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One of the most despicable murder cases in the twentieth century was that of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, residents of suburban Chicago, who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924. Their motive: They wanted to kill for the thrill of it and commit the perfect crime. Both Leopold, age 20, and Loeb, age 19, were exceptionally brilliant students who considered themselves intellectual supermen. On May 21, 1924 they lured Bobby Franks (a distant relative of Loeb) into a rented car. Franks was bludgeoned with a chisel and suffocated with a sock. His body was dumped into a culvert in Gary, Indiana and doused with acid to make identification difficult. The culprits mailed a typed ransom note to Franks' parents indicating that Bobby had been kidnapped. However, Franks' body was found before any ransom could be paid. Also found near the body were a pair of eye glasses that fell from Loeb's pocket during the crime. The glasses were almost unique--only three pairs had been made by a certain optician--and they led the police to Loeb. The two young men, who were reputedly homosexual lovers, were questioned and their alibis discredited. Each eventually confessed his involvement in the crime, but insisted the other was responsible for the actual murder. They were brought to trial for murder and kidnapping. Their lawyer, the famous Clarence Darrow, entered pleas of guilty in order to avoid a jury deciding the twosome's fate--which likely would have been a death sentence. Instead Darrow argued with a judge to spare his guilty clients from the death penalty. Darrow gave a rousing 12-hour oration that spared his clients' lives. Instead Leopold and Loeb were each given life sentences plus 99 years. Loeb was murdered in prison in 1936. Leopold was pardoned in 1958 and died of a heart attack in 1971. Bobby Franks, often forgotten by history, remains 14 years old forever.
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Leopold
Loeb
Franks
Added: 16th November 2007
Views: 330
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
 
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Here's one for you conspiracy theorists to ponder: Was newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen murdered? Famous for her role as a permanent panelist on What's My Line and for her entertainment and gossip column in the New York Journal American, Kilgallen often covered major news events. She reported on the Sam Sheppard murder trial and the Lindbergh kidnapping case, among others. She also expressed serious doubts about the Warren Commission's investigation of JFK's murder. Kilgallen interviewed Jack Ruby in prison shortly before her death on November 8, 1965--just hours after she had appeared live and quite chipper on What's My Line. Kilgallen was found dead in her Manhattan home, fully clothed on a bed in which she did not sleep. A book she had finished reading months ago was near her. Although alcohol and barbituates were found in her blood stream, Kilgallen's official cause of death was listed as undetermined. The coroner who did the paperwork was responsible for autopsies in Brooklyn--not Manhattan. Kilgallen's notes from her interview with Jack Ruby were never found--leading conspiracy theorists to wonder whether she had ben silenced.
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Dorothy
Kilgallen
death
conspiracy
Added: 17th November 2007
Views: 358
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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One of the most famous criminal cases in American history was the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., son of the famous aviator. On March 1, 1932, sometime between 8 and 10 p.m., the toddler was snatched from his upstairs nursery at the Lindberghs' still-under-construction retreat home near Hopewell, New Jersey. A note in badly written English was found on the window sill. It demanded $50,000 in ransom for the safe return of the child. A crude homemade ladder was also found leaning against the house. There were few other clues. The case took an odd turn when a 72-year-old good samaritan named John F. Condon took out a newspaper act volunteering to act as an intermediary to negotiate with the kidnappers. His offer was accepted but neither Lindbergh nor Condon immediately informed the police for fear of putting the child's life in danger. Eventually the money--much of it in rare gold certificates--was paid to a man in a cemetery but the child was not returned. Shortly afterward a child's body was found in a wooded area not far from the Lindbergh home. It was badly decomposed and was identified as the Lindbergh child based on a slight deformity on its right foot. The child had died from a severe skull fracture. Eventually Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant with a criminal record in his homeland, was tracked down for spending one of the gold certificates at a gas station. About $15,000 in ransom money was found in his house. Planks from his garage matched the wood used to make the crude ladder. Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence, claiming he was only holding the money for a man named Isador Fisch who had returned to Germany and died there. Hauptmann said he only began spending the money after learning of Fisch's death. Hauptmann was tried, found guilty, and executed in 1936. There is little doubt that Hauptmann was somehow connected with the kidnapping, but there are lingering suspicions that he was assisted by someone who knew the routine and the goings-on at the Lindbergh household. The Lindberghs were not even supposed to be at their Hopewell home on the night of the kidnapping. The kidnapper(s) also had to know precisely when and where the boy would be left unattended.
Tags:
Lindbergh
kidnapping
Added: 14th December 2007
Views: 226
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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