Product Description

The courtroom has been a dramatic setting for larger-than-life figures throughout history, but few have attained the almost mythical status of Clarence Darrow. A legend in his own time, Variety called him "America's greatest one-man stage draw." Here was a man whose flair for showmanship went hand in hand with a fierce intellect; a man whose shaky moral compass and staggering conceit collided at all turns with an unrivaled eloquence and an overwhelming compassion for humanity.

Darrow had been one of the most revered lawyers in the country, but in 1924 his reputation was still clouded after a narrow escape from a charge of jury tampering in Los Angeles. At the age of sixty-seven he thought his life and career were almost over, until he was offered an impossible assignment—the defense of the teenage "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Darrow then went on to earn even more international acclaim in two other groundbreaking cases: a classic standoff against William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, and the Ossian Sweet murder trial in Detroit. Throughout two crammed and dizzying years, this lion of the court held the Western world in awe as he tackled these three starkly different, history-making cases, each in turn dubbed "the Trial of the Century."

But these trials, as important as they were to Darrow, were not the only events that helped rejuvenate him and seal his courtroom legacy. There was also his enduring relationship with Mary Field Parton, his lover and soul mate, a woman whose role toward the end of his career was larger than many have realized. With fascinating new research and discoveries, including her private journals and letters, The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow is an intimate and riveting depiction of this American icon, one of the greatest lawyers this country has ever seen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #315938 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-01
• Released on: 2009-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061161490
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Jonathan Yardley On March 13, 1938, a strange woman named Mary Field Parton, who over the years had had a strange relationship with the celebrated defense attorney Clarence Darrow, wrote in her diary: "Darrow died today at this hour. That is, his body died following the earlier death of his brilliant mind. It will not be long before a generation will say, 'Who was Darrow? Never heard of him.' So quickly the waters of oblivion close over the great of a generation." Her prediction was pretty much on the mark. As a teenager in the 1950s, I was very aware of Darrow, principally through the play "Inherit the Wind" and its subsequent movie adaptation, as well as Meyer Levin's bestselling novel "Compulsion," which was also made into a film. No American lawyer today is as famous as Darrow was in the first decades of the 20th century -- not merely famous, but also adored and despised, venerated and reviled -- but now, nearly three-quarters of a century after his death, he is as forgotten as the people he defended: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, wealthy Chicago youths who in 1924 murdered a 14-year-old boy as "an experiment"; John T. Scopes, arrested in 1925 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school; Ossian Sweet, an African American accused, along with 10 others, of murdering a white man during a racial confrontation that same year in the Detroit neighborhood into which he, his wife and baby daughter had just moved. But recently Darrow's been enjoying something of a revival. Two books were published last year in which he plays a central role: "For the Thrill of It," Simon Baatz's first-rate account of the Leopold and Loeb case, and "American Lightning," Howard Blum's inept retelling of the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in which Darrow, representing the radical unionists who had committed the crime, came within a whisker -- a hung jury, to be precise -- of being convicted of jury-tampering, a case that left him disbarred in California, his reputation in shreds. This is where Donald McRae comes in. Straining mightily (and for the most part unsuccessfully) to put a new twist on Darrow's story, McRae begins with Darrow wallowing in the slough of despond, saved from suicide in January 1912 -- "he had just learned that he was about to stand trial on the charge of bribing two members of a jury in a murder case that had gone disastrously wrong" -- by the loving intercession of Mary Field Parton, who was then his mistress. McRae, a British journalist who up to now has written primarily about sports, then launches into detailed accounts of the three aforementioned cases, his premise being that the trials of Leopold and Loeb, Scopes and Sweet provided, within the space of two years, the opportunity for Darrow to regain not merely his reputation but also his self-respect. He's right about that. Such éclat as Darrow still enjoys, primarily among lawyers and history buffs, rests on his defense of Scopes in the famous "Monkey Trial," as H.L. Mencken called it. Darrow took the case out of deep contempt for the Tennessee law, passed in 1925, that made it "unlawful for any teacher in any of the universities, normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of Divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." Fundamentalist fever was white hot in Tennessee at the time, the Ku Klux Klan was on the march, and the American Civil Liberties Union was delighted when Darrow and another prominent lawyer, Dudley Field Malone, declared themselves "willing, without fees or expense, to help the defense of Professor Scopes in any way you may suggest or direct." The presence of Darrow for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution promised that the trial would be a circus; Bryan, who had been defeated for the presidency three times, had turned his attention and his formidable oratorical skills to the fundamentalist cause, and a circus is just what it was in Dayton, Tenn., that summer: "A carnival atmosphere swept through the whole town. Apart from the brightly colored flags and slogans draped over Main Street, most of the local stores featured images of monkeys and coconuts. In between the lemonade counters and hot-dog stands, erected especially for the trial, vendors sold 'Your Old Man's a Monkey' buttons and Hell and the High Schools booklets. The diminutive author of that tract, T.T. Martin, bustled around Dayton, distributing leaflets mocking 'Mass Meetings for Infidels, Scoffers, Atheists, Communists, Evolutionists and Others' or making impromptu street-corner sermons on the literal truth of the Bible." Darrow lost the battle but won the war. The jury found Scopes guilty, and the court fined Scopes the $100 minimum penalty, which was paid by Mencken's paper, the Baltimore Evening Sun. But Darrow put Bryan on the stand and made a fool of him, ridiculing his literal interpretations of the Bible and his utter inability to comprehend Darwinism. Mencken wrote: "This three-time candidate for the Presidency came in a hero and he sat down in the end as one of the most tragic asses in American history." Days after the trial's end Bryan, a notorious glutton, "suffered a massive stroke and died in his sleep." Asked by a reporter if Bryan had died of a broken heart, Darrow replied: "Broken heart nothing. He died of a busted belly." As to the two other trials, Leopold and Loeb confessed to the murder of Bobby Franks, indeed boasted about it, so the only issue was whether they would be executed for the crime. Darrow argued that they had acted out of mental illness, but the judge didn't give that as the reason for handing down life sentences. Instead, he said, "In choosing imprisonment instead of death, the court is moved chiefly by the consideration of the age of the defendants." Probably Darrow's eloquence persuaded the judge to go (relatively) easy on the boys, but he declined to hand Darrow a clear victory. The case of Ossian Sweet is now the least known of the three. It didn't get the saturation coverage that the other two did, probably because the defendants were African Americans. It was an early civil-rights case, though, and an important one, as Darrow managed to plant sufficient doubt in the minds of the all-white jury to persuade them not to convict Sweet's brother, leading the way to the exoneration of all the defendants. The Sweet family clearly had been victimized by a mob, and whoever actually killed a white man in the mob presumably never will be known. So long as McRae is writing about the three cases, his narrative moves along nicely, but when he turns to the relationship between Darrow and Mary Field Parton his prose quickly descends to the depths of treacle. These passages -- and there are many of them -- are to my taste almost completely unreadable, though I do not discount the possibility that others may feel otherwise.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Donald McRae is the acclaimed author of five nonfiction books. He has been named the UK's Feature Writer of the Year for his work in The Guardian (2005) and has won the William Hill UK Sports Book of the Year award, the sports "Booker" as it's called, two times (the only writer to have done so). His work includes Every Second Counts: The Race to Transplant the First Human Heart and Heroes Without a Country: America's Betrayal of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. He lives near London with his family.

