Frank Koza Collection > SERIES I: Newsfilm > SUBSERIES V: Crime & Law Enforcement

7-31-1957 Leopold Press Conference

Transcript (Download)

I am disappointed, of course.

Had I not hoped for favorable consideration, had I not felt that perhaps leniency was warranted, I should not have filed my application.

However, I am not crushed by the adverse decision.

I am grateful to the Governor and to the members of the Parole and Pardon Board for the very complete scrutiny they have given to all the facts and circumstances of my case.

I am sorry that they did not feel that clemency should be extended to me at this time.

But the decision is, as I have always known it was, and felt that it should be, theirs.

In his message denying my application for executive clemency, Governor Scranton noted that I am eligible to request re -hearing of my petition for conditional release under parole.

I will certainly avail myself at the earliest possible moment of this right and again file a petition for re -hearing before the Parole Board.

Do you think that you would be more useful on the outside and how? Definitely would hope to be more useful on the outside and how? Well, I would have larger opportunities to use whatever small talents I have.

Nathan, what do you plan to do with your parole? Well, that's pretty far in the future now.

I would love to have a job as a medical technician in a church hospital in Puerto Rico.

If that's available and I ever am paroled and it's available at that time, I think that would be my first choice.

I would like to ask you to please leave the room.

I would like to ask you to please leave the room.

I would like to ask you to please leave the room.

I would like to ask you to please leave the room.

I would like to ask you to please leave the room.

I would like to ask you to please leave the room.

Identifier
F.2012-03-0356
Date Of Production
July 31 1957
Abstract
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. speaks at a press conference at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois on July 31, 1957.

University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were imprisoned for the kidnap and murder of fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924. They committed the murder in order to demonstrate their intellectual superiority, which they believed made them capable of carrying out the "perfect crime."
Description
The film begins with several exterior shots of the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois and then a shot of Nathan Leopold as he enters a room prepared for a press conference. Leopold thanks Governor Stratton and the Illinois Parole and Pardon Board for their review of his case and then expresses his intention to request a rehearing of his petition for conditional release under parole. When asked about his plans if paroled, he indicates an aspiration to work as a medical technician in a church hospital in Puerto Rico. The film concludes as the camera explores the layout of a prison cell and the door slides shut.

Leopold was released on parole on March 13, 1958. Shortly thereafter, he began working as a lab technician at a hospital operated by the Brethren Service Commission in Puerto Rico.
Run Time
0:02:44
Format
16mm
Extent
100 feet
Color
B&W
Sound
Optical
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Print
Genre
Journalism
Form
Newsreels
Press Conferences
Subject
Prisons
Crimes
Murders
Related Collections
SUBSERIES V: Crime & Law Enforcement

Related Places
North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois

Distributor
Telenews (Firm)

Main Credits
Koza, Frank (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers
Leopold, Nathan (is participant)

 
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