to obtain the ransom money despite his mimurd Question
Speaker 2: if a moron or several of them killed the boy,
Speaker 2: why the telephone messages and the letter demanding the kidnappers ransom?
Speaker 2: Answer to cover up the real motive of the crime,
Speaker 2: to throw detectives off the track, possibly to obtain money
Speaker 2: for a desperate attempt to get away. Question what is
Speaker 2: the more likely theory? Murdered by the kidnappers or murder
Speaker 2: by morons? Answer? No attempt is made to answer this,
Speaker 2: Yet only the remarkable letter and the suspicions of mister
Speaker 2: Edelson lend a basis to the moron theory. Question what
Speaker 2: was the boy attacked? Answer? Coroner's physician says he probably
Speaker 2: was not, although it is difficult to determine this. Attempts
Speaker 2: to attack him might have been made and some form
Speaker 2: of attacks accomplished without leaving external evidence of violence. Question
Speaker 2: was the writer of the erudite letter a good typist?
Speaker 2: Answer not, according to the findings of mister Sutton, the
Speaker 2: typewriter expert. Question did the addressing of the envelope in
Speaker 2: printed letters in ink indicate anything concerning the writer? Answer? Yes,
Speaker 2: It indicated the writer might have known something of cartooning,
Speaker 2: or that he was at least familiar with mechanical drawing
Speaker 2: and lettering. Question is it possible that a woman was
Speaker 2: involved in the sling? Answer it is. The pair of
Speaker 2: eyeglasses found near the culvert seemed to be a woman's
Speaker 2: Question is there any other evidence to indicate a woman's
Speaker 2: hand in the crime? Answer? Nothing. Everything else points to
Speaker 2: it as the work of a man or men. While
Speaker 2: this summary clarified the atmosphere on several issues, it only
Speaker 2: served to further complicate any conception of a motive for
Speaker 2: the crime or of the character of the guilty person
Speaker 2: or person's The crime of the Century was defying solution. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Moulroy and Goldstein had secured the Assistant State Attorney Joseph
Speaker 2: Savage and were imploring him to do something about the glasses.
Speaker 2: At the suggestion of the two reporters, Prosecutor Savage went
Speaker 2: with them on a canvas of optical firms in Chicago.
Speaker 2: The first two concerns flatly declared there was no way
Speaker 2: of tracing the glasses. The next shop was the firm
Speaker 2: of almer Coe and Company. Here a mister Weinstein went
Speaker 2: over the spectacles thoroughly. This is a peculiar pair of glasses,
Speaker 2: he informed them. In they have a special hinge device
Speaker 2: which has been patented by a New York firm. The
Speaker 2: frame possibly was made in New York, and it is
Speaker 2: altogether likely the lenses were bought here. This company is
Speaker 2: an agent for that firm. Mister Weinstein then took the
Speaker 2: glasses measurements. These he scribbled on a piece of paper,
Speaker 2: which was handed in turn to his second clerk. In
Speaker 2: a moment, the latter had returned and mister Weinstein was
Speaker 2: reading his notation. Elens's leading glasses were purchased by Nathan
Speaker 2: Leopold forty seven point fifty four Greenwood Avenue. That's a
Speaker 2: swell address, said Goldstein, nudging his partner. I wonder, answered Mulroy,
Speaker 2: if that's the Leopold I knew at the University of Chicago.
Speaker 2: Well broke in the other let's go see. The two
Speaker 2: cubs arrived at the Leopold home accompanied by detective Sergeants
Speaker 2: Edward Anderson and Hugh Burns of the State Attorney's Office,
Speaker 2: who had instructions to arrest Nathan Leopold. In response to
Speaker 2: their knock, a maid case to the door. She greeted them,
Speaker 2: how do you do? Is Nathan Leopold home? Why? Yes?
Speaker 2: Will you wait till I can get him?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Thanks, lady, We'll step right inside. We're detectives. Where's his room? Frightened,
Speaker 2: the maid pointed to a door on the second floor
Speaker 2: near the stairs. They bounded up just in time to
Speaker 2: meet Nathan Leopold coming out of his room. He was
Speaker 2: taken aback by the abruptness of his collars and by
Speaker 2: apparently nothing more. His curious gaze spoke for an explanation
Speaker 2: of the strange intrusion. Nathan Leopold asked Sergeant Anderson, Yes
Speaker 2: was the call answer, You're under arrest. You have to
Speaker 2: come with me? Well, why, I can't talk about that now?
Speaker 2: Will you come along? Leopold indicated that he would, whereupon
Speaker 2: he donned his top coat and hat, and left in
Speaker 2: the company of the detectives. As their car pulled away,
Speaker 2: a second car drew up, and cap'n Shoemaker and his
Speaker 2: squad got out without any delay. They took what seemed
Speaker 2: to be complete possession of the house. One herded the
Speaker 2: servants into a single room, a second went out to
Speaker 2: the garage. A third covered the rooms upstairs. Cap'n Shoemaker
Speaker 2: took chard of the questioning of the servants from them.
