Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned

by John A. Farrell

Drawing on untapped archives and full of fresh revelations, here is the definitive biography of America’s legendary defense attorney and progressive hero.

Clarence Darrow is the lawyer every law school student dreams of on the side of right, loved by many women, played by Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind . His days-long closing arguments delivered without notes won miraculous reprieves for men doomed to hang.
 
Darrow left a promising career as a railroad lawyer during the tumultuous Gilded Age in order to champion poor workers, blacks, and social and political outcasts against big business, Jim Crow, and corrupt officials. He became famous defending union leader Eugene Debs in the land­mark Pullman Strike case and went from one headline case to the next—until he was nearly crushed by an indictment for bribing a jury. He redeemed himself in Dayton, Tennessee, defending schoolteacher John Scopes in the “Monkey Trial,” cementing his place in history.
 
Now, John A. Farrell draws on previously unpublished correspondence and memoirs to offer a candid account of Darrow’s divorce, affairs, and disastrous finances; new details of his feud with his law partner, the famous poet Edgar Lee Masters; a shocking disclosure about one of his most controversial cases; and explosive revelations of shady tactics he used in his own trial for bribery.
 
Clarence Darrow is a sweeping, surprising portrait of a leg­endary legal mind.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Law, American History, Politics, Legal

576 pages, Hardcover

First published June 4, 2011

Reviews

[John Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it. I wrote it.

[Ed Smiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darrow is a gargantuan figure, every bit as amazing as his reputation, and this is a wonderfilled biography. Darrow is skeptical, generous and venal, idealistic and cynical, shrewd and reckless, oversexed and loving, progressive and corrupt: a plethora of personality traits tumbling out upon an amazing event-filled life. But if that just seems like a grab bag of random characteristics, Farrell writes with a deft precision, and a fine attention to detail, as well as allowing ample space for Darrow to unleash his intellect in pure torrents of speech, recreating rich as life the events surrounding his most famous legal cases. Somehow, it all comes together, and all these disparate parts seem to justly form the measure of the man. And despite his near nihilism, the one characteristic that seems to explain him best is a horror of death, which informed him with a terrible pity and compassion for his fellow creatures, a hatred of executions and persecution, greed and prejudice, all of which seem hopelessly vindictive in the shadow of the grave.

[Arminius · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are poor, a mobster, a racist, a union member or an oppressed minority there was one lawyer that you would look for if you got in legal trouble during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. That lawyer went by the name of Clarence Darrow.

Darrow received his law admission in Ohio but moved to Chicago where he made his name. He started as a lawyer in Chicago city government where he came under the tutelage of one of the great liberal thinkers of the era, John Altgeld. Altgled impressed upon him liberal causes and political scholarly advice. Altgeld helped Darrow obtain a job as a corporate lawyer at Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. Darrow earned wages handling the Railway’s legal business. However, he soon moved his ambitions to becoming a remarkable defense attorney.

His first major successful defense was working for Union leader Eugene V. Debs. Debs was charged with starting the Pullman strike in 1894. In 1902, he represented the Miner’s union in the great Anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania. In this arbitration case he paraded injured and maimed coal miners and children to gain sympathy for the miner’s cause. In 1906 he produced acquittals for Western Miner Union leaders William Haywood, George Pettibone and Charles Moyer when they were implemented in the murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.

When union member brothers, John and James McNamara, where accused of bombing the Los Angelus Times building they called on Darrow. Darrow knew they were guilty but masterly won an acquittal for one and was able to reduce the other McNamara brother’s sentence to life imprisonment.
Although, he had many successes he became legendary because of two court cases in which he was the lead attorney. The first of those was working for the defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold when they were accused of murdering a young boy, just for the thrill it produced. The defendants confessed to the murder so Darrow’s goal was to save them from the death penalty. He was able to convince the jury that they suffered from temporary insanity due to suffering years of abuse. Leopold would be paroled after 30 years in prison but Loeb was killed in prison.

His most famous trial was the Scopes/Monkey trial in 1925.The trial pitted, giants of the time, Superstar defense attorney Clarence Darrow vs. former presidential candidate and secretary of state William Jennings Bryan. John T. Scope was a teacher who violated a Tennessee law which forbade the teaching of evolution. In the trial, Darrow embarrassed Bryan, who was a devout Christian, by reputing many Biblical claims in which Bryan was unable to defend. Darrow lost the case however in losing he changed society’s opinions. Bryan died shortly after the trial.

Much of the book discuses Darrow’s interesting personal life and his various relationships. He was ahead of his time in many of his ideas and went through periods of wealth and periods of impoverishment. He was a brilliant man. He absorbed history, literature and psychology with ease. And he masterfully was able to transfer empathy to jurors for his clients and able to pick out a “bad guy” on the prosecution’s side to vilify.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarence Darrow has fascinated me for years. My father is a lawyer and I always tried to imagine that he was some sort of Clarence Darrow crusading against the corporations, the racists and the anti-evolutionary forces if necessary.

I decided to read this book because my father mentioned that he wanted a copy. I figured it would be great book for us to talk about. We haven't done that yet.

Farrell gave me a great appreciation for the complex man that was Clarence Darrow. Yes, he was an amazing lawyer who led labor to some of its greatest victories and gained one the NAACPs first key courtroom triumphs, but he was also a man that would take a case for money. He was a man, that Farrell's research shows, was probably not only guilty of bribing a jury despite being found innocent, but a man with so little conscience that he bribed a jury member in that case to help ensure his innocence.

