In a mostly forgotten piece of Americana, 95 years ago in Los Angeles, arguably one of this country’s greatest lawyers was tried on a charge of bribery—bribery of jurors in a murder case. If his defense and history are any indi- cators, it was that lawyer’s controversial legal career—as much as jury tampering— that were being judged in that California courtroom in 1912.1 By the time Clarence Darrow headed west to represent defendants in a notorious murder case, he was already famous for representing those whom others would not represent. History would remember Darrow as the man who defended the right of John Thomas Scopes to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution—dramatized in the play and eventual movie Inherit the Wind; for his plea for clemency for Richard Loeb, who, with Nathan Leopold, tried to commit the perfect crime by murdering a classmate— made into the novel and film Compulsion; and as the “greatest champion of labor and the poor, the ‘attorney for the damned.’”2 It is no hyperbole to say that Darrow was the most famous lawyer of his time. Most lawyers in the early 1900s were not courtroom artists, but he was. Starting as a railroad lawyer, he later went on to defend unpopular people and causes. Darrow rep- resented the coal miners during their 1902 The People v. Clarence Darrow

BY HON. ROBERT L. GOTTSFIELD strike. He was against the death penalty, Hon. Robert L. Gottsfield is a organized religion and social discrimination retired but called-back full-time (Id. at 443). judge of the Superior Court, In fact, he switched sides to defend his Maricopa County. first great client, Eugene Debs. Debs was a union organizer who had established the rail- road worker’s union and the Socialist Party, becoming its presidential candidate in five elections beginning in 1900. And it was Debs who generated intense public pressure to free John and James McNamara, two brothers

28 ARIZONA ATTORNEY NOVEMBER 2007 www.myazbar.org accused of blowing up a newspaper plant, an was charged with using his chief jury inves- The prosecution carried out this person- action that led to the death of 20 men. tigator, Burt Franklin, to bribe two jurors al attack throughout the trial. But it aided It was his representation of the brothers in the trial. in Darrow’s strategy at trial as well as his McNamara that would lead to charges Darrow was alleged to have arranged, closing argument. Darrow’s aim was to against Darrow himself. How he reached through Franklin, the bribery of two show his damnation by the prosecution was that pass says much about the times in McNamara jurors. The first was George “not so much because he was a ‘jury which Darrow lived and the commitment Lockwood, a Civil War veteran and retired briber,’ but because he had been for years he felt to the plight of working people. county employee whom, it was alleged, was the champion of labor” (Id. at 412). to be paid $4,000 for his acquittal vote. As Darrow began his closing argument, The second juror was Robert Bain, another all conversation ended among the huge Civil War veteran, down on his luck and crowd of spectators. The 12 jurors, all men, Early-1900s America was an age of indus- employed as a carpenter, though already in eyed him intently. Present were his trade- trial violence. As the means and methods of his seventies; much was made of his need to mark unkempt hair and unruly lock falling production changed and consolidated, make payments on a new house (Id. at 25). over his forehead. His voice was low, his workers confronted sometimes shocking The police arrested Burt Franklin at the hands in his pockets. He looked from juror working conditions and a declining stan- scene of the alleged payoff. It appears that to juror as he spoke3: dard of living. For many, a solution lay in Lockwood had been outraged by the offer, the unity of organized labor. and he had notified the police in advance Gentlemen of the jury, it is not easy to In that tempest of labor strife, an auxil- (Id. at 231-233, 236-237). Spotted near argue a case of importance, even when iary plant of the Los Angeles Times was the payoff scene—but not arrested—was you are talking about someone else. An blown up by dynamite, killing 20. This Clarence Darrow. experience like this never came to me would be a tragedy and high-profile case in Franklin’s arrest was made prior to the before. Of course, I cannot say how I any age; in that tinderbox, the ensuing trial McNamara guilty pleas. Therefore, will get along with it. But I have felt, was called the greatest labor case, murder Darrow’s motives in having them plead gentlemen, by the patience you have case and political trial in the country’s his- guilty thereafter have always been chal- given this case for all these weeks, that tory (Id. at 3). Accused of the deed were lenged, by both allies and enemies. He you would be willing to listen to me. I James Barnabas McNamara and his brother always maintained he did it to save their lives might now argue it as well as I would John Joseph McNamara, treasurer of the and not to save his own skin from a possible some other case, but I felt that I ought Bridge and Structural Iron Worker’s Union. bribery indictment. Nonetheless, that indict- to say something to you twelve men John Joseph was a lawyer, a respected labor ment eventually was handed down. besides what I said on the witness stand. leader and a devout Catholic. He was a hero The Lockwood bribery trial was tried In the first place, I am a defendant, to the working man. first, in Los Angeles. Darrow’s defense charged with a serious crime. I have Darrow traveled west from Chicago to team consisted of four lawyers including been looking into the penitentiary for Los Angeles to represent the brothers. He Darrow. His chief counsel was Earl Rogers, six or seven months, waiting for you was the acknowledged leader of a “band of allegedly the most brilliant criminal lawyer twelve men to say whether I shall go or radicals, intellectuals, workers and in Los Angeles. Rogers gave the first clos- not. In the next place, I am a stranger in reporters, who were prepared to follow ing argument at the conclusion of the trial, a strange land, two thousand miles away him anywhere” (Id. at 22). but Darrow also was permitted to speak in from home and friends, although I am At Darrow’s urging and just before trial, his own defense following Rogers’ summa- proud to say here, so far away, there the brothers pleaded guilty. John Joseph tion. And Darrow’s closing was a dramatic have gathered around me as good and was sentenced to life and James, the least one, transforming the trial for the loyal and faithful friends as any man culpable and under the control of his Lockwood jurors into far more than a case could ever have upon the face of the brother, to 15 years. Fifteen-thousand men about jury tampering. earth. Still I am unknown to you. and women lined the streets outside the I think I can say that no one in my courthouse, “many whose hopes and ideals native town would have made to any had been so deeply invested in the broth- jury any such statement as was made of ers’ innocence” (Id. at 268). Eventually, Joseph Ford, a prosecutor, had opened the me by the assistant district attorney in the brothers were released from San trial with a stunning and venomous person- opening his summation. I will venture to Quentin within 10 years. al attack on Darrow. His words were punc- say he could not afterward have found a tuated by his vociferous use of a handy spit- companion except among detectives and toon (Id. at 410-412). Ford compared crooks and sneaks in a city where I live if Darrow to Judas Iscariot and Benedict he had dared to open his mouth in the Out of this scenario came the 1912 trial of Arnold—with the only qualification being infamous way that he did in this case. the bribery charge against Darrow. that Darrow’s crime was even more despi- But I am in his hands. Think of it! In a Specifically, Darrow, lead defense counsel, cable. position where he can call me a coward. www.myazbar.org NOVEMBER 2007 ARIZONA ATTORNEY 29 The People v. Clarence Darrow

