The Leopold and Loeb Files: An Intimate Look at One of America's Most Infamous Crimes

(Hardback)

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Description

• A first-of-its kind approach to the famous murder through carefully curated primary sources, including confessions, court transcripts, psychological reports, evidence photos, and more
• This collection of photography and artifacts is an illuminating visual documentation of several decades of American history
• Author owns successful independent bookstore with high media profile and strong relationships with other independent stores and publishing community
• Author ranked #31 on NewCity magazine's 2015 Lit 50, a list of the biggest influencers in the Chicago literary community, and was named a Chicagoan of the Year in Literature in the Chicago Tribune's 2014 year-end list
• Sales opportunities via author appearances throughout city and in broadcast media

Reviews

Praise for The Leopold and Loeb Files:

You have not experienced this case with anything approaching the astonishing and compelling detail that you will in The Leopold and Loeb Files. . . . graphically stunning. Chicago Tribune

Its one thing to read the canned narrative of the crime and another to see it coalesce in real time via police records, psychiatric reports, and court transcripts. . . . The effect is something like a sance scripted by David Simon. Its fascinating to read the transcripts of Leopold and Loeb as they talk in looping confabulations, backtrack, contradict each other, and double down. Their voices on the page thrum with the smugness of youth. The Paris Review

The Leopold and Loeb Files explores the dark side of the American dream. . . . Its a thoroughly researched and lavishly illustrated chronicle that offers new insights into a murder and court battle that transfixed and fascinated Chicagoansand still does. Chicago Review of Books

True crime junkies, this ones for you. Make It Better

Photographs, interview transcripts, newspaper accounts, and more create an entrancing mosaic chronicle of a notorious early-20th-century murder. . . . Barretts collection of primary sources results in a fresh view of an infamous crime, as well as the social mores of an era. Publishers Weekly

A new primary source collection gives new insight into the case, highlighting the ambiguities of the trial in a way that only true crime can. CrimeReads

Author Bio

Nina Barrett, a graduate of both Yale University and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, is the author of three books and numerous articles, essays, and reviews. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The Nation, among other places. In 2009, she curated an exhibition for Northwestern called The Murder That Wouldnt Die, which inspired The Leopold and Loeb Files. Barrett is also the founder and owner of Bookends & Beginnings, an independent bookstore in Evanston, Illinois.