Farrell's book is a fairly quick read and he does a fine job with providing a succinct account of all of Darrow's major trials. He also quotes liberally from Darrow's closing arguments which gives the reader a true picture of just how Darrow won those cases. Usually, it had very little to do with the letter of the law. Darrow appealed to people's emotions. He did everything he could to put the jury members' in his clients' shoes. Often, he hardly talked about the specifics of the case at all. He would talk about how fate had led the murderer to his crime or how society had led the terrorist to the dynamite.

Farrell also goes into Darrow's personal life. Darrow espoused free love. Of course it was free love for him. It doesn't seem that either of his wives got to practice his creed. I felt that this part of the book simply wasn't as strong or riveting as the courtroom battles. He seemed like an erudite philanderer which didn't compare to being perhaps the best attorney in the country.

Farrell is able to portray Darrow in all his manifest moods. He was a dreamer and a cynic at the same time. He injected his clients' with hope, but often lost any hope that humans would rise above their current life. Most of all he was a fighter. He did not shy away from seemingly impossible battles. He took on battles that no one would take on like representing Loeb and Leopold in their infamous trial.

There is much to admire in this remarkable flawed man and Farrell's book give us a clearer understanding of him.

One last thing. The notes in the book are informative and entertaining. There is also a great discussion of the source material and where it can be found. You could read about Darrow for the rest of your life if you were so inclined.

[Porter Broyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion as a Buddy Read next month and wanted to read this book as a primer for that book.

I am very glad that I did. This book was very interesting and provided in depth analysis on Darrow's life that are likely to be covered in synopsis in Summer of the Gods. The scopes trial only took 1 chapter here, but I supect that it will take more in Summer. Similarly, issues that are mentioned in passing will be handled in more detail here.

One of the things that I found that was of particular interest was how Darrow's career took a radically different twist. Early on, they he flew by the seats of his pants. Didn't really know what he was doing, but did better when the judge and/or jury had been bribed (or felt sympathy to Darrow's case). The willingness to bribe jurors lead to a reputation.

Darrow was a pioneer in legal strategies. He often went off textbook. In otherwords, the textbook court proceedings indicated that he should act in a certain manner in certain circumstances. He wouldnt' follow the textbook.

In several cases he admitted the victems guilt, but then used the period to provide evidence for sentencing to show that his client was not mentally competent to stand trial. In another case, he called the prosecutions lead witness as his own lead witness. He called the Defense to testify in the scopes trial.

The book was very interesting, but I gave it 4.5 stars

[Rasheed Abdullah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarence Darrow was an interesting fellow. He even made his way to being mentioned in a movie made in 1960. I was watching Ocean’s 11 and Danny Ocean remarked to one of the others who made an astute observation, “A regular Clarence Darrow.”

The rap on Darrow was that “money and publicity have been his life objects,” as was stated by his former legal partner. Was he a man of principles or not depends upon who you ask but he took on some serious legal fights. Because of his anti-capital punishment stance he found himself defending Leopold and Loeb (they confessed to kidnapping, molesting, and killing a child). He defended unions, he defended evolutionism (as in the Monkey-Scopes trial), he defended African-Americans (most notably Ossian Sweet of Detroit), and he defended a lot of hard-luck losers who, either through society or their own hands, found themselves looking down the barrel of the shotgun of justice.

But, did this verbose man take on these cases because of principles or because of the fame and adulation that could potentially come with the cases?

I think that there had to be values involved. Many times he opted to be on the incredibly and dangerously unpopular side of arguments. There were a lot easier and surer ways to achieve fame and fortune which he would take on occasion (such as defending the railroads or defending the four white people who killed the Hawaiian, Kahahawai). His morals and principles weren’t completely unclouded by money, because it was clear he had a taste for fine things as well. Whatever the case he truly captured his audience and he was able to sway the people.

As enigmatic and interesting as Darrow was, this book was too long. At 460 pages of biography and another 100 or so of notes, this was too long for a biography. Too many minor details were being noted and captured. I hit the wall while reading it and set it down for over four months. That shouldn’t happen. A good book should keep you engaged and looking forward to the next time you can read it if you ever put it down. I trudged through the last 60+ pages. This is not to say that the book isn’t a quality book detailing the life of a quality individual, it’s just to say that it was too long.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not quite as good as Farrell's more recent superb biography of Richard Nixon, a comprehensive and engaging biography of Clarence Darrow, best known for his participation in the Scopes Monkey trial and legal defense of the infamous Leopold and Loeb. Darrow had a fascinating career and was a complex personality. Farrell's account is well researched and balanced, examining not only Darrow's virtues but also his flaws and personal failings.

[RJ Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but not great. A hard slog. Wanted to move on to something else. Wanted to know a little more about the period of time. Also wanted to learn a little more about Darrow.

How to get the damn book off currently reading list??? Wasting time.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

He was a radical in the age of laissez faire. “With the land and possessions of America rapidly passing into the hands of a favored few; with thousands of men and women in idleness and want; with wages constantly tending to a lower level . . . with the knowledge that the servants of the people elected to correct abuses are bought and sold in legislative halls at the bidding of corporations and individuals; with all these notorious evils sapping the foundations of popular government and destroying personal liberty, some rude awakening must come.”

That was the legendary attorney Clarence Darrow: champion of labor, a founding director of the NAACP and co-founder of the ACLU, “the country’s most prominent and outspoken atheist,” advocate of free love, “Jefferson’s heir — his time’s foremost champion of personal liberty,” a superstar of his time. As John A. Farrell describes him, Darrow was “a Byronic hero — intelligent, captivating, jaded, moody; a renegade, with small regard for rank or privilege. He scorned society and its norms, and this seeped into his practice of the law. He would employ any trick to save a client.”

