I watched the documentary the Perfect Crime: In Love with Murder. It portrays Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb who killed Loeb’s cousin fourteen-year-old Bobby Frank. This documentary also included their trial with the prosecutor Robert Crowe and defense attorney Clarence Darrow. Throughout the documentary, both sides of the case provided evidences included scientific explanations like their mental state to sway the judge to either killed them by hanging or just to give them a life sentence. Personally, I don’t understand why they decided to kill Loeb’s cousin. Their motive was questionable, and it seems that they kill him simply for the thrill. The documentary presented a detailed map with the steps completed by the boys to kill Bobby. It highlighted …show more content…
that the boys were planning to complete this murder for a long time now since they had an exact method of how to pick the boy, kill him and hide the body. They believed they committed the perfect murder. In reality, Leopold left his glasses at the scene where the body was placed.
The glasses had a weird hinge and only three people in the Chicago area had these glasses type. Out of the three people, only Leopold was fit to be the person who committed the crime. The director should have included more about Bobby Franks because he only included the fact that Bobby was 14 when he died and that he and Loeb were cousins. I also would have liked if the director included what happen to Leopold after his release from jail at the end of documentary. Also, the documentary didn’t say the reason Leopold was released from jail early. The fact the documentary didn’t include any form of reenactment of the court case, helped to limit the number of dramatic scenes. The documentary included the idea of Nietzsche’s idea of the Ubermensch/Superman. Leopold believed that he was superior being. Also, he thought that he was not required to follow the rules of society because he saw himself as a type of Superman. From the documentary, I learned that psychiatrists were called alienists during the 1920s. I found it interesting that defense were trying to portray the boys as victims because they showed stunned emotional growth since they were neglected by their
parents. Leopold was abused sexually at twelve and Loeb’s governess pushed him to hard to excel in school to the point he starts to resent her. Another case also tries to portray the killer as victims because they were sexually abuse by their parents and the case was the Menendez Brothers case. Similarly, they were also wealthy and got life in prison. The difference between the cases is that the Menendez brothers killed their parents and did regret the killing, but Loeb and Leopold kill Loeb’s cousin and showed no remorse for the killing.
In Cold Blood addresses a variety of issues including questions of whether a person's upbringing plays a role in criminal activity, and whether the death penalty is right or wrong. It also deals with issues such as prejudice and religion. I feel as if the disposition of the case was fair, but I also feel bad for them.
...ther than reciting facts of the documentation, he makes the city of Chicago come alive in a way that many could not accomplish. Throughout the book it was told with abundant cross-cutting and foreshadowing. It wasn’t until after the fair when people began to realize just how many people have simply vanished during the fair. The numbers were astounding. The big question was, were the missing people during that time connected with Dr. Holmes and his killings. Many people assumed it was him because this man was a serial killer with epic proportions. After years have passed, a detective was given the assignment to uncover the truth behind Holmes and what motivated him and his psychopathic mind. The information he found was shocking. In the end it seems to tell a story of the ineluctable conflict between good and evil, daylight and darkness, the White City and the Black.
Fisch, Harmanpreet Kaur drank alcohol and did cocaine. She then went to Mrs. Fisch’s address,
The psychological abuse that the four suspects were exposed to made them make a wrong confession. In addition, being in an environment where the interrogation room is tight and dark increased the suspect’s anxiety. Moreover, the Frontline documentary stated that the suspects were held in custody for long hours with Robert Ford who used threatening language in order to make them confess. Not only that the suspects made a false confession, but they also told Ford different stories on how they murdered the victim. The coercive interrogatories, led Joe Dick to accept the label Ford put on him and the others. Although Ford was supposed to act just, he acted upon his self interest. Thus, he denied all facts because of fear of embarrassment of being wrong. However, after serving many years in prison, the four suspects were released to face stigmatization and labeling from the society. Indeed, this case proved that there is a malfunction in the justice system and that there’s a need for an immediate
The film we watched was a Frontline documentary about the tragic case of Ralph Tortorici called A Case of Insanity. On December 14, 1994 Ralph went into a lecture hall with a rifle and a hunting knife taking the whole classroom hostage. He demanded to speak to President Clinton, and threatened to kill the hostages if they did not comply with his demands. Ralph was calm towards the students held hostage and demanded people from outside to gather food for them. 19-year-old Jason McEnaney attempted to wrestle the rifle out of Ralph’s hands, but this caused the to go off and he was shot in the genital area. Several students attacked Ralph and held him until the police came in and arrested him. Ralph was taken to jail with 14 counts of aggravated assault. His trial was held on Jan 3rd, 1996 and Ralph announced that he would not be present at his trial. It was stated that he had paranoia schizophrenia and he had also traces of cocaine in his system. Even though Ralph’s prosecutors indicated to the 12 jurors that Ralph was delusional, he suffered from mental illness.
