The Omaha morning bee., 1924-08-11
Defense for
Slayers Has
sAceiinHole'
Secret Report of Chicago
Alienist Will Offset Testi.
mony of States Expert
Witnesses.
Quotes Their Own Book
BY CHARLES V. SLATTERY.
Universal Service staff Correspondeyt

Universal Service Staff Correspondent.
Chicago, Aug. 10.-The strategem
that dictated the course of the de-
fense of Nathan Leopold, jr., and
Richard A. Loeb, through the legally
uncharted seas of near-insanity and
nearf-responsbility, was disclosed to-
day in the secret report of a defense
alienist.
The alienist is DR.. James Whitney
Hall, president of the Iroquois club,
prominent Chicago neuro-p -psychiatrist,
and a representative of science in
numerous Chicago criminal cases.
1t is apparent that 1t was upon the
basis of this report that attorneys
for the defense decided to enter plea
of guilty for the two killers. For
the report, made on July 2. before
the plea was entered showed that a
defense of insanity could not be sus-
tanned.
The report came into the possession
of the Universal Service. which has
been peculiarly fortuntte in this
epochal trial in obtaining the reports
of the defense alienists.
This report is the defense ''act in
the hole" 1t is the answer to the
query as to what willy Clarence s.
barrow had in mind when he built
his defense about Teddy Bears. baby
responsibility.
Report Not Technical.
For In this report, DR.. Hall quotes
at length from a book entitled In
nifty and Law" written by DR.. Fl.
Douglas Singer and DIR. William O..
Krohn, alienists for the state in this
trial.
The book describes as "psychopathic
Interiors" types of persons that cor
respond in the most minute detail to
Leopold and Loeb.
And this report, on which the plea
OF guilty was apparently based, Is
expected to make Doceors Krohn and
Singer helpless to attack the tesu-
mony of defense alienists.
If the state alienists say, as States
Attorney Grove expects, that the de-
tense of a "split personality TEDDY
Bears and phantasies, is a lot OF
uiffle. the defense is holding In re-
serve DR.. James Whitney Hall and
his report, to show that the defense
theory is identically the same as that
evolved by the state alienists th>m-
selves.
DIR. Halls report is not technical.
1t was written. apparently, for the
Guidance Of the LAWYERS
II pronounces the two moys "psy-
oho-pathatic interiors.
Both have emotional defects ana
defective judgment" 1t says, and the
killers are "only relatively respon-
sible for their acts
"Leopold's and Loeb's makeup un'
fit them entirely for any part In So
ciety." the report shows. They are
both anti.social and un'social In all
their conclusions.
"Ships Without Anchors"
They would not be satisfied III
Heaven and they would propaniy
wreck He'll.
"They are ships with sails but no
anchor"
Inc conception oA tithti Ho - =
sponsibility, he says, is practically
nil.
4 picture of the mind of oLeb is al
forded, through the eyes of DIR. Hail.
when the latter, in the county jail
asks Loeb what he would do II he
could have a chance TO place himself
back at the time he started planning
the murder-Noyember IL, 1923.
Did he say that he would not MUIR
der young Robert Franks, IL that soul
could be recalled, and Loeb could
start all over?
oh. no. He just said he would
commit the murder more perfectly.
He said he could not understand
why he did not search his own per-
son and pockets and have Leopold
search his. so that nothing could have
possibly dropped out OF their pockets.
Turn to PAGE Two. Column Three)