It was called the Gilded Age. That phrase, the title of a novel by a chronicler of the time, Henry James, is now frequently found describing our own era. Then, as now, the fruits of innovation and increased productivity gravitated upwards into the hands of a few, with millions consigned to needless misery in a relentless war of labor versus capital. In the closing years of the nineteenth century and the opening decade of the twentieth, when John D. Rockefeller became the country’s first billionaire, the sources of new wealth were the economies of scale, speed, and coordination afforded by the Industrial Revolution. Today the principal engine that generates new billionaires by the score is the software that characterizes the Information Age.

At the remove of more than a century, Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and Theodore Roosevelt come to mind as the avatars of the Gilded Age. Then, other names just as commonly featured in the news: Eugene V. Debs, Big Bill Haywood, and Samuel Gompers, the leaders of the labor movement who figured most prominently in the economic wars during the movement’s bloodiest days. But no one was more widely revered, or more deeply reviled, than the attorney Clarence Darrow. Today, his name is most likely to conjure up images of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, when he squashed the hapless William Jennings Bryan in the courtroom and turned the tide in the debate in which the theory of evolution faced off against the shaky certainties of Right-Wing Christianity. However, in his time, Darrow was better known as a champion of labor, the poor, and women. He was the man who achieved an acquittal in Big Bill Haywood’s trial on trumped-up murder charges in what for many years was considered the Trial of the Century.

As his friend and frequent collaborator Lincoln Steffens described him, Darrow was “the attorney for the damned.” As Farrell notes, “a third or more of Darrow’s cases earned him nothing.” As Darrow himself explained, “Well what can a fellow do, when some poor devil comes to him, with a cent or a friend in the world, trembling in his shoes and begging for a chance before the law?” Yet at times Darrow showed himself prone to cynicism. “If the underdog got on top he would probably be just as rotten as the upper dog, but in the meantime I am for him. He needs friends a damn sight more than the other fellow.”

Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned is a masterful biography. I can think of few other books that can serve as insightfully as an introduction to the history of the Gilded Age — or as a cautionary tale about the political challenges of our own time.

[Barbara Stoner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the early years of the 20th century, there was only one damned lawyer that the damned themselves could turn to, and John A. Farrell tells his riveting story in Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned .

Most of us know Clarence Darrow - the hero of the Monkey Trial. We've seen Inherit the Wind. Some of us know that he defended Leopold and Loeb, the killers of young Bobby Franks. A few of us remember his name in connection with the Haymarket Riots and his attempt to commute the death sentences of the convicted "anarchists."

Farrell treats the reader to all of these as well as a myriad of other cases, great and small, that made up Clarence Darrow's amazing career. He defended people like Ossian Sweet, in Detroit, a black man accused of murdering a white man - and got him off with an all white jury - and IWW leader Big Bill Haywood. Gamblers and hit men. Widows and orphans. Loose women and bad men. Darrow had a passion for free speech and free love and he would represent anyone threatened with the death penalty. He lost only one to the hangman.

"If a state wishes that its citizens respect human life, then the state should stop killing. It can be done in no other way, and it will perhaps not be fully done that way. There are infinite reasons for killing. There are infinite circumstances under which there are more or less deaths. It never did depend and never can depend upon the severity of the punishment...."

Farrell obviously admires his subject, but he doesn't cut corners or mince words. There were bumps - hillocks - minor mountain ranges of clay through which Clarence Darrow dragged his feet along the way, and more than a little of it stuck.

A critic from 1906 wrote )pp. 142-143):

"I love Darrow because he is such a blessed crook. He affects to be a brave man, but admits that he's an arrant coward; he poses as an altruist, but is really a pin-headed pilferer. People think he is bounteously unselfish and kind, whereas he dispenses and supplicates solely for Darrow & Co. He eloquently addresses the bar, bench and jury in public in the name of justice, and then privately admits the whole thing is a fraud."

The important thing is that when he did his job, regardless of the client, he did it in the name of justice. And it was not uncommon that the client was someone in sore need of it. 100 years later, we have not seen his like again. This biography illustrates what we've been missing.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating book! Don't be fooled by the fact that I appear to have taken nearly two years to read it. I lost my original copy long ago and just recently got around to ordering another. This book was a glimpse into the life and mind of one of the greatest (and most controversial) figures of our time. You can read the synopsis to find out what the book is all about, but let me just tell you that I found it to be very interesting and enlightening. It doesn't paint Darrow as some kind of demi-god; it certainly gets at his faults as well as his virtues. I also really liked how it set the trials into the context of their times and gave the bigger picture about some of the more notable clients. This seemed very Darrow-esque as one of his greatest strengths seemed to be his compassion for all of humanity and his ability to see the horrors and injustices of life that so often transform victim into villain.

[David Kempf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be damned or more likely I will be a monkey's uncle. Darrow was quite the attorney and no matter how you may feel about the death penalty....this is a book that makes you think. Recommended.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I have taken the cards as they came; I have played the best I could. I know my life, I know what I have done. My life has not been perfect; it has been human, too human.”

“Gentleman, the world is dark, but it is not hopeless”

“He (Darrow) is radical, idealistic, and practical all at once, with a marvelous inconsistency of mind”

For those who today remember Clarence Darrow, he is perhaps best known as the lawyer who defended evolution in the now infamous 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial.
But Darrow was so much more than that. He was America’s celebrity attorney long before the concept was even known. Obsessed less perhaps with notions of right or wrong (Darrow was a notorious philanderer who disdained traditional notions of morality) than that of everyone having access to justice irrespective of guilt or innocence.
When Darrow said everyone, that meant rich and poor, black or white, bootleggers,
gangsters, psychopaths, laborers, housewives, and every class of people who needed him.
Darrow in particular had a soft spot for the downtrodden, for women’s rights, and for civil rights (Darrow was one of the first attorneys working for the NAACP).
He would take their cases for little or no financial gain but would also take higher profile and less scrupulous clients whose belief systems were anathema to him but provided him with the financial means to defend his other clients:

“I have sold my professional services to every corporation or individual who cared to buy. I have taken their ill gotten gains and have tried to use it to prevent suffering...I have defended the poor and weak, have done it without pay, will do it again. I cannot defend them without bread, I cannot get this except from those who have it”

He also was vehemently opposed to capital punishment and would take on cases involving some of the vilest murders of the day, not to free them, but to commute their death sentences to life in prison.

