The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
scarcely find a single book written by a student —
and I will include all the works on criminology of
the past — that has not made the statement over
and over again that as the penal code was made less
terrible, crimes grew less frequent.
If these two boys die on the scaffold, which I can
never bring myself to imagine, if they do die on the
scaffold, the details of this will be spread over the
world. Every newspaper in the United States will
carry a full account. Every newspaper of Chicago
will be filled with the gruesome details. It will
enter every home and every family.
Will it make men better or make men worse?
How many will be colder and cruder for it? How
many will enjoy the details? And you cannot enjoy
human suffering without being affected for the
worse.
What influence will it have upon the millions of
men who will read it? What influence will it have
upon the millions of women who will read it, more
sensitive, more impressionable, more imaginative
than men? What influence will it have upon the
infinite number of children who will devour its de-
tails as Dickie Loeb has enjoyed reading detective
stories? What influence, let me ask you, will it
have for the unborn babes still sleeping in their
mother's womb? And what influence will it have on
the psychology of the fathers and mothers yet to
come? Do I need to argue to your Honor that
cruelty only breeds cruelty; that hatred only causes
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