For The Thrill Of It Part 12

11 THE SCIENTISTS ARRIVEFRIDAY, 13 J 13 JUNE 1924S 1924SUNDAY, 20 J 20 JULY 1924 1924Science and evolution teach us that man is an animal, a little higher than the other orders of animals; that he is governed by the same natural laws that govern the rest of the universe;...that free moral agency is a myth, a delusion, and a snare.1Clarence Darrow, March 1911 THE T TWENTIETH C CENTURY E EXPRESS from Boston pulled into LaSalle Street Station at noon on Friday, 13 June. A small-statured, narrow-shouldered middle-aged man, with thin lips, large ears, and tortoisesh.e.l.l eyegla.s.ses, and wearing a black porkpie hat, opened one of the train windows as the express slid to a halt along the side of the platform. Clarence Darrow had promised to meet him at the station. The man leaned out of the window and scanned the platform anxiously, trying to recognize the attorney, but the sudden maelstrom of pa.s.sengers-spilling from the train, collecting belongings, greeting friends and relatives-had created a whirlwind that, for the moment at least, rendered Darrow invisible. from Boston pulled into LaSalle Street Station at noon on Friday, 13 June. A small-statured, narrow-shouldered middle-aged man, with thin lips, large ears, and tortoisesh.e.l.l eyegla.s.ses, and wearing a black porkpie hat, opened one of the train windows as the express slid to a halt along the side of the platform. Clarence Darrow had promised to meet him at the station. The man leaned out of the window and scanned the platform anxiously, trying to recognize the attorney, but the sudden maelstrom of pa.s.sengers-spilling from the train, collecting belongings, greeting friends and relatives-had created a whirlwind that, for the moment at least, rendered Darrow invisible.2 He had read of the murder of Bobby Franks in the Boston newspapers, of course; the entire country seemed to be talking about this sensational killing in Chicago. He knew that two killers-both wealthy teenagers-had confessed to the murder. But he had never antic.i.p.ated that Clarence Darrow would ask him to join the defense team-what did he know of the law? Nevertheless, once Darrow had explained the defense strategy, he had immediately consented to travel to Chicago.

Karl Bowman, chief medical officer at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, looked up and down the platform. Suddenly Bowman saw Clarence Darrow, walking casually in his direction, looking left and right, pushing his way through the crowds. He recognized Darrow instantly-who could not recognize the most famous lawyer in the country?-and he waved from the window, hoping to catch the attorney's attention.

Darrow watched expectantly as Bowman descended the steps to the platform. They shook hands enthusiastically, as if they had both been waiting a long time for this encounter, and Darrow turned to introduce Benjamin Bachrach, the lawyer representing the Leopold family in the case.

Bowman was amused at the contrast between the two men. Darrow was dressed in a slovenly manner, in an inexpensive jacket, a slightly grubby shirt, and a frayed necktie. Bachrach was dressed impeccably in a well-cut, expertly tailored, dark business suit-his shoes gleamed, his white shirtfront dazzled, his cuff links sparkled, and his colorful yet tasteful silk necktie bespoke a man with expensive tastes. If he had not known better, Bowman realized, he would have a.s.sumed that Bachrach was the lead attorney.

As they drove to the Cook County jail, Clarence Darrow explained that he had hired Harold Hulbert, a neuropsychiatrist in private practice, to a.s.sist Bowman in the examination of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Hulbert was still in his thirties, Darrow confided, yet he already had considerable experience in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. After postgraduate work in nervous and mental diseases at the University of Michigan, Hulbert had worked in Tennessee under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, examining mental defectives in the state prisons, before serving in the war as a psychiatrist in the United States Navy. He was a pleasant young man, Darrow mused, tall, good-looking, with an open, honest appearance; Darrow was sure that he would be an a.s.set to the defense team. He continued to talk as Bowman listened in silence and Bachrach, absorbed in his own thoughts, stared out at the lunchtime crowds thronging LaSalle Street. They reached the swing bridge stretching across the Chicago River, continued north on LaSalle, turned right onto Austin Avenue and left onto Dearborn Street, and finally stopped in front of the Cook County jail.3 The warden, Wesley Westbrook, ushered the visitors into the room on the second floor set aside for the examination. Bowman looked around with satisfaction. Everything was as it should be; the room perhaps was a little small, but, importantly, it was isolated within the prison so that there would be no possibility of interference or disturbance from the other prisoners. A table stood in the center of the room with chairs arranged along one side; there was a sink in one corner with faucets for hot and cold water, and a metal frame bed with a mattress ran along one side of the room. It was, Bowman remarked, much better than he had expected, and now that he had reached his destination, he was eager to begin his examination of the two prisoners.4

THE KEY TO MENTAL HEALTH, Bowman believed, lay within endocrinology, the study of the secretions of the endocrine glands: once researchers understood the effect of the hormones on the body, physician-psychiatrists would be able to eliminate mental illness. Bowman believed, lay within endocrinology, the study of the secretions of the endocrine glands: once researchers understood the effect of the hormones on the body, physician-psychiatrists would be able to eliminate mental illness.

No science was more fashionable in the 1920s than endocrinology. It was one of the youngest scientific disciplines, yet already it promised to deliver new therapies for disease. Scientists could now explain the workings of the body, and soon, perhaps, they would be able to control and determine the body through manipulation of the glands. Endocrinology, some scientists speculated, might even join with eugenics to transform American society. Endocrinology, in concert with such novel sciences as psychoa.n.a.lysis and behaviorism, would allow the scientist to go beyond surface appearances to a discovery of the interior self, which was otherwise hidden. Science would thus arrive at a new level of understanding of human action.5 In 1916, endocrinologists meeting at the annual convention of the American Medical a.s.sociation had established a professional organization, the Society for the Study of Internal Secretions, and in January 1917 the journal Endocrinology Endocrinology made its first appearance. Scientists had already mapped the positions of the endocrine glands in the body and had begun to understand the action on the body of the hormones that poured from each gland into the bloodstream. Each hormone acted as a chemical messenger that, in ways yet unknown, regulated physiological action and helped maintain health. made its first appearance. Scientists had already mapped the positions of the endocrine glands in the body and had begun to understand the action on the body of the hormones that poured from each gland into the bloodstream. Each hormone acted as a chemical messenger that, in ways yet unknown, regulated physiological action and helped maintain health.

