Page:The plea of Clarence Darrow, August 22nd, 23rd & 25th, MCMXXIII, in defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr., on trial for murder.djvu/32

, and they were going to kill a boy; nobody knew who, or when, or where, or how.

And in asking for a ransom they would need a machine to write on, and so that they could not be detected they went to Ann Arbor and stole one.

There is some evidence somewhere in this record that on their way home from Ann Arbor they began to discuss this question of committing a perfect crime, which had been their phantasy for months.

The typewriter had nothing whatever to do with it, but to make it seem that they were schemers and planners, that they knew how to think and how to act, it is argued that they went all the way to Ann Arbor in the night time to steal a typewriter, instead of buying one here, or stealing one here, or getting one here, or using their own, or advertising for one, or securing one in any one of a hundred ways of getting a typewriter here.

Of course it is impossible on the face of it, but let us see what the evidence is. They did bring a typewriter from Ann Arbor and on that typewriter they wrote this so-called ransom letter, and after the boy had been killed they threw the typewriter into the lagoon, after twisting off the letters.

Why did they twist off the letters?

Well, I suppose anybody knows why. Because one who is fairly familiar with a typewriter knows that you can always detect the writing on almost every typewriter. There will be imperfect letters, imperfect tracking and imperfect this, that and the other, by which detection is accomplished, and probably they knew it.

But mark this: Leopold kept this typewriter in his house for six months. According to the testimony of the maid, he had written many letters on it. According to the testimony of his tutors he had written the dope sheets