Chicago, May 21, 1924. Brilliant, wealthy, and troubled companions Nathan Leopold (age 19) and Richard Loeb (18) set out to commit “the perfect crime.” Their unlucky victim: 14-year-old Bobby Franks, lured into the young men’s car and promptly murdered. Despite extensive corruption in the Chicago Police Department, the involvement of journalists in the investigation, and the questionable investigative practices used at the time, the not-so-perfect murder was quickly solved; the perpetrators were arrested and soon confessed. Clarence Darrow, the attorney who defended them, took a novel approach in urging Leopold and Loeb to plead guilty so that he could argue mitigating circumstances—but not insanity, which would have required a jury trial—in front of the sentencing judge, with the goal of evading the death penalty. Exhaustively researched, this gripping account covers the planning and execution of the deplorable crime, the investigation, the judicial process, and punishment for the offenders. The individual lives and personalities of Loeb, who today would be considered a psychopath, and Leopold, who was in thrall to Loeb, are compellingly detailed. (Both were gay, Jewish, and neglected by their parents as children.) Historical context is clear throughout the book, especially regarding the homophobia, antisemitism, and psychological practices of the 1920s.   (Age 13 and older)

How did two teenagers brutally murder an innocent child...and why? And how did their brilliant lawyer save them from the death penalty in 1920s Chicago? Written by a prolific master of narrative nonfiction, this is a compulsively readable true-crime story based on an event dubbed the "crime of the century."

In 1924, eighteen-year-old college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb made a decision: they would commit the perfect crime by kidnapping and murdering a child they both knew. But they made one crucial error: as they were disposing of the body of young Bobby Franks, whom they had bludgeoned to death, Nathan's eyeglasses fell from his jacket pocket.

Multi-award-winning author Candace Fleming depicts every twist and turn of this harrowing case--how two wealthy, brilliant young men planned and committed what became known as the crime of the century, how they were caught, why they confessed, and how the renowned criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow enabled them to avoid the death penalty.

Following on the success of such books as The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh and The Family Romanov, this acclaimed nonfiction writer brings to heart-stopping life one of the most notorious crimes in our country's history.