The thyroid gland-consisting of two lobes, one on each side of the larynx-secreted a substance, thyroxin, that regulated the body's metabolism. An excess of thyroxin in the bloodstream-a condition known as hyperthyroidism-correlated with an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid, visible as a swelling of the neck, and resulted in excessive metabolism, an irregular pulse, anxiety, restlessness, and an abnormally rapid heartbeat. A decrease in thyroxin (hypothyroidism) had equally dramatic consequences: the patient became dull and lethargic, gained excessive weight, suffered from hair loss, and had thick dry skin. In extreme cases, the condition resulted in cretinism in children and myxedema in adults.6 The pituitary gland, located in a bony cradle-shaped cavity, the sella turcica sella turcica, at the base of the brain, secreted pitruitin, a hormone that regulated growth and development. A deficiency of pitruitin might result in dwarfism; other symptoms included obesity, lethargy, and s.e.xual dysfunction. The skin of a patient suffering from hypopituitarism was often fine, smooth, and hairless; his or her behavior was often capricious, childish, and uninhibited. An excessive amount of pitruitin, on the other hand, might result in, inter alia, exaggerated growth, leading to acromegaly and gigantism.7 Other glands also were linked to physical and mental symptoms of ill-health. Disease of the pineal gland manifested itself as excessive s.e.xual activity, the premature development of secondary s.e.x characteristics, and an abnormal mental precociousness. Disturbances in the adrenal glands were linked to symptoms of listlessness and nervous disability, discoloration of the skin, and abnormal secondary s.e.x characteristics. The removal of the interst.i.tial s.e.x glands led to decreased s.e.xual virility and the failure of secondary s.e.x characteristics to appear. The malfunction of the thymus gland resulted in the persistence of a child-like, irresponsible personality into adulthood.8 The endocrine glands were no doubt significant in understanding health and disease, but how significant? Had physicians in the 1920s sufficient knowledge of the glands to treat physical and mental ailments? Or were the therapeutic effects of glandular extracts and surgical operations on the glands merely a chimera, more a hope than a reality?

The relationship between the endocrine glands and mental health was especially intriguing. Researchers at the Michigan Inst.i.tution for the Feeble-Minded had found that twenty percent of the inmates suffered from glandular disorders, most commonly either hypothyroidism or hypopituitarism. Physicians at the Ma.s.sachusetts State Psychiatric Inst.i.tute had found from postmortem examinations that seventy-four percent of patients had suffered from diseases of the glands. Nolan Lewis and Gertrude Davies, two researchers at the Government Hospital for the Insane at Washington, D.C., had discovered that in more than 200 patients mental illness went hand in hand with glandular dysfunction. Therapeutic intervention, they concluded, was most effective when it combined psychotherapy and the administration of glandular extracts to the patient.9 The a.s.sociation of mental disease with endocrine pathology promised a means of determining the presence and character of mental illness. Glandular disturbances in the body manifested themselves through measurable effects on the urine, blood, pulse, blood pressure, and metabolism. Thus the thyroid gland controlled metabolism-the rate at which the body oxidizes food. Any deviation of the metabolic rate from the norm was evidence of a diseased thyroid-too much thyroxin from the thyroid elevated the body's metabolism; too little thyroxin caused a lowering of the metabolic rate. Similarly, the pancreatic glands regulated the amount of sugar in the blood-an excess of sugar in the bloodstream was a sure sign of the failure of the pancreas.

Any correlation between glandular dysfunction and mental illness might pinpoint a particular gland as the cause of a specific psychiatric disorder. Yet Karl Bowman's own research had been inconclusive. In 1921 Bowman had examined 229 patients at the Bloomingdale Hospital-a group that included patients with manic-depressive psychoses, dementia praec.o.x, melancholia, paranoia, senile dementia, and psychoneurosis. A blood a.n.a.lysis of each patient-including readings of nonprotein nitrogen, dextrose, uric acid, and chlorides-had revealed nothing abnormal.10 A more detailed study that same year on ten patients suffering from dementia praec.o.x was equally inconclusive. Bowman measured the blood count, conducted a urine a.n.a.lysis, estimated the metabolism, and determined the quant.i.ty of sugar in the blood but found nothing unusual-the metabolism of some patients was low, but not consistently so. There was, Bowman concluded, "nothing to confirm a simple dysfunction of a single endocrine gland and a constant condition in dementia praec.o.x."11 A third study, in 1923, of fifty mental patients at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital revealed that twenty-seven had a metabolism well below the normal range, indicating a lack of thyroid activity. Was a disease of the thyroid gland a cause of mental illness? Bowman was pleased that he had found the correlation-"a low basal metabolism in cases of mental disease is of importance and merits consideration in formulating our theories as to etiology and treatment"-yet he remained reluctant to make any grand claim that might subsequently be disproved: "we do not feel that any conclusions are justifiable as yet."12 Little evidence existed to link the dysfunction of a specific gland with an identifiable psychiatric illness. Perhaps in the future, endocrinologists might establish such a relationship, but for the moment at least, the connections between psychiatry and endocrinology remained vague and uncertain. Yet for Clarence Darrow, the idea that glandular disease could cause mental illness was irresistible. Each individual was akin to a machine, Darrow believed; consciousness had a strictly materialist basis, and human action was entirely a consequence of external stimuli acting on the organism to produce predictable results. Endocrinology provided the somatic content for Darrow's philosophy of behavior-nothing could be better suited to Darrow's worldview than the idea that the action of the glands regulated human behavior.

The murder of Bobby Franks was inexplicable, according to Darrow, unless one a.s.sumed that Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were mentally ill. Each boy's psychiatric disorder was hidden from view-indeed, on casual acquaintance both Richard and Nathan seemed entirely normal-but an a.n.a.lysis of their endocrine glands would surely, Darrow believed, reveal the somatic basis of their mental disorders and lay the groundwork for an explanation of the killing of Bobby Franks.

