The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
you that it is impossible to ascertain what the mind
is, to start with; or to tell how it acts.
There is some evidence somewhere in this record
that on their way home from Ann Arbor they began
to discuss this question of committing a perfect
crime, which had been their phantasy for months.
The typewriter had nothing whatever to do with it,
but to make it seem that they were schemers and
planners, that they knew how to think and how to
act, it is argued that they went all the way to Ann
Arbor in the nighttime to steal a typewriter, instead
of buying one here, or stealing one here, or getting
one here, or using their own, or advertising for one,
or securing one in any of a hundred ways.
Of course it is impossible on the face of it, but let
us see what the evidence is. They did bring a type-
writer from Ann Arbor and on that typewriter they
wrote these letters, and after the boy had been
killed they threw the typewriter into the lagoon,
after twisting off the letters. Why did they twist
off the letters? Well, I suppose anybody knows
why. Because one who is fairly familiar with a
typewriter knows that you can always detect the
writing on almost every typewriter. There will be
imperfect letters, imperfect tracking and imperfect
this, that and the other, by which detection is ac-
complished, and probably they knew it.
But mark this: Leopold kept this typewriter in
his house for six months. According to the testimony
of the maid, he had written many letters on it.
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