The death of their son and the pressure of the trial and its aftermath took a toll on the Bulger marriage. Denise and Ralph divorced and both eventually remarried and started new families. By now Denise Bulger had taken up the cause. She became very vocal and active in demanding justice for her son James. There was a further public outcry when it became knowledge that the boys were being chauffeured around on various outings. They received a total of £60 a month allowance and were taken to movies and shopping centers to spend their money. Thompson was just 14 when he was being taken to movies, the theater and on shopping excursions. Venables was taken on a trip to Wales and to several Manchester United football matches. This all took place while the pair was serving sentences for murder.
Denise raising a Justice for James banner
In 1999 lawyers for both boys appealed the sentences to the European Court of Human Rights. The court voted 14-5 that there had been violations regarding the fairness of the trial. Acting on the European Courts finding, Lord Woolf (the new Lord Chief Justice) recommended the sentence be reduced back to eight years. In June 2001, after serving slightly more than eight years, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were released. They were given brand new identities with passports, fake birth certificates and medical records. They were also moved to a secret location. Under the lifelong licence (probation) they were ordered to have no contact with each other. They were also not allowed to contact the Bulger family. In addition, they had to stay away from the Merseyside and Liverpool areas and had to report regularly to a probation officer. Other than that, all was forgiven...at least by the government. An injunction was also imposed on the media forbidding them from reporting the new identities of the two boys and also their whereabouts. In 2004 Denise Bulger (now Denise Fergus) found out where Robert Thompson was living. She saw him on the street and said that she recognized him by his "evil eyes." She said that she could not approach him as she was "paralyzed with fear" when she saw his face.
Jon Venables was back in the spotlight and was returned to jail in 2010. He was arrested for downloading and distributing child pornography. He received a two year sentence. It was also found that Venables had blown his own cover. He was telling people his real identity. Denise Fergus said that "in his twisted mind he believes the name Jon Venables makes him some kind of celebrity and he cannot resist telling people who he is. It seems that he gets some kind of perverse thrill from it and it's clear that he has no remorse about murdering my son." Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of the Probation Service says that "changing a criminal's identification costs hundreds of thousands of pounds.” Venables was turned down for parole in 2011. He can be held indefinitely since he is on a lifelong licence as part of the sentence back in 1994. Robert Thompson has also been in the news recently. Records show that his telephone was hacked during the phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World newspaper. The newspaper had apparently found out Thompson's new name and listened in on his phone calls. The chain has been making financial payouts to some people that had their phones hacked during the scandal. Robert Thompson's lawyers have applied for financial compensation for their client. Predictably, that application has outraged the public yet again...including James Bulger's mom Denise Fergus.
The last word goes to Denise Fergus: “It would be a terrible insult to James's memory if the animal who murdered him was to receive a payment. I've had to swallow a lot since James was murdered. All down the line. The gov't, the courts, the lawyers and the probation service have all been on the side of the killers...but this is the final straw. I will move heaven and earth to stop it."
Update:Since this chapter was written, Jon Venables has been released from prison and given yet another identity. That brings the total money spent on new identities for Venables up to£1 Million (1.7 Million US). In March 2014, a person using the alias SirJVenables on Twitter used the social media site to send messages to Denise. The messages were designed to hurt and they have since been removed. Twitter and the police are investigating.
Thrill Killers: The Leopold & Loeb Story
Chicago, Illinois 1924: It was the time of the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition. The city of Chicago was run by gangsters and corrupt officials. Al Capone was the second in command in a gang run by Johnny Torrio who was running illegal booze from Canada. Gangster murders were front page news almost every day. In 1924 there were a pair of young men who were intent on becoming front page news themselves. As far as that goes, they were successful. This is the story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb and a murder that took over the headlines in the Windy City.
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. was born with a silver spoon in his mouth on November 19, 1904. The Leopold family lived on Michigan Avenue and, at the time, if you lived on Michigan you were wealthy. That's just the way it was. Nathan was raised by a series of nurses and governesses and went to private schools where he exhibited above average intelligence. When his family moved to the Hyde Park area of Chicago, Nathan attended the private Harvard school. It was there that he became known as "the Great Nathan." He had an IQ of over 200 and was already enrolled in university at the age of 15. As a teenager he became an expert ornithologist and had published two papers in The Auk, the leading ornithological journal in the US at the time. Nathan Leopold was a smart young man and he knew it. He carried with him an air of superiority. Leopold was set to study law and there was no doubt among his peers that he would become a successful lawyer. In the early 1920's the family moved to the Hyde Park section of Chicago...an exclusively Jewish community. They lived two blocks away from the Loeb residence.
Richard Albert Loeb also came from a very wealthy family and was also an extremely intelligent student. Like Leopold, Richard entered college at a young age. Unlike Leopold however, he spent his time drinking and gambling. It was during their college days that the pair became close friends. The relationship was what one might call dark, stormy and intense. Leopold had the smarts but lacked in the social graces. Loeb had social skills and the gift of gab. The two teenagers soon became lovers. They attempted to hide their affection for each other as homosexuality just didn't play well in the Chicago of the 1920's. For kicks, the pair pulled off some minor thefts...they certainly did not need the money. They also vandalized several businesses, and then graduated to arson. They never got caught. The pair believed that their superior intelligence made it impossible for them to make a mistake that would lead to them being captured. After all, who would suspect two wealthy, intelligent students like themselves? Loeb however was becoming restless. He talked about committing the perfect crime.