ON S SAt.u.r.dAY, 14 J 14 JUNE, at nine o'clock in the morning, Karl Bowman, accompanied by Harold Hulbert, arrived back at the Cook County jail. Two physicians, J. J. Moore and Paul d.i.c.k, walked with them into the jail; Moore carried a portable oxygen tank and d.i.c.k held a metabolimeter. at nine o'clock in the morning, Karl Bowman, accompanied by Harold Hulbert, arrived back at the Cook County jail. Two physicians, J. J. Moore and Paul d.i.c.k, walked with them into the jail; Moore carried a portable oxygen tank and d.i.c.k held a metabolimeter.13 Richard Loeb, still limping after hurting his leg in a baseball game two days previously, appeared in the examination room to greet Bowman and Hulbert. He had followed their instructions not to eat breakfast that morning; now he listened attentively as they outlined the procedure. He noticed a machine-it was a Jones metabolimeter, an apparatus for calculating metabolic rate-on one side of the room, and as he lay on the bed, the doctors clamped the mouthpiece to his face and attached the tube to the apparatus.14 Richard remained lying on the bed for an hour, breathing into the apparatus, staring up at the ceiling. The scientists waited expectantly and then measured his body temperature, pulse, respiration, and blood pressure. Richard's metabolic rate-minus seventeen percent-was unusually low, so low that it could be explained, according to Bowman, only by the a.s.sumption of glandular dysfunction.15 Later that morning, Bowman and Hulbert repeated the procedure with Nathan. He too lay supine on the bed for one hour, while they waited for the result. But Nathan's measurements fell within the expected range; his metabolic rate-minus five percent-was slightly lower than expected for a boy of his height and weight but not abnormally so.16 Other tests followed. On the following Monday, Bowman and Hulbert used a plethysmograph, an instrument for measuring variations in blood volume during emotional stimulation, to record the emotional capacity of Nathan and Richard. Both boys were intellectually precocious, far superior to their peers. Could the same be said for their emotional ability, or were they emotionally stunted? Had an inability to experience emotions contributed to their desire to murder another human being?17 On Tuesday, 17 June, technicians delivered a Victor X-ray machine to the jail. Edward Blaine, a researcher from the National Pathological Laboratory, and Carl Darnell and Edward Philleo, experts in X-ray photography at the Victor X-ray Corporation, were present, hired by the defense to witness the examinations.18 Might X-ray images reveal physical pathology in Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold? If so, they would const.i.tute scientific evidence that the state's attorney would find hard to dismiss. Ever since the turn of the twentieth century, judges had granted X-rays a privileged position as courtroom evidence: the Illinois supreme court, for example, had ruled in 1905 that X-rays were admissible. Other forms of visual representation-diagrams, maps, drawings, photographs-were deemed only ill.u.s.trative of the testimony of a witness and, as such, had no independent evidentiary value. X-rays were different: they seemed to allow direct access to facts that might otherwise be disputed and, as a consequence, their status in the American courtroom went unchallenged.19 It was necessary, nevertheless, to demonstrate to the court that the X-rays had been produced faithfully and accurately. As the scientists took X-ray images of Nathan and Richard, therefore, Harold Hulbert carefully examined each structure directly through a fluoroscope, comparing the image on the fluorescent screen with the X-ray image, ensuring also that each image carried the appropriate identification marks.20 Nothing was amiss in Richard Loeb's X-rays. His cranial bone structure-in density and thickness-was about as normal as it could be, as were his facial bones. X-rays of the thorax showed that his heart was slightly more centered that one might expect, but the difference had no pathological significance; and the bones of the forearms, wrists, hands, and fingers showed no symptoms of disease.21 Nathan Leopold also seemed healthy. X-rays of the thorax revealed nothing unusual. His forearms, wrists, hands, and fingers were normal, and his facial bones and the bones and joints of the upper spine showed no irregularity. But Hulbert could see that some of the suture lines in Nathan's skull were obliterated, indicating osteosclerosis, or hardening of the cartilage. Osteosclerosis in the skull typically occurred in middle age, between ages thirty and forty-five-it rarely occurred in anyone nineteen years old. Hulbert also noticed, as he studied the X-ray more closely, that the pineal gland, an endocrine gland located at the base of the skull, had prematurely hardened and calcified. This, too, was unexpected. The calcification of the pineal gland customarily took place at thirty years. The pineal gland had several functions, including the inhibition, in Hulbert's words, of "the mental phase of one's s.e.x life." Its premature calcification in Nathan Leopold surely indicated glandular dysfunction, with implications for his s.e.xual development.22

THE DISCOVERY OF PATHOLOGICAL INDICATIONS in both Nathan and Richard was welcome news for the defense, but it did little to ease a growing concern that the scientific results would not easily translate into an argument sufficiently lucid to persuade a jury that the boys were mentally diseased. Richard Loeb had an abnormally low metabolism and Nathan Leopold had a pineal gland that had prematurely calcified, but so what? Even if the expert witnesses could prove that these pathologies did in fact exist, would a jury be sufficiently knowledgeable to understand the science? And how could the defense convince the jury that the physical abnormalities indicated glandular disorders, which had in turn caused mental illness in Richard and Nathan? And what was the nature of that mental illness? How had it contributed to the murder of Bobby Franks? The chain of cause and effect would be difficult to prove and, under withering cross-examination from the state's attorney, difficult to maintain. in both Nathan and Richard was welcome news for the defense, but it did little to ease a growing concern that the scientific results would not easily translate into an argument sufficiently lucid to persuade a jury that the boys were mentally diseased. Richard Loeb had an abnormally low metabolism and Nathan Leopold had a pineal gland that had prematurely calcified, but so what? Even if the expert witnesses could prove that these pathologies did in fact exist, would a jury be sufficiently knowledgeable to understand the science? And how could the defense convince the jury that the physical abnormalities indicated glandular disorders, which had in turn caused mental illness in Richard and Nathan? And what was the nature of that mental illness? How had it contributed to the murder of Bobby Franks? The chain of cause and effect would be difficult to prove and, under withering cross-examination from the state's attorney, difficult to maintain.23 Nor did it help matters that, one week into the examination, Nathan resented the scientists' control over his body and detested the impression conveyed by the Chicago newspapers that he was mentally ill. On 18 June Nathan hinted to a reporter from the Chicago Herald and Examiner Chicago Herald and Examiner that he would repudiate his confession and thereby force the state's attorney to prove that he had committed murder. He was not insane, Nathan protested to the reporter; if he were insane, how would he be able to discuss the details of his defense? "I'm not insane," he remarked to the journalist, "and I'm not going to be made to appear insane. I'm sane-as sane as you are." For someone who imagined himself a genius, it was doubly humiliating: the examinations in the Cook County jail, the subject of much speculation in the newspaper columns, had given the impression both that he was mentally ill and that he was merely an experimental object, a plaything of the scientists. "From reading the newspapers," he complained, "I would infer that Loeb and I are being trained like fleas to jump through hoops just to entertain the curious." that he would repudiate his confession and thereby force the state's attorney to prove that he had committed murder. He was not insane, Nathan protested to the reporter; if he were insane, how would he be able to discuss the details of his defense? "I'm not insane," he remarked to the journalist, "and I'm not going to be made to appear insane. I'm sane-as sane as you are." For someone who imagined himself a genius, it was doubly humiliating: the examinations in the Cook County jail, the subject of much speculation in the newspaper columns, had given the impression both that he was mentally ill and that he was merely an experimental object, a plaything of the scientists. "From reading the newspapers," he complained, "I would infer that Loeb and I are being trained like fleas to jump through hoops just to entertain the curious."24 Nathan had encouraged the public perception that he was a precocious intellectual, far in advance of his years. Yet he had failed to foresee that his claim to be a genius would, in the public mind, at least, confer on him the role of mastermind in the murder of Bobby Franks. Nathan had frequently claimed to be extraordinarily clever and astute-surely, therefore, he was responsible for inveigling Richard Loeb into a complex scheme that had ended in the death of their victim. "I've been pictured in the public mind as the Svengali, the man with the hypnotic eye, the master mind and the brains," Nathan protested bitterly to a reporter from the Chicago Evening Post Chicago Evening Post. "I've been made out the man who schemed, planned and executed this thing. I've been described as the devil incarnate. But d.i.c.ky Loeb, on the other hand, seems to have won the sympathy of the public."25 Toward the end of June the atmosphere within the jail tightened; it seemed as if all Chicago had focused its gaze on the dilapidated, shabby gray stucco building on Dearborn Street. The warden, Wesley Westbrook, resented the attention paid to his two celebrity prisoners and grumbled at the demands that their care placed on his staff. Westbrook had learned that a small group of prisoners planned a jailbreak-the scheme relied on guns smuggled into the prison and the theft of keys from one of the guards. The ringleaders planned to escape from their cells, release all the prisoners in the jail, and, in the ensuing commotion, escape unseen. Nothing ever came of it; it appeared to be no more than a rumor. But Westbrook acted anyway, revoking visiting privileges and transferring seven prisoners (including Nathan's cell mate, Ed Donkar) to the Boys' Reformatory at Pontiac.26

