The Infamous Leopold-Loeb Murder Quiz

Answer: Chicago, Illinois

The abduction took place outside the prestigious Harvard School. The body was dumped at a culvert near Wolf Lake, not far from a very well-to-do area of Illinois in which both murderers and the victim lived.

Answer: 210

A certified genius, Nathan Leopold reportedly began speaking at the age of four months. At the time of the murder he was 19 years old and already fluent in fifteen languages, and was a nationally recognized ornithologist. He had also gained entry to the University of Chicago at the age of 16. His accomplice, Richard Loeb, had an I.Q. between 160 and 168.

Answer: Boredom. They wanted to see if they could commit the perfect crime.

Both Leopold and Loeb were from already very wealthy families and they did not need money. It is true that in the plan they devised there would be a ransom, but they also initially did intend to kill the victim because they decided to choose someone they knew personally, and did not want the victim to identify them.

Answer: By chance they saw him the afternoon of the murder and chose him at the last minute.

In planning the crime, Leopold and Loeb decided that they would not choose the victim until the very day of the crime. They considered kidnapping either their own fathers or brothers and then killing them after collecting ransom, but then assumed that they would be under too much scrutiny if the victim was a member of their own families.

They agreed that they would randomly select a victim as long as it was a boy with a rich father.

Answer: A pair of eyeglasses.

A pair of eyeglasses discovered at the scene of the body was found to have a rare type of hinges on them. Only three pairs of eyeglasses with those particular hinges had been sold in the Chicago area, and one of them belonged to Nathan Leopold. This was the first big break in the case, and the ultimate undoing of the two murderers' alibis.

Answer: He was suffocated by a cloth forced down his throat.

Shortly after being lulled into a rented car under the pretense of looking at a tennis racket, Bobby Franks was in fact struck in the head with a chisel. The autopsy, however, revealed that the blunt trauma was not the cause of his death, but rather it was the piece of cloth shoved in his throat shortly thereafter.

Answer: He was a champion of the abolishment of the death penalty and saw the trial as an opportunity to further his publicity to that end

Jacob Loeb did in fact offer to pay Darrow on the evening of the initial arrest. Darrow had already made a name for himself as one of the country's most brilliant lawyers and also a fierce opponent of capital punishment. He took the case not for the fee, but to make his beliefs on capital punishment more public.

He was not related to either of the defendants, as far as is known, and at the time did not believe they were innocent.

Answer: Life in prison, plus 99 years

The exact wording of the sentence:

"For the crime of murder, confinement at the penitentiary at Joliet for the term of their natural lives."
"For the crime of kidnapping for ransom, similar confinement for the term of ninety-nine years."

Answer: false

In 1936, at the age of 32, Richard Loeb was murdered in his cell with a straight razor by his cell mate, James Day. Both he and Leopold had been showing signs of rehabilitation and had even started a school for the other prisoners. Leopold, who also worked in the prison hospital, was the one who cleaned the blood from the body of his closest friend.

Answer: He died a free man in 1971.

Nathan Leopold continued learning in prison. He mastered 12 more languages and studied several other subjects. He was paroled in 1958 and moved to Puerto Rico where he earned a Master's Degree, published books, continued studying birds, and married. He died of a heart attack in 1971 with his wife next to him.

Most of the information in this quiz is found at http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/index_1.htmlHope you enjoyed it!