Darrow was an incredibly fascinating figure during the first part of the 20th century. He was also, more often than not, a force for good, involved in some of the most socially defining cases of the era.
He was certainly not a perfect man but he undoubtedly fought on the side of good for most of his career and recognized that the world being an imperfect and harsh place was no excuse to not do everything he could to make it better.

“We may be out upon the sea in a leaky boat manned by visionists and cranks that will sail but a little way before it meets the rocks and sinks forever. As for me, I would rather sail upon a raft out into the wildest and most tempestuous sea, beneath the blackest skies, moved only by the desires and hopes of those on board than to rest securely in the staunchest ship, anchored to the creeds and errors of the past”

[Scott Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second book by John Farrell and I really like two things about his books. The first is that I believe he writes biographies from an unbiased point of view. I'm sure he has a viewpoint and bias but he does a great job of showing the good and bad of his subject. When I read a biography I want to learn everything about the subject not just the stuff that supports that he/she is good or bad. I believe most people are some combination of both.

The second thing I love about John Farrells books is that he seems to go from one interesting event to the next with no dry sections to fight through.

In Clarence Darrow, Attorney for the Dammed we certainly see lots to like about Darrow as he fights for the little guy against robber barrens and defends the wrongly accused. Unfortunately Darrow had plenty of faults as well. He loved to hold himself up as a socialist fighting for the working man but then would turn around and take big fat fees to defend big companies when it suited him.

Darrow is most famous for the Monkey Scopes trial when he took on William Jennings Bryan over the teaching of evolution. This was definitely one of the highlights of Darrows life and the book but many of the other trials were fascinating as well. I loved his case defending Western Federation of Miners who had men that were accused of murdering the governor of Idaho.

Darrow also defended Leopold and Loeb which is one of the trials of the century although this case was a little disappointing because Darrow had them plead guilty and was simply trying to avoid them being hanged.

I really enjoyed reading about Darrow. I finish the book thinking that Darrow led a very interesting life and that he was a very talented lawyer but I'm not sure he was a very good man.

[Brad Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And it is for this, gentleman, that I am here today, because I haven't condemned, I haven't judged; I have loved my fellow man; I have loved the weak; I have loved the poor; I have loved the struggling; I have fought for their liberties, for their rights, that they might have something in this world more than the hard conditions that social life has given them."

So said Clarence Darrow, while he was on trial for bribing a juror. He would escape prison, and go on to become a great folk hero. Even over 70 years after his death, he is still the most renowned trial attorney in U.S. history. John A. Farrell, in his book Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned, has crammed a lot of information into a very lucid, entertaining, and intriguing book.

Farrell corrects a lot of false information that had been floating around, stemming from a purposely evasive autobiography by the man himself, and a biography by Irving Stone that was overseen by Darrow's widow. Farrell's book is warts and all--for example, he is certain that Darrow did have a hand in bribing that juror, believing that he would do anything to save a client's life.

Darrow was born in Ohio, but soon left for the bright lights of Chicago: "Small-town Ohio could not hold him and so he had come to Chicago, to the flickering gaslight, the smoke and cinder, the clamor and hoot and honk of that most American city." But it wasn't a love affair; Darrow wrote, "Chicago is a pocket edition of hell, and if it is not, then hell is a pocket edition of Chicago."

At first he was a corporate lawyer, working for a railroad. But patronage by the governor, Joseph Altgeld, and a rebellious itch, led him to taking controversial clients, such as Patrick Prendergast, who assassinated the mayor of Chicago. Darrow would lose this case, and Prendergast would go to the gallows, but more victories than losses would come along.

Darrow was ahead of his time on most issues. He was a Democrat, but also very forward-thinking when it came to race. He was an atheist, and he believed in free love. He had two wives, but many more mistresses. He could be cantankerous and was hated by many: "Darrow was 'an infidel, a misanthrope, a revolutionist, a hater of the rich, a condemner of the educated and the polite, a hopeless cynic,' said the New York Sun."

Darrow represented radicals like Eugene Debs, labor leader Big Bill Haywood, and the bombers in the Los Angeles Times bombing of 1910 (that was the case in which he was indicted for bribery). He would become the main spokesman for the labor movement, although they were disenchanted when they urged the bombers, the McNamara brothers, to plead guilty in exchange for not having to face the death penalty.

He would represent all sorts of mobsters during the roaring '20s in Chicago, and become quite wealthy, although his son, through imprudent investment, lost most of in the stock market crash. But during the '20s Darrow, then in his 60s, would try some of the most famous cases in U.S. history, each of which has enough story for their own books.

The names still inspire curiosity: Leopold and Loeb, The Scopes Monkey Trial, Ossian Sweet. "Of the infamous villains who Darrow defended, none were so patently evil in the eyes of Americans as the teen-aged killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. They were spoiled geniuses--rich kids who claimed no God but Self and insisted, by virtue of their intellectual primacy, on living free from any moral code. They were homosexuals. They were Jews. They kidnapped and murdered a child...They did it, they said, for the thrill...Leopold and Loeb were truly heartless fiends."

