The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
was unable to get away from the king, who had
him chained with this golden chain.
Then he went on and he told your Honor that the
boys were mentally diseased — but not quite enough
to be insane.
And he said he saw a picture, a picture of the boy
Richard Loeb in a cowboy's uniform, and that the
serious expression on his face signified to him that
Loeb had a phantasy, a phantasy to lead a crowd
,of criminals, a phantasy to be the leader of a gang.
And then he told your Honor about his stealing,
that he stole articles here and there, and that he
burned up shacks.
He did not know whether this bonfire, or arson,
as he put it, occurred on an election night, or on a
Hallowe'en night, or when it occurred. But it suited
his purpose to say that Loeb had criminalistic tend-
encies, and that this was a phantasy of his, and that
he had had this phantasy from the time he was a
little boy.
Is there anything unnatural about a little fellow
to burn shacks, wagons, fences? To steal? To lie?
And then, your Honor, he speaks of Leopold's
philosophy — Leopold's strange philosophy of life,
this philosophy that made him a superman, this
philosophy that told him so long as he satisfied his
own pleasures, it was all right; that he would weigh
the amount of pain with the amount of pleasure, and
if there was greater pleasure to be derived than there
was pain, then he would perform the act.
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