Actual Movements
Leopold attended classes at the University of Chicago from 8am-11am. His first class a criminal law lecture on the subject of larceny with Professor Puttkammer. The second, a French lecture which he wasn’t enrolled in, discussing French poets including José-Maria de Heredia. He knew at least three women who were there that day: Helen Robbins, Susan Lurie and Adelia Alschuler. At 11am Leopold and Loeb met each other at the University, and left in Leopold’s car for the Rent-A-Car company.
Leopold rented a blue Willys-Knight under the name Morton D. Ballard, he drove the rented car and Loeb drove Leopold’s car to Kramer’s restaurant, where they put side curtains on the rented car, which would block the view into the backseat. They had lunch at Kramer’s, then drove to the Leopold home.
They transferred their supplies into the rental car and Leopold told his family’s chauffeur, Sven Englund, to fix his squeaky brakes. Both Leopold and Loeb got in the rental car and drove to Jackson Park, waiting for an hour until school let out.
At around 2:15 they began to look for a victim.
They went to the Harvard school and several lots around the neighborhood where children were playing, Loeb getting out to chat with a few.
They eventually settled on a boy named John Levinson as their victim, but he went up an alley with his friends and got away. At around 5 o’clock they spotted Bobby Franks walking down Ellis avenue towards home, an instructor at the Harvard School said he had been umpiring a baseball game there from about 3:45 to 5:15.
Loeb asked Bobby if he wanted a ride. Bobby said no, he only had a few blocks to go. Loeb insisted, saying he wanted to talk to Bobby about a tennis racket he had, as Loeb wanted to get one like it for his little brother Tommy.
Bobby got into the passenger seat. They asked if he minded going around the block, and he said no. They turned the corner on Ellis and 49th street and Bobby had a hand clasped over his mouth, and the person in the back seat hit him four times with the handle end of a chisel. As this didn’t knock him unconscious, as intended, he was dragged into the backseat and a rag was stuffed into his mouth to quiet his moaning. He suffocated to death soon after.
Leopold and Loeb drove around, waiting for dark, stopping for hot dogs and root beer from the Dew Drop Inn, a roadside stand. They went over Bobby’s body and separated his possessions into what would and wouldn’t burn, burying the non-flammable items along seldom traveled stretches of the road.
When it was dark enough they drove out to the Hyde/Wolf lake area on the extreme south side of the city. Using a car robe as a stretcher, they carried his body to a culvert which ran below the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and connected the lakes. They undressed him and Leopold poured hydrochloric acid over Bobby’s face and genitals in an attempt to erase his identity. Leopold then put on hip waders, got into the water and pushed and kicked Bobby’s body until it was wedged inside of the culvert pipe.
The pair drove back to Chicago, mailed their ransom note to the Franks family and called the Franks home, letting Flora Franks know that her son had been kidnapped and instructions would follow on how to get him back.
When Bobby didn’t make it home, his parents began looking for him: calling his friend’s houses and searching the Harvard School in case he had gotten locked inside. Jacob Franks and the family’s friend and lawyer Samuel Ettelson were searching the school when Flora Franks received the phone call.
Leopold and Loeb burned Bobby’s clothes in the Loeb’s furnace, then returned to the Leopold home where they played cards and talked with Leopold’s family for the rest of the evening. When Leopold drove Loeb home for the night they threw the blood stained chisel out the window into some bushes along the way. Not realizing that a night watchman had been making his rounds of the neighborhood.
The watchman gave the chisel to police officers, just hours after it had been used to bludgeon a 14-year-old boy.
Newspaper Coverage
No publicity as of yet.
Sources
- Confessions and Other Statements of Leopold and Loeb, Harold S Hulbert Papers, Northwestern University Archives
- Transcript for the People of the State of Illinois vs. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb
The Lives and Legends of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold 
I wonder where that chisel is today. Never saw it come up in photos (like Nathan’s glasses in storage).
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Yeah I have no idea where the physical evidence ended up: the chisel, typewriter, clothes, weapons, etc. all seems to have vanished.
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