Leopold and Loeb Trial - The Clarence Darrow Collection

wealth of the families a plea of guilty and a life sentence would have been
accepted without a contest. I knew this, and I dreaded the fight. 37
After Leopold and Loeb returned from the second day of traveling around to different
locations related to the crime, they were taken back to the Criminal Courts building.
Waiting for them were Jacob Loeb, an attorney named Benjamin C. Bachrach and
Clarence Darrow. But Crowe was still not ready for the defense attorneys to put a gag on
Leopold and Loeb and he refused to let the attorneys speak with them. It was not until
Monday that the two accused killers were allowed to talk to Clarence Darrow and
Benjamin Bachrach. Of course Leopold and Loeb clammed up after this. But it was far
too late; Crowe had gotten virtually everything he needed to convict them and obtain a
sentence for execution. The defendants’ sudden silence was not appreciated by news
reporters. It was on this day that they heard for the first time, after asking Leopold and
Loeb a question, “We cannot talk without advice of counsel.”
Bachrach Brothers
The families had hired Benjamin C. Bachrach and his brother Walter Bachrach to be
Darrow’s co-counsel. Both of the Bachrach brothers were lawyers of considerable
reputation. Benjamin Bachrach specialized in criminal law, particularly criminal cases in
federal court. He successfully defended Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing
champion against violations of the Mann Act. 38 In addition to his legal knowledge,
Walter Bachrach had studied psychology, including abnormal psychology, and was
instrumental in sponsoring Dr. William Stekel, an internationally renowned colleague of
Sigmund Freud, to lecture in Chicago during a two and half month period. Given
Darrow’s considerable interest in psychology and human nature, it is likely he
enthusiastically supported the addition of Walter Bachrach to the defense team. Darrow
knew he would bring psychiatry into the case:
About that time the National Association of Psychiatrists were holding
their convention in Atlantic City. We at once delegated Mr. Walter
Backrach . . . to go to the convention and secure three or four of those of
highest standing in their profession to come and make an investigation of
the two boys. This was absolutely necessary. 39
Uproar over the Well-Funded Defense
Newspapers reported that the families had a combined $15 million between them and
would spend millions to try and beat the death penalty. Many in the public were critical
of what they saw as child murderers attempting to use their wealth to evade justice. “The
outraged public decided that ‘money talks’; that only the sons of the wealthy could afford
such psychiatric luxury. 40
37
STORY OF MY LIFE, supra note 23, at 232.
38
Id. at 211.
39
Id. at 235.
40
WALTER BROMBERG, PSYCHIATRY BETWEEN THE WARS, 1918-1945: A RECOLLECTION 104 (1982).
30