Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (90 page)

23.
Why was Darrow at the scene? In his autobiography, Darrow chose not to mention that he was there when Franklin was arrested, nor to explain why. The prosecutors did a good job tearing Hawley’s explanation—that Darrow was needed for a political
consultation—apart at the trial. But their version—that Darrow was there to supervise Franklin—seems equally convenient, for Franklin had a dozen meetings with Lockwood, Bain, and others in which he attempted to bribe prospective jurors before he was arrested, and Darrow was not present at any of them. So why this day? Rogers contended that Darrow was lured into a trap by an anonymous caller. And Franklin had his own plausible version: that the defense had been tipped off by a source in the prosecution, spurring Darrow, too late, to rush out to stop the crime (“Bert, they are on to you!”). Transcript,
People v. Darrow; Los Angeles Examiner
, June 23, 1912; Mary to Wood, Aug. 6, 1912, CESW-HL. For a more extensive day-to-day portrayal of the trial, see Cowan,
The People v. Clarence Darrow
, and for an account that argues for Darrow’s innocence, see Stone,
Clarence Darrow for the Defense
.

24.
The account of the night of drinking and song with the labor leaders is from Mary Field Parton’s journal, MFP; Johannsen, “Darrow Case.”

25.
“He needs friends,” Steffens told Whitlock. “And when they are down and out and out and down and there’s no one else, then it’s up to us muckrakers to go and hold hands, isn’t it?”

26.
In a private letter from Reedy to Darrow, the publisher expressed similar sentiments: “You possibly took a long chance for your clients.” Reedy to Darrow, Mar. 15, 1912; CD-LOC;
Mirror
, June 27, 1912.

27.
Steffens testified that he ignored Darrow’s order and tried without success to get the bribery case dismissed as part of the McNamara settlement. If so, his actions may have supplied the grounds for the subsequent suspicions of Johannsen, Lawler, and others that Darrow gave up the McNamaras to save himself. Steffens to Laura, June 25, 1912, Lincoln Steffens papers, Columbia University. Transcript,
People v. Darrow; New York Times
, July 19, 1912;
Los Angeles Record
, July 20, 1912.

28.
When he testified before the grand jury, Tvietmoe denied that he had ever passed the $10,000 in cash back to Darrow, and said he still had $7,500 of it. There were other reasons why Tvietmoe needed money. According to Detective Burns, for example, Tvietmoe was in charge of funneling cash to Schmidt and Caplan, who were still on the run.

29.
Transcript,
People v. Darrow; Los Angeles Times
, July 30, 1912.

30.
It was a reach—that Darrow would stake so much on the unattested prospect that Frederick might feel charitable. If that was Darrow’s overriding goal, he surely would have nailed it down by including the bribery case in the McNamara settlement.
Los Angeles Times
, July 30; Mary Field journal, MFP; Mary to Wood, Aug. 6, 1912, CESW-HL.

31.
Transcript,
People v. Darrow; Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 14, 1912;
Los Angeles Examiner
, Aug. 15, 1912.

32.
Transcript,
People v. Darrow;
Mary to Wood, Aug. 6, 1912, CESW-HL;
Los Angeles Examiner
, Aug. 15, 18, 1912;
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 18, 1912;
Los Angeles Record
, Aug. 18, 1912,
New York Times
, Aug. 18, 1912.

CHAPTER 13: THE SECOND TRIAL

1.
“Caesar had received his pound of flesh,” said Johannsen, with a nice mix of metaphors. Sara to Wood, Mar. 9, 1913, Sullivan to Wood, Aug. 17, 1912, CESW-HL; Mary Field diary, Jan. 9, 1934, MFP.

2.
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 14, 1913; Pettigrew to Darrow, Aug. 29, 1912, CD-LOC.

3.
Anton Johannsen wrote to Darrow: “Our people seem to feel very kindly toward you and realize as best they can that you were up against the strong brace game, and while your judgment may have been poor in the selection of men such as Franklin and Harrington, they have nowhere questioned your integrity.” Johannsen to Darrow, Oct. 17, 1912, CD-LOC;
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 26, 27, 29, 1912;
Boston Globe
, Sept. 1, 1912;
San Francisco Daily News
, Sept. 2, 1912;
San Francisco Daily Morning Call
, Sept. 2, 1912;
San Francisco Chronicle
, Sept. 2, 1912; “If Man Had Opportunity,”
Everyman
, Jan./Feb. 1915.

