The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
the way home Loeb reached out of the car and
tossed to the side that weapon that had crushed out
the life of Bobby Franks, still wet with blood.
And then they went on home. I wonder, Judge,
did they sleep well that night. I wonder if that
little boy's picture did not appear. I wonder if
they did not have a phantasy, a dream in which they
saw Bobby Franks.
The next day, your Honor, while the Franks fam-
ily were awaiting this further word that they were
informed they would receive, they received that spe-
cial delivery letter.
It went on to tell them, if your Honor please, to
secure ten thousand dollars in old bills, not marked,
and how to prepare that package, and went on to
tell them, your Honor, that any infraction of the
instructions in that letter meant death for their
boy.
" A strictly commercial proposition " ! Why,
your
Honor, they did not play the commercial proposition
half straight. They could have secured that ten
thousand dollars without killing Bobby Franks.
They could have had that money, if they were de-
sirous of having it, without shutting out the life of
that little boy. And the best proof of that, your
Honor, is the fact that that morning when the bank
opened, Jacob Franks appeared there and secured
the ten thousand dollars, and then came on home
and waited at that telephone, as he had been in-
structed to do in the letter.
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