KARL B BOWMAN AND H HAROLD H HULBERT completed their examination of the defendants on 30 June. Each report-one on Nathan, a second on Richard-included a physiological and endocrinological a.n.a.lysis, along with a detailed life history, including sections on each boy's childhood and adolescence. Both Nathan and Richard had volunteered information on the kidnapping of Bobby Franks, limning their individual contributions to the planning and execution of the murder. Both had talked of their fantasies, Nathan saying that he imagined himself as a powerful slave and Richard saying that he envisaged himself as a master criminal. completed their examination of the defendants on 30 June. Each report-one on Nathan, a second on Richard-included a physiological and endocrinological a.n.a.lysis, along with a detailed life history, including sections on each boy's childhood and adolescence. Both Nathan and Richard had volunteered information on the kidnapping of Bobby Franks, limning their individual contributions to the planning and execution of the murder. Both had talked of their fantasies, Nathan saying that he imagined himself as a powerful slave and Richard saying that he envisaged himself as a master criminal.

Darrow proclaimed himself satisfied with the report: Bowman and Hulbert had done everything he had asked-he had no complaints on that score. But their report const.i.tuted only one part of the defense that Darrow expected to present in court-a second part would be provided by the psychiatrists who, only now, at the beginning of July, were arriving in Chicago to meet with Darrow and Benjamin Bachrach.

William Alanson White arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, 1 July. He was an imposing man whose physical presence matched his status as the leading American psychiatrist of his generation. His jet-black eyebrows formed a striking contrast with a shock of gray-white hair that swept back toward one side of his head to reveal an expansive forehead. Pale blue eyes peered through gold-rimmed gla.s.ses balanced on an aquiline nose; his large mouth turned downward in an ungenerous grimace. His very presence seemed to demand acquiescence; his bearing exuded authority; his att.i.tude-imperious, impatient, and urgent-indicated a man who brooked no equivocation or hesitation.27 White, at age fifty-four, had reached the height of his profession. After attending Cornell University on a scholarship, he had obtained his medical degree in 1891 from Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. His first appointment, as a physician at Binghamton State Hospital, gave him an opportunity for clinical research in psychiatry; he spent twelve years at Binghamton before moving to Washington, D.C., in 1903 to become the superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane.28 The hospital, established in 1855 by Dorothea Dix, had never been anything other than a custodial inst.i.tution that provided psychiatric care for employees of the federal government, members of the armed forces, and residents of the District of Columbia. White, during his tenure at St. Elizabeths Hospital (as it was subsequently called), transformed the inst.i.tution into a leading center of medical research. Under White's leadership, the hospital expanded, caring for some 6,000 patients at any one time. White also recruited a cadre of ambitious young physician-psychiatrists to the sprawling campus east of the Anacostia River with the promise that the hospital would focus as much on scientific research as on therapeutic care. White himself was a prolific author, publishing twelve research monographs by 1924, editing the Psychoa.n.a.lytic Review Psychoa.n.a.lytic Review, translating cla.s.sic works from French and German, and writing scores of articles and reviews. By the early 1920s, he was the best-known psychiatrist in the United States, and in June 1924 the psychiatric profession acknowledged his leadership by electing him president of the American Psychiatric a.s.sociation.29

WHITE FIRST MET WITH R RICHARD L LOEB on 1 July. Richard spoke hesitantly at first, telling White of his plans, necessarily in abeyance, to write his graduate thesis on John C. Calhoun and the question of states' rights. Richard also talked of his studies at the University of Michigan, mentioning the zoology course taught by the geneticist Aaron Franklin Shull. Richard confessed his agnosticism; he had read Richard Swann Lull's on 1 July. Richard spoke hesitantly at first, telling White of his plans, necessarily in abeyance, to write his graduate thesis on John C. Calhoun and the question of states' rights. Richard also talked of his studies at the University of Michigan, mentioning the zoology course taught by the geneticist Aaron Franklin Shull. Richard confessed his agnosticism; he had read Richard Swann Lull's Organic Evolution Organic Evolution in college and felt certain that Darwinism could account for the origins of mankind. in college and felt certain that Darwinism could account for the origins of mankind.30 Walter Bachrach sat silently listening as White, scribbling notes on a pad, continued to ask questions. As the morning wore on, White probed more intently, interrogating Richard about his childhood, inquiring about Richard's governess, questioning him about his teachers at University High School, searching for clues that might explain the murder of Bobby Franks. Richard began to relax and, as he talked, more details emerged to offer a glimpse into his psyche. He had always desired to be famous, he confessed; he had imagined himself as a football player, handsome, athletic, strong; on other occasions, he had thought of himself as an explorer, brave and adventurous, tracing out new paths in the West; and most frequently he had pictured himself as a master criminal capable of carrying out the perfect crime. He had a recurrent fantasy of himself in a jail cell, half-naked, being whipped and abused by prison guards, as a crowd of spectators, young girls for the most part, looked on with a mixture of admiration and pity.

