The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
Now, if your Honor please, in support of our con-
tention that the motive in this case was, first,
money; that the original crime planned was the
crime of kidnaping; that murder was later decided
upon in order to protect them from arrests and
punishment, I do not intend to take up your Honor's
time by reviewing all the evidence independently of
the statements made by these defendants to their
doctors that I have read to you from the Bowman-
Hulbert report, but I will direct your Honor's at-
tention to the " uncomfortable afternoons " that they
spent along the Illinois Central tracks, the number
of times they threw a pad of paper from the car to
see where the money would light, I will direct your
attention again to the ransom letter: " Secure before
noon today $10,000. This money must be com-
posed entirely of old bills."
If they merely wanted to get the money and did
not want to use it, what difference whether the bills
were old ; what difference whether they were marked
or unmarked if they did not intend to spend them?
As a final word of warning: "This is a strictly
commercial proposition." All the way through, if
your Honor please, all the way through this most
unusual crime runs money, money, money. And
when it is not money it is blood. I think that we
have clearly established the real motive in this case.
Mr. Darrow relies upon the facts, first, he says
there was no motive, second, upon the youth of the
defendants, and, third, upon their mental condition.
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