The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
Now, your Honor is familiar with Chicago the
same as I am, and I am willing to admit right here
and now that the two ablest alienists in Chicago are
Dr. Church and Dr. Patrick. There may be abler
ones, but we lawyers do not know them.
And I will go further: if my friend Crowe had not
got to them first, I would have tried to get them.
We could not get them, and Mr. Crowe was very
wise, and he deserves a great deal of credit for the
industry, the research and the thoroughness that he
and his staff have used in detecting this terrible
crime. He worked with intelligence and rapidity.
If here and there he trampled on the edges of the
Constitution I am not going to talk about it here.
If he did it, he is not the first one in that office and
probably will not be the last who will do it; so let
that go. A great many people in this world believe
the end justifies the means. I don't know but that
I do myself. And that is the reason I never want
to take the side of the prosecution, because I might
harm an individual. I am sure the State will live
anyhow.
On that Sunday afternoon, before we had a
chance, he got in two alienists. Church and Patrick,
and also called Dr. Krohn, and they sat around
hearing these boys tell their stories, and that is all.
Your Honor, they were not holding an examination.
It has not the slightest earmarks of an examination
for sanity. It was just an inquest; a little prema-
ture, but still an inquest.
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