Nothing but the Night covers a very heavy topic in discussing the activities around the death and possible sexual assault of a young boy. Please be advised of this prior to reading this book and review.

Bobby Franks had the potential to be a successful young man, but tragically his life was cut short by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Leopold and Loeb were known as intelligent, wealthy boys in Chicago. They had both graduated high school and college early and came from respectable families. Which is why no one suspected they had committed a crime that would rock the city, country, and world. Alone, Leopold and Loeb would probably have lived fairly normal lives and Bobby Franks would have lived a long, happy life. However as soon as Leopold and Loeb met, the fates of these boys was sealed with an inevitably tragic end.

A lot of times I'll read a non-fiction novel and get lost in how much information the authors try to incorporate. With Nothing but the Night, however, I feel like Greg King and Penny Wilson did a great job providing enough detail to give the reader an excellent picture of the events in the book, but not too much to overwhelm. There was also a pleasant balance of information regarding the subjects' lives before the murder, during the murder itself, during the trial, and during the events after. It was particularly interesting to learn about the public's hysteria around the trial - specifically the fact that people were essentially ripping doors off their hinges to get access!

One thing that is always hard to come to terms with in reading a book about true crime is the heavy focus on the lives of those who committed the crime. There was a lot of focus on Leopold and Loeb's life (at times it even felt like the authors were trying to decide between victimizing and demonizing Richard Loeb!) and while there were some chapters about Bobby Franks, I do wish more focus had been given to his life, family, and the effects of the crime on those who loved him.

In the end, I did enjoy this book. The crime and details surrounding it were shocking and interesting, but the book didn't rock my world. It was ok - enjoyable, but not spectacular. 3/5 Stars

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book. I've never heard of this murder. This book was good but very long. Took me way to long to get through but very informative.

I'm trying to gather my thoughts after reading this book. I have come to realize, firstly, a request to review the book is just that, a book review. The material of the book wants my reaction to the story and, because it is true, my opinion may be desired. I'm trying to do both.

This book written about the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder duo is very well researched and written in a fashion to keep me, the reader interested. If we are all honest, those of us that read about this horrendous murder of a child, have something in us that draws us to a case like this. (I honestly thought he was younger than teenage and found it a bit of a shock that he was Loeb's own cousin.) I can hardly imagine the hours that went into reading transcripts, interviews and endless news articles that were hopefully less biased than the offerings we have today.

For my personal reaction I have conclusions in my mind that two young, rotten, genius humans were bored with their lives after accomplishing what a normal child should and beyond, decided to play with human life. They had no moral compass, no conscience and no idea of what they were about to destroy. They had no ability to care. For me, I think it's always a need to understand why and how a human being can take another's life so callously. As a mother of boys, I cannot fathom the grief that the Franks family endured, having a child violently taken, being in the public eye and further tortured by well-meaning or sick individuals along the journey of life after this brutality. Each person who reads this book will have his or her own opinion about the murder. For me there are questions unanswered and, in the end, as we come up to the 100th anniversary of this haunting event, do my questions, do yours, truly matter?

The saddest thing in all of this, a fourteen-year-old boy was present with two monsters who stole his life, as if they deserved the right to. All he is in the book is the victim while they have been infamous for going on one hundred years. In that century how many others have become victims while the perpetrators names are easily remembered?

Unless it is brought up, who automatically thinks of Robert Frank's name?

I was provided an advanced reader's copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley. As you can see, this is my own review of the book and my personal opinion about the content.

The story of the infamous duo, Leopold and Loeb, is scarcely known today beyond the mere horror of the pairing of their names. The pair kidnapped and murdered a 14 year old boy dumping his denuded body in a culvert in a wildlife preserve. The author takes a deep factual look at what is known about the duo, represented at trial by Clarence Darrow, for sentencing purposes only since they pled guilty. Be prepared, for this factual deep dive comes at the cost of nearly 1100 footnotes. Yet the story reads quickly for all of that. The author justifiably descends into judgmental opprobrium when discussing Darrow’s closing argument which minimized the crime, lauded the killers, and dismissed the victim as hardly worthy of discussion. It’s a fascinating deep dive into a time when homosexuality was a sign of. Mental illness and judged worthy by itself of murder and a time when psychology was examined as something that alienated one from the social order. An excellent thoughtful book on an infamous crime and it’s punishment or lack thereof.

i'm a lover of true crime but this one missed the mark for me. thank you netgalley & the publisher for the arc!