Early in 1924 Leopold and Loeb began planning their "perfect crime." They spent hours in deep discussion about how to go about it. Gone were the days of petty theft and vandalism. Their perfect crime included murder. The plan called for the pair to find a young boy with wealthy parents. The next move would be to kidnap and kill the boy. Then they would have to dump the body where it would not be found. They would then demand a ransom from the parents and give them instructions on where to make the drop. By May 1924 Leopold and Loeb were ready to put their plan into action.
On May 21 they rented a 1924 Willys-Knight and drove off in search of a victim. During the planning stages they had agreed to pick a victim at random. After driving around for what seemed like hours they spotted 14 year old Bobby Franks. Bobby was walking home from school when the car driven by Leopold pulled up beside him. Bobby had no problem approaching the car as he was in fact Richard's distant cousin. Loeb said that he had seen Bobby playing tennis the other day and that he wanted to talk to him about a racket that he was thinking about buying for his brother. They said that they would drive Bobby the rest of the way home. When Bobby got into the car, Loeb brought a chisel down upon his head. He had thought that this would knock the youngster out, but Bobby began fighting for his life. The much stronger Loeb brought the chisel down on his head three more times sending blood spatter everywhere. Still, Bobby fought until Loeb was able to stick
a rag deep into his throat and secured it with tape. Bobby Franks suffocated on the floor of the Willys-Knight.
Loeb in the 1924 Willys Knight
While the actual kidnapping may not have gone quite as planned, the killers still needed to properly dispose of the body if they were to escape detection. They drove out of Chicago and into Indiana. They stopped at a hot dog stand called the Dew Drop Inn and had a dinner of hot dogs and root beers with the body of the youngster still in the car. Then they drove to a spot just north of Wolf Lake. It was there that they took Bobby's clothes off and soaked the body in hydrochloric acid in an attempt to make it more difficult to identify. It didn't. It was here that the plan went sideways once again. They stuck the body into a culvert but were so overcome by the stench of the acid eating through the flesh that they left a foot hanging out of the culvert. That would come back to haunt them in less than 24 hours. Then came the clincher. While stuffing the body into the culvert a pair of Leopold's glasses fell out of his coat pocket. When you consider how many hours that Leopold and Loeb had spent planning the perfect crime it's incredible how sloppy they were in its execution. When they got back to Chicago they mailed a ransom letter to the Franks family which was received by them the next day. The ransom however, soon would become a moot point. The killers made one more error. They disposed of the murder weapon by tossing it out the window of the car. This act was witnessed by a night watchman who retrieved the bloodstained chisel and turned it over to the police. The next day a man was walking through the woods near Wolf Lake when he spotted what looked like a foot sticking out through the twigs at one end of a culvert. The police were called and the body was quickly identified as Bobby Franks. So much for the ransom. When Leopold and Loeb picked up a newspaper they realized that the plan had gone south. There would be no ransom. That would soon become the least of their worries.
When the body was found a detective also found the eyeglasses at the scene. Normally, a single pair of glasses might be almost impossible to trace. These glasses, however, were different. They were horn-rimmed tortoise shell glasses with a unique hinge mechanism. Only one optometrist worked on glasses of that type and he had only written three prescriptions for them. Two owners and their glasses were quickly accounted for. The third pair belonged to Nathan Leopold. Leopold rarely wore the glasses and didn't even realize that they were missing until it was reported in the newspapers. When he discovered them missing, Leopold even thought about admitting that the glasses were his and that he had lost them while on one of his "birding expeditions." Loeb thought that there was no way that the glasses could be traced back to Leopold and the pair decided to remain quiet.
When finally questioned about the glasses, Leopold did say that he must have lost them on one of his birding trips. The dump site had been picked because Leopold actually had been there on one of his ornithological expeditions. A detective asked Leopold to demonstrate how the glasses could have fallen out of his pocket. He was unable to get the glasses to fall out of his coat pocket. The detectives began turning up the heat.
The ransom note soon became a moot point
Nathan Leopold’s eyeglasses
Leopold and Loeb needed an alibi and they needed it fast. They agreed that when questioned they would say that they had been together on the night of the murder. Their story would be that they had picked up a couple of girls in Leopold's car but then refused to drive them home because they wouldn't "come across." They said that they had dropped them off at a golf course. Their first names were Edna and May and the boys didn't get their last names. They also agreed that they would use the alibi if questioned within seven days of the murder. Anything after that and they would claim to not remember the night in question. When questioned separately, Leopold and Loeb confirmed each other's alibis. Still, State Attorney Robert Crowe was skeptical of the alibi. A search of the Leopold house had turned up a letter from Nathan to Richard which strongly suggested that the pair were homosexual lovers. The police had never been able to find "Edna and May." Then the Leopold's family chauffeur was questioned. Thinking that he was helping Nathan, he told the truth about Nathan's car being in the garage all night. He said the car could not have been used in the murder. It also could not have been used to pick up girls either, thought Crowe.