As juror number one, I had to research why Johnny should, or should not be tried for the murder of Bob Sheldon, the Soc. I also had to research murder among teens and what happened during the killing of Bob Sheldon. During my research, I found that murder was considered a premeditated killing, and I also found that Johnny can only be tried for murder in Connecticut, New York, and North Carolina because of his age. Johnny was planning on saving, Ponyboy Curtis, who at the time was being drowned by David, the Soc Bob had told him to “give Ponyboy a bath.” In trying to save Ponyboy he pulled out his pocket knife and stabbed Bob Sheldon in the back therefore causing David to release Ponyboy and flee the scene. After finding that information I also found that Bob Sheldon and his group of friends had stopped their car on The Greasers side of town and got out to show them a lesson for taking out their girls. ...
Murder on a Sunday morning is a documentary of an unfortunate mishap with the legal justice system that happens one of many times. In Jacksonville, Florida the year of 2001, May 8th there was a horrific scenery at Ramada hotel. A women named Mary Ann Stevens and her husband were tourists, while leaving their room early Sunday morning around 9AM a gunshot fatally killed Mary Ann and ended the couple’s vacation. When cops arrived at the scene and investigated they took notes on what the suspect looked like from the husband, “ The suspect is skinny black male dark shorts unknown shirt on foot running south bound…. Fishlike hat on.”- cop at the scene. When the cops were driving around they’ve spotted an African American
Murder at the Margin is a murder mystery involving various economic concepts. The story takes place in Cinnamon Bay Plantation on the Virgin Island of St. John. It is about Professor Henry Spearman, an economist from Harvard. Spearman organizes an investigation of his own using economic laws to solve the case.
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
This documentary as nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Award. It showed the world the actual crimes and events that were happening in society that otherwise would have been overlooked after the initial shock. The moral, values and importance of these events being spread by mass communication can lead to awareness and hopefully avoidance of familiar events in the
I realized that sometimes it is fine for things to just be, and I don’t know why. Much of the film has to do with how we think, and what we do in private. Collectively, through these moral and ethical acts (or lack thereof) we can impact the public. Also, by sharing these thoughts and concepts with the public in the documentary, it can affect our thoughts and actions in our private lives; I know it has, at least for myself. One of the earliest topics in the film that I took note of was the ethics of certain matters, in a way that I had never considered before.
Regina Kunzel is an historian of gender and sexuality in the 20th-century U.S . whose research focuses on the twined histories of difference and normalcy, the regulatory force of carceral institutions, and relationships between expert discourses and the self-representations of historical subjects. Kunzel’s most recent book, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality (University of Chicago Press, 2008), examines the social and sexual world made by prisoners over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and tracks its meaning for the formation of modern sexuality. Criminal Intimacy was awarded the American Historical Association’s John Boswell Prize, the Modern Language Association’s Alan Bray Memorial
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
At the time, society struggled to comprehend how two young teenagers were put on trial as murderers – children were given sympathy for being targeted as victims. However, today journalists and reporters blame the way children are raised for committing crimes. The environment they grow up in and the values that are instilled within them are what influence their every action. While Nathan and Richard were raised in upper-class families, both endured difficult childhoods. Reporters claim that Leopold’s childhood was “scarred by feelings of physical inferiority, the sexual abuse of a governess, and the loss of his mother when he was fourteen” and may be a reasonable explanation for his detrimental actions (Fass 934). This perspective shifted the blame from the teenagers to the parents, who were considered at fault for raising their children irresponsibly.
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.