Nathan Leopold Jr. was an intelligent young man who was accepted to the University of Chicago at age 15 and an accomplished ornithologist. His specialty was the Kirtland’s Warbler and the essay he wrote on it was often cited when the Warbler became an endangered species.
These two young men became fast friends. Their friendship soon turned criminal when the two began to do petty crimes such as: arson, breaking into people’s cars, and theft.
The timeline below shows the day of their murder of Bobby Franks and it is clear that they planned everything from the weapons used, a snow pick, to where they would dispose of the body, Wolf Lake.
A very interesting thing that researchers have are the psychiatric evaluations of both Leopold and Loeb by experts from Boston and Chicago. When the psychiatrists, or alienists as they were called in the 20s, asked Richard Loeb about the kidnapping, they were apparently astounded at the frankness in which he talked about it. They wrote that ‘the planning caused [Loeb] intense excitement…’

References
↑1, ↑3 | Hannon, Michael. “Leopold and Loeb Case (1924).” University of Minnesota Law Library. Accessed September 15, 2017. http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trialpdfs/LEOPOLD_LOEB.pdf. |
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↑2, ↑4, ↑5, ↑6, ↑7 | Hannon, Michael. “Leopold and Loeb Case (1924).” University of Minnesota Law Library. Accessed September 15, 2017. http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trialpdfs/LEOPOLD_LOEB.pdf. |
↑8, ↑9 | “LEOPOLD AND LOEB IN THE ARCHIVES.” Leopold and Loeb Artifacts, University Archives, Northwestern University Library. Accessed November 08, 2017. http://exhibits.library.northwestern.edu/archives/exhibits/leoloeb/index.html. |
↑10 | “LEOPOLD AND LOEB IN THE ARCHIVES.” Leopold and Loeb Artifacts, University Archives, Northwestern University Library. Accessed November 08, 2017. http://exhibits.library.northwestern.edu/archives/exhibits/leoloeb/index.html |