The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
This is a senseless, useless, purposeless act of two
boys. Now, let me see if I can prove it. There was
not a particle of hate, not a grain of malice, there
was no opportunity to be cruel except as death is
cruel — and death is cruel. There was absolutely
no reason in it all, and no motive for it all.
In order to make this the most cruel thing that ever
happened, of course they must have a motive. And
what do they say was the motive? " The motive
was to get ten thousand dollars," they say. And
they would have you believe they did it to get the
money because they were gamblers and needed it
to pay gambling debts.
What did Judge Crowe prove? He put on one
witness, and one only, who had played bridge with
both of them in college, and he said they played for
five cents a point. Now, I trust your Honor knows
better than I do how much of a game that would
be. At poker I might guess, but I know little about
bridge.
But what else? He said that in a game one of
them lost ninety dollars to the other. They were
playing against each other, and one of them lost
ninety dollars. Ninety dollars!
It would be trifling excepting, your Honor, that
we are dealing in human life. And we are dealing in
more than that; we are dealing in the future fate of
two families. We are talking of placing a blot upon
the escutcheon of two houses that do not deserve
it for nothing.
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