The Perfect Crime? (May 22, 2016)

 

“And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.” (Genesis 9:5-6)

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                 Ninety-two years ago, this weekend, nineteen year old Nathan Leopold and eighteen year old Richard Loeb, exceptionally intelligent friends who had both graduated from university before twenty years of age, kidnapped and murdered a fourteen-year old acquaintance by the name of Bobby Franks. Their crime became a national sensation because, after they were arrested, they confessed their motives were simply to experience the thrill of killing someone and the attempt to commit a “perfect crime.”

                 Although both Leopold and Loeb were from privileged, upper-class backgrounds, they were both described as “obsessed with crime” as well as being enamored with the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. His writings championed the concept of the “ubermensch” (German for “overman” or “superman”), a special class of people who, due to their superior intellectual abilities, were not bound by the same laws that govern “ordinary” men. Influenced by such thinking (and convinced they were “supermen”) these two attempted to prove their status by engaging in a spree of petty crime. Their unremarkable crimes (e.g., arson, theft, vandalism) failed to get attention in the press, so the boys decided to step it up with kidnapping and murder. Their botched attempt at the perfect crime, however, was soon exposed when a series of irrefutable clues (e.g., Leopold’s distinctive eyeglasses left at the crime scene; evolving alibis easily exposed as untrue) led Loeb to confess. 

                The question of who actually killed Bobby Franks was never answered (both defendants accused the other). But a telling quote was reported from Nathan Leopold. “The killing was an experiment,” he told his attorney. “It is just as easy to justify such a death as it is to justify an entomologist killing a beetle on a pin.” Such remarks left little hope of pleading the boys’ innocence but famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, after an impassioned twelve hour plea, did save their lives—so that, in the end, there were only two casualties: poor Bobby Franks and the image of God.

                The citation at the top of the page was spoken soon after the flood, informing us that the true value of a human life is its resemblance to the image of God; to treat man’s life as having the same or less value than an insect is to treat God in the same way! When life is respected, so is God. When God is disrespected, woe to the living!