By Associated Press
Chicago, June 7—A crude, boyish plot was revealed today in the confession of Richard Loeb, who detailed his share with Nathion Leopold Jr. in the kidnapping and killing of Robert Franks, 13-year-old boy.
Just after the confession was made public, a diver, who has been searching in a lagoon, found the typewriter which the boys said they used to write letters to their victim’s father demanding $10,000 ransom. The broken machine was found in the place and condition which the confession described.
A picture of the thoughtless cruelty of adolescence was outstanding contribution of Loeb’s confession. He told how, for 3 ½ hours, he and Leopold drove about the street in an auto the afternoon after the kidnapping, scanning scores of children, undecided which one to take.
These two youths, still in their teens, who admitted they planned to kill for excitement, casually looked over as prospective victims, the playmates of their neighbors and friends, scions of a long established, highly respected colony of wealthy Chicagoans, of which their own families were leading members.
Loeb’s confession indicated that Robert Franks, finally chosen, owed his death almost entirely to chance. It was late, time to make a decision, and Robert happened to cross the street at the point where they could draw alongside of him.
So they lured him into the car with an invitation to talk about a tennis racquet. Loeb said Leopold struck the boy with a chisel almost as soon as they could turn off the street where they picked him up, and the gag that killed him was a rug stuffed down his throat by Leopold.
From page 2 of the New Bernian, Sunday, June 8, 1924
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