The Murder of Bobby Franks
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
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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. This episode originally aired in 2024.
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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. Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry Kenwood, a neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. |
| 0:31.6 | Commuters dream past 14-year-old Bobby Franks as he walks home from school. |
| 0:36.2 | After a long day in the classroom, Bobby daydreams about the supper he hopes his mom will |
| 0:40.6 | have ready for him. |
| 0:42.2 | But Bobby is so lost in his thoughts that he doesn't hear a car slow down alongside him. |
| 0:47.8 | It isn't until a voice from inside the vehicle calls out that Bobby stops, turns, and |
| 0:52.4 | squints against the low sun. |
| 0:56.3 | It takes him a moment to recognize the passenger in the back of the car. It's his 18-year-old cousin, Richard Lowe. The driver, though, |
| 1:02.3 | is a young man Bobby doesn't recognize. Richard reaches forward and opens the passenger door, |
| 1:08.0 | telling Bobby to jump in, that they'll give him a ride home. Bobby shakes |
| 1:11.7 | his head and says, no, his house is practically around the corner. A ride hardly seems worth it. |
| 1:17.0 | Bobby starts to walk again, but Richard calls him back, repeating his offer of a ride, and says |
| 1:21.9 | he wants to ask Bobby about his new tennis racket. Bobby takes one last look up the street. |
| 1:27.2 | His cousin seems so insistent, |
| 1:29.5 | so Bobby shrugs and gets into the car. But as soon as the car pulls away from the curb, |
| 1:35.5 | Richard clamps his hand over Bobby's mouth. Bobby struggles, but Richard has a strong grip. As |
| 1:41.3 | Bobby panics, he notices the car turns south, away from his house, away from |
| 1:45.9 | the home that he'll now never return to. Within moments of his abduction, Bobby Franks will be dead. |
| 1:56.0 | The brutal murder case will hit the headlines and shock the entire nation, and not just because one of the |
| 2:01.3 | killers will be identified as Bobby's relative. The two murderers will also turn on each other, |
| 2:06.7 | and the resulting trial will grip the country before Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold are |
| 2:11.5 | finally brought to justice for the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks on May 21st, 1924. |
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