But Darrow took their case, hired by their rich parents. They pleaded guilty, and the fireworks came in the sentencing portion of the trial, when Darrow and the district attorney argued whether the boys would be executed. Darrow used emotion, but also precedent--at that time, they were considered underage (under 21) and never had a minor been executed in Illinois. Darrow saved their lives.

"From its inception, the Scopes trial was conceived and promoted and staged as a circus stunt. No one presumed that a Dayton jury would have the final say on the matter. All agreed that John Scopes, a twenty-four-year-old high school science teacher who was summoned to Robinson's pharmacy from a nearby tennis court and coaxed to stand trial, would be found guilty--giving the ACLU a martyr whose conviction it could take to a higher court." Thus, Farrell says, it was not a case of righteous indignation. But it turned into a circus when William Jennings Bryan, presidential candidate (Darrow supported him in those days) and former Secretary of State, turned Biblical scholar, came to town to work with the prosecution. In blistering heat, Darrow put Bryan on the stand and caught him in several contradictions and errors in the Bible (such as, who was Cain's wife?). Though Scopes lost and was fined a modest sum, later overturned on technicality, Bryan was ruined, and died five days after the trial ended.

The Sweet case is not as famous, but nonetheless important. Ossian Sweet, a black doctor living in Detroit, bought a house in a white-only neighborhood. A mob formed to drive him out, throwing rocks. The Sweet family fired shots in response, and a man was killed. They were put on trial, and Darrow represented them: "I believe the life of the Negro race has been a life of tragedy, of injustice, of oppression. The law had made him equal, but man has not...I know there is a long road ahead of him, before he can take the place which I believe he should take."

Darrow would get the Sweets off. By now he was a folk hero. A line in Ben Hecht's popular play The Front Page has a character in legal trouble shouting, "Get me Darrow!" Crowds gathered to hear his courtroom theatrics. He didn't appear polished--his hair was uncombed, his suit rumpled, his thumbs would flick at his suspenders--but he was a consummate actor, giving closing arguments that could last two days, tears streaming down his face.

His last major case was a smudge on his record, defending people who committed an "honor killing," shooting to death the man accused of raping a white woman. The man killed was Hawaiian, and he was not guilty. Darrow, despite protests, took the case, because "he told himself...he might bring healing to the troubled islands. And because he had always wanted to see Hawaii. But most of all he took the case because he needed the money."

So, in the ultimate analysis, Darrow was a liberal hero, but he was no saint. But despite his faults, his place in the pantheon of legal stars is assured, and Farrell's book is a wonderful document of it.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Statues and busts have advantages over the heroes and icons they depict. Any imperfections are superficial, unlike human flaws. Their character is fixed, not subject to further research and analysis. But anyone who insists folk heroes must be paragons of virtue ignores the reality of human nature. Even -- and perhaps especially -- those with shortcomings possess the attributes necessary for significant accomplishments.

Proof of that is seen in John A. Farrell's new biography of attorney Clarence Darrow. With access to documents prior biographers did not have, Farrell's Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned is not a hagiography of one of the nation's most famous attorneys. It provides deeper insight and perspective, showing both the public and private man, where they were alike and where they were at times vastly different.

Darrow rightfully became known as a champion of the underdog and was viewed, quite accurately, as both a radical and a rebel. To a great extent, he was a product of his times and its movements -- progressivism, free love and trade unionism. Farrell examines the role Darrow played in each, whether personally, politically or as a lawyer. The book's descriptions of Darrow's trials and tactics reflect that Darrow's style and effectiveness were bolstered by practicing in an era preceding uniform codes of evidence and in which closing arguments could stretch out over days.

Much of the highly detailed book focuses on the cases that made Darrow the most famous lawyer in America -- Eugene Debs, labor leader William Haywood for the assassination of a former Idaho governor, two other labor leaders for the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, Leopold and Loeb, and, of course, the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial". As Farrell points out in an endnote, four of these five cases were dubbed crimes or trials of the century by the press. And while Darrow was famous when he arrived for the Scopes trial, "by the time he left, he was an American folk hero."

Yet Darrow left even his most ardent supporters puzzled. Despite being a major supporter of the progressive movement and its ideas and principles, he had no hesitancy challenging the constitutionality of an election law the movement passed in Illinois when doing so helped acquit his client. The man known for representing the poor and downtrodden would be seen taking on the cases of major corporations and the wealthy. Darrow explained it as a means of helping finance the cases for which he received little or no fee, an argument that makes sense in light of Darrow's persistent efforts to become wealthy himself.

Clarence Darrow:Attorney for the Damned takes readers where other biographies or Darrow's own The Story of My Life have not. It delves into relationships and matters Darrow himself left out of his book. Likewise, the preeminent Darrow biography to date, Irving Stone's Clarence Darrow for the Defense, was written with the cooperation of Darrow's widow and, first published in 1941, Stone did not have access to many documents Farrell uses.

The paradox that is Darrow might be resolved by concluding that his view is that defense of a client requires whatever it takes. A couple of the overarching elements of the book seem to support that. One is that much of his attitude toward the law and the world stemmed from the belief that "men's actions are determined not by choice, but by the unshakable influences of heredity and environment." Farrell's review of Darrow's childhood in an unconventional home suggests that background greatly influenced who Darrow became. Darrow's deterministic beliefs also manifested themselves in his closing arguments, which focused as much on a defendant's background and the evils of society as the evidence. Farrell's use of transcripts of Darrow's arguments fully supports his contention that Darrow "had the audacity to treat judges and juries to original sermons on an intellectual plane far higher than the usual courtroom wrangling, and to do so in a captivating way." Often focusing on social ills and emotion, Darrow wanted his argument to not just influence but to shape the opinions of a judge or jury.

