Richard Loeb, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Richard Loeb

American murderer

Date of Birth: 11-Jun-1905

Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Date of Death: 28-Jan-1936

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr.
(November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who in May 1924 kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago.
They committed the murder – characterized at the time as "the crime of the century" – as a demonstration of their perceived intellectual superiority, which, they thought, enabled them to carry out a "perfect crime" and absolved them of responsibility for their actions. After the two men were arrested, Loeb's family retained Clarence Darrow as lead counsel for their defense.
Darrow's 12-hour summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment as retributive rather than transformative justice.
Both young men were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years.
Loeb was murdered by a fellow prisoner in 1936; Leopold was released on parole in 1958. The Franks murder has been the inspiration for several dramatic works, including Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play Rope and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film of the same name.
Later works, such as Compulsion (1959), adapted from Meyer Levin's 1957 novel; Swoon (1992); and Murder by Numbers (2002) were also based on the crime.