Chapter 41 Section 16

Still, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Herald pulled a trick to lure readers.The former invited a phrenologist, who judged the characters of Nathan and Richard based on the shape and position of their facial features, and wrote several articles that were serialized in the newspaper.The latter brought in an astrologer, whose extensive analysis showed that the Zodiac signs of the two criminals had already determined their inevitability as murderers.Young readers are more interested in the column "Comparing Intelligence with Nathan and Richard" that many newspapers have launched one after another.According to the test, Nathan Leop's IQ is 210, and Richard Lowe's is slightly lower, also as high as 160.The painstaking editors asked those psychiatrists and psychologists to give some intelligence test questions to the two criminals, and then published the same questions and their scores in the newspaper for people to do exercises, entertainment, bets, or prizes .

Soon, new reading hotspots appeared in the newspapers.Some thieves broke into the office of Dr. Kraren Darrow's firm through a window, stole 50,000 words and nearly 300 pages of consultation reports from the defendant's experts, and resold them to various newspapers at high prices.Others say that this was actually deliberately arranged by Krashen, and he hoped that the citizens would have the opportunity to hear the other side of the story before the case officially opened. The consultation report covers all aspects of Nathan and Richard's life: family background, personal history, childhood memories, school days, and so on.Most notably, the report reveals that the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Fanks was not an isolated event in the lives of the two men involved, but the extreme and culmination of several years of criminal careers.

According to experts, Richard Lowe began to show criminal tendencies as early as the age of eight or nine.His first crime was stealing a neighbor's kid's pocket money and hiding it under the roof of his toy house. "At that time, he didn't feel panic or uneasy like other children at all. Instead, he felt very excited, because no one else knew the whereabouts of the money, and he was still rummaging through the house to find it all over the world. Only he knew." Before long, Richard and another boy were selling lemonade at a corner stand, child's play, of course.While his companions were not paying attention, he stole the toy cash box and buried it together with the money in his backyard.Since then, Richard has developed the habit of taking things by hand, regardless of whether that thing is useful to him.He stole a $100 bond from his brother Aaron, two bottles of wine from his cousin, and three bottles of whiskey from his uncle.His proudest work is that he once took out a flat tin flagon from a friend's close pocket without anyone noticing. "And these trousers," Richard pointed to himself, braggingly telling the experts how he found an unlocked locker in a country club and stole it unawares. Out of this high-end woolen pants.The experts wrote in the report: "The real reason for his action was the thrill of the theft, not the value of the stolen items, etc."

Richard really has a high IQ, and he almost never misses in these successive thefts and deceptions.There was only one exception, and that was when Richard was very young, when he was exposed after claiming someone else's cookie at summer camp.At that time, he "felt very useless and vowed not to be caught again in the future." Before meeting Nathan Leop, Richard had a best friend who was two years older than him, but in all the pranks, Richard was the mastermind.Once, he took the big boy to steal a silver bottle from the windowsill of a neighbor's house.They had planned for a long time in advance, but after stealing the silver bottle, Richard threw it into the lake.

Although the Riope and Lowe families lived only three blocks apart, Nathan and Richard did not know each other until the fall of 1920 because they went to different elementary and middle schools.At that time, 15-year-old Nathan was just a freshman, and Richard, who was seven months younger than him, was already a sophomore at the University of Chicago.The common Jewish background, almost the same age, especially, the two are both praised as "young geniuses" by their teachers, so that they hit it off and never met each other. Nathan has also been stealing since he was a child, but not as often and as seriously as Richard.According to the consultation report of the experts: "The first theft in the memory of the patient (referring to Nathan--the author's note) was to quietly take a few stamps that he still lacked from a friend's stamp album (it is said that he was given by his tutor) encouragement). He also collected cigarette packs, and once stole his brother's tie to exchange cigarette packs with someone. When asked by his family, he immediately admitted truthfully, without any attempt to hide or deny, and without shame Patient remembers stealing fruit from a Greek restaurant as a child."

In February 1923, Richard invited Nathan to spend the weekend at the Lowy family's villa in Galle Walk, Michigan. During the trip, the two developed a whole set of ciphers for cheating at bridge.Richard has no shortage of friends, but Nathan is often lonely and inseparable.Experts believe that in the relationship between the two, Richard has always been in a dominant position, and he can force Nathan to do things he does not want to do.But Nathan was passive, because he couldn't do without Richard, and he followed Richard in some criminal activities against his will, just to maintain their friendship.Richard took Nathan to steal a pipe in a store in downtown Chicago and a tennis trophy in a restaurant.Once Richard discovered that the key of his mother's Mirber car could open other vehicles of the same type, so he and Nathan broke into the car dealership after dark to steal the car. Abandoned the car and fled, allowing the car to crash on the pole.Nathan found a hiding place immediately after jumping, while Richard rushed into a passing tram.Afterwards, the two reunited, changed their outfits, and returned to the scene of the accident to watch the excitement.It was after that time that Nathan said that he couldn't bear such a stimulus, and he was unwilling to engage in such risky activities that were not worth the loss.But within a month, he was persuaded by Richard and followed him to steal the car for the second time.This time, the two drove the car directly to a restaurant and stopped. The police followed and asked the customers who drove the car. The second criminal pretended not to know, and walked away after eating.