LOEB THE MURDERER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 133, 8 June 1925, Page 7

LOEB THE MURDERER.

DECLARED TO BE INSANE

ECHO OF FEARFUL CRIME. MAD YOUTH RAVES. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) irtecelvcil 11..'M n.tn.i CHICAGO, June 7. Richard Loeb, one of the principals iv the murder of the boy Franks, and sentenced to life imprisonment, is now officially declared to ho insane by Warden "Whitman of Joliet Penitentiary, Illinois, where Loeb and Leopold are confined. The latest development fullils the prediction of -Mr. Clarence Darrow, Loeb'a counsel, who declared at the time of the sentence that Loeb would he insane within a few months if imprisoned. The official statement as to his insanity was made following the reports of two physicians and two alienists, who have observed the prisoner since the first. He became delirious a week ago following an attack of measles. Alienists claim his mental condition is due to an abrupt change in his mode of life. | Loeb is now strapped to a cot, mumhling incoherently, calling for his mother and sweetheart, and cursing everyone approaching him.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) The crime referred to was one of tho most extraordinary in the annals of any country. Franks and his murderers were all sons of millionaires, and the two murderers were brilliant students, unusually clever boys. They invited Franks to go for a ride in a motor car and evidently tortured and then murdered him to see how he would react. They pushed his body into a culvert. Afterwards they wrote to the father of Franks demanding a large sum of money, declaring the boy, who was already dead, would be killed if it was not forthcoming. The letter was written with an old typewriter with defective type and mis-spelled. The boys I brew tho machine in the river. It was fished up subsequently and the note sent to Franks, senior, was proved to have been written with it. The finding of the boy Frank's pebble spectacles waa also a link. It was proved that these two boys were perfectly vile. The case created an enormous sensation as it was generally believed the fathers of the murderers could purchase the release of these two young fiends. The judge who sentenced them went away into the mountains to ponder his verdict and was threatened hy numerous people that if he didn't condemn them to death he would himself be killed. He condemned them to imprisonment for life. The. reasoning in the above message is quaint. Loeb's counsel declares that it is tho imprisonment of Loeb that drove hint mad, the inference, therefore, being that the boy he defended was sane when be committed one of tho most detestable, crimes in history. The alienists reported above declare that the sudden change from the mode of life from every luxury to the discipline of a penetentiary has driven Loeb mad, again the inference being that he was not mad at the timo of the crime. People who are not expert would infer that both boys have always been mad and that with the necessary freedom they would delight to see somebody else "react." It was the pastime of Loeb to dissect animals alive in pursuit of his scientific hobby.