The Leopold and Loeb Files : An Intimate Look at One of America's Most Infamous Crimes

At the time, the murder was called the "crime of the century," and the resulting court case-reported blow by blow in the newspapers-captivated people across the country. Uniquely, the "who" and the "how" were never in question. It was the "why" that needled the public and true-crime enthusiasts for decades to come, spawning a mythology that has inspired numerous books, dramatizations, and other stories. This book returns to the primary sources-confessions, interrogation transcripts, psychological reports, and more-the kind of rare, pre-computer court documents that were usually destroyed as a matter of course. Until now, these documents have not been central to the story's popular narrative. Carefully curated by author Nina Barrett, the surviving documents of the case function as both artifact and literature, creating a comprehensive, immersive, ephemera-driven history. This first-of-its-kind approach speaks powerfully to the unsolved mysteries of this distinct crime, in which the guilt of the perpetrators is unambiguous but almost everything else is open to interpretation. Book jacket.