ying-to-appease-fabled-
Looks like a modern day version of the "Leopold and Lobe" murder case from
89 years ago. Although people are shocked by the youth and gender of the
perpetrators of the crime in Waukesha WI and consider it unpredendented, the
parallels to the Leopold and Lobe case are similar: a case of young people
(Leopold and Lobe were 19 and 18 respectively) wanting to be "special" and
live outside the rules of conventional society by committing a spectacular
crime. In both cases the perpetrators had no previous history of criminality
or otherwise deviant behavior, so their participation in such a brutal crime
came as a shock to all who knew them.
In the case of Leopold and Lobe it was the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
that inspired them to commit murder. In particular they wanted to emulate
Nietzsche's concept of the "superman" , a superior individual whose
intellect and abilities made him above and exempt from the rules and
conventions of normal society. According to Nietzsche the only crime the
superman could commit was to make a mistake. This idea of the superman
appealed to the Progressives of the early 20th century since many of them
believed in the idea of a "natural aristocracy" (as novelist Jack London did
for instance). This "natural aristocracy", the Progressives believed, would
come to rule in a society, in which the traditional class barriers that
existed in those days were done away with, by dint of their superior
intellect and talents. By the same token, Leopold and Lobe imagined they
could get away with kidnapping and murder because they were too smart to get
caught and set out to prove it to themselves. In the event, it was their
arrogant belief that they themselves could make no mistakes, and that the
police wouldn't be smart enough to figure out what happened, that proved to
be their undoing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971)[1] and
Richard Albert Loeb (June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), more commonly known
as "Leopold and Loeb", were two wealthy University of Chicago law students
who kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks in 1924 in
Chicago.[2]
The duo was motivated to murder Franks by their desire to commit a perfect
crime.
Once apprehended, Leopold and Loeb retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for
the defense. Darrow’s summation in their trial is noted for its influential
criticism of capital punishment as retributive, rather than a rehabilitative
penal system. Leopold and Loeb were sentenced to life imprisonment. Loeb was
killed by a fellow prisoner in 1936; Leopold was released on parole in 1958.
The Leopold and Loeb crime has been the inspiration for several works in
film, theatre, and fiction, such as the 1929 play Rope by Patrick Hamilton,
and Alfred Hitchcock's take on the play in the 1948 film of the same name.
Later movies such as Compulsion and Swoon were more accurate portrayals of
the Leopold and Loeb case.
Early lives[edit]
Nathan Leopold[edit]
Nathan Leopold was born on November 19, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, to a
wealthy immigrant Jewish family from Germany.[3] Nathan Leopold was a child
prodigy who spoke his first words at the age of four months;[3] shocking and
amazing nannies and caretakers. He reportedly had an intelligence quotient
of 210,[4] although this is not directly comparable to scores on modern IQ
tests.[5] At the time of the murder, Leopold had already completed an
undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, graduating Phi Beta
Kappa, and was attending law school at the University of Chicago.[6] He
claimed to have been able to speak 27 languages fluently,[7] and was a
skilled ornithologist.[8] Leopold and several other ornithologists were the
first to discover the Kirtland's Warbler in their area in over half a
century. Film from the early 1920s shows Leopold participating in the
discovery. Leopold planned to transfer to Harvard Law School in September
1924 after taking a trip to Europe. He was thought of as having a brilliant
mind.
Richard Loeb[edit]
Richard Loeb was born on June 11, 1905, in Chicago to the family of Anna
Henrietta (née Bohnen) and Albert Henry Loeb, a wealthy lawyer and vice
president of Sears.[9] His father was Jewish and his mother was
Catholic.[10] Like Leopold, Loeb was exceptionally intelligent, and skipped
several grades in school. However, Loeb was more focused on non-academic
activities. Loeb remains the youngest graduate in the history of the
University of Michigan. Loeb planned to enter the University of Chicago Law
School after taking some postgraduate courses.[6]
Lead up[edit]
Both Leopold and Loeb lived in the affluent Kenwood neighborhood on
Chicago's Southside, some six miles south of downtown. Loeb's father,
Albert, began his career as a lawyer and became the vice president of Sears
and Roebuck. Besides owning an impressive mansion in Kenwood, two blocks
from the Leopold home, the Loeb family had a summer estate, Castle Farms, in
Charlevoix, Michigan.
Although Leopold and Loeb knew each other casually while growing up, their
relationship flourished when they met at the University of Chicago. They
quickly formed a strong friendship. Leopold and Loeb found that they had a
mutual interest in crime, Leopold being particularly interested in Friedrich
Nietzsche's theory of the superman. Leopold and Loeb began to commit crimes.
Leopold agreed to act as Loeb's accomplice.[11] They began with petty theft
and vandalism. They broke into a fraternity house at the university and
stole penknives, a camera and a typewriter (later used to type the ransom
letter). They soon committed a series of more serious crimes such as arson.
The pair was disappointed with the lack of media coverage of their crimes.
Leopold and Loeb then decided to commit a "perfect crime" that would garner
public attention.
The Superman[edit]
Because of Leopold's strong interest in Nietzsche, Leopold and Loeb believed
themselves to be Nietzschean supermen (Übermenschen) who could commit a
"perfect crime" (in this case, a kidnapping and murder).[6] Nietzsche
suggested that superior minds could rise above the laws and rules that bound
the average man. The average man was inferior and unimportant to those of
superior qualities. This theory fed Leopold with the will to prove himself
to be a truly brilliant mind. Before the murder, Leopold had written to
Loeb: "A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent
in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable
for anything he may do."[12]
By Epictetus
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