The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
Dr. Bernard Glueck next testified in behalf of the
defense
:
I took up the Franks crime with Loeb, and asked him to
tell me about it. He recited to me in a most matter of fact
way all of the grewsome details. I was amazed at the absolute
absence of any signs of normal feeling. He showed no
remorse, no regret, no compassion, and it became very evident
to me that there was a profound disparity between the things
that he was talking and thinking about, and the things that
he claimed he had carried out. The whole thing became incomprehensible
to me, except on the basis of a disordered
personality. He told me how his little brother passed in review
before him as a possible victim, yet he showed the same
lack of adequate emotional response. His lack of emotion
struck him as unusual when he sat hstening to the testimony
of Mrs. Franks. He came to explain it to himself as having
nothing within him that might call forth a response to the
situation.
Mr. Benjamin Bachrach: Did Loeb say who it was that
struck the blow on the head of Robert Franks with the
chisel?
Dr. Glueck: He told me all the details of the crime, in-
cluding the fact that he struck the blow.
In response to further questions Dr. Glueck said:
My impression is very definite that Loeb is suffering from
a disordered personality, that the nature of this disorder is
primarily in a profound pathological discord between his in-
tellectual and emotional hfe. We might designate it as a split
personality. This boy, while capable of orienting himself in-
tellectually, is quite incapable of endowing these surroundings
with an adequate emotion.
Speaking of Leopold the witness said:
This boy has come to develop a definitely abnormal con-
ception of himself, of his ego. I am perfectly ready to place
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