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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1523092
EAN: 9780060781002
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0060781009
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 560
Publication Date: August 01, 2008
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: August 05, 2008
Studio: Harper
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
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Product Description:
It was a crime that shocked the nation, a brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child, by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb had first met several years earlier, and their friendship had blossomed into a love affair. Both were intellectuals—too smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. However, the police had recovered an important clue at the scene of the crime—a pair of eyeglasses—and soon both Leopold and Loeb were in the custody of Cook County. They confessed, and Robert Crowe, the state's attorney, announced to newspaper reporters that he had a hanging case. No defense, he believed, would save the two ruthless killers from the gallows.
Set against the backdrop of the 1920s, a time of prosperity, self-indulgence, and hedonistic excess, For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a lost world, a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, that existed when Chicago was a lawless city on the brink of anarchy. The rejection of morality, the worship of youth, and the obsession with sex had seemingly found their expression in this callous murder.
But the murder is only half the story. After Leopold and Loeb were arrested, their families hired Clarence Darrow to defend their sons. Darrow, the most famous lawyer in America, aimed to save Leopold and Loeb from the death penalty by showing that the crime was the inevitable consequence of sexual and psychological abuse that each defendant had suffered during childhood at the hands of adults. Both boys, Darrow claimed, had experienced a compulsion to kill, and therefore, he appealed to the judge, they should be spared capital punishment. However, Darrow faced a worthy adversary in his prosecuting attorney: Robert Crowe was clever, cunning, and charismatic, with ambitions of becoming Chicago's next mayor—and he was determined to send Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to their deaths.
A masterful storyteller, Simon Baatz has written a gripping account of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case. Using court records and recently discovered transcripts, Baatz shows how the pathological relationship between Leopold and Loeb inexorably led to their crime.
This thrilling narrative of murder and mystery in the Jazz Age will keep the reader in a continual state of suspense as the story twists and turns its way to an unexpected conclusion.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
When I discovered this book, I was very excited. I have never read a comprehensive book on the Leopold and Loeb case before; I've only seen it mentioned in other books on true crime. And previously, I have only seen one to two paragraphs in these other books devoted to this case, which was a shocking crime in Chicago in 1924.
Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold both came from priviledged, indulgent backgrounds, and when they met in private school, they became friends. Loeb was the gregarious one of the duo who was fascinated by crime, and approached Leopold about commiting the perfect murder/kidnapping. The kidnapping/murder is accomplished. The body of the victim is discovered before Loeb and Leopold reap the financial benefits of their murder as intended. Leopold leaves behind at the crime scene a pair of eyeglasses
that ultimately lead to his and Loeb's capture. The current DA of Chicago, Robert Crowe, states publically that he intends to pursue the death penalty ... Read More
Rating:  -
I've read Evil Summer by John Theodore and found it to be a gripping true crime book. I also found For The Thrill of It by Simon Baatz to be a compelling book on the senseless murder of Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb on May 21, 1924. For The Thrill of It is a more detailed account, but I did find the courtroom drama between the state and prosecution to be somewhat tedious. Each side presented authorities on psychiatry to support their point of view, and it turned out that neither side influenced the judge. Both Leopold and Loeb needed the other to carry out their dastardly crime. Throughout the book the question comes up as to why these two teenagers threw away their futures. The answer can be found in the title of the book, For The Thrill of It. Neither Leopold nor Loeb committed the crime expecting to get caught. This was to be the perfect crime. They wanted to be equally guilty by each pulling on an end of a rope in killing their victim. They deviated from their ... Read More
Rating: -
Baatz, Simon. "For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago", Harper, 2008.
Leopold and Loeb: "Crime and Punishment"
Amos Lassen
I have always been fascinated by the Leopold and Loeb affair and it is without a doubt one of the most shocking crimes in the history of America. From the moment I read Meyer Levin's "Compulsion", I have been compelled to read whatever I can about the entire business. Simon Baatz, professor of law and history takes a look at how the crime affected not only those who perpetrated it but America in his new book, "For the Thrill of It" and it is on my best books list.
Most of us have trouble understanding how two young and wealthy men can still live in the memory of this country for murdering a young boy in 1924 just "for the thrill of it. It seems that they went far beyond the conventions of good and evil and it has been suggested that the crime was better psychologically explained--an attempt to ... Read More
Rating:  -
The author was my history professor. Simon Baatz is a much better lecturer than a writer. His lectures were so interesting on topics of crime. This book is okay borderline boring. I read better books (even on this case). I think he should have gave the book some feeling vs. being so dry and detail oriented only.
I only read this book because he was my professor. If he wasn't I doubt I would have read it.
Rating: -
If all you know about Leopold and Loeb is what you learned from the movie Swoon, prepare to be underwhelmed. The real life boys weren't nearly so avant-garde or attractive or even interesting. They're aren't even as interesting as their renamed versions in the movie Compulsion. The sad fact is that the most interesting thing about these two was the senseless murder they committed. Doctors, lawyers, reporters and writers have been trying ever since to make some sense of the murder - all with limited results.
Simon Baatz takes a very different approach. He doesn't try to explain WHY anything happened but he does go into great detail about WHAT happened. He tells the story in an "as it happened" way, complete with the thoughts of the participants, almost reminiscent of Capote's In Cold Blood. Which is not to say that Baatz achieves the heights or the insights Capote did. And how could he? Capote spoke to the murderers, Leopold and Loeb are long dead.
This is a risky narrative ... Read More
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