Term Paper on "Leopold and Loeb"

Term Paper 11 pages (3456 words) Sources: 1+ Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Leopold and Loeb

The murder of fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks and the subsequent arrest and trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were heavy on the minds of the public in 1924, as the sensationalism of this extreme case were evident even to those who were closest to it. The rest of the public, in Chicago and elsewhere could rely heavily on exhaustive journalism to give them the information they sought about the events. The manner in which the case was defended was especially important to the world, as this was one of the first such cases where information about the perpetrators was clearly displayed on headlines that always created a desire to read the story. The newspapers and magazines, in fact played out a game of conservative vs. liberal, on the issue of capital punishment, as well as competitive sensationalism and the emotions of the case were never ignored. ("Heady Tale of Magazine" B08) the purpose of this work is to assess the similarities and differences between press accounts in Chicago and elsewhere, one would assume they all printed the facts as they knew them, but they also had varied conceptions of the trial that demonstrate regional differences in public opinion and the argument was not over the guilt or innocence of the murderers or the base innocence of the victim, but it was over the controversial new science of psychology or as it was then known psychotherapy. Newspapers all over the nation, through the Leopold and Loeb case played out the controversies of the science of the mind, while the more conservative set it aside the urban papers detailed the science as luridly as print would allow.

Chicago Daily News: "There are several warnings and object lessons in the astonishing affair. Here are...young men without religious or moral convictions, without respect for tradition and law; young men who are proud of their emancipation from all superstition and sneer at distinctions between good and evil and indulge all of their whims and caprices; young men who, with Nietzsche, talk of 'living dangerously,' seeking risk and adventure at any cost; young men who, if tempted, would not shrink even from murder, especially when saturated with ideas derived from the literature of Satanism, sadism and other perversities. Further developments in this extraordinary case need not be anticipated, but enough is already known or reasonably suspected to give psychologists, alienists and educators plenty of food for thought and for instructive contrasts and comparisons."

Busch 145)

The newspaper reports of the case, where of coarse much more saturated in the Chicago area, though the case reached national and international journalistic attention, as its intrigue was evident from the beginning. In fact many argue that the journalists of the time "created" the sensationalism of the story through their zealous reporting. Even modern renditions of the story, bent for the theatrical, such as John Logan's Never the Sinner demonstrate the sensationalism of the press, during the 1920s and how such a horrific story became the fodder for millions of dinnertime conversations.

Pressley 11)

On their own the newspapers press agented a series of "crimes of the century" --Loeb-Leopold, Hall-Mills, Snyder-Gray, Hauptmann -- ... The hysterical journalism of the twenties was "in tune with the times."

MacDougall 622)

The defense attorney received international acclaim for his emotional pleas in the court room, pleas that many note would never be heard in a court of law today, as his goal was to avoid the death penalty, at all cost and his methods were the stuff of fiction.

Cannon 1)

The effect of Darrow's appeal was manifest. As a special correspondent for one paper put it: "There was scarcely any telling where his voice had finished and where silence had begun. Silence lasted a minute, two minutes. His own eyes, dimmed by years of serving the accused, the oppressed, the weak, were not the only ones that held tears." Every newspaper in Chicago, and many throughout the nation, printed the long argument in full -- a tribute rarely paid to even the greatest of advocates.

Busch 193)

Darrow was successful in his plea to not resort to the death penalty in this case, and has frequently been called upon since then to validate throwing out this option in cases since. Especially in cases involving defendants who are demonstratively young, as Loeb and Leopold were, and obviously demented by virtue of their upbringing.

The case was such a sensation that even Freud was asked to get in on the action;

In 1922 the Chicago Tribune offered Freud $25,000, the equivalent of $300,000 today, to come to the United States and provide psychoanalytical commentary the Tribune could run during the trial of the 'thrill-killers' Leopold and Loeb. "

Wolfe 18) Though he declined, the reality was that the Tribune, and other papers of the time were intently seeking out greater bits of knowledge to share with the public, and further sensationalize their stories. In fact two newspapermen from the Chicago Daily News (James Mulroy and Alvin Goldstein) actually helped solve the case and were eventually given a part share in the reward money "as well as the Pulitzer Prize for helping to connect Nathan Leopold Jr. And Richard Loeb to the abduction and murder." (Fass 919)

The defining moments of the trial, as well as the psychoses of the accused were played out in other papers as well. The New York Times headline on August 5, 1924 (during the sentencing portion of the trial) demonstrates that the psychologists were the stars of testimony, as one left the defendants (on Saturday) with some semblances of humanity and the later "expert" stripped them of it by stating something to the effect of the defendants were completely lacking souls, the headline reads "ALIENIST DECLARES LEOPOLD and LOEB ARE DEVOID of SOUL; Quotes One as Saying He Could Think of Killing Just Like Choosing Pie." (NY Times 1) the lead of the article demonstrates the controversy, over psychology and expert witnesses as it opens,

Another expert witness for the defense took the stand today in the hearing before Judge John R. Caverly to determine the punishment for Nathan F. Leopold Jr. And Richard Loeb, the kidnappers and murderers of Robert Franks, and he stripped from the youths any vestige of soul, interpreted in terms of consideration for society, which was left by the first psychiatrist who testified Saturday. (NY Times 1)

The controversy was replayed extensively, in all the major cities. Each journalistic report seeking information that others had not focused on, the most damning of which being the early life of the defendants, as they were described as neglected by privilege and allowed to live as if they had no responsibilities, and rarely had supervision, beyond the supervision of governesses and in Leopold's case the perverse supervision of at least one governess, who introduced lurid sexuality into his mind and life, "She entered Leopold's life when he was just fourteen. The record is rather vague as to her antecedents but clear enough as to the fact that she was a pervert, who initiated Leopold into the practices of and submissions to various types of sexual perversion." Loeb on the other had had strict governesses that created in him the desire to be secretive and deceptive to avoid censure.

Busch 167) All of this was fodder for the press, and the urban newspapers in Chicago and New York played upon the early lives of the boys, as the "experts" findings were distributed for publishing.

The psychiatric findings brought out the conscious and unconscious sexual aspects of the case and helped the judge to arrive at a valid understanding of the defendants."

Abrahamsen 11)

The newspapers in Chicago and elsewhere were willing accomplices to the plans and plots of the defense and the prosecution. Those in the urban areas, having a greater propensity to discuss issues surrounding the defense's lurid tales while those in distance tended to play up the ideas of Crowe, who was actively seeking the death penalty from the very first day of the trial.

The issue was clear from the start. Crowe, [lead prosecutor] sustained by incessant newspaper clamor and aware of the opportunity offered to further an unlimited political ambition, was prepared for an all-out effort to hang the defendants -- "defeat the effort of a million dollars to save the lives of two ruthless murderers." Darrow [lead for defense] and his associates had but one hope -- to save their clients from the gallows. It was to that end they had pleaded them guilty and obtained leave to offer evidence in mitigation of punishment.

Busch 161)

One really interesting example of the manner in which the rural papers depicted the case is a short article, completely unrelated to the Leopold-Loeb case that comically demonstrates a group of golfers (likely privileged as this was a rich man's escapade at the time), inadvertently sitting on a box of dynamite during a rather frightening lightening storm. In the Sheboygan Press Telegram Wednesday Aug.… READ MORE

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