Bobby Franks
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Robert Emanuel "Bobby" Franks (September 19, 1909 – May 21, 1924) was the fourteen-year-old murder victim of the notorious teenaged thrill killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.
Franks was the son of Chicago millionaire Jacob Franks and a neighbor and distant relative of Richard Loeb. Leopold and Loeb had no real motive for their act; they kidnapped and murdered Franks because they wanted to commit the perfect crime. The press soon dubbed the murder a "thrill killing". Franks, whose family lived across the street from the Loeb family mansion, was chosen as if at random on the day of the murder.
His corpse was left in a drainage pipe at Wolf Lake, approximately 15 miles south of the Chicago Loop. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, defended by famed attorney Clarence Darrow, received life sentences for the murder and 99 years for the kidnapping, following a trial which was declared by the press as the "trial of the century". Loeb was murdered by a fellow prison inmate in 1936. Leopold was paroled in 1958 and relocated to Puerto Rico. He died of a heart attack in 1971.
If it had not been for a dentist's appointment, the victim of this murder would have been 11-year-old Armand Deutsch. After leaving school that day, Armand was picked up by his family's chauffeur. Bobby Franks was randomly chosen for this murder instead. Deutsch lived to be 92.[1][2]
[edit] References
- ^ [1] New York Social Diary. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
- ^ [2] Purdum, Todd S. Armand S. Deutsch, Hollywood fixture, dies at 92." New York Times, August 18, 2005. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
