I just watched the Thrill Me musical, and am learning it’s very historically inaccurate (ie: bobby being 14 not 12, murder weapon being a chisel not a crowbar, and dropping the glasses on purpose). I’m wondering what other things were inaccurately portrayed, including aspects of their personality, and other details of the case.
So this is actually gone over extensively in Stephen Dolginoff's book about the history of Thrill Me (which I helped edit) but I'll give you some highlights, because there are so many things that are historically inaccurate.
In general, Leopold in Thrill Me is much more whiny, cowardly, and guilty than he was in reality and Loeb is much more sadistic and unhinged.
-Leopold's prison number is incorrect, it was 9306D, for some reason in Thrill Me the number of the parole hearing is 9306D5 and Leopold's prison number is A93065.
-Leopold did not talk this way about his crime or relationship to Loeb in order to get parole. The parole members also did not berate or debate in front of Leopold during his parole hearing. The hearing mostly consisted of other people talking about Leopold.
-Leopold and Loeb did not graduate from high school at the same time, Loeb was a year ahead of Leopold, they were also different ages, Loeb graduating at 14 and Leopold at 15, and Loeb was 6 months younger than Leopold.
-Leopold hadn't gotten into Harvard Law School yet, he had only taken one of the entrance exams before being arrested.
-Loeb's youngest brother was named Tommy, not John. Loeb never expressed jealousy over him, Tommy was the family member Loeb felt closest to.
-Leopold was the one more interested in Nietzsche, not Loeb, he did not have a Nietzsche study group, and neither of them seemed to own Nietzsche books.
-Leopold and Loeb went to the University of Michigan together for a year, Loeb didn't transfer without telling Leopold.
-There's no evidence that Leopold bribed anyone for information about Loeb.
-There's no evidence that Loeb insulted Leopold, constantly pushed him away, told him he disliked his company, etc.
That's just me going through the first 4 pages of the script.