CELEBRITY TRIAL, Circa 1912 Clarence Darrow, defendant, was far from the only remarkable figure to distinguish his bribery trial. A fascinating cast of characters populated the stage of the legal drama, many of whom are still recognizable almost 100 years later1: Eugene Debs Edgar Lee Masters William J. Burns Samuel Gompers Lincoln Steffans Jerry Gelsler E.W. Scripps

As noted, Edgar Lee Masters, William J. Burns, Samuel Gompers, Lincoln Steffans Jerry Geisler And finally, Eugene Debs a lawyer and poet, of Burns Detective who built the was the was a young E. W. Scripps, created great best known later for Agency fame, was at American “muckraking” lawyer– newspaper public interest Spoon River Anthology, the time “the most Federation of Labor journalist who researcher for publisher and in the murder was Darrow’s law celebrated (and into a nationally uncovered stories Darrow and one owner of trial of the two partner at the time of self-promoting) credible union, was of bribery and of Darrow’s United Press, brothers that both prosecutions. He detective in the prime reason corruption and criminal lawyers was an led to the spent countless hours American history,” Darrow took the tried to settle the in the Lockwood outspoken charges of helping Darrow in the calling himself a case. Gompers’ rep- McNamara case. bribery trial. He friend of the bribery. bribery trials. second Sherlock utation and career later became worker and an Holmes. The City of were threatened by famous as an adviser to Los Angeles hired the charges against attorney for Clarence him to discover who the McNamaras. movie stars in Darrow. had blown up divorce and the Los Angeles criminal Times plant. matters.

1. See GEOFFREY COWAN,THE PEOPLE V.CLARENCE DARROW:THE BRIBERY TRIALS OF AMERICA’S GREATEST LAWYER xxi-xxix (1993).

In all my life, I never saw or heard so cruel a plot to catch me as was ever used because I am in the way of the interests. cowardly, sneaky, and brutal an attack as on any American citizen? Are these peo- These interests would stop my voice— this thing here perpetrated on me. ple interested in bribery? Why almost and they have hired many vipers to help Was any courage displayed by him? It every dollar of their ill-gotten gains has them do it. They would stop my was only brutal and low, and every man come from bribery. voice—my voice, which from the time I knows it. This attack of Ford’s was cow- It is not that any of these men care was a prattling babe my father and ardly and malicious in the extreme. It about bribery, but there never was a mother taught me to raise for justice was not worthy of a man and it did not chance before, since the world began, to and freedom, and in the cause of the come from a man. claim that bribery had been committed weak and the poor. What am I on trial for, gentlemen of for the poor. They would stop my voice with the the jury? You have been listening here Suppose I am guilty of bribery. Is penitentiary. … You know not what you for three months. If you don’t know, that why I am prosecuted in this court? do. Let me say to you, that if you send then you are not as intelligent as I Is that why, by the most infamous meth- me to prison within the gray, dim walls believe. I am not on trial for having ods known to the law, these men, the of San Quentin there will brood a sought to bribe a man named real enemies of society, are trying to get silence more ominous and eloquent Lockwood. There may be and doubtless me inside the penitentiary? than any words my poor lips could ever are many people who think I did seek to No, that isn’t it, and you twelve frame. And do you think that you bribe him, but I am not on trial for that. know it. These men are interested in would destroy the hopes of the poor I am on trial because I have been a lover getting me. They have concocted all and the oppressed if you did silence me of the poor, a friend of the oppressed, sorts of schemes for the sake of getting now? Don’t you know that upon my because I have stood by labor for all me out of the way. Do you suppose they persecution and destruction would arise these years, and have brought down care about what laws I might have bro- ten thousand men, abler than I have upon my head the wrath of the criminal ken? I have committed one crime, one been, more devoted than I have been, interests in this county. Whether guilty crime which is like that against the Holy and ready to give more than I have or innocent of the crime charged in this Ghost, which cannot be forgiven. I have given in a righteous cause. indictment, that is the reason I am here, stood for the weak and the poor. I have I have been, perhaps, interested in and that is the reason I have been pur- stood for the men who toil. And there- more cases for the weak and poor than sued by as cruel a gang as ever followed fore I have stood against them, and now any other lawyer in America, but I am a man. this is their chance. All right, gentlemen, pretty nearly done, anyhow. If they had Will you tell me, gentlemen of the I am in your hands, not theirs, just yet. taken me twenty years ago, it might jury, why the Erector’s Association of I am tried here because I have given have been worth their while. But there Indianapolis (a manufacturers’ associa- a large part of my life and my services to are younger men than I, and there are tion) should have put up as vicious and the cause of the poor and the weak, and men who will not be awed by prison

30 ARIZONA ATTORNEY NOVEMBER 2007 www.myazbar.org The People v. Clarence Darrow

bars, by district attorneys, by detectives, Deliberations had extended to 40 hours, who will do this work when I am done. and the panel had decided 8–4 for convic- I am about as fitted for jury bribing tion. Darrow was never retried. as a Methodist preacher! If you 12 men Clarence Darrow died at 80 years of age think that I would pick out a place a on March 13, 1938. One of Darrow’s for- block from my office—and send a man mer law partners, Judge William Holly, with money in his hand in broad day- delivered the eulogy; as Darrow put it, light to go down on the street corner to “He knows everything about me, and has pass four thousand dollars—why, find the sense not to tell it.” An elegant touch, me guilty. I certainly belong in some the eulogy had been written and given state institution. before by Darrow at the funeral of a close Gentlemen, I have been human. I associate and mentor; Judge Holly had have done both good and evil. But I merely changed the names (Id. at 444-45). hope that when the last reckoning is As Holly recited: made the good will overbalance the evil, Clarence Darrow was a soldier in the and if it does, then I have done well. I everlasting struggle of the human race hope it will so overbalance it that you for liberty and justice on the earth. … jurors will believe it is not to the interest We may not know what justice is. … of the state to have me spend the rest of But mercy is a quality that we can all my life in prison. recognize, and in his heart was infinite pity and mercy for the poor, the Darrow’s closing began on a Wednesday oppressed, the weak and erring—all a little after 2:00 p.m. and ended on races, all colors, all creeds and all AZ Thursday at noon, with an evening break in humankind. AT between. During his oration, he had gotten the jurors to focus on the good he had done against the forces of “evil” in socie- ty—manufacturer’s associations, prosecu- tors and detectives. But he also stressed the uphill battle he had fought in the McNamara case and the brothers’ good though misguided intentions. He pleaded endnotes for compassion for his former clients and 1. This article is based on GEOFFREY COWAN, compassion for himself. THE PEOPLE V. CLARENCE DARROW: THE Darrow also made a plea for jury nullifi- BRIBERY TRIALS OF AMERICA’S GREATEST cation, that “as a matter of collective con- LAWYER (1993). See also IRVING STONE, science—and in the interest of a higher CLARENCE DARROW FOR THE DEFENSE sense of justice”—allowed jurors to free (1941); CLARENCE DARROW, ATTORNEY William Penn and John Peter Zenger. At FOR THE DAMNED (1957, Arthur Weinberg. Ed.). Books exonerating the end of his summation, reporters wrote Darrow of the bribery charges discussed that Darrow was crying, the jurors were herein are Stone’s book and Darrow’s own weeping—as was the crowded courtroom autobiography, THE STORY OF MY LIFE (Id. at 426). (1932). The book by Cowan, an attorney The prosecution’s final argument ended and Darrow scholar, takes the position Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning, the that Darrow may well have committed jury began deliberations about 9:20 a.m. bribery and that his friends at the time were overwhelmingly of the view that he Less than 40 minutes later, they returned a did it (7-8). not-guilty verdict. The courtroom explod- 2. COWAN, supra note 1, at 5. Many may also ed with excitement. remember the one man play by David In its short tenure, the jurors had held Rintek, Clarence Darrow, starring Henry three ballots for acquittal: 8–4, 10–5 and Fonda, which toured in the 1970s. finally 12–0. Moreover, All Too Human, a one-man The second trial, regarding the juror show, is still playing around the country and refers to the bribery trials. Robert Bain, was tougher going for 3. Id. What appears here is from the trial tran- Darrow, but the result was the same. That script reported by COWAN at 416-422 in 1913 trial ended with a hung jury. pertinent part.

32 ARIZONA ATTORNEY NOVEMBER 2007 www.myazbar.org