American convicted murderer, he became infamous in conjunction with his pal Richard Loeb, they are usually referred to collectively as ‘Leopold and Loeb.’ They planned a “perfect crime” as a thrill. Both sons of wealthy and influential local families, they were regarded as brilliant students. On 21 May 1924, they sadistically killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago, Illinois.
That afternoon they lured Franks into their car. While Leopold drove, Loeb struck Franks, sitting in front of him in the passenger seat, several times in the head with a chisel, then dragged him into the back seat, where he was gagged and soon died. With the body on the floorboard out of view, Leopold and Loeb drove to their predetermined dumping spot near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana, 25 miles (40 km) south of Chicago. After nightfall they removed and discarded Franks’s clothes, then concealed the body in a culvert along the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks north of the lake. To obscure the body’s identity, they poured hydrochloric acid on his face, and also his genitals to disguise the fact that he had been circumcised.
They were caught and sent to trial on 21 July 1924. Loeb’s family retained Clarence Darrow as lead counsel for their defense. Darrow’s 12-hour summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment as retributive rather than transformative justice. Both young men were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years on 10 September 1924. Loeb died after an attack by another inmate on 28 January 1936 in Joliet, Illinois.
Leopold was paroled in 1958 after spending his lifetime in prison, from age 19 to 53. He worked as a laboratory and X-ray assistant in Puerto Rico where he married a widowed florist. He earned a master’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico, then taught classes there; became a researcher in the social service program of Puerto Rico’s department of health; worked for an urban renewal and housing agency; and did research on leprosy at the University of Puerto Rico’s school of medicine. In 1963, he published Checklist of Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. He died on 29 August 1971 at age 66.
Link to Wikipedia biography