Speaker 2: He sought detailed information of the life, habits, and acquaintances
Speaker 2: of Nathan Leopold. He heard, at any rate of a
Speaker 2: unique person. And we'll find out just how unique when
Speaker 2: kind of murdery returns after the break. One week before
Speaker 2: the day of the kidnapping, Low and Leopold drove about
Speaker 2: the neighborhood of the Harvard School where Robert Franks was
Speaker 2: a pupil, and selected from a number of pupils, they
Speaker 2: knew several likely victims. One was Robert, another the son
Speaker 2: of Julius Rosenwald, nationally known philanthropist and a member of
Speaker 2: the directorate of the Sears Roebuck Mail Order House, and
Speaker 2: the third was a son of a wealthy furniture dealer.
Speaker 2: With this decision. They arranged for the rental of a
Speaker 2: Dodge touring car from the Hurtz drivat Yourself station. The
Speaker 2: selection of the colvert spot for the disposal of the
Speaker 2: victim's body was the child of Leopold's in genius Sprain.
Speaker 2: He knew the tar toy thoroughly, having been there, as
Speaker 2: he said, on many expeditions as an ornithologist. On Wednesday,
Speaker 2: at four o'clock in the afternoon, Leopold confessed, we went
Speaker 2: to the rental station and obtained a car which we
Speaker 2: said we wanted for two days. Dick Loab did the
Speaker 2: driving and we went to my home where I put
Speaker 2: on an auto robe and a pair of boots. Without
Speaker 2: any delay, we drove to the Harvard School. After circling
Speaker 2: the block several times, we spotted Robert Franks playing at
Speaker 2: the corner. We decided then that we would kill him
Speaker 2: and demand ten thousand dollars ransom from his father. I
Speaker 2: was sitting in the back and Lob was in the
Speaker 2: front driving. Loeb knew Robert best and called him over
Speaker 2: to our car. What did Lob say, came the question
Speaker 2: from the assistant state's attorney. He just said, Hey, Bobby,
Speaker 2: come here was Leopold's reply. Then he asked Robert if
Speaker 2: he wanted to play some tennis. Robert said he did,
Speaker 2: and we invited him into the car. While we were
Speaker 2: starting away, I was getting the chisel out of the
Speaker 2: pocket in the door of the car and my handkerchief
Speaker 2: out of my coat. Robert saw the chisel and asked
Speaker 2: what it was for. Lob then took his attention away
Speaker 2: from what I was doing by drawing him into conversation.
Speaker 2: We'd gone about two blocks and then I decided to
Speaker 2: go ahead. I brought up the chissel and struck Robert
Speaker 2: on the head. It stunned him and he began to
Speaker 2: struggle and scream. I seized him around the neck and
Speaker 2: I clapped the handkerchief over his nose and mouth, and
Speaker 2: I hit him harder with the chisel. Then he went limp.
Speaker 2: I pulled him over the back of the seat and
Speaker 2: onto the floor and covered his body with the auto robe.
Speaker 2: We drove around for about two hours, waiting for it
Speaker 2: to get dark, meanwhile driving always in the direction of
Speaker 2: the colvert at one hundred and twenty second Street. We
Speaker 2: arrived at the covert at about eight thirty and parked
Speaker 2: the car alongside the main road. Then we stripped the
Speaker 2: body of clothes and poured the hydrochloric acid over the face.
Speaker 2: I put my boots on and we carried the body
Speaker 2: to the covert. I stood in the water and placed
Speaker 2: the body close up against the covert support, and when
Speaker 2: I was sure it would not float away in the water,
Speaker 2: we went back to the car. It was at this
Speaker 2: time I think that my glasses dropped out of my
Speaker 2: coat pocket. The deed finished, the two dastardly murderers proceeded
Speaker 2: back to the city, stopping in route to bury the
Speaker 2: boy's clothes in a large prairie. Arriving home, they parked
Speaker 2: the rental car in Leopold's yard. Then, with a calm air,
Speaker 2: the pair retired to the dining room with a Leopold
Speaker 2: home and played several rounds of casino. Later, Low bade
Speaker 2: his friend good night and went home to bed. Leopold
Speaker 2: followed his example shortly afterward. In the interim, he stepped
Speaker 2: out to a drug store and telephoned the Franks home,
Speaker 2: informing Missus Franks incredible english of the kidnapping of her son.
Speaker 2: On serving the car early the next morning, Leopold discovered
Speaker 2: bloodstains on the back of the seat, the car's floor,
Speaker 2: and the running board. He also found blood spots on
Speaker 2: the autoobe some of the spots he managed to obliterate.
Speaker 2: Failing in his efforts to clean the robe, Leopold took
Speaker 2: it to the nearest lake and burned it. On his
Speaker 2: way back. He returned the rental car and paid the charges.
