Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (96 page)

18.
Jonathan Eig, in his book
Get Capone
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), makes the case that Darrow’s client White was the architect of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Chicago Tribune
, May 30, Sept. 22, Oct. 14, 16, 1926, July 17, Sept. 20, Oct. 1, 1930, Feb. 28, May 26, 1931; Rose Keefe,
The Man Who Got Away
(Nashville: Cumberland, 2005). Darrow to Stephenson, Nov. 2, 1928, and Darrow–Stephenson correspondence, CD-UML.

19.
See 1931 correspondence between Walter White and Darrow, NAACP, especially White to Darrow, Apr. 10, Aug. 31, 1931, and White’s reports to the NAACP board. See also White, “The Scottsboro Case,” an Oct. 23, 1931, NAACP pamphlet; Dan T. Carter,
Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969); Philip Dray,
At the Hands of Persons Unknown
(New York: Modern Library, 2002);
Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 10, 1933;
New York Times
, Dec. 28, 30, 1931, Jan. 190, 1932; Apr. 7, Jun. 23, 1933;
Pittsburgh Courier
, Jan. 23, 1932.

20.
Darrow to Wood, Feb. 18, 1932, CESW-HL. The communists won new trials for the
Scottsboro boys, and
Samuel Leibowitz, a New York lawyer, agreed to represent the young men.
Ruby Bates recanted her testimony, and Leibowitz raised serious questions about the absence of physical evidence—bruising, swelling, or sperm—that should have been present after a gang rape. When the jury still returned a guilty verdict, a most courageous Alabama jurist, Judge
James Horton, tossed it out and ordered yet another trial. Years passed, trials were held, and the U.S. Supreme Court handed down two landmark rulings. But time and again, Alabama juries brought back guilty verdicts. After they had spent six years in jail, the state finally dropped charges against four of the young men. Others were eventually given parole or escaped. The last defendant did not leave jail until 1950.

21.
Darrow had to explain his actions to Wood, Mary, and other friends, and to the liberal community in the essay “Scottsboro” in the
Crisis
of March 1932. See Darrow to Wood, Feb. 18, 1932, and Mary to Sara, Feb. 18, 1932, CESW-HL. On the showdown with the ILD, see Darrow to White, Dec. 31, 1931, March 10, 1932, and Roderick Beddow to White, Jan. 2, 1932, NAACP. Darrow’s money woes are chronicled in Darrow to White, Sept. 11, 12, 1931, May 3, June 5, 1932, and White to Springarn, June 9, 1932, NAACP. Darrow paid the money back in $250 increments over the next two years. For accounts of the dispute between the communists and the NAACP see Hugh T. Murray, “The NAACP versus the Communist Party: The Scottsboro Rape Cases, 1931–1932,”
Phylon
, vol. 28, 1967; Mark Solomon,
The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917–1936
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998); Hays,
Trial by Prejudice
(New York: Da Capo, 1970).

CHAPTER 21: CLOSING

1.
Trial transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al.
, Hawaii State Archives; police statements and interviews, and Admiral Yates Stirling report to the secretary of the navy, Dec. 23, 1931, Victor Houston papers, Hawaii State Archives; Pinkerton report, “ ‘Ala Moana’ Case,” PP; Pinkerton interviews, Lawrence Judd papers, Hawaii State Archives; seaman Eddie Lord interview in Peter Van Slingerland,
Something Terrible Has Happened
(New York: Harper and Row, 1966).

2.
Yates Stirling,
Sea Duty
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1938); Admiral William Pratt, chief of naval operations, Dec. 21, 1931, Victor Houston papers, Hawaii State Archives; Pinkerton report, PP.

3.
Transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al.;
see Thalia to Darrow, undated letter, Leo Cherne papers, Boston University; Alexander Robertson, “Memorandum: the Ala Moana Case,” Houston papers; Pinkerton report, PP; Pinkerton interviews, Judd to secretary of the interior, Jan. 18, 1932, and Pinkerton to Judd, Oct. 3, 1922, Judd papers; Van Slingerland,
Something Terrible Has Happened;
David Stannard,
Honor Killing
(New York: Viking, 2005).

4.
Transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al.;
Mills to Houston, Dec. 15, 1931, Houston papers; Judd to secretary of the interior, Jan. 18, 1932, Pinkerton to Judd, Oct. 3, 1932, Pinkerton interviews, Lawrence Judd papers; Pinkerton report, PP;
Honolulu Advertiser
, Jan. 9, 10, 1932;
New York Times
, Jan. 9–31, 1932;
Washington Star
, Jan. 10, 1932; Philip Kinsley
Chicago Tribune
story reprinted in
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
, Mar. 19, 1932; Dillingham to Warren, Jan. 29, 1932, Walter F. Dillingham papers, Bishop Museum, Hawaii.