Had he ever imagined, White suddenly asked, that he might rape a girl? Richard shook his head. No, that was not something he would do-Nathan Leopold had demanded that they kidnap and rape a young girl but Richard had vetoed the suggestion; it had never been part of his plan. He had always been gentle with his girlfriends, Richard insisted, kissing them only if they consented. What about s.e.xual fantasies? Did Richard imagine, White asked, himself having s.e.x? He could picture himself with a girl, Richard replied, undressing and caressing her, but nothing further usually happened. His s.e.xual imagination went only so far and never reached the point where he might have s.e.xual intercourse. But what, Richard countered, did s.e.x have to do with the murder of Bobby Franks? He had kidnapped Franks in order to show that he could commit the perfect crime-there had been nothing s.e.xual about it.31 White also interrogated Nathan Leopold that week, seeing him for the first time on Wednesday, 2 July. That afternoon, as White listened to Nathan talk about his studies at the University of Chicago, he came to appreciate the difference between the two boys. Richard had seemed diffident in talking about himself at first, revealing his thoughts only with reluctance. Nathan was garrulous from the outset, proclaiming his competence as a philologist, his apt.i.tude for study, his intellectual brilliance-he was unique, he informed White, in his ability to learn languages. The more obscure a language, the better; he had learned Umbrian, for example, not because he might need to speak it or read it-it was an extinct language, originally spoken in a region of central Italy-but because it emphasized his status as an individual elevated above the rest of humanity.32 White noticed that there was nothing altruistic in Nathan's att.i.tude toward others. He had no regard for his companions, for his cla.s.smates, or even for members of his own family except as their existence contributed to his own welfare. He lived only for his own advantage, Nathan admitted, and he considered others only insofar as their actions worked to promote his pleasure. He was a Nietzschean who stood above the law, above morality, someone whose actions were uninhibited by conventional behavior; he did not recognize any obligation to society-he could do whatever he wished.

Nor did Nathan have any qualms about killing Bobby Franks. He regretted only that they had failed to carry the killing off successfully; what tremendous satisfaction it would have given him to have collected the ransom and evaded capture! But regrets? No, he had no regrets-murder was a small thing to weigh in the balance against the pleasure that he might gain from the act. Would he do it again, White asked, if he knew that he could escape detection? Yes, Nathan replied, without hesitation-why not?

Nathan talked knowingly of s.e.x-he claimed to have had many s.e.xual experiences-but he admitted that s.e.x was truly pleasurable only if he experienced it as a violent, forceful, s.a.d.i.s.tic act. Nothing was more enjoyable than compelling another person to submit to his desire. Nathan had often imagined himself as a German officer in the Great War raping a girl. s.e.x with Richard Loeb had always been enjoyable, of course, especially when Richard pretended to be drunk and incapable of resisting; Nathan would then forcibly remove his clothes and rape him.33 As Nathan continued to talk, White realized that the intensity of each boy's fantasies and Nathan's overwhelming desire for Richard had created a potent combination between the two boys that seemed to ensure some violent catastrophe. Richard imagined himself as a master criminal; Nathan was Richard's obsequious companion, eager to do anything the other boy desired. Their relationship was pathological, based on fantasies that, in both boys, had supplanted reality; and the murder of Bobby Franks had been the consequence. White, in his final report, emphasized the boys' detachment from reality, writing that Richard, especially, had never developed the sense of social awareness that characterized the pa.s.sage from childhood to adulthood: "normally the child, from being a purely instinctive, selfish individual, controlled solely by the desire to gain pleasure and avoid pain, develops into a social individual with a desire to make his conduct conform to socially acceptable standards.... To the extent that this knowledge of right and wrong is deficient, to the extent that it is only on the surface and has not become a part of a well-integrated personality, [Richard Loeb] is lacking in those standards of character and conduct which we think of the normal person as possessing." Nathan, also, lacked the capacity to transcend an immediate need for gratification; he, too, had never developed the ability as a social individual of adjusting his own desires in accordance with the wishes of others.34

ON F FRIDAY, 4 J 4 JULY, the prisoners in the Cook County jail could hear the firecrackers exploding in the street outside in celebration of the holiday. The warden had arranged a chicken dinner to mark the occasion, but otherwise there was a subdued atmosphere inside the county jail. No visitors were allowed that day; Nathan and Richard spent the holiday reading in their cells, emerging occasionally to chat briefly with each other and to watch a baseball game in the yard. the prisoners in the Cook County jail could hear the firecrackers exploding in the street outside in celebration of the holiday. The warden had arranged a chicken dinner to mark the occasion, but otherwise there was a subdued atmosphere inside the county jail. No visitors were allowed that day; Nathan and Richard spent the holiday reading in their cells, emerging occasionally to chat briefly with each other and to watch a baseball game in the yard.35 The following day, William Healy, a tall, slender, soft-spoken man with thinning auburn hair and a deferential manner, arrived at the Cook County jail to begin his examination of Nathan and Richard. Healy now lived in Boston-he was the director of the Judge Baker Foundation, a research agency for the study of adolescent crime-but he knew Chicago well, having graduated from Rush Medical College in 1900 and having served until 1917 as the director of the psychiatric clinic attached to the Cook County Juvenile Court. Healy had first made his mark with The Individual Delinquent The Individual Delinquent, a monograph, based on his work for the Juvenile Court and published in 1915, that emphasized the unique character of each individual criminal and the importance of early childhood influences in determining adult behavior. It was an innovative and original work-the first by an American author to contest the notion of a criminal archetype. There was no pattern to criminality, Healy believed, and it was idle to imagine that criminals displayed characteristic features or behavior. There was an endless diversity to criminality: the motives and causes of crime varied according to individual circ.u.mstances.36 Few criminologists had as extensive experience as Healy in the treatment of adolescents, yet even he was surprised by the emotional detachment of Nathan and Richard. They could discuss the murder casually, in a matter-of-fact way, without any apparent emotion or feeling. The details of the crime, its planning, and its execution were plainly spoken by both boys; there was neither any hint of remorse in their words nor any regard for the grief that they had caused the Franks family.

Could the dichotomy between their intellectual ability and their emotional r.e.t.a.r.dation provide evidence for a psychological interpretation of the crime? Was the boys' affective incapacity one of the factors that had provoked the killing? Would it be possible, perhaps, to measure their intellects through the use of standardized tests? Intelligence testing-the application of standard procedures to quantify mental ability-had grown to maturity during the previous decade in response to the widespread belief that delinquency and deviance were consequences of mental impairment. The feebleminded, the mental defectives, were predisposed to prost.i.tution, alcoholism, pedophilia, antisocial behavior, and criminal activity; if scientists could measure an individual's intelligence, it was argued, they could determine which individuals were subnormal and hence likely to break the law. During the 1910s, psychologists, on the basis of their training and expertise, had self-consciously claimed the authority to determine mental ability and thus to a.s.sert professional autonomy. As psychologists had expanded their reach to claim that intelligence testing could be used for pedagogical and vocational purposes, such testing had become ubiquitous in American society.37 William Healy regarded mental defect as one, among many, of the causes of crime. Healy had been a member of the American a.s.sociation for the Study of the Feeble-Minded during the 1910s and was familiar with the psychological tests used to measure mental ability. What, Healy wondered, might such tests reveal about Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb? Would they demonstrate that each boy did in fact have exceptional intelligence? Might the tests allow the scientists to show that each boy's intellect was so far in advance of his emotional capacity as to const.i.tute a type of derangement?

