(Show more) Clarence Darrow, in full Clarence Seward Darrow, (born April 18, 1857, near Kinsman, Ohio, U.S.—died March 13, 1938, Chicago, Illinois), lawyer whose work as defense counsel in many dramatic criminal trials earned him a place in American legal history. He was also well known as a public speaker, debater, and miscellaneous writer.
Through his friendship with Judge John Peter Altgeld, afterward governor of Illinois, Darrow was appointed Chicago city corporation counsel in 1890, and then he became general attorney for the Chicago and North Western Railway.
In his new book titled, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned, John A. Farrell makes clear that Clarence Darrow's life was even more tumultuous than the Scopes trial would suggest. Pictured is Darrow during the trial. Bettmann / Corbis
He stepped into that war in a major way in Idaho in 1907, when he defended Big Bill Haywood and two other unionists charged with murdering a former governor. You write that, “Of all of Darrow’s courtroom speeches, his summation in the Haywood case was arguably the most brilliant, and dangerous.”
Beginning in the mid-1890s , Darrow began taking on cases that appealed to his sense of justice. He was generally successful, for what he lacked in education and prestige he made up with his ability to speak plainly but dramatically in front of juries and judges.
He had been pressured to implicate the labor leaders by the prosecutors in the case. Darrow gave a summation which amounted to a profound defense of the labor movement. Haywood and the others were acquitted, and Darrow's performance cemented his position as a defender of the common man against money interests.
Besides his busy legal practice, Darrow published a number of books, including Crime: Its Cause and Treatment, published in 1922, dealing with Darrow's belief that crime was caused by factors impacting a person's life. He also wrote an autobiography published in 1932.
The legal result of the trial was actually a loss for Darrow’s client. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. However, to many observers, including H.L. Mencken, Darrow was considered to have won a victory in the sense of having shown to the nation at large the ludicrous nature of fundamentalism.
But when Darrow came into the case, the proceedings became nationally known, and the case was dubbed "The Monkey Trial" in the sensationalist press. A split in American society in the 1920s, between religious conservatives and progressives advocating science, became the focus of the courtroom drama.
Early Life. Clarence Darrow was born April 18, 1857, in Farmdale, Ohio. After attending public schools in Ohio, young Darrow worked as a farm hand and decided the labor of the farm was not for him. He studied for a year Allegheny College in Pennsylvania before attending the University of Michigan law school for a year.
Leopold and Loeb became figures of public fascination as they told detectives they had committed the kidnapping and murder of a random boy for the adventure of perpetrating the perfect crime. Seated left to right, Nathan Leopold, Jr., attorney Clarence Darrow and Richard Loeb.
The unions’ demands sometimes resulted in violence against individuals and property, and they were viewed as a serious threat by the new capitalists, who feared that the labor movement had ties to international communism and might lead to anarchy.
In 1895 Darrow had the chance to argue against conspiracy laws in front of the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, Darrow continued to seek opportunities to champion his cause before the Supreme Court, declaring the unconstitutionality of conspiracy laws that linked speech to potential or actual violent behavior, however distant the connection.
Clarence Darrow, in full Clarence Seward Darrow, (born April 18, 1857, near Kinsman, Ohio, U.S.—died March 13, 1938, Chicago, Illinois), lawyer whose work as defense counsel in many dramatic criminal trials earned him a place in American legal history. He was also well known as a public speaker, debater, and miscellaneous writer.
Through his friendship with Judge John Peter Altgeld, afterward governor of Illinois, Darrow was appointed Chicago city corporation counsel in 1890, and then he became general attorney for the Chicago and North Western Railway.
William Jennings Bryan (lower left, with fan) and Clarence Darrow (centre right, arms folded) in a Dayton, Tennessee, courtroom during the Scopes Trial, July 1925.
Clarence Darrow was a trial attorney made famous for his defense of a Tennessee educator accused of breaking a state law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools. (Bettmann / Corbis)
And after he defended two brothers accused of firebombing the Los Angeles Times in 1911, Darrow himself was tried—twice—on charges that he’d bribed jurors in that trial. He was acquitted the first time, but the second case ended with the jury hung 8-4 for convicting him.
