Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-06-10
PROSECUTION HOLDS.
ULTIMATE THREADS.
BE TWEEN FINGERS
Crudenesses of Death Plot
Come to Light as Full
Story Is Told

with boyish crudeness was revealed
Saturday in confession of Richard
Loeb, detail his share with
Nathan Leopold, Jr., il the kidnap-
ing and killing of Robert Franks.
Just after the confession was made
public, a diver who has been
searching for a week in a lagoon
found the typewriter which the
boys, sons of two Chicago million
aires, said they used to write let
tiers to their victims father de-
handing $4,000 ransom. The brok-
en- machine was found in the place
and condition which the confession
described.
A picture of the thoughtless cruel
ty of adolescence was the outstand
ing contribution of Loeb's confession
to the kidnapping record. He told
how, for three hours and a half,
he and Leopold cruised up and down
the streets in a rented car the aft
ernoon of the kidnapping, scanning
scores of children, undecided which
one to take.
These two youths, still in their
teens, who admitted they planned
to kill for excitement, casually look
ed over rs prospective victims the
playmates of their own near neigh
bors and friends, scions of the long
established, highly-respected colony
of wealthy Chico of which
their own families were leading
member
Sought Victim at Play
Loeb, at 2:2O o'clock in the after
noon, alighted from their car to talk
with an instructor at d private
school attended by the Franks boy
while he looked over the crowd of
children who the '-~~lructor was
overseeing at their play.
While there Loeb talked to his
own younger brother, while just
across the street stood the rented
car with side curtains up, contain
ing the chisel, the disfiguring acid
and an anesthetic with which, the
confession said, the pair planned to
kill whomever they should select.
Later Leopold pointed out a crowd
of children at play and these two
youths, with a pair of field glasses,
scrutinized them for a while for a
prospective victim, but having plen-
ty of time to make their selection,
resumed their driving, waiting for
more favorable opportunity
Once they fixed on John Levin
son, nine-year-old son of wealthy
attorney, and for the best part of
two hours they watched for the mo-
ment when he should break away
from his playmates, but missed that
moment.
BlameS Partner i'm Crime
T,nnh'c confession ipHioa fthat
Robert Franks, the thirteen-year-
old son of a millionaire, finally
chosen, came to his death almost
time to make a decision, and Robert
point where they could draw up
into the car with an invitation to
talk about a tennis racket. Loeb
said that Leopold knocked the boy
as soon as they could turn off the
street where they picked him up.
and that the gag that killed him
was a rag stuffed down his throat
by Leopold.
They had no special plans for
concealing the evidence, and hunger
stopped them long enough, in their
drive with the body of their victim,
to get lunch. The bits of circum-
stantial evidence were mostly car
ried back to their homes. The boys
clothing and the bloody auto robe
with which his body was covered
were taken to the house of Loeb and
some of, the clothing was burned in
the Loeb furnace.
Later, back at Leopolds home, the
youths spent some time in courte-
Gus conversation with their elders
and friends before starting out to
dispose of more evidence.
Threw Typewriter Away
The typewriter seemingly did not
worry them as a particularly dan
gerous piece of evidence until some
days after the killing, when the
newspapers had been filled with in
formation about how to trace the
machine. Then they took it out of a
trunk at Leopold's home and Loeb
twisted off the face Of the type,
after which they took the machine
and broken pieces and threw them
into a lagoon at Jackson park.
When young Loeb left home the
day after the killing, while they
still expected to collect ransom, he
took his fathers coat and overcoat,
he said. for "a Disguise" Later, at
Leopolds home, he substituted an
other overcoat as being less conspic-
uous. When he purchased a rail
road ticket in planting a note for the
slain boys father, he wore glasses
and another overcoat into the sta
ton "as a disguise"
He told how he had fled from a
Chicago hotel during an early part =.
of the plot, after plans he had to
make the hotel management believe
him a permanent guest, miscarried.
He said he thought the fact that he.
brought books to the hotel with him
would give an impression of perma.
nenCy. He fled precipitalely when
he discovered that somebody at the
hotel had removed this evidence of
his 'permanency" and forgot to
leave so much as a sheet turned
down on the bed to indicate he had
occupied it.
Overlooked a Bet
The confesson id not show the two
youths as the brilliant-m minded boys
who planned the most intricate de-
tails of their crime months in adj
vance. They planned, it was reveal
ed, but they forgot to take into any
considerable a fact that might have
proved their best protection from
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