Chicago’s Crime of the Century
The Abduction and Murder of Bobby Franks
“Nowhere in the whole history of murder in Illinois is there a crime so cruel, so brutal, so vicious as this crime.” — Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas Marshall, August 19, 1924
“What is there in the future but grief and sorrow, darkness and despair?” — Jacob Loeb, September 10, 1924.
May 21, 1924 would be a banner day for American births. Basketball player Jack Twyman was born in Pittsburgh, composer Robert Parris was born in Philadelphia, and actress/comedian/game show panelist Peggy Cass was born in Boston.
Sadly, American College Football Hall of Fame quarterback Charley Barrett died at the age of thirty in Tucson from injuries he sustained years earlier in World War I. Across the country, there would be another loss of life that would captivate the nation and dominate newspaper headlines.
Chicago’s elite Harvard School for Boys, located in the city’s South Side Kenwood neighborhood, was dismissed that Wednesday, May 21 at half past two. Its students spilled out of the three-story brick building, bursting with the energy not only of youth but from having consecutive days of rain finally letting up and the skies, although windy, promising fairer weather. Some of the Harvard School for Boys’ students were picked up in family limousines while…