NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT

King and Wilson team up again, this time to chronicle the notorious 1924 murder case dubbed the “crime of the century.”

On May 21, 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two wealthy University of Chicago students, picked up their neighbor, 14-year-old Bobby Frank, while he was walking home from school. They proceeded to bind, gag, and bludgeon him to death and demand a ransom from his parents. Although meticulously planned over months—they wanted “to see if they could commit the perfect crime as if it was some childish game pitting their wits against the police”—their plan soon unraveled when Frank’s body was found in a nearby forest where Leopold frequently went birding. Further incriminating details included bloodstains in a rented car, the typewriter on which the ransom letter was likely composed, and bottles of ether and strychnine and two loaded guns at the Leopold house. The authors’ meticulous research is apparent throughout this thrilling narrative, as they reveal crucial aspects of the boys’ lives and families, especially their codependent relationship and interests in grim Nietzschean philosophy, sadism, and other dark subjects. Observers attributed the crime to a variety of factors, including the “corrupting modern influences” of the Roaring ’20s; “perversion,” which was “the common and unmistakable code for homosexuality”; or the idea that the perpetrators had strayed from their Jewish roots. The authors argue that Leopold was the actual murderer. “Individually, Richard and Nathan were damaged but probably not dangerous,” they write. “It was their coming together that proved deadly.” Clarence Darrow took up the case in order to argue against the death penalty. The defendants pled guilty to avoid a jury trial, although Darrow did enlist psychiatrists to suggest that the pair were “mentally diseased” rather than insane or evil. This defense brought another massive wave of media frenzy, which the authors capture in colorful detail.

An absorbing, psychological work of historical true crime.