It was a crime that shocked the nation, a brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child, by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb had first met several years earlier, and their friendship had blossomed into a love affair. Both were intellectuals—too smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. However, the police had recovered an important clue at the scene of the crime—a pair of eyeglasses—and soon both Leopold and Loeb were in the custody of Cook County. They confessed, and Robert Crowe, the state's attorney, announced to newspaper reporters that he had a hanging case. No defense, he believed, would save the two ruthless killers from the gallows. 
Set against the backdrop of the 1920s, a time of prosperity, self-indulgence, and hedonistic excess, For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a lost world, a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, that existed when Chicago was a lawless city on the brink of anarchy. The rejection of morality, the worship of youth, and the obsession with sex had seemingly found their expression in this callous murder. 
But the murder is only half the story. After Leopold and Loeb were arrested, their families hired Clarence Darrow to defend their sons. Darrow, the most famous lawyer in America, aimed to save Leopold and Loeb from the death penalty by showing that the crime was the inevitable consequence of sexual and psychological abuse that each defendant had suffered during childhood at the hands of adults. Both boys, Darrow claimed, had experienced a compulsion to kill, and therefore, he appealed to the judge, they should be spared capital punishment. However, Darrow faced a worthy adversary in his prosecuting attorney: Robert Crowe was clever, cunning, and charismatic, with ambitions of becoming Chicago's next mayor—and he was determined to send Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to their deaths.
A masterful storyteller, Simon Baatz has written a gripping account of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case. Using court records and recently discovered transcripts, Baatz shows how the pathological relationship between Leopold and Loeb inexorably led to their crime. 
This thrilling narrative of murder and mystery in the Jazz Age will keep the reader in a continual state of suspense as the story twists and turns its way to an unexpected conclusion.

For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago

Biographies & Memoirs

Baatz, Simon

Historical

Harper

It was a crime that shocked the nation: the brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were intellectuals—too smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. When they were apprehended, state's attorney Robert Crowe was certain that no defense could save the ruthless killers from the gallows. But the families of the confessed murderers hired Clarence Darrow, entrusting the lives of their sons to the most famous lawyer in America in what would be one of the most sensational criminal trials in the history of American justice. Set against the backdrop of the 1920s—a time of prosperity, self-indulgence, and hedonistic excess in a lawless city on the brink of anarchy—For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, with a spellbinding narrative of Jazz Age murder and mystery.

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

Harper-perennial

From New York Times bestselling author Simon Baatz, the first comprehensive account of the murder that shocked the world. In 1901 Evelyn Nesbit, a chorus girl in the musical Florodora, dined alone with the architect Stanford White in his townhouse on 24th Street in New York. Nesbit, just sixteen years old, had recently moved to the city. White was forty-seven and a principal in the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead &amp; White. As the foremost architect of his day, he was a celebrity, responsible for designing countless landmark buildings in Manhattan. That evening, after drinking champagne, Nesbit lost consciousness and awoke to find herself naked in bed with White. Telltale spots of blood on the bed sheets told her that White had raped her. She told no one about the rape until, several years later, she confided in Harry Thaw, the millionaire playboy who would later become her husband. Thaw, thirsting for revenge, shot and killed White in 1906 before hundreds of theatergoers during a performance in Madison Square Garden, a building that White had designed. The trial was a sensation that gripped the nation. Most Americans agreed with Thaw that he had been justified in killing White, but the district attorney expected to send him to the electric chair. Evelyn Nesbit's testimony was so explicit and shocking that Theodore Roosevelt himself called on the newspapers not to print it verbatim. The murder of White cast a long shadow: Harry Thaw later attempted suicide, and Evelyn Nesbit struggled for many years to escape an addiction to cocaine. The Girl on the Velvet Swing, a tale of glamour, excess, and danger, is an immersive, fascinating look at an America dominated by men of outsize fortunes and by the women who were their victims.

The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

History

Americas

Mulholland Books

Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

Knowledge, culture, and science in the metropolis: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1817-1970 (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)

Knowledge, Culture, and Science in the Metropolis: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1817-1970 (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)

New York Academy of Sciences

"Venerate the plough" : a history of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, 1785-1985

The Society]

To help commemorate the 200th anniversary of the New York Academy of Sciences, founded in 1817, this revised edition of Simon Baatz’s book Knowledge, Culture, and Science in the Metropolis: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1817–2017, presents new material on the Academy’s activities from 1970-2016. The revised edition weaves the story of the Academy’s development with the development of science in New York City and America, from the early 19th century when scientific studies were largely focused on cataloging the natural history of the nascent United States. Chapters retained from the first edition include discussions of how Academy members were prominent in the campaigns to establish New York University in 1831 and the American Museum of Natural History in 1869; the Academy’s comprehensive survey of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in 1907 and the resulting published magisterial 19-volumes over the next three decades; and scientific breakthroughs reported at Academy conferences and events, most notably, research in antibiotics in the 1940s and 1950s, which appeared the Academy’s journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. In this revised edition, Professor Baatz adds a new chapter that focuses on the significant activities of the Academy’s Committee on Human Rights of Scientists, which worked on behalf of dissident scientists for over twenty years, and the decades of involvement of the Academy in education programs for young people in New York City and beyond. Few cultural institutions in New York have lasted so long and few have had such influence on science in New York City. The Academy has been unique as a nexus for scientists across different disciplines, from universities, research institutes, and government; and its influence, through its conferences and publications, now extends worldwide.

Knowledge, Culture, and Science in the Metropolis: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1817-2017 (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Wiley/Blackwell

From New York Times bestselling author Simon Baatz, the first comprehensive account of the murder that made the Gilded Age-and of the trial that shocked the world. In 1901, Evelyn Nesbit, the pin-up girl and penniless young actress, dined with Stanford White, the legendary architect whose works defined the New York landscape, at his 24th St. apartment. Evelyn drank champagne and was dazzled by a tour of White's decadent rooms, which included a sumptuous velvet couch swing on which Evelyn played. Evelyn was given more champagne, and lost consciousness. She woke, nearly naked, in bed next to White. White was 47 years old. Evelyn Nesbit was just 16.Four years later, tarnished by the air of impropriety that in those days surrounded a lowly career in the theater, Evelyn would marry Harry Thaw, a playboy millionaire rumored to be mentally unstable, and in whom she confided the story of her encounter with Stanford White. One night in 1906, a vengeful Thaw shot and killed White before hundreds of theater-goers during a performance at Madison Square Garden-a venue designed by none other than White himself.The city-and the nation that looked to it-erupted with news of the murder and ensuing trial, then the most sensational scandal in history: one so sordid that President Teddy Roosevelt himself would try and stop the press from covering it. But the murder of Stanford White stood for far more than tabloid scandal. Evelyn's shocking testimony would propel her to an uneasy stardom, an uncertain fortune, and send the case before the Supreme Court.Filled with the glamor, jealousy, and danger of the Gilded Age, The Girl on the Velvet Swing is an immersive, richly detailed look at an America dominated by men of outsize fortunes, and at the women whose live

The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century: Library Edition

Blackstone Pub

Hachette Book Group

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