The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-08-23


all Of us, whether it occurs in the
home, in the hospital. wherever its
hand falls.
my friend Savage assistant
States attorney described to you
their putting this body in the cul-
vert. Here was a boy beyond help,
no more pain could come to him.
The boy was dead. To me that in.
cident Of the culvert does not COM
pare with hitting him on the head.
why do they demand hanging
to vindicate law? The law can be
vindcated without killing anyone
else.
"I can think Of a scene that
makes this scene at the culvert pale
into significance. 1t IS a scene
wherein two boys, one eighteen, the
other nineteen, are taken with their
poor little diseased brains and put
into cells, to count off the hours
and minutes of their lives.
Then another scene-two boys
with their poor little diseased
| brains, taken from hose cells. in
suits of clothes furnished by the
State, mounted on the gallows,
standing on a trap door. black caps
showed down over their eyes-and
the trap sprung.
Wouldn't 1t be glorious day for
; Chicago? Wouldn't 1t be a glorious
day for justice. for humanity, for
Christianity"
"Will hanging these two boys
bring back the boy they killed."
asks barrow. "If 1t would would
say hang them. win hanging these
two boys stop murders and killings?
II 1t would would say hang them.
But it will do neither.
And IL the State Of Illinois is not
more humane, more considerate
than the mad act of these two mad
boys. then I'm sorry / have lived
so long"
barrow. The Pleader.
That's barrow. the pleader, mix.
ing philosophy with his pleading.
So eloquent is his plea, so soft his
tremolos, that the sound Of his voice
is broken into by the sobs Of
women.
And he can look down besides
him and see "Dicky, the hard-boil-
ed" snuffling in his. handkerchief.
No one else has made nineteen-year-
old Dicky Loeb cry in this trial. He
grinned impudently while States
Attorney Grove stood over him on
the opening day and shouted "mur.
derer and fiend" at him. He
smiled pleasantly and coolly when
Mrs. Jacob Franks sat DULY In the
high witness chair lingering the
bloody garments Of her little son.
He only looked bored when they
passed around the red.stained chisel
that beat the boys head in.
But barrow made him cry. OAR
row talked about Dicky's own
father and mother, and not so
much about Bobby Franks father
/ and mother, and It makes diff
! ference about whose mother is be.
ing talked Of.
why did they do it7" asks Oar.
row, and then answers his own
question: God knows" He says
/ it rather despairingly.
Perhaps it was because some.
where back In the infinite pro-
tcesses that go to make up the boy
and the man something. slipped
somewhere, some time. some an
cestor sinned against these two
boys"
barrow rubs his philosophers
| SLOH6 COIAnO1ulAy do h0 SPSdhSs AZ
| times it seems that Darrow is moi
a lawyer at all, pleading one Of the
most forlorn cases a lawyer ever
took. He seems more the kindly
philosopher conducting class
| through the mysterious generativs
processes that have produced two
boys Of wealth, education, and re
finement, and yet who could calmly
kidnap an inoffensive little hoy
beat his brains out with a cold
! chisel, eat sandwiches over the
corpse, and return home within
the hour, the dutiful sons OF re
spected families.
! Cunningly, Darrow always comes
back to his motif.
AsThere was no reason for this
crime. 1t was the most senseless
baseless, motiveless crime In all the
history Of crime. Money? II Is t
laugh. They had plenty Of It
Dicky Loeb. had $4,000 In a check
Ing account when he did it. Nathan
Leopold had 5000 with which &c
go to Europe. Revenge? They
hardly knew the boy. 49,