FOLIE A DEUX: IT TAKES TWO TO KILL

The phrase is French, "folie a deux", which is translated literally as "the folly of two" but is much better and widely known as "the madness of two".  In the field of psychology is it defined as "a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to another". However, more often than not, this definition isn't quite what is meant when the term is used in criminal profiling.  With killers the term is used for two individuals who kill together when, if on their own, they likely never would have.  The ways in which these pairings meet and the reasons they have for killing differ, but the result is always the same...murder.

The Pursuit of Perfection

Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. and Richard Albert Loeb were two bright, wealthy, young men from Chicago, Illinois.  They met at the University of Chicago while still in their teens – Leopold 14, Loeb 13 – and seemed to form an almost instant bond on the principles of shared age, intelligence, and the strong belief that they were superior to all those around them.  It was Loeb who preferred to commit crimes while Leopold simply agreed to it in exchange for a sexual relationship with his new friend.  That being said, it seemed Leopold was the one who found the pairs "right" to do their misdeeds in his misunderstanding of the definition of Friedrich Nietzsche's Superman. He believed, in his still childish and superficial understanding of the concept, that a Neitzchean Superman had the moral freedom to violate the rules and laws that applied to ordinary people. Of course, he considered himself and Loeb just these sorts of Supermen…so superior to others that whatever restrictions applied to others did not apply to either of them.

To start the boys stuck with petty crimes vaguely common to troubled youths such as petty theft, cheating at cards, and random acts of vandalism.  But, after four years and with Leopold about to move onto Harvard Law, the two decided to do something more dramatic to permanently solidify their bond. They decided to commit the "perfect crime" in the form of the kidnapping and murder of a 14-year-old boy from their neighborhood named Bobby Franks.  A "perfect crime" to prove just how superior they were to those around them, one that they’d commit without mercy, without clues, and without either of them ever getting caught. They dedicated seven months just to the planning of the event alone, working on ways to maximize their reward in the form of a ransom and minimize their risk of getting caught. Leopold and Loeb worked together in the pursuit of the perfect murder the way others kids their age worked on a being perfect at a favorite sport.

Mother Issues

Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme of Christchurch, New Zealand, were two teen girls who, despite very different backgrounds, became best friends virtually from the moment they met each other.  Like many teens they met by being classmates in high school and bonded quickly over shared experiences of illness in their childhood (Parker had bone disorder known as osteomyelitis and Hulme had pneumonia), a love for writing, and their creativity in general.  Interestingly, like Leopold and Loeb, the girls also bonded over what appeared to be an above average intelligence and the shared belief that they were better than everyone else around them.  

The girls quickly became inseparable and soon began to create their very own, shared, world, "Fourth World", which they spent more and more time working on and, seemingly, living in.  At first neither girls' parents had much of an issue with this, in fact Pauline's mother was thrilled since her daughter frequently had trouble making and keeping friends due to a sometimes-explosive temper.  After two or three months though the girls' relationship with one another went from very close to incredibly intense causing their parents to grow worried. It was when Pauline's mother grew worried enough about their closeness to consider separating them that the two teens made a plan to ensure that it would never happen.  They would kill Pauline Parker's mother and escape to the United States to live and work (as writers and in the film industry) together.

The Wife Problem

Stephen Marsh had a little problem in the form of a wife.  A wife was not exactly conducive to the things he wanted to do, like drink and sleep with other women.  Not that he stopped flirting or indulging in liquor even with the wife; being married didn't even stop him from having an affair with a married woman, Rebecca Harris.  Stephen and Rebecca's affair started where many others did, at the office.  It began with shared drinks and stories about their lives, their current marriages, and soon developed into a sexual relationship.  It was in this aspect of their relationship that there was something different from the normal office affair. While it started out loving and sensitive under Stephen's direction and guidance it quickly turned darker and, eventually, into a full on sadomasochist sexual liaison.

While Rebecca didn't ever seem to realize it this form of dark sex play was just the start of things to come. Stephen was testing her, seeing how far he could get her to go for him.  How many of his twisted and violent desires would she fulfill to keep his love?  She'd let him abuse her, call her names, even cut her with knives, and film all these cruel bedroom activities just to keep him satisfied.  So would she kill for him too?  Apparently, yes, she would.  With the promise that if she killed Stephen Marsh’s wife for him the desperate-for-his-love Rebecca Harris eventually agreed to murder.

Different, Yet the Same...

Despite the differences in motive and seeming differences in form of relationship each of these cases have a fair number of similarities. It’s the similarities that make them each, in their own way, cases of folie a deux.  The first similarity is obvious in that each of these pairs committed murder together.  Leopold and Loeb kidnapped and then stabbed young Bobby Franks to death.  Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme got together to beat Pauline's mother, Honora Parker, to death with a brick stuffed inside a stocking. Stephen Marsh set up his wife, Jaspal Marsh, to be brutally murdered by his lover, Rebecca Harris, with the same knife the adulterous couple used in their S&M sex games together.  In each case there was one partner who had a slightly greater tendency towards criminality and/or violence even before they met the other in the pairing. Loeb was always secretly interested in crime and the possibility of being a career criminal, Pauline had outbursts of anger, and Stephen had to press his lover into the acts of violence both in and out of the bed that he desired so much.  Also true for all these killers is, without their partners in crime, they never would've killed in the first place.  True some already had violent tendencies, but the ability to truly carry them out to their full potential was found in the partnering with another. Each of these individuals were, for lack of a better word, incomplete on their own – disoriented in their lives and, mostly, unable to function even in their own anti-societal ways.  Yet when they got together these people were completed, sadly this completion made them all the more dangerous to society…it made them murderers.

Thankfully though there is one other thing that these cases all have in common.  They were all solved and the murderers brought to some kind of justice.  Leopold served 33 years (of a life plus 99 years sentence) in prison before being paroled; he later died of a heart-attack at age 66.  Loeb died at 30 as the result of a knife attack by another inmate while serving the same sentence that his partner received.  Both Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme were sentenced to five years each (due to their ages, 16 and 15 respectively) and told, after the trial, to never contact one another again. Each girl got a new name and new life after their release, they obeyed the orders of the court, and neither has been in trouble with the law since.  Stephen Marsh was sentenced to 18 years for, essentially, masterminding his wife's murder and Rebecca Harris got 12 years for the actual deed. They are both currently serving their sentences at the time of this publication.