The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
attacks except that once during an initiation ceremony
at school he fainted."
In other words, after considering the Teddy bears
and the Buffalo Bill suits, and all this other trash
that was testified to by these wise men from the
East, counsel or somebody decided that they had to
add something more to it to make it stand even as
a mitigating circumstance, and while their report
said that there was no history of fainting attacks
except once, they tried to prove a dozen in order to
build a foundation for epilepsy.
Then this nurse; the nurse who, according to the
testimony of the defense, knew more about Richard
Loeb up until the time he was fourteen years of age
than any living person. They tried to create the
impression that she was insane, and that Dick
caught his insanity from her, the same as one boy
catches measles from another. They had her here
in Chicago and she is not produced as a witness. A
letter was read to indicate that she was insane, and
if I ever read a letter that more clearly demonstrated
sanity than the letter written by that nurse, I don't
remember it. It was a kindly, loving letter, sent
by a woman to a boy she loved, filled with motherly
advice, advice that it develops is so sadly needed in
this case by these two young perverts.
A picture was introduced of her to show that she
was some terribly hideous creature. Let us see
what Dr. Hulbert says about her: " She returned
to Chicago after the arrest of young Richard to help
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