Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned - By John A. