Nothing but the Night: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America by King Greg & Wilson Penny

Author:King, Greg & Wilson, Penny [King, Greg & Wilson, Penny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Crime, Biography, Adult, gay
ISBN: 9781250272669
Amazon: 1250272661
Goodreads: 59808312
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2022-09-20T07:00:00+00:00

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IN JUNE 1924 THE ARRESTS of Leopold and Loeb were on the front page of every Chicago newspaper. “When I read that the Franks boy was missing, and of the manner in which he had disappeared,” Ream said, “I started to take a keen interest in the case. I read every paper and the longer the thing went on the more positive I became that these kidnappers had robbed me. Then one day I saw the pictures of Leopold and Loeb in the paper. At once I was sure.” Ream took his story to the Daily Tribune, which arranged for him to see the two. The confrontation happened on June 2, as Ream stood in a hallway in the Criminal Courts Building as the pair walked by. “The recognition of the confessed slayers by Ream sent an electric thrill through the Criminal Court Building,” the Tribune reported. “It was a tense bit of drama, quite as much because of the importance it had in the sensational case as because of the terrifying effect it had on the accuser … He trembled, sobbed, gasped for breath. He could not speak and would have fallen had not a reporter grasped his arm. All because he had looked into and recognized the face of the man who blighted his life in young manhood.… Anyone who saw the look of horror come into Ream’s eyes as he swept into his victim would feel his identification was true.”33

“Do you think I could forget the face of the men who have taken so much out of my life?” Ream asked. “I knew them when I first saw their pictures in the paper. Loeb drove the car on the night I was kidnapped. Leopold is the man who prepared the ether bandage.” He added that he had decided that Loeb “was soft, not a tough. But the fellow who pulled me into the car, Leopold, had a hard face. He looked like a thug from the west side. I think Leopold is one of the toughest men I have ever seen.… There was murder in his eyes that night. It scared me.”34

Richard denied any involvement in what authorities euphemistically termed the “gland robbery.”35 Nathan refused to discuss the matter on the advice of his attorneys. But a few days after Ream’s identification, Robert Crowe launched an investigation into whether Leopold and Loeb had attacked Ream and Tracy.36 Melvin Wolf’s grandfather apparently supported the investigation but said he didn’t want to talk about Leopold and Loeb, perhaps fearing that his grandson would be tarred with the sexual rumors surrounding the murderous pair: “It would not bring back the boy if we find out.”37

In August 1924 Tracy’s father met with Crowe, apparently handing over evidence he believed tied Leopold and Loeb to his son’s murder. As late as October, Crowe was said to be seriously considering charging Richard and Nathan with Tracy’s death.38 Ultimately he did not: he later said that while evidence pointed to Leopold and

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