I love true crime, but there are a few cases that I become borderline obsessed with and the murder of Bobby Franks is one of them. This crime was huge at the time and it was the the original Crime of the Century with the defendants being represented by none other than Clarence Darrow.

I really enjoyed this book. It is so well researched that even though it is not treading new ground, it still manages to impart new information and look at the old details of the case through a new lens and come up with an original theory. The new theory offered here is not only possible but I would wager that it is probable.

The details of the case are just as horrifying when viewed under a modern day telescope and I can only imagine what it was like when the crime originally took place. During a time where the public had not become so desensitized by violence as our culture has.

Both Leopoldo and Loeb were fascinating in very different ways and the author’s do a fantastic job of portraying their individual psychoses and also how these two different yet equally disturbed men they fed off of one another and their unique relationship that led to a horrifying folie aux deux.
I particularly enjoyed reading about Clarence Darrow, who comes across as both loathsome and brilliant at the same time.I’m finally on my much needed vacation and plan to spend part of it scoping out some locations of famous murders.

Thank you to @the.book.slayer @enchantress.reads and @curiosityboughtthebook for hosting this fun challenge.

I really loved this book. It put the exclamation point on my nonfiction summer. Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an arc of this book.

This was a fascinating book about Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb who were both privileged and wealthy teen-agers in Chicago when they decided to kill 14-year-old Bobby Franks for the fun of it in May of 1924. It only took police a week to figure out who the killers were and they were defended in court by Clarence Darrow.

I have been reading true crime books for years and I never really read anything about the Leopold and Lobe case other than a few brief paragraphs. This book is very well researched and well written and gives all the facts about both boys from the time they were born until their deaths.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very in-depth account of this very interesting case that has been much publicized since it happened almost a hundred years ago.

I really liked this book! I thought I knew the story of Leopold and Loeb pretty well but there were details in this book that I had never heard before. This will be one of the True Crime books I suggest to friends!

As a person that is obsessed with old true crime cases, this is one case that I haven’t done a lot of research on. I just knew the surface level facts of the case. So I really enjoyed reading this well researched book on the case. I especially enjoyed the trial information, I would definitely recommend to others.

Really interesting and very well-researched and written. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of time and effort that went into researching this book (as evidenced by over 1000 citations!)

It’s interesting and complex to explore the relationship between Leopold and Loeb. Even at the conclusion, it’s hard to tell who the true mastermind was, although the evidence seems to point to Richard because a cold-hearted and apathetic person. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter as they both committed a horrible crime and took the life of a poor little boy.

I knew very little about the Leopold and Loeb case before reading this book. It is difficult material that deals with the kidnapping and murder of a child (the cousin of one of the murderers) by two teenagers who plan it ahead as an exercise of their super-intelligence: the proof of their “genius” would be that they wouldn’t get caught. And for this, Bobby Franks died.
Debates have gone on for almost a hundred years as to which of the killers dominated the other, and the authors believe that their forensic research indicates that Loeb was not the instigator as historically thought. It’s certainly human nature to look for explanation or some ray of rationality in inhuman behavior so that it can be prevented in the future, Knowing which of the murderers was the alpha is not likely to help much in preventing psychopathic behavior. I hope I’m wrong...
Many if not most readers may find it difficult to “hear” defense attorney Clarence Darrow plead for life sentences rather than the execution of the killers because their privileged upbringing was in some ways a form of neglect that warped their personalities. That approach is certainly used frequently in the present day. Some readers may find the lengthy descriptions of the trial to be too much, but future researchers may benefit from the material collected and analyzed by the authors.
I think this book is potentially a valuable contribution to research into criminal behavior and will be of interest to true crime readers.

I had to stop reading this for a bit in the middle because I was having nightmares. When I picked up I was met with large sections that were just quoted from the trial. I would have rather read a book about this story than the trial transcripts

I was really looking forward to this one. I was curious to see how it differed from the YA telling that released earlier this year.

Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this one. The writing felt disjointed and disorganized. It didn't flow much at all. I felt like I was reading bullet points of facts instead of a story. I like my true crime reads to read almost like an actual novel. I found myself completely bored.

This one is told from the opposite perspective as the other book I read on this event. That in itself was interesting. I find it funny how true crime books always lean to one side of the story. Unfortunately for these authors, I feel they tended to side with the wrong criminal.

I believe the authors of this book were angry when they wrote it. It comes through when they talk about how for a hundred years Richard Loeb has been fingered as the leader of the team; it comes through when they describe the actions and inactions of the judge; it comes through when they describe the behavior of the doctors brought in on both sides of the case. And, if unexpected in a non-fiction recounting of an infamous murder and its repercussions, the anger is justifiable, because in a perfect world almost nothing told of in this book would have happened.

Starting, of course, with the almost random murder of fourteen year old Bobby Franks by two slightly older boys who … what? Wanted to know what it was like to kill someone? Wanted a spike in their otherwise sociopathically monotone experience? Wanted to exert their power as “uber menschen”, and prove how superior to everyone else, especially flat-footed law enforcement, they were? (To which I really can’t resist saying: lol)

The case is, as I said, infamous: two wealthy nineteen year old boys committed a motiveless murder on a fourteen year old neighbor (and cousin to one of the killers). Was there a sexual component to the crime? Who actually struck the blows that killed the boy? Who did most of the planning? It’s intensely frustrating to explore the situation, because the two primary witnesses, Leopold and Loeb, were habitual and fluent liars.

I can’t say I’m glad I read this book. I knew about the crime; I knew about a lot of the circumstances around it; I knew about the inevitability of women “falling in love with” evil -doers. (“The gruesomeness of the crime seemed to have no effect upon the feelings of the giddy little flappers who begged to get in”.) I did not know about how awful Clarence Darrow and the judge were (Darrow: “But as compared with the families of Leopold and Loeb, the Franks are to be envied, and everyone knows it”), or about just how truly empty and despicable Leopold and Loeb were, or about their later lives. (I didn’t know the “affluenza” defense was pretty much born here: “But your honor, it is just as often a great misfortune to be the child of the rich as it is the child of the poor. Wealth has its misfortunes.” Just once, I would like my character to be tested in this way.) (Also: The only purpose that they use themselves for is to debase themselves.” There could be a lot of blame placed on the army of adults who made no effort to give these two cretins purpose.) I kind of wish I had kept it that way. The book felt like a long hard slog through a particularly fetid swamp – not because of bad writing; that was adequate. But everything about this story made it hard to think well of humanity.

The solitary person who came through this book with my respect and even some admiration was State’s Attorney Robert E. Crowe. He fought the good fight (if you can call trying to get two young men executed a good fight, and that’s a debate I’m too emotionally and physically tired to even touch on here and now), and his bafflement at how horrifically ridiculous pretty much everything involved in this case was was almost comforting – he seemed to be the only one saying some of the things I was thinking.

“I wonder now, Nathan, whether you think there is a God or not. I wonder whether you think it is pure accident that this disciple of Nietzschean philosophy dropped his glasses or whether it was an act of Divine Providence to visit upon your miserable carcasses the wrath of God in the enforcement of the laws of the state of Illinois.”

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

It’s Chicago, 1924, and the country is amid prohibition. Al Capone continues consolidating his power and gang warfare in the Windy City is common. Not so for the high-end neighborhood where Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb lived, a pair of intelligent and well-educated young men of wealth and prestige with bright futures. Until they decided to commit kidnapping and murder. The victim, Bobby Franks, was also from a wealthy family and resided in the same neighborhood. That the two killers conspired, planned, and carried out Frank’s brutal murder was never in doubt, the evidence was monumental, plus both boys confessed, almost gleefully. The trial became nationwide news, particularly when the famous Clarence Darrow signed on with the defense team. But the why behind this “crime of the century” has perplexed investigators, historians, and psychiatrists for nearly a century. Much has been written about this case, arguably America’s first “thrill killing,” but few have risen to the completeness of Nothing But the Night. A fascinating and engrossing study of this infamous case. If you like true or historical crime, this book is for you.

DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series

I had read some concerning the Leopold and Loeb case but this book was very thorough. It reveals much about their early life and how they ended up committing kidnapping and murder. It takes you through the crime itself , the arrest and trial and their prison time.
These were young men who had it all except families who were too occupied with business or socializing to pay attention to their children. This book is a riveting account of these two young men who developed behavioral problems which led to murder. I would highly recommend this book to all who are interested in true crime stories,
Warning: Has some adult content.

*The publisher has provided me with an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Whenever a murder is committed by a pair, there is a hunger to decipher which one of them was truly responsible for the crime. Did he force her? Did she force him? Was one of them crazy and the other one following along? Would that one have ever broken the law if they hadn't met up with the REAL criminal? Over the course of the near-century since the murder of Bobby Franks, gallons have ink have been spilled over this question as it related to Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Most frequently, Loeb has been cast as the dominant member of the pair; the fact that he was stabbed to death in prison, predeceasing Leopold by some thirty years, meant that Leopold had a lot more time to cement his place in history as the innocent lead astray. In this book, Greg King sets out to challenge this narrative: in his retelling of the Leopold and Loeb story, it was Leopold, not Loeb, who masterminded the crime; Leopold who manipulated Loeb into going along with it, Leopold who (unlike Loeb) felt no remorse in the aftermath. It's not a terrible premise for a book. The problem is the execution.

King falls into the trap that many "setting the record straight" books do: he swings too far in the opposite direction. Not only was Nathan Leopold awful (and he was truly awful, no argument there) but Loeb was just a sad, lonely boy who was being abused by his friend and was too much of a people-pleaser to say no to committing child murder. Loeb's kleptomania wasn't the sign of a spoiled, entitled rich kid who felt that the rules didn't apply to him; it was a cry for help from a boy who just wanted his parents to pay attention to him. His glib charm and tendency to dispose of friends once they began to bore him weren't symptomatic of what we would today call sociopathy; it was a sign that he'd never learned to connect with people because of his tragically neglectful childhood. (Note: "neglectful" here means "he was raised by a governess, as were the vast majority of his peers who DIDN'T kill any children.") His suggestion to commit murder - and King is forced to admit that okay, yeah, it probably was Loeb who first brought up the idea to kidnap and kill a child - wasn't hi fault, it was a coping mechanism because Leopold was nagging him. Who among us hasn't suggested child murder to get our annoying friend off our case! He even suggests - with zero evidence to back it up - that Leopold put a hit out on Loeb when they were in prison. In this telling of the story, every single bad thing that ever happened to Richard Loeb is directly Nathan Leopold's fault.

The thing is, the points King raises about Leopold, specifically, are entirely valid. He did have a history of sexual sadism; he did show a distinct lack of remorse after the crime; he did threaten Loeb with the exposure of their relationship, should Loeb break it off. (Which in itself is a bit of a headscratcher, because that would involve exposing BOTH of them, but I guess that's the level of logic you can expect from a teen sociopath.) I could easily see someone making a case for Leopold as the primary instigator of the crime, if we agree that either one *was* the instigator instead of the two of the getting caught up in a folie a deux fantasy world where they were smarter than everybody else and deserved to kill to prove it. The problem is, King's approach is so obviously, heavily biased that it throws the rest of his arguments into question. If he'd stuck to just the facts of the case without attempting a Richard Loeb redemption tour, it would be an interesting new take on old material. As is, it's too obviously, ludicrously biased to take seriously. The Leopold and Loeb case has always been a Rorschach test for anyone who reads about it, with so many different elements - class, race, sexuality, philosophy, morality - at play that you can take whatever lesson you want away from it. Ultimately, maybe there is no lesson; maybe these two people are examples of nothing except their own catastrophic narcissism. But one thing I am fairly certain of is that neither one was a victim.

I've read different books by Greg Wilson over the years, having first become aware of him though his various books on figures in the Romanov family, a particular interest of mine, but he has also written about other rich and (in)famous historical figures, such as Wallis Warfield, Duchess of Windsor. I thought this was one set in approximately the same time period--before WWII--but it was nothing like what I imagined it to be, in a very good way! I had heard of the Loeb/Leopold murder case in the '20's, as many of us have, but really didn't know any details, and this book certainly enlightened me.

