Schools

Northwestern Sues Writer Over Leopold and Loeb Book

Nina Barrett, who recently opened Evanston's Bookends & Beginnings, has refused to return the manuscript and files, the university alleges.

Northwestern University is suing author and former part-time staff member Nina Barrett over what it claims is her refusal to return a manuscript and university files related to a book she was asked to write on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case, according to an article in TribLocal.

After creating a successful exhibit about Leopold and Loeb for the university, the school asked Barrett to write a book on the case, the article states. But when she left her part-time job in the library communications office late last year, she did not return the manuscript or research files.

Barrett told the Chicago Sun-Times that the university’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday, does not accurately reflect what happened, but that she couldn’t comment more.

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Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were University of Chicago students who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 1924 to see if they could commit a perfect crime. Their case, in which they were represented by Clarence Darrow, was that generation’s “trial of the century.”

Barrett and her husband recently opened Bookends & Beginnings, a bookstore in Evanston’s former Bookman’s Alley space.

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