American murderer Nathan Leopold was BOTD in 1904. Born in Chicago, Illinois to a wealthy middle-class family, he was a child prodigy, graduating with top honours from Chicago University in his teens. At university, he and childhood friend Richard Loeb became lovers, discovering a mutual interest in crime and engaging in petty theft and arson. Convinced of their status as Nietzschean supermen, they plotted “the perfect crime” to demonstrate their superior intellect and freedom from the law. In 1924, they abducted and murdered Loeb’s second cousin, 14 year-old Bobby Franks, pouring acid on his body to avoid easy identification and concealing it in a culvert next to railway tracks. The pair then typed letters to Franks’ family, attempting to extort money in exchange for the return of their son. They were arrested after Leopold’s eyeglasses were found near Franks’ body, eventually confessing to the murder. Their trial became an international sensation, labelled “The Crime of the Century”. To avoid a death sentence, their defence lawyer Clarence Darrow introduced evidence of the pair’s sexual relationship as evidence of psychological disturbance. Following a 12-hour closing address by Darrow, they were each sentenced to life imprisonment. Initially incarcerated together in Joliet Prison, they were able to maintain their friendship and helped establish a prison school system. Leopold was sent to Stateville Penitentiary in 1925, though reunited with Loeb five years later. In 1936, Loeb was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate, reputedly in self-defence against Loeb’s sexual advances. Leopold became a model prisoner, releasing a confessional memoir as part of his campaign to win early parole. After 33 years in prison, he was released in 1958. He moved to Puerto Rico where he worked as a laboratory assistant, eventually marrying a widowed florist. In his final years, he worked in social services and undertook public health research. He died in 1971 aged 66. Leopold and Loeb’s murder trial became critical in 20th century theories of homosexuality as a mental illness and its associations with criminality and “deviant” behaviour. Their life and crimes were retold obsessively throughout the 20th century. Notable examples were Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play Rope, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock with a queer-coded screenplay by Arthur Laurents, in which the young murderers (played by gay actors Farley Granger and John Dall) describe the killing as an act of sexual foreplay. Meyer Levin’s 1958 novel Compulsion, a pulpy account of their crimes, became a national bestseller, inspiring a trashily watchable film. Tom Kalin’s 1992 film Swoon, starring Craig Chester as Leopold and Daniel Schlachet as Loeb, played up the pair’s romantic attraction as well as the cold-blooded nature of their crimes, highlighting the homophobic and racist misreporting of Loeb’s murder.