Speaker 2: It was lob he said, who called the Franks home
Speaker 2: the following day and announced the ransom letter with its instructions,
Speaker 2: was en route. In addition, Loebe called from the Ross
Speaker 2: drug store, notifying mister Edelson that the cab would come
Speaker 2: to pick up mister Franks. Shortly afterward, both heard of
Speaker 2: the finding of the boy's body and promptly forgot the
Speaker 2: ransom negotiations with mister Franks, although they had already been
Speaker 2: discouraged in this with the failure of the father to
Speaker 2: appear at the drug store. Both then went home to
Speaker 2: bask in the secretive glory of murderer who were never caught.
Speaker 2: Such was the tenor of the confession. So read the
Speaker 2: document that was passed among the congregation of reporters in
Speaker 2: the old Criminal Court building. It was a reading of
Speaker 2: achievement for Molroy and Goldstein. With weary steps, they made
Speaker 2: their way out of the building towards home, there to
Speaker 2: regain dire needed sleep, and there to invoke the blessing
Speaker 2: of Providence on their efforts the next day to pass
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty five dollars cab bill on to
Speaker 2: the city editor. So thoroughly were the master murderers incriminated
Speaker 2: that it was conceded at once that no lawyer in
Speaker 2: the state of Illinois, however brilliant or cunning, could be
Speaker 2: even remotely instrumental in sparing their necks from the deadly
Speaker 2: embrace of the hangman's hemp. Swiftly were the two conducted
Speaker 2: through the mill of criminal procedures, so that, on being
Speaker 2: brought to actual justice, they would not have had neither
Speaker 2: the mood nor the time to think of escape from
Speaker 2: the consequences of their act. A month gone in a flash,
Speaker 2: and Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold stood before Judge John R.
Speaker 2: Caverly in the Criminal Court, answering to the people of
Speaker 2: the state for the murder of one of its youths.
Speaker 2: To Clarence Darrow, the apostle of humanity, the champion of
Speaker 2: the underdog was given the title of chief counsel for
Speaker 2: the defense, something in the opinion of the press and
Speaker 2: the public, that existed in no sense at all at
Speaker 2: the present time. For Leopold and Lobe. The defense offered
Speaker 2: by Clarence Darrow is now famous literature today, daring in
Speaker 2: its application of the case at hand, utterly radical in
Speaker 2: its sense of justice. The Darrow defense, on top of all,
Speaker 2: its concession to the charges of the state, and nothing
Speaker 2: was denied, nevertheless, withstood the terrific hammerings of the prosecution
Speaker 2: with facts, facts facts. Someone has said that Darrow did
Speaker 2: no more than sing the intellectual blues for his clients
Speaker 2: who read the super velosophy of Nietzsche and the grotesque
Speaker 2: comedies of Robla at one sitting. Whatever he did, the
Speaker 2: effect brought a so thoroughly aroused public indignation on the
Speaker 2: head of Judge Cavalry that the worthy man was almost
Speaker 2: forced to flee the city to escape the torment at
Speaker 2: the hands of friends as well as enemies. That something
Speaker 2: of Clarence Darrow's sufficed at any rate for Leopold and
Speaker 2: Lobe and for their grieving Relativesjudge Caverley himself was moved
Speaker 2: to run counter to a fierce sentiment, and he saved
Speaker 2: the defendants from the gallows by sentencing them to prison.
Speaker 2: For the murder they got life imprisonment, and for the
Speaker 2: kidnapping ninety nine years. The sentence is to run concurrently.
Speaker 2: Oddly enough, for weeks afterwards. Judge Caverley was the target
Speaker 2: of editorial writers, priests, rabbis, ministers, and toastmasters, not a
Speaker 2: few remarks being made publicly passed on by some of
Speaker 2: his intimate friends too. Obviously, money, the money that was
Speaker 2: able to purchase great legal talent, prevented two heirs from
Speaker 2: taking what certainly would have otherwise been a death march.
Speaker 2: A large, perhaps negligible part of the public misconstrued application
Speaker 2: of the term money to the success of the defense
Speaker 2: to them. It meant that the judge was bribed. But
Speaker 2: nothing is more unreasonable and out of the question. Judge
Speaker 2: Caverly's integrity was above reproach. Leopold, with all his academic genius,
Speaker 2: became a trustee, acting clerk and assistant to the prison
Speaker 2: chaplain at Juliet Penitentiary, while Lobe labored in the Rattan factory,
Speaker 2: but very little news of them ever leaked out, they
Speaker 2: received one annual holiday when they were permitted to see
Speaker 2: one relative for a few hours, and gradually the crime
Speaker 2: of the century became just another sordid injury in the
Speaker 2: long annals of American true crime history, destined to spawn books, movies,
Speaker 2: and likely more than one podcast episode. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much everyone for being here with me. I appreciate you
Speaker 2: all very much. I'm Zevanodleberg and this has been kind
Speaker 2: of Murdery.
Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at
Speaker 1: kindo Murdery or email at Kindomurdery at gmail dot com.
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