5.
Time
, Apr. 18, 1932; NAACP to Adams, Jan. 15, 1932, NAACP;
Honolulu Advertiser
, Mar. 30, 1932.

6.
Thalia liked Darrow and called him “Judge.” She teased him about “that unstrained grape juice that made you sick.”
New York Times
, Jan. 15, Feb. 25, 27, Mar. 2, 27, Apr. 2, 10, 1932; Dillingham to Louise, Jan. 19, 1932, Dillingham to Colby, Jan. 27, 1932, Dillingham to Warren, Jan. 29, Mar. 28, 1932, Walter F. Dillingham papers, Bishop Museum, Hawaii; Julien Ripley to Darrow, Mar. 3, 1932, Ripley to Darrow, memorandum on financial terms, and Leisure to Darrow with Ruby Darrow comments, Mar. 5, 1932, Leo Cherne papers, Boston University; Ruby to Darrow, Mar. 3, 1932, Leisure to Stone, Aug. 1, 1940, CD-LOC; Darrow to Barnes, Mar. 5, 12, 1932, ALW;
Chicago Bee
, Mar. 27, 1932;
Hawaii Hochi
, Mar. 29, 1932.

7.
Darrow, “Conditions in the Hawaiian Islands,” a talk on the Massie case to the Chicago Bar Association, June 4, 1932. Some of the newspapers counted Edward Goeas, a juror of Portuguese descent, as white, as I have. Others put him in the nonwhite category. Leisure to Stone, Aug. 1, 1940, CD-LOC.

8.
Transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al.; New York Times
, Apr. 7, 1932; the account of the trial comes from the transcript, which has gaps, at the Hawaii State Archives and from newspaper coverage in the
Hawaii Hochi
, the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
, the
Honolulu Advertiser, New York Times, Los Angeles Times
, and
Chicago Tribune
. Massie’s account differed in minor ways from what Kelley alleged. According to Massie, Kahahawai sat on a chaise lounge, not a bed. Massie said he wore dark glasses as a disguise, but not a fake mustache.

9.
Transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al
. Kelley never introduced the document as evidence, so we do not know what it contained. But Thalia later told Darrow that Tommie was cold, and physically abused her. If she informed Professor Kelly that Tommie was a cruel spouse, it would have confirmed for many in Hawaii the speculation that her injuries came at the hand of her husband. Van Slingerland,
Something Terrible Has Happened;
Kelly to Judd, Feb. 20, and Mar. 9, 1967, and Nov. 17, 1969, with Nov. 15, 1969, memo, Lawrence Judd papers, Hawaii State Archives.

10.
Transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al
. Kelley had several rebuttal witnesses, including two psychiatrists from the mainland, who told the jury that Massie was surely sane at the time of the killing.

11.
Transcript,
Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al
. Darrow was grieving after hearing the news that his old friend Banks, the Chicago newspaperman, had been killed in a freak auto accident.

12.
Dillingham’s correspondence shows how Darrow cultivated the military and commercial leaders in Hawaii throughout the trial (see Dillingham to Lowell, May 6, 1932, “We met in the game room and the meeting lasted until midnight,” Walter F. Dillingham papers, Bishop Museum, Hawaii). And the Dillingham, Houston, and Judd papers show how the initial outrage in Washington was tempered over time by the various strategic and commercial concerns. Van Slingerland says that President Hoover phoned Judd in Darrow’s presence and ordered that the sentences be commuted. Judd’s papers, however, contain his private and public notations insisting this never happened. Judd was in contact with Hoover’s secretary of the interior, Ray Wilbur, throughout the drama, but the governor appears to have responded to congressional pressure, not White House interference. A copy of the Dillingham “Memorandum” is in the
Lawrence Judd papers, Hawaii State Archives;
Los Angeles Times
, May 1, 1932;
Hawaii Hochi
, May 3, 1932; Judd memoir, Lawrence Judd papers, Hawaii State Archives; Leisure to Stone, Aug. 1, 1940, CD-LOC.

13.
Wright to Darrow, May 7, 1932, BU; Darrow packed a three-day stay in San Francisco with errands and events on his way home. He gave three speeches in the Bay Area, visited with
Fremont Older, saw J. B. McNamara at San Quentin, and traveled with Older to see
William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon, presumably to ask for the publisher’s help in winning McNamara his freedom. Older marveled at Darrow’s drive and told a mutual friend that Darrow was physically frail, “flat broke through investments and … quite happy.”