It became amazing ot me that the public's knowledge of this pair thought that Loeb was the ringleader, as he was in other criminal escapades of this duo, but in this instance Leopold was the evil genius. Due to the pair being lovers as well as criminal accomplices, they were deemed beyond help and seemed due for a meeting with the hangman. That fate, however, was avoided with the help of Clarence Darrow, a lawyer famous for winning tough cases. There was no winning this particular case, of course, since Loeb willingly confessed to the murde--of his young cousin, no less==but the pair did avoid the death penalty due to Darrow's machinations. Remember that this particular trial took place well before modern standards of criminal investigation and procedures were followed, and the public was able to talk to the pair before and during their trial.

This book by King and Penny Wilson, another author familiar to me due to past books enjoyed, is a little different as to the type of subject, and was truly hard to put down so I read it in just a few days. Not only well researched, but meticulously presented, it told me several new things about the two 19 year old men who were the lovers/killers, but also offered a close view of the legal system in this country in the 1920's as well. Not to be missed!

Nothing But The Night
By Greg King & Penny Wilson

This Book purports to be "Leopold & Loeb and the truth behind the murder that rocked 1920s America". It is a story at once shocking and familiar.

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were the sons of wealthy Jewish parents who lived in an upscale neighborhood of Chicago. The "boys", known by family and friends as Babe and Dickie, had their share of childhood trauma, as do all children. When they met in their teens and became close friends, they both had needs and desires which they each seemed to satisfy in the other. Dickie had the need to always please and never disappoint others. Babe was homosexual and a "genius", considering himself – and to some extent Dickie - to be superior to others.

Though they had a tumultuous relationship, they seem to have brought out the worst impulses in each other and paired up in a series of escalating crimes. The crime streak culminated when they decided to enact a kidnapping and murder without getting caught – in other words, the perfect crime. Thus they randomly grabbed a neighbor boy – a cousin of Dickie, in fact – and killed and mutilated him.

When Bobby Franks' body was discovered, evidence eventually led to Nathan and Richard. After hours of interrogation, Richard finally broke down and admitted to the crime. The state had an air-tight case and demanded the death penalty. The defense, however, led by Clarence Darrow, convinced the conflicted judge to give the defendants life sentences rather than hanging them.

Richard Loeb was murdered in prison – some thought at the instigation of his partner in crime, Leopold. Nathan spent years trying to game the system for parole, finally succeeding in the late 1950s. Although he convinced the parole board of his rehabilitation, he had never really changed at all. He died several years later, still disgruntled, still self-absorbed, still considering himself the victim.

The sad thing about this book is that the "crime of the century" has become commonplace in American society today. The thrill kill – or affluenza" – is no longer as shocking as it was. The lack of self-restraint, remorse, and recognition of personal responsibility have all become a thing of the past.

I was familiar with the basics of Leopold and Loeb's murder of Bobby Franks, but "Nothing but the Night" provides a lot of details of which I was unaware, and which would be of interest to anyone who likes true crime stories or has an interest in the legal system/trial process and/or psychiatry. The book appears to have been thoroughly researched, and the authors were apparently able to view a substantial amount of primary source material, including psychiatric evaluations by the defense team psychiatrists that were withheld from the judge and prosecutor. While the authors delve into the deviancy and disturbed backgrounds of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, and have understandably unsympathetic views of both individuals, they also go to great lengths to "correct" the public record as they see it, which was manipulated by Loeb's murder in prison and Leopold's long life afterwards, in which he was able, to a fairly large extent, control the narrative surrounding himself, Loeb, and their actions. The authors repeatedly assert that Leopold was the one who actually murdered Bobby and that he was the dominant partner in the dysfunctional friendship/relationship that existed between Leopold and Loeb.

The book contains a good discussion of the state of psychiatric analysis at the time, including numerous beliefs about crime and deviancy that were incorrect, and based on prejudice towards certain groups and lifestyles. There is also a good discussion about the legal standard for insanity at the time and the difficulty of making a successful insanity defense.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.