Nothing but the Night: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America

Nearly a hundred years ago in Chicago, two brilliant, wealthy young men kidnapped a fourteen-year-old boy and viciously murdered him. This was a crime that was meticulously planned, and if it hadn’t been for a careless mistake when one of the men dropped a pair of eyeglasses, they well might have gotten away with it. Instead, they were arrested, confessed, and ultimately, pled guilty.

Their parents begged Clarence Darrow to take the case and save the young men from the hangman’s noose. Even though they had pled guilty, there was a trial to decide what the sentence would be. It was a much more complicated issue than might be expected and became the “trial of the century,” written about in newspapers all over the country and beyond.

The story has been the subject of many books, articles, television shows, and movies, but this book takes a fresh look. Authors Greg King and Penny Wilson have done a great deal of research and it shows on every page. They come to some different conclusions than those who have taken this journey earlier, and they have brought out some information that has been earlier ignored. True-crime fans will love this.