4.
“Industrial Conspiracies,”
Everyman
, Nov./Dec. 1913.

5.
Sara to Wood, Sept. 7, 1912, CESW-HL.

6.
Mary to Sara, no date, Oct. 1912, Mary to Sara, no date, Nov. 1912, CESW-HL; Lem Parton to Mary, no date, MFP; Ruby to Paul, Aug. 23, 1912, CD-UML.

7.
Darrow to Mary, Oct. 22 and Nov. 12, 1912, CDMFP-NL.

8.
Wood urged her to have an abortion, but she miscarried before making that decision. Ehrgott to Wood, Oct. 4, 1912, Ehrgott to Mary, Jan. 15, 1913, CESW-UC.

9.
Older to Wood, June 21, 1912, Wood to Older, June 26 and June 27, 1912, CESW-HL; Steffens to Laura, July 20, 1912, Lincoln Steffens papers, Columbia University; Sara Field oral history, Berkeley.

10.
Wood to Older, June 26, 1912, CESW-HL.

11.
Wood to Older, June 27, 1912, CESW-HL.

12.
Sara to Wood, Dec. 15, 1912, Mary to Sara, fall 1912, CESW-HL.

13.
“I love a great masterful passion that sweeps over a man or a woman for the only beloved to the soul, and tears one up by his very roots like a great thunderstorm which leaves one’s whole being cleansed and purified,” Sara told Wood. But Darrow’s “sort of oozy-woozy passion that is squeezed out like toothpaste on every attractive woman that appears—yea Gods how I hate it!” Sara to Wood, Dec. 15, 1912, CESW-HL.

14.
Bridgemen’s Magazine
, fall 1912; Darrow to Mary, Nov. 28, 1912, CD-LOC.

15.
Mary to Wood, undated, Nov. 1912, CESW-HL; Mary to Lem Parton, undated, Jan. 1913, Lem Parton to Mary, undated, Jan. 1913, MFP.

16.
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 1, 1913.

17.
Darrow to Paul, Jan. 9, 1913, CD-UML; Darrow,
Story of My Life; Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 5, 1913;
Los Angeles Record
, Feb. 5, 1913.

18.
Los Angeles Record
, Feb. 7, 1913;
Los Angeles Examiner
, Feb. 8, 1913.

19.
Schilling to Darrow, Feb. 12, 1913, CD-LOC.

20.
Los Angeles Examiner
, Feb. 14, 1913.

21.
Francis Peede interview with Stone, CD-LOC; Mary to Wood, Feb. 22, 1913, CESW-HL; Mary to Lem Parton, undated, Feb. 1913, MFP.

22.
Los Angeles Record
, Mar. 4, 1913.

23.
Los Angeles Examiner
, Mar. 5, 1913.

24.
Darrow to Meyers, Feb. 24, 1913, CD-LOC; Wood to Sara, Feb. 24, 1913, CESW-HL. See also Darrow to Paul (“No one believes I will lose”), Feb. 15, 1913, CD-UML.

25.
Transcript of Darrow’s closing argument in his second bribery trial, CD-LOC.

26.
Los Angeles Examiner
, Mar. 6, 1913.

27.
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 6, 1913.

28.
Transcript of Darrow’s closing argument, CD-LOC.

29.
Johannsen, statement, CD-CHI.

30.
Mary to Lem, undated, Mar. 1913, MFP.

31.
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 8, 1913.

32.
New York Times
, Mar. 8, 1913;
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 8, 9, 1913; Baillie,
High Tension
.

33.
Yarros,
My Eleven Years
.

34.
Transcript,
People v. Darrow;
Hapgood,
Spirit of Labor;
Wood to Sara, Aug. 30, 1912, CESW-HL; Baillie,
High Tension;
Darrow to Everett, early 1912, Leo Cherne papers, Boston University; Darrow to Paul, Jan. 13, 1912, CD-UML;
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 28, 1915.

35.
Even Darrow’s version of that conversation was a non-denying denial: “If I had ever dreamed of any such thing it could not possibly have been.” Transcript,
People v. Darrow;
Darrow, introduction to
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
by Mary Harris Jones (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 1925).

