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History Daily

The Murder of Bobby Franks

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

May 21, 1924: In an effort to commit what they consider to be the “perfect crime,” Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free.

0:04.0

Listen with Wundry Plus in the Wundry app.

0:06.0

As a member of Noiser Plus at Noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts,

0:10.0

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at into History.com. It's May 21st, 1924, in Kenwood, a neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

0:27.0

Commuters dream past 14-year-old Bobby Franks as he walks home from school.

0:36.5

After a long day in the classroom, Bobby daydreams about the supper he hopes his mom

0:40.4

will have ready for him. But Bobby is so lost in his thoughts that he

0:44.4

doesn't hear a car slow down alongside him. It isn't until a voice from

0:49.0

inside the vehicle calls out that Bobby stops, turns, and squints against the low sun.

0:54.0

It takes him a moment to recognize the passenger in the back of the car.

0:58.0

It's his 18-year-old cousin, Richard Loeb.

1:01.0

The driver, though, is a young man Bobby doesn't recognize.

1:05.2

Richard reaches forward and opens the passenger door telling Bobby to jump in that they'll give him a right home.

1:11.1

Bobby shakes his head and says no. His house is practically around the corner. a ride

1:15.0

hardly seems worth it.

1:17.0

Bobby starts to walk again, but Richard calls him back,

1:20.0

repeating his offer of a ride, and says he wants to ask Bobby about his new tennis racket.

1:24.4

Bobby takes one last look up the street. His cousin seems so insistent so

1:29.5

Bobby shrugs and gets into the car. But as soon as the car pulls away from the curb, Richard clamps his hand over Bobby's mouth.

1:38.0

Bobby struggles, but Richard has a strong grip.

1:41.0

As Bobby panics, he notices the car turned south away from his house, away from the

1:46.0

home that he'll now never return to. Within moments of his abduction, Bobby Franks will be dead.

...

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