The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
after striking the four blows, they pulled him to the
rear of the car and gouged his life out. Mercy?
Your Honor, it is an insult in a case of this kind to
come before the bar of justice and beg for mercy.
Let us be just, before we are generous. I know
your Honor will be just as merciful to these two
defendants as they were to Bobby Franks.
What chance did they give him for his life? And
God knows his life would have been a life worth
living, this gentlemanly little boy.
Then they drove to the vicinity of ii8th Street
and the Panhandle tracks; they drove around and
around waiting for it to become dark so that they
might hide their victim without being seen.
They stopped and had a sandwich, and while they
were driving around, in the pocket of each of the
murderers was a pistol. For what purpose? For
the purpose of extinguishing the life of any pedes-
trian or citizen or police officer who might interfere.
And when darkness came on, they took the body
from this car and carried it in the blanket approx-
imately two hundred feet. And then they removed
the remainder of the clothes that this Franks boy
had on, having taken his shoes, stockings and
trousers off in the car; and after removing the boy's
clothing Leopold removed his coat and shoes and
put on his hip boots to keep his feet dry.
Loeb took the bottle of hydrochloric acid from
the car and proceeded to pour it on the face of
Bobby Franks. Not satisfied with murdering the
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