The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
refused to get in unless he could get at the wheel,
where Leopold was seated. He was not going to
get into the car, he said, and have them think that
he was the one that struck the foul blows.
And they returned to the office and as the doctors
told your Honor they were examined, and that night
they were sent back to the police station. And the
next day, as your Honor knows, they were taken
from the custody of the State's Attorney and turned
over to the Sheriff.
And after returning from the Coroner's inquest
they were brought into the State's Attorney's office
and there they were asked if they wanted their suit-
cases transferred to the jail, and they said they most
respectfully declined to answer upon advice of
counsel.
Does that indicate to your Honor that Leopold
and Loeb didn't have the capacity to follow instruc-
tions? And they followed them to the letter and
refused to talk and that ended it; that ended the
State's case; that ended the checking up on every
point that they told in their statement but there was
not one thing, your Honor, that they had mentioned
that was not traced and substantiated.
And then the letter from the train that had been
placed on there and gone to four or five different
cities was forwarded from New York, and as Andy
Russo, the electrician in the New Haven yard, told
your Honor, he found this letter in the car, in the
telegraph blank box and addressed to Jacob Franks.
84