And Darrow did need money, because, for one thing, he was a womanizer. He was supporting two households—his first wife and their son, and then his second wife. It also cost money to run around chasing other women. Another problem is that he was an awful investor.
So their rivalry began to simmer and fester, and when Darrow had a chance to ambush Bryan in the courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 , he took full advantage of it. In Darrow’s day there was open warfare between labor and capital.
Clarence Darrow exists foremost in the public memory as Spencer Tracy, who played a lawyer based on Darrow in the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind. That film, in turn, was based on Darrow’s 1925 defense of a Tennessee educator accused of breaking a state law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools. (Darrow lost The State of Tennessee v.
Darrow was a trial attorney made famous for his defense of a Tennessee educator accused of breaking a state law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools. (Bettmann / Corbis) In that trial, there was a whisper that Darrow, or someone working for the defense, tried to bribe potential witnesses.
In his new book titled, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned, John A. Farrell makes clear that Clarence Darrow's life was even more tumultuous than the Scopes trial would suggest. Pictured is Darrow during the trial. (Bettmann / Corbis)
Clarence Darrow is the most famous lawyer in American history. There are many biographies and studies of him and his famous cases. But until now, his letters had not been published. In the Clutches of the Law: Clarence Darrow’s Letters was recently released by the University of California Press. Randall Tietjen, a partner in Robins, Kaplan, Miller ...
Darrow’s father and mother were apparently very intelligent and well-educated. The education and training he received as a boy—which included Latin and Greek—were likely an important influence on him. He read widely. His mature style of writing was unpretentious.
The year before Altgeld died, he wrote a 48-page book called Oratory: Its Requirements and Its Rewards (1901) , which is a marvelous little book of advice for speakers. Much of what Altgeld said in Oratory would seem dated today. He offered advice on everything from voice and gestures to clothing and handshaking.
Miss S. had written to Darrow, upset that he was representing the company (which many believed had obtained its franchise by graft). In his long response, Darrow acknowledged his “preaching” and “practicing” had “never been the same,” but he said that he had long ago decided to work within “the system” to change it and to sell his services ...
Darrow said that he gave one-third or half his time pro bono, often representing unpopular clients and causes. Of course, if Darrow tried to bribe jurors to save the lives of the McNamara brothers, then Darrow is both noble and tragic.
December 2011. On a rainy night in Los Angeles in December 1911, Clarence Darrow arrived at the apartment of his mistress, Mary Field. They sat at the kitchen table, beneath a bare overhead light, and she watched with dismay as he pulled a bottle of whiskey from one pocket of his overcoat and a handgun from the other.
Aside from Darrow’s wife, Ruby, no one was closer to him during his ordeal in Los Angeles. Field, a bold young journalist, was Darrow’s lover, friend, legal assistant, press agent and investigator. She never wavered, in private or public, from insisting he was innocent.
The most intriguing item is a telegram Darrow sent to his older brother Everett the day he was indicted. “Can’t make myself feel guilty,” Darrow wrote. “My conscience refuses to reproach me.”.
The McNamaras’ trial was cut short after six weeks when Darrow secured a plea agreement that would spare their lives. James McNamara pleaded guilty to murder in the Times bombing and was sentenced to life in prison; his brother pleaded guilty to a different bombing and was sentenced to 15 years.
The great attorney had come to Los Angeles from Chicago to defend James and John McNamara, brothers and unionists accused of conspiring to bomb the Los Angeles Times, the city’s anti-union newspaper , killing 20 printers and newsmen. But jury selection had not gone well, and Darrow feared the brothers would hang.
In researching their biography, the Weinbergs persuaded Field’s daughter to share segments of her mother’s papers, which included selections from her diary and correspondence from Darrow. The material offers a unique glimpse into the man: To Mary Field he poured out his feelings in evocative letters.
And it was Darrow’s actions in another case, largely neglected by previous biographers, that finally put me, firmly, on his side. In 1925 , in the wake of the Scopes trial and at the height of his fame, when Darrow sorely needed money and could have commanded titanic fees on Wall Street, he declined to cash in.