The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow

This interesting book focuses on the three last "big" cases handled by Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), although I would venture to say that any case involving this giant of the American trial bar by his mere presence became a "big" case. Darrow, of course, is still famous for defending underdogs caught in the web of the law. However important, two of these cases--the Leopold & Loeb "thrill" murder and the Scopes "Monkey Trial"--have been almost done to death. The third case, the Sweet murder trial in Detroit, is not so well known and it is a case that well bears study. The author suggests that one justification for covering once again this well trod ground is new research focusing upon Darrow's former mistress and later compatriot, the journalist and writer Mary Field Parton (who died in 1969). The author conducted interviews with some of her relatives and had access to her diary and other papers. While spending as much time as the author does on Ms. Parton may have made sense if this were a full-scale biography of Darrow, I found it distracting me from the main narrative. But there is much good to report about this book as well. The author is one of the rare writers who can examine a case trial transcript and know how much detail to include and how much to ignore. So his narratives of the trials is crisp and focused, and does not bury the reader (especially the general reader) in needless jargon and courtroom detail. Also, the author does give us a lot of insights into Darrow; for example, he discusses the 1911 LA Times bombing case that led to allegations that Darrow had tried to bribe a juror. He also is quite effective in setting the stage for each case, sketching carefully the background and Darrow's strategy. This fine exposition is particularly welcome when the author discusses the Sweet murder cases, as bizarre a set of circumstances as one can imagine. The case illustrates one important facet of Darrow too often overlooked--his string of cases defending black defendants who had gotten themselves into precaious situations with the law, with many facing "the rope" or "the chair" should Darrow lose. I also liked that while the author clearly respects Darrow and his talents, he does an excellent job in painting the curmudgeonly and cranky sides of Darrow's character, characteristics which contributed to his courtroom effectiveness. Darrow's final years are also covered. The book runs some 400 pages, and is supported by an Epilogue, personal Afterword, and 46 pages of "Notes and Sources." The author obviously has done a solid job of research, some of it original. The book stands I think as a good overview introduction to Darrow and to the kind of sensational cases with which he was involved in the early 20th century. A colorful book about an extremely colorful figure.

This book was an eye-opening pleasure to read. I always thought I knew a lot about history, and of course I'd heard of Clarence Darrow, but I never knew that Darrow had represented Leopold and Loeb and I had never even heard of the Ossian Sweet murder trial. I knew that Darrow had taken on religious fundamentalists in general and William Jennings Bryan in particular in the Scopes monkey trial, but my knowledge of that had come from the 1960 movie "Inherit The Wind". Since that movie pretty faithfully gave us the wordplay between Darrow and Bryan, I didn't really learn that much in that section of the book. But the background on Leopold and Loeb was fascinating, including the rather bizarre bathtub shenanigans involving the pre-adolescent Leopold and his kinky German nanny. Darrow was a lifelong opponent of the death penalty, and he succeeded in saving Leopold and Loeb from execution. If you happen to be pro-death penalty I don't think Darrow's arguments against it would change your mind.....then again, we are talking about seeing his words on paper rather than hearing the charismatic man himself in court. I do happen to be in favor of the death penalty, but it was interesting to find out that Leopold led a fruitful life as a teacher while in prison and as a research assistant to a professor once he got out of prison. Again, I had never heard of the Ossian Sweet murder case but just reading about "civilized" white people trying to keep this young doctor from moving into an all-white neighborhood was enough to make my blood boil and fill me with disgust. Darrow was masterful in court, and merciless towards a procession of lying, vigilante prosecution witnesses. (He taunted one such woman, who happened to be a teacher, with her ignorance as she mispronounced a street in her neighborhood, Goethe street, as "Go-Thee" street. Darrow wondered out loud how such an ignorant person could be a teacher in Michigan.) I found the introductory chapter, which attempts to introduce Mary Field Parton to the reader, a bit odd and written in the style of a poor romance novel. Actually, after that chapter I was tempted to give up on the book, but I'm very glad I didn't. After that the book really moved up to a much higher level. I learned a lot about 2 of the cases, and about many of the people involved in them. One of the best books I've read this year and highly recommended.

