The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-04
CHICAGO YOUTHS TO MAKE PLEA
 OF INSANITY Millionaire Parents De- eide Upon Line Of
 Defense DEATH INDICTMENT SOUGHT BY GROVE Grand Jury Expected To Sit Three Days On
 Case

CHICAGO, June 3.-The multi
 millionaire relatives of Nathan
 Leopold, Jr.. and Richard Loeb.
 the confessed slayers of 1S-year-
 old Robert Franks, late Tuesday
 decided to have the youths plead
 insanity as their defense.
 The decision was reached fol-
 lowing 8 series of conferences be-
 tween Clarence E. DarrOw, re-
 tained as counsel for the prisoners,
 and several wealthy members of
 the Leopold and Loeb families.
 CHICAGO, June 3.-The Cook coun- ty grand jury today was asked to in- dict Nathan Leopold, IT,, and Richard Loeb, confessed kidnapers and slayers of Robert Franks, for murder and kid naping for ransom, each crime punish able by death, while the authorities investigated the possible connection of the youths with the deaths of two other persons and the mutilation of a third.
 States Attorney Grove, who is pre- senting the Franks case to the grand jury in person, ordered assistants to- day to investigate the possible involve ment of Leopold and Loeb in the shoot ing last fall of Freeman Tracy, uni versity student, whose body was found near the school he attended with a bullet through the head and in the mutilation a few days previous of Charles Ream, taxi driver. With a similar end in view an unofficial in- vestigation was under way of the death several months ago of Melvin Wolfe, who left the home of his wealthy grandparents to mail a letter and whose body was found in the lake. Relatives were never satisfied with the decision of the authorities that he committed suicide. ii Witnesses Called
 Eleven witnesses went before the grand jury today and more than a score remain to be heard. The grand jury reconVenes tomorrow afternoon.
 Possible connection between the slay- ing of Tracy and the youths was found when the authorities discovered that the bullet which killed Tracy fitted a pistol belonging to Leopold, which the latter said he carried when the Franks boy was kidnapped and which he pur- chased several months previously.
 A motive for the shooting of Tracy was never found. He appeared to have been a brilliant student and seemingly was without enemies. His body was found almost on the campus of the University of Chicago, the institution attended by both Leopold and Loeb, and by Tracy Friends of Tracy said he knew both the youths.
 A few days after Tracy was slain, Charles Ream, taxi driver, was at tackled and mutilated. Yesterday, talk en to the sates attorneys office by newspaper reporters to view Leopold and Loeb, he expressed the opinion that they were his assailants. The off ciais were skeptical until an investiga- tion had been made as Reams had told them shortly after he was attacked that he did not get a full view of his kidnapers.
 Among those who appeared before the grand jury today was Jacob Franks, Percy Van DeBogert, druggist from whose store the youths said they tele- phoned ransom demands to Franks; James c. Kemp. employed by Van De Bogert Irving Hartman, who attended a private school with the Franks boy and who saw Robert start for his home on the day he disappeared; Dr. Joseph Springer, cOroner's physician who made an examination of the body Dr. Emil Deutsch, who sold Leopold the pair of horn-rimmed spectacles which the latter lost near the place he concealed young Franks body and which led to his arrest; Sven Eng lund, chauffeur at the Leopold home whose statement that the Leopold car was in the garage the day of the kidnap- ing when Leopold and Loeb said they were driving about town with it, led to their breakdown and confession, and Elizabeth Salter, maid at the Leopold home who told the authorities that Leopold owned a typewriter of the same make as that on which a ransom letter to Jacob Franks was written.
 Expects Delay
 Mir. Grove said before going before the grand jury that he did not expect indictments to be returned for three days. He said he expected to submit the confessions of the youths and every bit of evidence to the jury. in order to make all the information matter of record. He said this action also was being taken to prevent the possibility of any of the witnesses changing their stories later. Should they do so, he said, they will be charged with perjury and prosecuted