The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb'Leopold Case
of them; he had been a pupil there himself, the
school was near his home, and he looked over the
little boys.
Your Honor has been in these courts for a long
time; you have listened to murder cases before.
Has any such case ever appeared here or in any of
the books? Has it ever come to the human expe-
rience of any judge, or any lawyer? Never once!
They first picked out a little boy named Levinson,
and Dick trailed him around. Now, of course, that
is a hard story. It is a story that shocks one. A
boy bent on killing, not knowing where he would
go or whom he would get, but seeking some victim.
Here is a little boy, but the circumstances are not
opportune; and so he fails to get him.
Dick abandons that lead; Dick and Nathan are
in the car, and they see Bobby Franks on the street,
and they call to him to get into the car. It is
about five o'clock in the afternoon, in the long summer
days, on a thickly settled street, built up with
homes, the houses of their friends and their com-
panions, automobiles appearing and disappearing,
and they take him in the car.
If there had been a question of revenge, yes; if
there had been a question of hate, where no one
cares for his own fate, intent only on accomplishing
his end, yes. But without any motive or any reason
they picked up this little boy right in sight of their
own homes, and surrounded by their neighbors.
They drive a little way, on a populous street, where
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