THE “CRIME OF THE [TWENTIETH] CENTURY.”

THE “CRIME OF THE [TWENTIETH] CENTURY.” My father was in the same class at the University of Chicago Law School as Nathan Leopold, who, along with Richard Loeb, committed the “Crime of the Century.” As this wikipedia article describes, Loeb and Leopold considered themselves to be “Nietschean supermen” who could commit a “perfect crime.” Leopold wrote to Loeb that: “A superman … is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do.” We asked my father a couple times at dinner what it was like to be so close to a killer. He would only shake his head and say that he had never thought that Leopold was as smart as he was claimed to be. This was based on Leopold as a law student—not on the lack of intelligence of leaving your eye glasses behind while your are committing a perfect crime.