Throughout the second week of July, Healy used a series of tests to measure each boy's intelligence. Nathan demonstrated a remarkable ability to complete each test successfully within the allotted time; he effortlessly completed the Monroe Silent Reading Test, the Kelly-Trabus Test, the Thurston Syllogism Test, the Cryptogram Test, and the McAlly Cube Test. He did less well on the Judgment Test, and his answers to the Kent-Rosanoff a.s.sociation Test revealed, according to Healy, that, contrary to appearances, Nathan did have some affective capacity.38 Richard Loeb was less conspicuously intelligent, demonstrating ability appropriate for an eighteen-year-old. He performed well in the Thurston Syllogism Test, answering almost all twenty questions correctly, but failed the Monroe Silent Reading Test. He successfully completed the Cryptogram Test within the allotted period but did only moderately well on the Kent-Rosanoff a.s.sociation Test. Healy's examination had produced no clear result except that Nathan was exceptionally intelligent. It was not evident, even to Healy, that the results of the intelligence tests might contribute to the defense case.39

A THIRD PSYCHIATRIST THIRD PSYCHIATRIST, BERNARD G GLUECK, arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, 8 July. After graduating from Georgetown University, Glueck had trained as an intern in psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital under the tutelage of William Alanson White, and in 1910 he had secured an appointment as medical officer in charge of the criminal division at the hospital. In 1916 Glueck left St. Elizabeths to become director of the psychiatric clinic at Sing Sing prison in New York state. Crime, according to Glueck, was more a consequence of social maladjustment than a result of deliberate choice. At Sing Sing, in concert with the prison authorities, he initiated a regimen that emphasized rehabilitation and reform. Glueck's research, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, demonstrated the pervasive character of mental illness among the prison population. Crime was a consequence, more often than not, of mental defect: sixty percent of the inmates at Sing Sing displayed symptoms of mental disease and almost twenty percent were dangerously psychopathic. The many forms of mental illness among the prison population, Glueck a.s.serted, rendered the legal test of insanity applied in the courtroom entirely inadequate. Psychiatric causes lay behind criminal behavior, and only the psychiatrist, treating the individual delinquent, could satisfactorily solve the problem of crime. By the early 1920s, his research at Sing Sing on criminality and deviance had earned Glueck a national reputation in penology, and in 1921 he moved to New York City to take up a joint appointment as director of the Bureau of Children's Guidance and professor of psychiatry at the New York Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital. arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, 8 July. After graduating from Georgetown University, Glueck had trained as an intern in psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital under the tutelage of William Alanson White, and in 1910 he had secured an appointment as medical officer in charge of the criminal division at the hospital. In 1916 Glueck left St. Elizabeths to become director of the psychiatric clinic at Sing Sing prison in New York state. Crime, according to Glueck, was more a consequence of social maladjustment than a result of deliberate choice. At Sing Sing, in concert with the prison authorities, he initiated a regimen that emphasized rehabilitation and reform. Glueck's research, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, demonstrated the pervasive character of mental illness among the prison population. Crime was a consequence, more often than not, of mental defect: sixty percent of the inmates at Sing Sing displayed symptoms of mental disease and almost twenty percent were dangerously psychopathic. The many forms of mental illness among the prison population, Glueck a.s.serted, rendered the legal test of insanity applied in the courtroom entirely inadequate. Psychiatric causes lay behind criminal behavior, and only the psychiatrist, treating the individual delinquent, could satisfactorily solve the problem of crime. By the early 1920s, his research at Sing Sing on criminality and deviance had earned Glueck a national reputation in penology, and in 1921 he moved to New York City to take up a joint appointment as director of the Bureau of Children's Guidance and professor of psychiatry at the New York Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital.40 Glueck's research at St. Elizabeths and at Sing Sing had made him familiar with as diverse a range of criminal behavior as one might expect, yet like Healy he was surprised that both Richard and Nathan showed so little affect. It was as though, within each boy, an emotional deadening had extinguished all empathy and affection. There was a sad, melancholy air about Richard, Glueck thought, as he listened to Richard confess that he, not Nathan, had wielded the chisel on the afternoon of the murder. Nathan had been driving the automobile, Richard explained. Bobby Franks had climbed into the front pa.s.senger seat, next to Nathan, and Richard had first clubbed him from behind and then asphyxiated him by stuffing a rag down his throat.41 Richard suffered from an overwhelming sense of his own inferiority, Glueck decided. Everything in Richard's life had conspired to multiply his feelings of impotence and inadequacy: the demands of his governess, his attendance at university at fourteen, his s.e.xual immaturity-all contributed to reinforce in Richard's mind that he was not capable of meeting the exigencies of everyday life. And to compensate for his feelings of inferiority, Richard had immersed himself in a fantasy universe in which he was a master criminal capable of planning devious and complex crimes. There was little doubt, Glueck concluded in his final report, that the murder of Bobby Franks was linked to Richard's need to compensate for his feelings of inadequacy. "The impelling motive," Glueck wrote, "in the defendant's criminal career was the motive of compensating through criminal prowess for his feelings of inferiority." The compensatory urge acted almost as a compulsion; Richard craved "to reach perfection, completeness, potency, and compensation for his sense of inferiority."42 Nathan Leopold, also, had retreated into a fantasy life. Yet, Glueck decided, Nathan's retreat was a consequence not so much of an inability to deal with everyday demands as of perverse s.e.xuality. Nathan had constructed a cynical, aloof intellectualism that enabled him to turn aside his self-disgust at his s.e.xual aberrancy. It had not been possible for Nathan to reconcile himself to his h.o.m.os.e.xuality, and he had been incapable of forming emotional connections on such a basis. He had, Glueck concluded, an "overwhelming desire to negate and repudiate whatever was part and parcel of his real nature beneath the crust of cold-blooded intellectualism." Nathan could feel comfortable with his s.e.xuality only within the relationship with Richard Loeb; the s.e.xual connection had cemented the bond between the two and had compelled Nathan to go along with Richard's criminal misdeeds. Nathan's "complete self-realization as a h.o.m.o-s.e.xual was made possible only in connection with his a.s.sociation with Richard Loeb."43

