The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
developed publicly in this case — perversions that
were present in the boy. All proving a diseased
mind.
Now, I have said, that, as to Loeb, if there is
anybody to blame it is back of him. Your Honor,
lots of things happen in this world that nobody is
to blame for. In fact, I am not very much for set-
tling blame myself. If I could settle the blame on
somebody else for this special act, I would wonder
why that somebody else did it, and I know if I
could find that out, I would move it back still an-
other peg. I know, your Honor, that every atom of
life in all this universe is bound up together. I
know that a pebble cannot be thrown into the ocean
without disturbing every drop of water in the sea.
I know that every life is inextricably mixed and
woven with every other life. I know that every
influence, conscious and unconscious, acts and reacts
on every living organism, and that no one can fix the
blame. I know that all life is a series of infinite
chances, which sometimes result one way and some-
times another. I have not the infinite wisdom that
can fathom it, neither has any other human brain.
But I do know that if back of it is a power that
made it, that power alone can tell, and if there is no
power, then it is an infinite chance, which man
cannot solve.
Why should this boy's life be bound up with
Frederick Nietzsche, who died, a few years ago,
insane, in Germany? I don't know. I only know it
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