The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
Your Honor, again I want to say that all parents
can be criticized; likewise grandparents and
teachers. Science is not so much interested in
criticism as in finding causes. Sometime education
will be more scientific. Sometime we will try to
know the boy before we educate him and as we
educate him. Sometime we will try to know what
will fit the individual boy, instead of putting all boys
through the same course, regardless of what they are.
This boy needed more of home, more love, more
directing. He needed to have his emotions
awakened. He needed guiding hands along the seri-
ous road that youth must travel. Had these been
given him, he would not be here today.
Now, your Honor, I want to speak of the other
lad, Babe. Babe is somewhat older than Dick, and
is a boy of remarkable mind — away beyond his
years. He is a sort of freak in this direction, as in
others; a boy without emotions, a boy obsessed of
philosophy, a boy obsessed of learning, busy every
minute of his life.
He went through school quickly; he went to col-
lege young; he could learn faster than almost every-
body else. His emotional life was lacking, as every
alienist in this case excepting Dr. Krohn has told
you. He was just a half boy, an intellect, an intel-
lectual machine going without balance and without
a governor, seeking to find out everything there was
in life intellectually; seeking to solve every phi-
losophy, but using his intellect only.
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