Customer Reviews

The Celebrity Lawyer and his bimbo problem
When Donald McRae paints a word picture of Darrow in the courtroom, he writes a compelling story. While most people think of Clarence Darrow defending evolution in the famous "Monkey Trial", McRae expands the picture to show the sequence of two other trials, famous in their own time and still resonant today.

The first is the defense of two cold-blooded murderers, Leopold and Loeb, both sons of Chicago millionaires, whose illicit homosexual love affair led them to kill a 14-year old neighbor boy, pour acid on his body and stuff it into a culvert. With the whole nation crying for the execution of the two 19-year olds, Darrow, a staunch opponent of capital punishment, takes the case and succeeds in saving their lives. McRae makes us fascinated with this crime and notes that the wealthy fathers stiff the famous lawyer on his legal fees.

The second trial of Kentuckian John T. Scopes for the teaching of evolution in the Tennessee schools gives us a colorful cast of characters. Although Darrow didn't get his client off, he won in the court of public opinion by showcasing the narrow-mindedness of the anti-evolution forces.

In the third trial, Darrow defends a black man on a charge of murder in Detroit. Dr. Ossian Sweet, a doctor who had studied in Europe, had bought the corner house in a white neighborhood. On the first night in the house, an angry mob congregates outside the house, but nothing serious happens. On the second night, Dr. Sweet, his college student brother, a dentist and two insurance salesmen are in the house to keep watch. Stones are thrown, a window is broken and suddenly a shot rings out from the upper windows of the house. One of the men outside the house falls dead -- and it falls to Darrow to convince an all-white jury that the men in the house acted in self defense.