14.
In addition to the comprehensive Pinkerton report, with its accompanying memos and transcripts of interviews, there are other investigative summaries in the Houston and Judd papers in the Hawaii State Archives, most of which raise doubts about Thalia’s story. See Stirling’s Dec. 23, 1931, report to the secretary of the navy; Professor Kelly’s letter to Judd; Judd’s May 17, 1932, report to the secretary of the interior; and the governor’s discussions of why he refused to pardon the defendants (Judd to Caldwell, May 21, 1932, and Judd to secretary of the interior, May 19, 1932); a memorandum, “The Ala Moana Case,” sent by Alexander Robertson, former chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, to Representative Victor Houston; prosecutor Kelley’s motion to nolle pros the original indictments; and an unpublished manuscript of Judd’s memoir.

15.
The letters of Tommie and Thalia to Darrow (BU), each maligning the other, are instructive. So are the records of Thalia’s 1934 psychiatric examination by Dr. Walter White, contained in the St. Elizabeths Hospital file at the National Archives, and the naval personnel records for Tommie, in the military files at the archives.
Washington Post
, Oct. 15, 1933;
New York Times
, Feb. 24, 25, Apr. 7, 1934.

16.
Darrow had recently cooperated with biographer Charles Harrison, whose book
Clarence Darrow
was published in 1931. Darrow,
Story of My Life;
Darrow to Barnes, Aug. 1, 1931, ALW; Perkins to Darrow, Oct. 10, Nov. 12, Dec. 10, 1931, internal Scribner’s memorandum, Ruby to Scribner’s, Dec. 1931, Scribner’s archives, Princeton University.

17.
Time
, July 20, 1931;
New York Times
, Oct. 25, 30, 1931; Universal Pictures promotional copy, June 1932, CD-LOC; Nathan,
Intimate Notebooks; Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 24, Oct. 20, Nov. 20, 21, 23, Dec. 5, 8, 14, 15, 17, 1932, Jan. 4, 6, 29, Feb. 8, 10, 19, Apr. 12, June 23, Dec. 5, 1933;
Chicago Herald Examiner
, Jan. 6, 1933;
People v. Varecha
, 353 Ill. 52;
Chicago American
, Apr. 11, 18, 1933;
Rockford Register-Republic
, Feb. 18, 1933; Darrow to Taylor, May 16, 1932 or 1933, John Livingston papers, University of Denver; McWilliams to Darrow, Nov. 10, 1935, Jan. 5, 1936, Dec. 27, 1936, and McWilliams, “Life History of Russell McWilliams,” CD-LOC.

18.
An administration review of the Darrow review board found much to agree with. Darrow speech, New York Academy of Medicine, Jan. 13, 1931;
Chicago Daily News
, Oct. 10, 1932;
Time
, Nov. 13, 1933; Masters to Roosevelt via Raymond Moley, May 21, 1934, Thompson to Roosevelt, June 13, 1934, Darrow to Roosevelt, Apr. 27, June 28, 1934, Darrow supplementary report, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Papers, FDR Library; Mencken to Masters, May 10, 24, June 9, 1934, ELM; Richburg to Darrow, May 29, 1934, M. H. McIntyre, on behalf of FDR, July 2, 1934, CD-LOC; Julian Street notes on conversation with Darrow, July 11, 1934, Julian Street papers, Princeton University; Ruby to J. B. McNamara, June 23, 1934, James and John McNamara papers, University of Cincinnati; Lowell Mason, “Darrow vs. Johnson,”
North American Review
, Dec. 1934;
Washington Post
, June 10, 1934;
New York Times
, May 27, 1934; James MacGregor Burns,
Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1956), Hugh Johnson,
The Blue Eagle, from Egg to Earth
(New York: Doubleday, 1935); John Ohl,
Hugh S. Johnson and the New Deal
(DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1985).

19.
Hays to Darrow, June 8, 1934, Ruby to Hays, June 16, 1934, Arthur Garfield Hays papers, Princeton University;
New York Times
, July 1, 2, 3, 4, Sept. 3, 1934;
Los Angeles Times
, July 3, 1934;
Washington Post
, July 3, 1934; “What I Think of Nazi Germany,” symposium with Dr. Preston Bradley and Dr. Louis Mann at the Washington Boulevard Temple, Dec. 7, 1933, CD-LOC.