Leopold and Loeb

From Oneiropedia

“They're Young...They're In Love...And They Kill People!”

~ Tagline for Bonnie and Clyde, also applicable here

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb... were killers!

The crime

Leopold and Loeb were a young, super-smart, gay couple who one day kidnapped Bobby Franks and drove a screwdriver into his brain, killing him, and left his body somewhere. Unfortunately, Leopold's glasses had been dropped at the scene of the crime, so they were traced back to him and the couple was caught.

Rationalization?

They had some crazy Nietzsche-ish ideas about how they were superior to other people so it was OK for them to kill people. They were defended in court by Clarence Darrow of the ACLU. Lot of good it did 'em.

Cultural depictions

• They were played by John Dall and Farley Granger in Hitchcock's fictionalized adaptation of their crime, Rope.
• They were also the subject of the 1959 film Compulsion.