For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago - Softcover

Meticulous and thorough, and it puts the case in historical perspective as a clash between two conflicting views of criminals and crime, one espoused by...Clarence Darrow...the most famous American lawyer of his day, perhaps indeed of any day.--Washington Post Book World

"The pages read like the very best crime fiction. . . . Reading Baatz's compelling, definitive book brings it all back to life."--Open Letters Monthly

"The story of the Jazz Age thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb has never been told in so gripping a style. A significant work of historical scholarship that reads like a page-turning thriller, Simon Baatz's masterly book now stands as the definitive account of this legendary case."--Harold Schechter, author of The Devil's Gentleman

"Simon Baatz's For the Thrill of It is likely to be the definitive work on this infamous crime and the dramatic trial of its perpetrators. It is impressive in its research, even-handed in its tone and immensely readable. . . . [An] excellent book."--Wall Street Journal

"This story never fails to astonish."--Chicago Tribune

"[Baatz] breaks his fascinating narrative into two distinct Law and Order-type sections. . . . While it might be easy to dismiss the murderers--Nathan "Babe" Leopold Jr. and Richard "Dickie" Loeb--as bored rich kids, Baatz shows that there was much more to this story."--Library Journal

"Altogether absorbing. . . . Mr. Baatz, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, has done meticulous research, and he writes extremely well. . . . His book on the Leopold and Loeb case is the best we'll have for a long, long time."--New York Times

"Baatz lucidly lays out the complicated courtroom maneuvers and also provides a fascinating, skillful analysis of two different legal philosophies.... A solid true-crime thriller that's also a masterly analysis of postwar shifts in society's ideas about crime and personality."--Kirkus Reviews

Exhaustively researched and rivetingly presented. . . . One of the best true-crime books of this or any other season.--Booklist (starred review)

"A riveting non-fiction thriller that will turn you into an activity-hostile recluse who shouts, "Go away and let me read!"... What makes Thrill of It so exceptional is the way Baatz balances all the elements: the killers, the crime, the police, the media and the trial's impact."--USA Today

Documents the 1924 murder case of millionaire property developer's son Bobby Franks and the high-profile arrest and trial of his teenage killers, in an account that also offers insight into the psychological contest between the case's defense and state attorneys. Reprint.