Farrell makes clear that despite his accomplishments, Darrow had plenty of flaws. His belief in the free love movement made him a serial philanderer and, in fact, he had a decades-long relationship with a woman not his wife. Darrow's determinism also seemed to impact his value system. According to Farrell, Darrow had a "willingness to dispose of the customary ethical standards -- like accuracy or confidentiality -- when a client was facing unjust punishment, especially in a capital case." And, of course, whether punishment is "unjust" tends to be in the eye of the beholder and, in Darrow's eyes, "the motive and not the act was the controlling measure of morality."

This approach led to Darrow being tried twice for bribing a juror. Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned looks closely at those cases and whether, from a legal standpoint as opposed to Darrow's ethical standpoint, he was guilty. Along the way, Farrell reveals that more than a decade after the first trial, Darrow paid $4,500 (roughly $55,000 today) to the juror who was most active in challenging the prosecution during the trial.

Farrell leaves little doubt that Darrow earned and deserved his reputation as the preeminent defense lawyer of his time and an American legal icon. He also leaves little doubt Darrow has his flaws. But what a person is able to do with their flaws is more important than the fact they exist.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

All right, I did not want to love this book . . Farrell writes like a journalist, not a historian, so there are a few glosses and elisions based on what he assumes is commonly held information . . but sorry, my heart beat a little faster toward the end of every chapter about one of Darrow's famous (and less famous) cases, even when I knew the outcome. I even pumped my fist in the air and proclaimed "YES!" at some of the acquittals. The book reads like a series of short legal thrillers crossed with historical fiction. And Mr. Farrell does not portray Darrow as some sort of secular saint. Darrow scoffed at the very concept of sainthood. Nor does he depict Darrow as a great moralist. In Farrell's account, Darrow is more like a lifelong philosopher who never settled on a single philosophy, except for a certain grim determinism. So there's an inherent contradiction between Darrow's concept of human beings as victims of forces beyond their control, and his relentless fight for freedom of conscience. Yeah, that's fine. There's also an inherent contradiction between the fact that Darrow's moral triumph over William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes trial is considered a victory for secularism, and the fact that the loquacious boob whom he humbled ran for and lost the Presidency three times. Surely there is no greater proof of God's benevolence than that He spared America the presence of William Jennings Bryan in the White House.

[Roger Ingle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a box of my father's things in our attic. My father was a union lawyer who greatly admired Darrow. He had purchased this book back in 1957. I dusted it off and started to read.
This book was enlightening for me. Although I had read Irving Stone's biography of Clarence Darrow back in 1974 when I was in university, I have always wondered what were Darrow's exact words to the jury on each trial, that made him the most famous Defence Lawyer of the 20th century. This book, with each address to the Jury, in his exact words, answered that question for me.

[Adriana Novac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astonishing writing. My only consideration would be that of focusing more on a single case and from there, expanding to a big picture. Over all, the author is a good Sherlock Holmes.🤫

[Andy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well written, thoroughly researched and balanced biography of Clarence Darrow. It is also clearly a book for that time, partly due to Darrow's involvement with the people and the issues from the 1890s through the 1920s.

The sections on Darrow's trials were as suspenseful as any crime novel you could read. Especially interesting were the sections on the trial of Wobblies for the bombing murder of an Idaho politician. Darrow goes head to head against William Borah who later becomes a progressive United States Senator. The cross exam of government informants, who were actually procured by mining companies was riveting as were the testimony of other witnesses and the closing arguments.

But this balanced book wasn't just about Darrow's celebrated trials. One of my favorite themes was Darrow's relationships with fellow progressives/radicals including Jane Adams and Eugene Debs. Often Darrow was the hero for defending the underdog, yet he would dismay his friends with his defense of gangsters, corrupt politicians and wealthy criminals who were clearly guilty of crimes against the public or an underdog. The tension between "reform" and role of criminal defense attorney and sometimes greed is a tension that continues today but is never better discussed than in this book

Darrow's personal life is also examined, especially his continued womanizing which comes to define Darrow as much as anything. An equally poignant aspect of his personal life was a visit to New York in his later life where he found time to accept the adulation from lawyers, reformers and fans but never found time to visit his dying brother who passed away shortly after Darrow left New York.

The chapters on the Scopes trial were great, I didn't expect to learn anything new about a trial that has so much already written about it, but I was wrong, especially interesting were the observations about the inaccuracies of Inherit the Wind with the "real" facts given

Great book, recommend it highly

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustively researched and compelling biography of a fascinating and complex man. Farrell does a great job of focusing his story on what the reader would likely care most about: Darrow's work and cases. He is masterful at keeping the early life history brief, only really providing the depth and detail needed to understand the man and put his public and private life in an meaningful context.

To borrow from Whitman, Darrow contained multitudes. Farrell paints a potrait of the man and his often conflicting traits. The Darrow that emerges from the page is rounded and more fully-formed because of those conflicts instead of in spite of them.

The book end rather abruptly (to me), as I could have used a few pages of summary to contextualize Darrow's life and legacy. What did Darrow's life work mean for the social issues he tirelessly championed? What did his mastery of and techniques in the courtroom mean to the leagl profession? How did his understanding of the need for winning and controlling the court of public opinion mean for American society and the media going forward. These are just some of the themes that I wish Farrell would have explored. That said, throughout his telling of Darrow's life, Farrell never stopped to editorialize or explain what certain events, etc. Capital M "mean" so I can understand why he didn't do so at the end--it wasn't the book Farrell aimed to write. Fair enough. Farrell is content to let Darrow's public and private words and actions speak for themselves. A rich, compelling and truly American story those words tell. The battles Darrow fought and the ideals he fought for are incredibly resonant today.

