The case involved a brutal killing with no apparent motive, by the sons of two of the wealthiest families in Chicago. The public was fascinated, and newspapers predicted Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold would hang. But then Loeb family hired famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow—a staunch opponent of the death penalty—to defend the young men. His emotional closing statement would go down in history, and though his clients had pleaded guilty, they did not hang.
