Leopold and Loeb sentenced to life plus 99 years for 1924 murder of Bobby Franks

On September 10, 1924, in a Chicago courtroom, Judge John R. Caverly pronounced the sentence that would end one of the most sensational murder cases of the era. Nathan Leopold Jr., nineteen, and Richard Loeb, eighteen, both wealthy University of Chicago students, were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of fourteen-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks, plus 99 years for kidnapping. The judge spared them the death penalty, a decision that ignited a national debate over justice, wealth, and youth.

The case began on May 21, 1924, when Bobby Franks was kidnapped on his way home from school in Chicago. His body was found the next day in a culvert in a marshland area near the Indiana border, in a swamp known as the Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way. According to the case record, the boy had been killed by blows to the head with a chisel, and his body had been disfigured with acid. A passerby discovered the body after noticing a foot protruding from the culvert. The Franks family had received a ransom note demanding $10,000, but the boy was already dead when the note was delivered.

Police initially treated the case as a kidnapping gone wrong. The turning point came when a pair of eyeglasses was found near the body. The glasses had a unique hinge mechanism that was traced to a Chicago optician, who had sold only three pairs. One pair had been sold to Nathan Leopold. When questioned, Leopold claimed he had dropped the glasses while birdwatching in the area, but his alibi quickly fell apart. Investigators also found that the ransom note had been typed on a portable typewriter that Leopold had borrowed from a friend, according to the case record.