Informative and inspirational, I would recommend Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned.

[John Wirenius · Rating 4 out of 5]

To this day, the question of what I have long called “The Darrow Succession” remains open. By any measure, Darrow has cast the longest shadow in both of his fields of law—union side labor law and criminal defense law. To this day, no lawyer in either field has quite occupied a similar place.

This is a good, solid biography of Darrow. Is it definitive? I have my doubts. It’s certainly far better than Kevin Tierney’s disparaging Darrow (1981), which declared, just as the Reagan Era began and touched off the culture wars Darrow fought in, that its subject was passé. And, yes, it has benefited from the research of Geoffrey Cowan in his 1993 book The People v. Clarence Darrow—a good book, though one that draws most (not all) credibility calls against Darrow. (Note to Tierney: Edgar Lee masters, the poet, and Adela Rogers St. John are not unbiased witnesses; relying too heavily on their jaundiced views of Darrow is risky.)

So, for accuracy, this is probably the best Darrow biography to date. And yet—it fails to capture the magic of Darrow’s charisma, the way that Irving Stone’s 1939 classic Clarence Darrow for the Defense did. Yes, Stone’s biography leaves out Darrow’s affairs (the price of his widow’s assistance), and artificially smooths some of his rougher edges, and thus needs a book like this as a corrective.

But Stone captures the legend in a way no one else ever has. And backs it with lots of sources who knew the man, saw him in action. It remains the classic case for Darrow. And, more than not, warts and all, Stone’s Darrow is the Darrow we need today.

None of this is to diminish Farrell’s achievement; he has written a masterly biography. Definitive? The sinner and the saint that was Clarence Darrow eludes definition.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

COMPREHENSIVE. INTERESTING.

“Darrow was ‘an infidel, a misanthrope, a revolutionist, a hater of the rich, a condemner of the educated and the polite, a hopeless cynic,’ said the New York Sun”—page 185

Four-stars for comprehensiveness; two-and-a-half stars for readability—CLARENCE DARROW: ATTORNEY FOR THE DAMNED, By Joel A. Farrell is slow going and a bit confusing, for much of the book. The pace and the interest does pick up a bit in the last quarter of the book, once it gets to Darrow’s most famous and sensational trials: Leopold and Loeb, in 1924 Chicago; The Scopes ‘Monkey Trial,’ in 1925 Tennessee; and the Thalia Masse ‘honor killing’ case, in 1931 Honolulu.

Recommendation: Good for a grounding in the man that was, arguably, the best—and probably the most cynical—lawyer of all time.

“ ‘You can close your eyes,’ Darrow warned his countrymen. ‘But your life and my life and the life of every American citizen depends after all upon tolerance. and forbearance … If men are not tolerant, if men cannot respect each other’s opinions, if men cannot live and let live, then no man’s life is safe.’ ”—page 379

“I went in to do what I could, for sanity and humanity.”—page 337

Kindle edition, 580 pages

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow to start but after the first 1/3 I couldn't put it down. Darrow's complexity was well documented here. The book does not glorify him or demonize him but does document the ways in which he was treated both ways by the public. While he did so much to advance labor and civil rights, he could be really slimy both legally and in terms of his view of women, not mention his sometimes ethically questionable legal tactics. One of these stars is for the way I, as an attorney, appreciated the book. I really enjoyed the window into our justice system in decades past and it added to my appreciation for the changes that have happened since then. At the same time, it highlighted how some things have not. I was fascinated by Darrow's style and oratory skills. He was a master of the narrative and so skilled at pulling emotional strings, making jurors, judges and the public see themselves in the defendants. It's wild to me that he could win entire legal cases based on these skills without use of evidence or regardless of it. I enjoyed his passion. For folks who don't understand how defense attorneys can do their job (and love it), read this. It isn't a quick read, or a light one. Some of the footnotes are worth reading, so don't pass them by.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarence Darrow was a man of contradictions. He fought for the underdog and would bribe witnesses and jurors to create a level playing field in the "justice" of his times. He could speak without using his notes for hours on end getting close to the jurors and claiming the attention of everyone in the room. He would take little to no money to fight cases for the labor movement and civil rights. "In 1901, Darrow had created a stir in Chicago by asking: "Is there any reason why a white girl should not marry a man with African blood in his veins?" (p.195). He would take large sums of money from people who were on the opposite side, as well.
He believed in Free Love, but stayed married to his second wife. He loved women, especially intelligent ones.
He couldn't make a sound investment to save his life. He lost money all the time. He had to constantly go out on paid speaking tours to replenish enough to live on.
The court cases, alone, are interesting, but reading about Clarence Darrow will have you alternately cheering and scratching your head in disbelief.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ideally, this would be a 4.5 star book, but I'll give it the bump. Beyond the famous Scopes trial, good labor liberals know Darrow defended the McNamara brothers in the LA Times bombing case.

He also defended the poor. Mobsters.

And, rich people presumably politically conservative. And, despite his acquittal on charges, he may well have tried to bribe jurors in the McNamara case.

Darrow was sui generis, in other words, and this book shows that well.

He was also a freethinker, a womanizer and more.

He said he defended the rich because he needed money somehow, but ... it seems more than that.

And, some of his closest friends of earlier life, like Edgar Lee Masters,k had become estranged from him years before he died.

This is an informative bio of the what of Darrow's life, but Farrell doesn't quite get all the why, IMO. Hence, the ideal rating of 4.5 stars.

