The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
Q. And if, after having procured the typewriter, they
bought a block of paper, plain paper, so that it would be
difficult or impossible to trace it, and wrote the letters
on that; would that be the fantasy working, or their
normal intellect? A. I think it was very good intellect
working.
Q. If, after having written a letter, the defendants
destroyed the remaining sheets of paper by burning them,
and attempted to destroy or lose the typewriter, by
throwing it into the water, after removing the keys and
throwing them in a different part of the lake, was that
boyish fantasy in operation, or was it their good in-
tellects? A. I think it was all part and parcel of their
desire and plan to commit a perfect crime.
Q. Now, intellect is sometimes commonly referred to
as good horse sense, isn't it? A. I think it is their
intellect working; I don't know about the horse sense,
but it is their intellect.
Q. Well, good common sense? A. I don't think
they are showing much common sense in committing the
crime at all, you see; but, having started on it, they used
very good intellect.
Q. Was it intellect or fantasy that caused them to
assume the name of Morton D. Ballard, and rent a room
in the Morrison Hotel under that name? A. Un-
doubtedly their intellect working.
Q. After having given the name of Morton D. Bal-
lard, the address at the Morrison Hotel, the name of
Louis Mason as a Chicago reference, was it childish
fantasy that caused Loeb to remain at the telephone
booth on Wabash Avenue, the number of which Leopold
had given to the Rent-a-Car people, to wait for him to
call on Louis IMason ; was that fantasy or intellect work-
ing? A. Undoubtedly intellect.
Q. Was it intellect working when they opened a
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