A listener note. This series in this episode contains some sexual and violent material that some might find disturbing.

Listener discretion is advised.

Chicago in the 1920s wasn't the safest place in America.

Gangs were rampant, guns were common, and prohibition was largely ignored.

But in the Kenwood section on the south side of town,

affluence was everywhere, and peace and quiet reigned.

Two team boys, one 19, the other six months younger,

needed some rope, and they needed it now.

Their entire summer depended on it.

The younger of the two boys walked into a hardware store and purchased an ample supply.

After all, money was no issue.

They both lived in mansions, and each had a governess,

which was a kind of combination of a mother, a maid, and a tutor.

One of the young men even had a family chauffeur.

The boys believed the rope was the key piece of the puzzle.

It was the great equalizer, because when it was wrapped around their victim's neck,

they would each pull the rope at the same time.

It would be a kind of tug of war in which, technically, there would be three losers.

But with this strategy, if they ever did get caught for strangling someone to death,

the two boys would share in the guilt equally.

Anyway, all that was just a precautionary measure, a murder pre-nope, if you will.

There was no way they were getting caught.

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