Leopold and Loeb Trial - The Clarence Darrow Collection

was followed by Darrow’s closing plea for mercy. The state countered with a strong
argument for the death penalty. The case ended with the judge’s life or death decision.
The Defendants and Victim
In many ways the two defendants led lives that set them far apart from the mass of
working class people who were fascinated with the case. Loeb and Leopold were also
much different from other criminal defendants that Darrow had defended. By 1924
Darrow had already established his reputation for defending the poor, the downtrodden
and the hopeless. Whenever he spoke about the causes of crime, Darrow emphasized that
it was largely due to poverty.
Nathan “Babe” Leopold
Leopold was the youngest child in his family and from an early age he was given the
nickname “Babe.” As a child, Leopold was often sick, but showed his intelligence by
learning to walk and talk at very early age and displaying an intense love of reading.
Leopold attended a girl’s school during his first two years of schooling. The school
ceased to be co-ed near the time Leopold entered, although he and one other boy still
attended the school after this change and remained the only two boys at the school. 1 He
entered the school at age five and when he reached age seven switched to a public school.
He did not fare well so went back to the girl’s school to finish out the year. Leopold was
always accompanied by a nurse or governess and the nurse took him back and forth to
school until he was age eleven. Leopold later attended the Harvard School for Boys
where many children of wealthy families sent their children. Defense psychiatrists would
later conclude that Leopold did not have a normal boyhood and did not socialize with
boys his age. These doctors would emphasize these factors during the court case to
follow.
Numerous accounts describe Leopold as being a genius and state that he studied fifteen
languages, was fluent in five of them and was an accomplished ornithologist. 2 Leopold
himself was very arrogant, especially about his intelligence. But a 2008 account indicates
that Leopold was not as accomplished in his command of languages as commonly
believed, and that for Loeb “it quickly became tiresome to listen to Nathan’s empty,
untrue boast that he could speak fifteen languages.” 3 However, for all his arrogance,
Leopold was an accomplished ornithologist. He was an expert on a rare bird called the
Kirtland’s Warbler. He gave a presentation about the bird which was turned into an
article entitled the Kirtland’s Warbler in its Summer Home published in the Auk, the
prestigious quarterly journal by the American Ornithologists' Union. 4 Leopold’s article
is often cited in bibliographies about the Kirtland’s Warbler, which is now a federal
1
MAUREEN MCKERNAN, THE AMAZING CRIME AND TRIAL OF LEOPOLD AND LOEB 55 (Special Edition,
1989) [hereinafter AMAZING CRIME AND TRIAL OF LEOPOLD AND LOEB].
2
HAL HIGDON, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY 18-19 (1975) [hereinafter CRIME OF THE CENTURY].
3
SIMON BAATZ, FOR THE THRILL OF IT: LEOPOLD, LOEB, AND THE MURDER THAT SHOCKED CHICAGO 52
(2008) [hereinafter FOR THE THRILL OF IT].
4
41 THE AUK, 44-58 (1924).
2