[David Raffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite scenes in this book is when Darrow is in the south and sits in on a rural southern courtroom to get a feel for the area because he has an upcoming trial. He sees a simple minded man being railroaded and he lunges forward saying, "I'm going to defend that boy!" and his friends drag him out of the courtroom. This book follows Darrow's life through the ups and downs, the big trials and a taste of the little ones done for next to nothing. Long but authoritative rather than dull. The book delves into Darrow's personal philosophy and is a powerful portrait of one of the most famous lawyers in US history.

[Scotland · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I can recall, I first learned about Clarence Darrow in my high school philosophy class. My teacher introduced us to the case of 19 year old Nathan Leopold and 18 year old Richard Loeb, who after careful planning murdered a 14 year old boy named Bobby Franks in cold blood. Darrow agreed to be retained on the boys' defense, and he successfully argued that they should be given life in prison and not the death penalty. It was one of Darrow's most famous cases, and one of the most interesting chapters of John A. Farrell's "Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned."

However, that was not the last time I heard of Clarence Darrow. In history class, when learning about the socialist Eugene Debs, Darrow was defending Debs against the US government. When learning about unions and the progressive movement of the early 20th century, Darrow's name was a footnote among giants such as Samuel Gompers, Lincoln Steffens and Jane Addams but he was there nonetheless. Darrow again emerged to oppose Williams Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial. All these cases, and many more, are given their due by Farrell, who methodically plugs through Darrow's impressive and sprawling legal career as well as his oftentimes messy personal life in just over 450 pages.

The biography is well-researched and well-written, especially those chapters which deal with Darrow's most important cases. Whether Darrow is defending union bombers, Chicago gangsters, young murderers, anarchists, or even himself when accused of bribing jurors, Farrell is skilled in taking the reader through these court cases and highlighting Darrow's most impressive moments of cross-examination or his most compelling closing arguments. The book is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the law. Darrow's legal tricks and strategies, as well as those used by both his allies and his opponents, were often shocking to someone with a passing familiarity to how court proceedings are handled today. Farrell transports us back to a time where lawyers were celebrities, where thousands came to hear Clarence Darrow give a closing argument. Darrow emerges from the biography a formidable figure of the early 20th century, symbolizing the ideals of the progressive movement, as when defending African Americans from discrimination and the death penalty, but also the darkness that lay under the surface during the Gilded Age, as when defending guilty bombers and corrupt politicians. Darrow seems certainly to embody the sixth amendment idea that everyone, no matter what, has the right to a defense. 5/5

Favorite Darrow Quote - "If the underdog got on top he would probably be just as rotten as the upperdog, but in the meantime I am for him. He needs friends a damn sight more than the other fellow"

[Ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing of the author of the biography is superb, I found myself immersed in the time period that that events occur in. His description of the social and economic conditions of the time made the book even more enjoyable cause it helps the reader see why some of the individuals make the decisions they make. And the depth of his research is spectacular.

As for Darrow, I’ve always heard nothing but praise when his name is mentioned, whether in movies or tv shows, or even law lectures, Darrow is considered to be a hero like no other in world of lawyers. Yet after reading this I realized that he is not the great person everyone says he is, he is a fascinating person, no question, but kind of a horrible person sometimes, he cheated on his wife, his second wife, ignored his kid for most of the time, broke the law, sexually harassed any woman he saw, lied in his autobiography about lots of things. And not too good a lawyer either, but a great manipulator cause he bribes jurors, steals from his partners, and his only argument in the court is an SJW claim that is something in the vain of “Yes, my client is a terrorist who blows up rich people, what is the problem!? Rich people are corrupt! The system is evil! The powerful are terrible!! *cries in court* don’t send my client to jail, he is poor, I defend the poor unlike all of you cause the rich are evil. *cries some more* please don’t send him to jail” and everyone cries in court and they release the terrorist.
One might say that was his job as a lawyer, and I’d be cool with that, but his anarchist beliefs outside of the courtroom kinda hint that he is pro killing rich people cause he keeps saying “The rich are evil, the system is corrupt, I wouldn’t blame the anarchist terrorists for what they do” accusatory inciteful nonsense like that is unbecoming of a lawyer, and similar to the accusations an uneducated layman in the street would utter. But despite the aforementioned things I can’t help but find him to be a fascinating individual with a great mind, and a great ability to manipulate and convince. A fascinating individual and an absolutely fascinating life.

Best description of Darrow is stated by one of the people who knew him, he says of him:
“He eloquently addresses the bar, bench and jury and public in the name of justice, and then privately admits the whole thing is a fraud.”

[Kaesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this fascinating and well-written, and it seems to have been meticulously researched given how many of the footnotes will note not only the source, but when the sources conflict on minor details or if a source has some particular bias. I really do wish more nonfiction did this, because sometimes I'm reading something that cites sources I know to be not strictly reliable and I think, "that doesn't seem right, but I don't know this subject backwards and forwards the way I'd expect a historian to, I'd really appreciate some discussion of the source's conclusions."

Anyway that maybe makes this sound really dry? It's not; the writing is very engaging (and there's some great, fascinating anecdotes and further discussion buried in the footnotes) and I think the writing is pretty fair and blunt in its assessment of Darrow as a smart, talented person whose life, beliefs, and relationships were all incredibly messy and all over the place; the analysis of his motivations is often critical without being condemnatory.

(My one quibble is that he is presented, in the earlier chapters, as very feminist -- and I guess for his time he was, but at some points of his life he appears to have been one of those obnoxious guys who is like "wow, you're the only smart woman I've ever met! amazing!" and then talks down to you for the entire rest of dinner and expects you to be flattered. But there are also many, many quotes from his female friends & acquaintances -- some of whom were lovers of his -- that are pretty critical of and frustrated by his behavior; and to add petty insult to genuine criticism, they tend to criticize his hygiene as well.)