36.
Wood to Sara, Mar. 11 and Mar. 13, 1913, CESW-HL.

37.
Darrow to Paul, Mar. 8, 1913, CD-UML; Darrow to Wood, Apr. 17, 1913, CESW-HL. Darrow was broke, and had borrowed some $20,000 to conduct the second trial.
Fred Gardner, a wealthy businessman from St. Louis, who would one day be elected governor of Missouri, heard of Darrow’s troubles and sent him $1,000. Darrow wrote later of the “deep gulf” he faced “between blank despair and the illusion of hope” that Gardner’s gesture helped him cross. But Gardner was not totally without motive. In a subsequent letter, he asked Darrow to say some nice things about him to union voters. See Darrow,
Story of My Life
and Gardner correspondence, CD-LOC.

38.
Darrow to Wood, Apr. 17, 1913, CESW-HL; Darrow to Paul, Mar. 24, 1913, CD-UML;
Los Angeles Tribune
, Oct. 14, 1914.

39.
Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 4, 1913.

40.
Sara to Wood, Apr. 4, 1913, CESW-HL.

CHAPTER 14: GRIEF AND RESURRECTION

1.
The Olders forged ahead—prompting jokes in San Francisco about the “love colony”—but a persistent drought robbed their land of water and ultimately doomed the project. Cora Older to Wood, Sept. 14, 1913, and Cora to Wood, undated, 1914, CESW-HL; Ruby to Stone, CD-LOC.

2.
Mary and Darrow remained faithful correspondents. “I have found out
beyond a doubt
that the one real supreme passion of Mary’s life is Mr. D,” Sara wrote Erskine in April
1913. “She still bows at that shrine of love and yet contemplates matrimony” to Lem. “If D. was half worthy of Mary he could make her happy without her being forced to another man for companionship and to escape the horror of a lonely old age,” Sara added a week later. Mary would be content as “his intellectual food and his loving mistress” if Darrow was not “running after these disgustingly brainless women all the time.”

3.
Darrow to Paul, May 14, June 25, 1913, CD-UML; Darrow to Mary, July 4, 1913, July 10, 1913, Nov. 30, 1913, Mar. 1914, Mar. 29, 1915, CDMFP-NL;
Los Angeles Times
, Sept. 13, 1913;
New York Times
, Sept. 14, 1913; Mary to Wood, 1913, Mary to Sara, 1913, CESW-HL.

4.
Darrow remarks at dinner of Lawyers Association of Illinois, May 10, 1913, CD-LOC;
Chicago Tribune
, May 11, 1913.

5.
See
People v. Covitz
, 262 Ill. 514 (1914);
Chicago Tribune
, June 1, 29, 1913, Jan. 11, 1914; Darrow, Whitman fellowship remarks, CD-CHI; Darrow to Mabel Dodge Luhan, circa 1913–1914, ALW; Garland diary entry, May 19, 1913; Darrow to Paul, June 25, 1913, CD-UML. Ruby did not appreciate Sissman, who, she complained to Stone, had an accent that juries could not understand and spent too much time playing cards at his club. Sissman and Paul Darrow interviews with Stone, CD-LOC.

6.
Chicago Tribune
, Sept. 18, 20, 1914, Feb. 9, Mar. 4, May 16, 17, Nov. 17, 1915, Apr. 26, Dec. 17, 1916;
New York Times
, Dec. 4, 5, 9, 1914;
Chicago Herald
, Sept. 24, 1915; Darrow to Older, Jan. 2, 1914, ALW; Harold Mulks reminiscence, CD-LOC. The film is not to be confused with
A Martyr to His Cause
, another movie based on the McNamaras, which was made during the trial by the AFL to raise funds. Neither film has survived the years.

7.
Chicago Tribune
, June 5, 6, 1913, Mar. 14, 15, 1914;
Chicago Journal
, Mar. 15, 1914. Of eighty white women who killed their husbands in Chicago between 1875 and 1920, only seven were found guilty, and only two were sentenced to prison terms of more than one year. See Jeffrey S. Adler, “ ‘I Loved Joe But I Had to Shoot Him’: Homicide by Women in Turn of the Century Chicago,”
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
, Spring/Summer 2002.

8.
Darrow scored a different kind of victory in front of the
U.S. Supreme Court, where his argument on behalf of
Charles Ramsay, a Colorado man who was challenging a disputed summons, was embraced by the justices.