At age 59, the courtroom is still central to my identity as a lawyer. Nonetheless I have begun to imagine a world where when the demands of trials will exceed the abilities of my body and brain to endure. The end must come for us all, although its timing remains outside of human or even most medical knowledge. So too the end would come to Darrow-controversial,often despised by his contemporaries, beloved by subsequent generations of trial lawyers. Here we meet Darrow, the aging, wounded lion of the American bar. Acquitted in California of bribery of two jurors in a murder case, he is back in Chicago over a decade later still looking for redemption. He is 67, and he has acquired against all odds the responsibility to defend "the Case of the Century"-Leopold and Loeb, the brilliant sociopaths who killed a neighbor boy to prove their superiority. The teenaged defendants, sons of the city's Jewish elite, were in the sights of prosecutors whose thirst for judicial blood was perhaps matched only by the howling mob who would have settled for a lynching. There was no doubt about their factual guilt. There remained one question and one question only: should they live or should they be put to death? Rumors swirled abut Darrow's fee. Some said it was a million dollars. In truth it was much less. That was the sideshow. What was really at stake was the death penalty. To avoid it Darrow took the road less traveled. He pleaded them guilty and threw their fate to the hands of one Chicago judge. His summation, whose phrases still ring out in the defense of capital cases to this day, was the difference, The boys went to prison where Loeb died in a prison hospital following an attack in a shower with a straight razor. Leopold went on to be paroled and moved to Puerto Rico where he worked in a hospital as a lab assistant. Ironically his supervisor was a distant cousin of the child Leopold and Loeb had killed. The next case took Darrow to Tennessee where amid great clamor he defended John Scopes on charges of teaching evolution in violation of state law. So powerful was his advocacy, it is often forgotten that Scopes was in fact convicted by prosecutor and former Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Scopes was fined a small (and forever unpaid) amount for his crime. The final trial (although Darrow actually had one other major case) was that of Ossian Sweet a black man tried along with ten others for the murder of a white man who as part of a mob had invaded Sweet's home in an attempt to run him out of the neighborhood. Probably the first major trial of the beginning of the civil rights movement, Darrow's perfect pitch in closing argument captured the sense of rage and plea for justice that would echo in American courtrooms for years to come.

"The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow" is a gripping, novelistic, account of the last several years of the great American lawyer Darrow's life. Particularly, the book is concerned with a span of about two years in which Darrow took on three back-to-back cases that re-cemented the legendary lawyer's reputation. First, he defended Leopold and Loeb against an almost certain death penalty conviction. Next, he defended John Scopes's right to teach evolution in the public schools. Last, he defended a black man, Ossian Sweet, who killed a mob member while defending his property. Other reviewers correctly note that at 340+ pages, this book does not go into any one of these trials with any great detail. (There are great books about each one of these famous trials.) What this book does do, however, is explores Darrow's tremendous drive in later life to defend "lost causes" and defend principles in which he believes (in this case, the environmental causes of criminality, the teaching of evolution, and the rights of "colored" people). Donald McRae also examines Clarence Darrow's tumultuous personal life. There was Darrow the paradox: so fiercely principled that he remains in a loveless marriage (while having a many-year affair). There was Darrow the depressed Nietzschean, who had to be saved from suicide and often grumbled about the pointlessness of life, only to zealously fight for his clients. And there was the overeager Darrow, who was accused of attempting to bribe two jurors either because he wanted to win so much, or because he cared for his client so much (we never can tell which). Whether you want to read about Darrow the lawyer, Darrow the human face, or both, The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow is a must read! Darrow was a first-rate mind and this is a first-rate recount of the last several years of his life. [Readers who are interested in the three mentioned cases in isolation should look at the following. For information on the case of Leopold and Loeb, check out "For the Thrill of It." Those interested in the Scopes trial may want to read "Summer of the Gods." Readers wishing to explore the "Sweet cases" should read "Arc of Justice."]

In the legal profession his name stands for greatness much as the names Joe DiMaggio in baseball and John Unitas in football. He has been portrayed on stage and screen by Orson Welles, Spencer Tracy and Henry Fonda, to mention just a few. On a Mount Rushmore of the legal field, Clarence Darrow's chiseled features would be prominent. Many biographies have been written of the great trial lawyer as well as historical accounts of his greatest courtroom battles. One might expect that there would be little left to cover, yet Donald McRae's THE LAST TRIALS OF CLARENCE DARROW is a thoughtful and well-written examination of the final cases in an illustrious career. Darrow began his legal career as a corporate lawyer, representing railroads. In 1894, he left the lucrative corporate world to represent union leader Eugene Debs, in the Pullman workers strike. At the same time, Darrow took on his first criminal case. His client, Patrick Prendergast, would be convicted of the murder of Chicago mayor Carter Harrison and executed. Fifty death penalty cases later, Prendergast would be Darrow's only client to receive this ultimate punishment. Continuing to represent notable union figures in high publicity criminal cases, Darrow became identified with the struggles of union workers. This portion of his career came to an end after his representation of the McNamera brothers, who were charged with dynamiting the Los Angeles Times Building in 1910. Although Darrow kept the McNamera brothers from execution through a guilty plea, the case resulted in the attorney finding himself named as a defendant facing the accusation that he bribed a juror. After two trials, charges were dismissed in exchange for Darrow's promise to leave California. It also brought to an end his association with the trade union movement. After this turn of events, Darrow returned to Chicago a mentally beaten man. His legal career was at a crossroads. He would soon find himself embroiled in the first of the three cases that are the subjects of THE LAST TRIALS OF CLARENCE DARROW. Two of them are among the best known in American legal history and indeed in their time were characterized by the media as "Trials of the Century." In 1924, Darrow represented Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, the kidnappers and killers of 14-year-old Bobby Franks. The case had every element necessary to guarantee front-page coverage in newspapers around the world. Brutality coupled with thrill-seeking criminals from wealthy families sold newspapers in the 1920s just as similar elements fuel 24-hour news coverage in contemporary media. McRae focuses on the key issues of the case. Darrow opposed the death penalty and used the sentencing of Leopold and Loeb to challenge the mindset of the 1920s that saw executions occurring on a regular basis across the nation. He presented evidence to the court regarding the defendants' mental condition, arguing that while not rising to insanity, the illness was nonetheless sufficient to pr