dialogues of leopold and loeb A two act play

https://www.youtube.com ^ | Oct 19, 2017 | Brad Walton

[Beowulf9]

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the case of Leopold and Loeb. It was in the 20s, near Chicago. Movie made of it was Compulsion and it was quite mesmerizing. The gist of it from Wikipedia is:

"Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971)[1] and Richard Albert Loeb usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who in May 1924 kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago. They committed the murder—characterized at the time as "the crime of the century"as a demonstration of their perceived intellectual superiority, which, they thought, rendered them capable of carrying out a "perfect crime", and absolved them of responsibility for their actions.

After the two men were arrested, Loeb's family retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for their defense. Darrow's 12-hour-long 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. Loeb was murdered by a fellow prisoner in 1936; Leopold was released on parole in 1958.

The Franks murder has been the inspiration for several dramatic works, including Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play Rope and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film of the same name. Later movies, such as Compulsion—adapted from Meyer Levin's 1957 novel—and Swoon, Murder by Numbers were also based on the crime".

This is a play based on them and I found it very satisfying to watch, when one wishes to know more than the repeated facts on the net there is this.

Thought I'd bring it to you all for perusement. You might find it something to enjoy.

Damn Clarence Darrow.

[Beowulf9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Aw6rY_tZU

[yesthatjallen]

A thrill murder.

They did it just because they believed they could and get away with it.

[BenLurkin]

Hitchcock supposedly filmed “Rope” in two continuous takes. He couldn’t do it in a single take because the camera could only hold a certain amount of film.

[lee martell]

I recall reading about this when I was back in High School.
This was long before such random murders became ‘below the fold’ stories. It’s an unfortunate truth. That horror was replaced a few years later by the Lindberg Baby Kidnapping. Charles Lindberg was an internationally known pilot. His personal life was in ruins after that kidnapping ended in murder of his child. Some of the public always blamed him to some degree.

Certain other news sites of today are now reporting on an abduction and attempted murder of a young girl who was held hostage for 88 days by a 21 year old. I didn’t even want to know more about it. In fact, it felt that I already knew too much. Another Thrill Kill I can do nothing at all about.

[rusty schucklefurd]

They bought into Nietzsche’s views on no God, no morality, and the idea of the ubermensch (superman) and therefore as intellectually superior and above everyone else, they had the “right” to do anything they desired - they could create their own morality.

[MHT]

Bingo! They were nihilists and the models for later generations. You can see the same themes in Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The crime most similar to this was the kidnapping and murder of the Greenlease boy in Kansas City. in fact, the Frank kidnapping may have inspired elements of the Greenlease crime in the early 50’s.

[nathanbedford]

Somehow Clarence Darrow's brilliant defense of Nathan Leopold in this sensational murder case must be seen in the context of his defense of Scopes in the equally famous monkey trial case.

In each instance there lurked within the litigation the proper role of God and man, of good and evil, of the First Commandment and Nietzsche. Clarence Darrow was well to the left of progressives, he was undoubtedly a socialist and likely so was John T Scopes. To observe that Darrow was brilliant in court, by the way, is not to endorse his worldview or his religiosity, or lack of it.

Leopold's crime condemned by the state, a murder, was the consequence of his rejection of God and God's law, violating the First Commandment. Worshiping Nietzsche, he despised God, discarded God but he would be God.

The Scopes trial is a fraud from beginning to end. It is revealing to compare the parallels of the Scopes trial which was a put up affair in which Scopes later privately admitted that he never actually taught evolution and the contrived causes of litigation such as the right to use birth control leading up to Roe vs. Wade. In both of these instances the left fabricated cases to adjudicate a soulless and godless world ordained by judges.

Darrow's defense of Leopold sought to erase God from the equation. There was no heinous violation of God's law requiring retribution, there were only human missteps which led to tragedy and which should be dealt with on human terms, i.e. no capital punishment. Darrow's defense in the monkey trial sought to erase God from the classroom and, like Leopold, do away with the first commandment and substitute human "science."

Atheists argue that a civil society can be had in the absence of belief in God. We as a society are now reaping the consequences of these assumptions. How is it working out?

[zerosix]

They did it not so much that they believed they could actually get away with it, though they did feel they were much more intelligent than the police investigating the crime, for they genuinely believed themselves to be brilliant, educated elites, “entitled” to live as they chose and “entitled” to enjoy a full range of life experiences.

Others, like their victim, much less intelligent, brilliant and worthy than themselves didn’t deserve any such consideration.

Sound familiar to many of our “educated elite” today, without the murder part, of course.

[avenir]

Good movie.

[ozaukeemom]

I just watched it again a few weeks ago! Really well done and scary. Without any actual shown violence.

[Equine1952]

If you have no moral compass and believe your are omnipresent you can do anything. No problem. This entire story is amazing. I was a youngster when I first heard of it. I’m afraid it’s purely just good verses evil and we’re currently up to our butts in it.

[sparklite2]

Didn’t the conviction have something to do with the victim’s spectacles having or not having raindrops on them?

As to Darrow and Scopes, I loved this line ...

Darrow made some remark disparaging the court proceedings, and the judge harrumphed, “The court hopes the defense is not impugning the honor of this court.”

And Darrow replied, “His honor is entitled to hope.”

[Guenevere]

Rope is well acted.....Jimmy Stewart playing, of course, the sweet, honest guy who the Loeb/Leopold type characters try to outwit.

[PAR35]

Poster boy for the message that life plus 99 years means that you’ll hit the street eventually. The death penalty would have been justice. Fortunately one of the guys who liked to kidnap and use teenage boys ended up with some prison justice.

[avenir]

“If you have no moral compass and believe your are omnipresent you can do anything. No problem.”

Imagine if you had a multitude of them gathering as one. Babel! See: Genesis 11:1-9