BEFORE 1900, 1900, NEUROLOGY-THE STUDY NEUROLOGY-THE STUDY of the brain and the nervous system-had dominated Americans' intellectual understanding of mental illness. According to the neurologists, psychiatric illnesses were a consequence of such somatic disorders as, for example, lesions of the brain; psychiatry, at least in the United States, was synonymous with biological psychiatry. By the first decade of the twentieth century, psychoa.n.a.lysis-the idea that neuroses were a consequence of unconscious conflicts over traumatic events-had made its initial bid to replace neurology as an alternative way of understanding mental illness. Neurology could (and did) offer a diagnosis of the causes of mental illness but was less effective in devising a cure. Psychoa.n.a.lysis provided an alternative to neurology, an alternative, moreover, that would allow psychiatrists to break out of their professional role as asylum superintendents and enable them to a.s.sume greater social and cultural authority as experts on a wide range of social and cultural problems. of the brain and the nervous system-had dominated Americans' intellectual understanding of mental illness. According to the neurologists, psychiatric illnesses were a consequence of such somatic disorders as, for example, lesions of the brain; psychiatry, at least in the United States, was synonymous with biological psychiatry. By the first decade of the twentieth century, psychoa.n.a.lysis-the idea that neuroses were a consequence of unconscious conflicts over traumatic events-had made its initial bid to replace neurology as an alternative way of understanding mental illness. Neurology could (and did) offer a diagnosis of the causes of mental illness but was less effective in devising a cure. Psychoa.n.a.lysis provided an alternative to neurology, an alternative, moreover, that would allow psychiatrists to break out of their professional role as asylum superintendents and enable them to a.s.sume greater social and cultural authority as experts on a wide range of social and cultural problems.44 Such psychoa.n.a.lytic interpretations as those advanced by the defense psychiatrists to explain the murder of Bobby Franks paid homage to the influence of Freudian ideas within the American psychiatric community. Experiences in childhood shaped and determined adult behavior; psychosis in the adult was rooted in infantile s.e.xuality; and conflicts within the unconscious found expression in seemingly irrational behavior. Few American psychiatrists, however, accepted Freud's ideas unreservedly; the leaders of the American Psychiatric a.s.sociation, a group that included William Alanson White, Bernard Glueck, and William Healy, adopted an eclectic approach that borrowed as much from Jung and Adler as from Freud.45 Their group ident.i.ty, however, relied less on a set of shared ideas and more on a common program of professional values developed in an attempt to broaden the cultural influence of the psychiatric movement. American psychiatry traced its nineteenth-century origins to the care of patients in the inst.i.tutional setting provided by the mental asylum. The asylum superintendent-the forerunner of the twentieth-century psychiatrist-concerned himself with the administrative management of large numbers of patients. Therapeutic efficacy-the cure and treatment of mental illness-was a secondary concern. Psychiatry was a profession, at least until the end of the nineteenth century, that interacted only casually with medical science and research.46 After 1900, psychiatry moved away from the restrictive role imposed by the asylum setting and began to diffuse itself more generally within American society. Psychiatrists could still be found in their traditional administrative roles, but increasingly they established and organized alternative inst.i.tutions: outpatient clinics, psychopathic hospitals, and private practice. As a corollary of the shift away from the asylum, psychiatry concerned itself less with the custodial care of acutely ill patients and more with the psychopathology of everyday life and its attendant problems: alcoholism, pauperism, prost.i.tution, delinquency, and crime. In this novel manifestation, psychiatry could align itself effortlessly with the Progressive Era and its glorification of the scientific expert; psychiatrists, with their specialized knowledge, could a.s.sert the cultural authority to deal with a wide range of social problems.47 No one was more active in promulgating an enlarged role for psychiatry than William Alanson White. The psychiatric perspective necessarily a.s.sumed that deviant behavior was a medical phenomenon; from this standpoint, which was adopted by White and his colleagues, science had demonstrated that human agency was a fiction-actions were never freely chosen, and the concept of individual responsibility was meaningless. All behavior, according to White, was a result of antecedent circ.u.mstances, usually rooted in the patient's childhood and adolescence. It was necessarily futile, therefore, to punish individuals for deeds for which they bore no responsibility; a more appropriate and more satisfactory response to criminal behavior, one that promised a permanent solution, would be found in psychiatric diagnosis and medical treatment in a psychopathic hospital.48 The denial of free will and evil intent and the rejection of punishment as a response to crime necessarily a.s.sumed a radical revision of courtroom procedure. All three of Darrow's psychiatrists-White, Healy, and Glueck-subscribed to a medicalizing ideology; all three hoped to extend and expand the influence of psychiatry within the courtroom in a way that would challenge the authority of the legal profession. The legal framework that determined the judicial process in the American courtroom was, according to White, hopelessly outdated; it relied on nineteenth-century concepts and methods that, because they took no heed of modern science, were entirely unsuited to the present day.49 White's animus toward contemporary legal procedure found its focus in the concept of insanity. The court customarily could find a defendant not guilty by reason of insanity; in the American courtroom, the accepted definition of a defendant's insanity was the inability to distinguish right from wrong. But insanity, according to White, was solely a legal concept; it had no basis in medical science. Moreover, this legal concept took no account of the complex character of mental illness. According to medical science, the dichotomy between sanity and insanity simply did not exist; an individual might have any one of an infinite number of degrees of mental illness, all of which lay on a continuum.50 In a legal sense, neither Nathan Leopold nor Richard Loeb was insane. Both had been able to distinguish right from wrong when they murdered Bobby Franks; both had been aware, at the time of the murder, of the character of their act; both had known that it was wrong. Yet to admit their sanity was not to preclude the possibility that both Nathan and Richard were mentally diseased.

To claim that crime was a medical phenomenon, and then to replace punishment with diagnosis and treatment, would necessarily expand the authority of the psychiatrist within the courtroom. It was not possible, White argued, for a lay jury, possessing neither scientific nor medical expertise, to diagnose the medical causes of a crime. Only a psychiatrist, as an objective expert, could make such a diagnosis; and only the psychiatrist, moreover, was capable of recommending an appropriate course of treatment. The jury still had a role, albeit circ.u.mscribed, in determining that a criminal act had occurred, but in all other respects its place in the courtroom was no more than vestigial.51 Would the defense psychiatrists find an opportunity to publicize their agenda through their partic.i.p.ation in the trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb? Certainly, in one sense, the circ.u.mstances were about as auspicious as one could expect. Clarence Darrow had promised to provide the defense experts with unlimited access to the defendants, of course, and nothing would be spared in the effort to diagnose their mental condition. There would be ample opportunity for the psychiatrists to proselytize-to present their belief that criminal behavior was a medical phenomenon best interpreted by scientific experts. Newspapers across the country would send the psychiatrists' courtroom testimony into every household in the land. It was an opportunity not to be missed-William Alanson White fully expected to be able to use the courtroom to broadcast his reforms of the judicial process; the defense psychiatrists would find an unprecedented audience for their program through the newspapers.