The intense questioning continued and Richard Loeb was the first one to crack. When confronted with Loeb's confession, Leopold also confessed. Each one pointed the finger at the other when it came to who did the actual killing. In all of the other major details the two killers agreed. The state of Illinois charged both with murder and kidnapping. In Illinois at that time both of those charges carried the death penalty. Being wealthy has its privileges and both the Leopold and Loeb families would use their wealth to do everything they could to keep their sons away from the gallows. They hired one of the greatest trial lawyers of that era, Clarence Darrow.
State Attorney Robert Crowe
State Attorney Robert Crowe was an ambitious man. The Yale graduate was also firmly in the pocket of Big Bill Thompson. Thompson was easily the most corrupt mayor in the history of Chicago. With Thompson's support, Crowe was elected as a Circuit Court judge in 1916. In 1919 he became popular after imposing the death sentence on Thomas Fitzgerald who had murdered a six year old girl. A year later, again backed by Thompson, Crowe was elected as State's Attorney. With the Leopold and Loeb case, he saw another golden opportunity. With aspirations in the political arena, Crowe figured that winning a death penalty against the killers would further enhance his popularity with voters. In Clarence Darrow, Crowe would line up against a most worthy opponent.
Clarence Darrow in court
Clarence Darrow was a staunch opponent of the death penalty. He spent years as a successful labor lawyer. He ran for Congress and lost. Possibly his appearance had something to do with his defeat. Often appearing rumpled and disheveled, Darrow could move juries and judges alike to tears with his eloquent speeches. In the summer of 1924 all eyes were on Chicago as the "trial of the century" got underway. Darrow's first order of business was to get Leopold's and Loeb's pleas changed to guilty. Darrow remembered it this way: "We spent considerable time deliberating as to what we should do. The feeling was so tense and the trial was so near that we felt we could not save the boys’ lives with a jury. It seemed out of the question to find a single man who had not read all about the case and formed a definite opinion. Judge Caverly had formerly been a judge of the Municipal Court and helped form the Juvenile Court, and we believed that he was kindly and discerning in his views of life. After thorough consideration we concluded that the best chance was on a plea of guilty. Only a few knew what was to be done—the boys and their parents, two or three relatives, and the attorneys in the case." Darrow clearly felt that pleading guilty was the only way to avoid the death penalty for his clients. A not guilty plea would have meant that Darrow would need to prove that both were insane. They had already both confessed and had also accompanied state Attorney Crowe and numerous reporters and photographers to the site in Indiana where Bobby Franks had been found. On July 23, 1924, when Judge Caverly asked Leopold and Loeb if they understood the meaning of their guilty pleas, the "trial of the century" was underway.
The courtroom was packed when State Attorney Robert Crowe began his opening statement detailing the evidence against the defendants. As there was no jury and no question of guilt, Crowe was essentially arguing for the death penalty in front of the judge. Darrow, on the other hand, was fighting to keep his clients from the gallows. In his opening statement he said: "We shall insist in this case, Your Honor, that terrible as this is, that terrible as any killing is, it would be without precedent if two boys of this age should be hanged by the neck until dead, and it would in no way bring back Robert Franks or add to the peace and security of the community. I insist that it would be without precedent, as we learned if on a plea of guilty this should be done."
Leopold (left and Loeb in the courtroom
Witness upon witness testifie
d for the state. Jacob Franks testified about his young son Robert. Tony Minske testified through an interpreter about the body. The state produced more than 100 witnesses on their behalf. As this was not in front of a jury many, including Clarence Darrow, thought that it was overkill. Darrow, however, could not have been very pleased with his client’s behavior in the courtroom. On more than one occasion during the proceedings Leopold and Loeb were seen to be smirking and laughing. One such instance occurred when Tony Minske was testifying about finding the body. It certainly would not have played well in front of a jury. One reporter wrote: "The attitude of the boys throughout the trial amazed everyone who watched them. Every day newspapers carried pictures of them smiling in the courtroom. When the crowd laughed, they laughed. Sometimes they laughed alone. Everyone commented on their cheerfulness and even levity, through the whole proceeding, but those who watched them closely came to see that often it was the nervous giggling of two frightened, foolish boys who found themselves in a terrific mess with the eyes of the world upon them." Even Jacob Franks, the victim's father, was stunned by the boys. He later said: "I thought I was a pretty good judge of human nature during my long experience, but I find I have encountered an unsolvable problem. It’s impossible for me to sit there and believe, as I watch those boys, that they are the ones who killed my child. They seem so gentle; they’re so refined looking." Three reporters from Chicago newspapers also testified as to how Richard Loeb had worked his way into the investigation. The reporters much later realized that Loeb had given them information that only the killers could have known. The battle of the alienists was still to come.
Scene of the Crime Page 7