These are absolutely riveting cases, but the author undercuts all pretense of making this a serious biography by overemphasizing Darrow's extra-marital involvement with Mary Field Parton. McRae lavishes page after mawkish page on Mary without convincing the reader that she has any true importance in Darrow's life. They had an affair, then she married someone else, gave up her journalism career and raised a daughter. She saw him in Chicago before the trial of Loeb and Leopold, but Darrow refused her the "inside scoop" she was hoping would revive her journalism career. While she continued to carry a torch for the much older Darrow, it seems apparent from McRae's narrative facts that she was nothing more than a footnote in Darrow's life. McRae seems to put Mary Parton forward because she is all he has in the way of "new" material. While it is interesting to learn that the famous lawyer was a jerk in private life, that is less surprising to the modern reader than Darrow's conviction that he could use the law to fight for the oppressed. This might serve the reader as an introduction, but don't take this for a definitive biography.

Entertaining Popular History
If you are looking for a detailed, critical biography of Clarence Darrow, this is not the book you should buy. Or if you want an in-depth analysis of the Scopes Monkey Trial or some of Darrow's other famous cases, then this book will disappoint. (For an outstanding recounting of the Scopes case and its historical impact, pick up Larson's "Summer of the Gods.") But if you want a simple, well-written introduction to Mr. Darrow and some of the major cases he litigated, you could do a lot worse than Mcrae's book.

Clarence Darrow was truly larger than life. And, as Mcrae repeatedly acknowledges, he was a man of immense contradictions. He was one of the most narcissistic and egomaniacal individuals who ever lived. But, throughout his career, he frequently exhibited great compassion and generosity. And, above all, he was a brilliant lawyer who has had a lasting impact on the legal profession and American society.

Mcrae devotes, in my opinion, too much attention to Darrow's affair and relationship with Mary Field Parton. I would rather have seen some of those pages replaced with additional information about the legal and political implications of Darrow's major cases. And, at times, Mcrae is a bit superficial in his discussion of the legal issues raised by those cases, which, perhaps, is to be expected in a work of popular history. Further, I believe Mcrae should have offered a more detailed and critical assessment of Darrow's bribery trials in California in 1912-1913. The indisputable truth is that Darrow was guilty as sin and that his personal popularity and his legal strategy of jury nullification are the only things that kept him out of jail and prolonged his legal career.

But these are relatively minor quibbles. If you are looking for a very entertaining read this summer, take this book to the beach with you. At the very least, you'll be different from the rest of the herd who will be toting the latest garbage that typically finds its way on to our bestseller lists.

Great oratory, historical events, and a fine true story. I loved it!
Of course I had heard about Clarence Darrow. His great oratories at some of the most publicized trials of the 20th century are legend. This book is about those trials of course. But it is also a book about the highs and lows of his life. And it doesn't forget his lady love, Mary Field Parker, a journalist who inspired and adored him even though he would never leave his wife, Ruby for her.

Darrow is known for his best trials which all occurred between his ages of 68 and 71. Before that he had his problems with his career, and was himself on trial for bribery in 1912. This was a trial where Mary stood by him and cemented their relationship. There was no actual conviction at this trial but Darrow was barred from ever practicing law in the State of California. He had to move on.

It was in Chicago where he was offered the chance to defend Loeb and Leopold, two privileged young men who had murdered a young boy just for the thrill of it. These young men had not just confessed to the crime, they boasted about it and the public was demanding a hanging. Clarence Darrow saved their lives.

The second trial and perhaps the most famous was the Scopes trial which has been represented on the stage and in the film "Inherit the Wind". This took place in Tennessee in 1924 when a schoolteacher was fined for teaching evolution. Here, Clarence Darrow was pitted against his old friend and adversary, William Jennings Bryan, who had tired several times to run for president. At one point in his oratory, Clarence Darrow talked about how, one hundred years from that time, evolution would be an accepted concept. I had to smile wryly at that; it is almost 100 years since that time now, and the battle is still going on.

The last trial took place in Detroit when a black doctor and his wife tried to move into a white neighborhood. A mob surrounded the house throwing rocks and one of the black men inside the house shot outside, killing a white man. All ten of the men in house were accused of murder.

I loved this book. I just couldn't stop reading it. And even though I knew it is impossible to know exactly what individual characters were actually thinking, especially in the romance department, I was completely drawn into historical events and the very brilliant oratory of Clarence Darrow.