White's expectations remained high as the trial date approached, but his ability to persuade a national audience that legal procedures in the American courtroom were outdated rested, in some measure, on the cooperation of the state's attorney. White was anxious, for example, to avoid an adversarial contest in the courtroom between two rival sets of psychiatrists. Typically, in such cases, each set of psychiatrists flatly contradicted the other even when both sides agreed on the facts. It was an embarra.s.sment to the psychiatric profession, White believed, that the psychiatrists rarely agreed to produce a joint report a.n.a.lyzing the mental condition of the defendant. Would Robert Crowe allow the state's psychiatrists to partic.i.p.ate in such an endeavor? Probably not, Darrow advised, though it would be possible, of course, to raise the issue in court.

BUT COOPERATION WITH THE PROSECUTION seemed unlikely. Even now the state's attorneys were maligning the defense, portraying Darrow and his colleagues as dishonest. Joseph Savage, an a.s.sistant state's attorney, publicly complained that the defense had recruited more than a dozen scientific experts. Was Darrow hoping to tie up the court in technicalities? Did he hope to delay the proceedings by introducing procedural questions that would lengthen the trial by months, perhaps years? And what had happened to the promise made by Albert Loeb and Nathan Leopold Sr. just a short time before, that they would not spend exorbitant amounts in defense of their sons? The experts were each receiving as much as $1,000 a day for their services; did the defense hope to purchase the boys' acquittal? seemed unlikely. Even now the state's attorneys were maligning the defense, portraying Darrow and his colleagues as dishonest. Joseph Savage, an a.s.sistant state's attorney, publicly complained that the defense had recruited more than a dozen scientific experts. Was Darrow hoping to tie up the court in technicalities? Did he hope to delay the proceedings by introducing procedural questions that would lengthen the trial by months, perhaps years? And what had happened to the promise made by Albert Loeb and Nathan Leopold Sr. just a short time before, that they would not spend exorbitant amounts in defense of their sons? The experts were each receiving as much as $1,000 a day for their services; did the defense hope to purchase the boys' acquittal?52 Savage, in his remarks to the Chicago Sunday Tribune Chicago Sunday Tribune, reminded the reporter that Harry Thaw, the murderer of the New York architect Stanford White, had used an insanity defense to evade punishment. Thaw had shot and killed White in 1906 before dozens of witnesses. But he was wealthy-the son of a Pittsburgh railroad baron-and his lawyers had hired psychiatrists to testify to his insanity. Their strategy had succeeded; after spending several years in the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Thaw had eventually regained his freedom.53 But, Darrow countered, no one was advocating that Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb be released from confinement. Harry Thaw had used the insanity defense to win acquittal, but no one wished to see either Nathan or Richard free. "Many persons compare the cases of Leopold, Jr., and Loeb to the Harry K. Thaw case," Darrow stated. "In one vital respect the Franks murder case is different. Every possible means of securing Thaw's acquittal or release was attempted while in this case there is no one who wants to see the boys freed.... The parents are not seeking the acquittal of the boys. They do not want this at all. Convinced now of the truth of their confessions, they are afraid to have them freed. They believe their sons should be committed to an asylum." Nor was there any truth in the rumor, Darrow continued, that the families intended to use their wealth to purchase freedom for Nathan and Richard. No one on the defense team was receiving an exorbitant payment for his partic.i.p.ation in the case. The Chicago Bar a.s.sociation would set the remuneration for the lawyers, and the American Medical a.s.sociation would determine the fees for the psychiatrists; how, under such circ.u.mstances, could the prosecution accuse the families of using their wealth to thwart justice? And, in any case, the defense psychiatrists stood at the top of their profession; they had no need to testify for financial gain. "There is not a doctor," Darrow announced, "who has been called into this case who would think of charging an exorbitant fee in consideration of the wealth of the parents of the accused. They have ascended to such heights in their profession that matters of fee are beyond their consideration."54 In his statements to the press, Darrow hinted that the plea would be not guilty by reason of insanity. On Sat.u.r.day, 12 July, Darrow explained that the psychiatrists had discovered evidence of insanity in other members of the defendants' families. "We have found insanity in both the families of Leopold, Jr., and Loeb," he remarked. "I can not specify at this time how far back, or on which sides of the families the insanity has been traced. Neither may I a.s.sert just yet whether this evidence will be used in the trial."55 Other members of the defense team also dropped hints that some form of insanity would be presented to the court. The psychiatrist James Whitney Hall, in an interview with a Canadian journalist, explained that in Illinois an insanity defense did not necessarily involve showing that the defendant was unable to distinguish between right and wrong. "We will not claim," Hall stated, "that these boys did not, when the act was committed, know the difference between right and wrong." It might be possible to show that Nathan and Richard acted under a compulsion to commit the murder; if so, then, according to the legal definition, they would be insane. "But when it comes to the point," Hall concluded, "as to whether...these accused were possessed also of the power to choose between what was right and what was wrong, we will show that they did not possess such ability."56 Would Darrow use the insanity defense? Despite his a.s.sertion, the psychiatrists had found no evidence of hereditary insanity, yet everyone nevertheless a.s.sumed that he would use insanity as a defense at the coming trial. It was difficult to imagine any jury finding the defendants insane-both Nathan and Richard seemed rational and coherent, fully capable of distinguishing, and choosing between, right and wrong-yet what alternative did Darrow have? He surely could not plead simply not guilty-both Nathan and Richard had voluntarily confessed to the murder and had provided the police with evidence to corroborate their confessions.

Any man other than Robert Crowe might have been complacent-surely the jury would sentence Leopold and Loeb to hang!-but Crowe was too experienced, too watchful, too cautious to imagine that he could defeat Clarence Darrow so easily. Crowe regretted now that the psychiatrists for the prosecution had not had more time to question Leopold and Loeb-already, even before the trial had begun, Darrow was sneering at the brevity of the state's examination of the defendants and contrasting it unfavorably with the lengthy a.n.a.lysis undertaken by the defense psychiatrists. It was important, at least, that the prosecution antic.i.p.ate the intricacies of an insanity defense, and so, during the hot summer days of early July, Crowe arranged for the state's psychiatrists to educate his staff on the ramifications of an insanity plea.57 Also that summer, in preparation for the trial of Leopold and Loeb, three of Crowe's a.s.sistants traveled to Geneva, forty miles west of Chicago, to attend the deliberations of Kane County Circuit Court on the sanity of Warren Lincoln, a confessed murderer. Lincoln, a lawyer practicing in Aurora, had surprised his wife, Lina, having s.e.x with her brother, Byron Shoup. Enraged by the sight of his wife in an incestuous relationship, Lincoln had gotten his revolver from the greenhouse and, returning to the bedroom, had killed first his brother-in-law and then his wife.58 Nothing so bizarre as the double killing of Lina Lincoln and Byron Shoup had ever previously occurred in Kane County. Shortly after his arrest, Lincoln confessed that he had decapitated both victims and had encased their heads in a block of concrete, placing it underneath his back porch. Lincoln claimed that the m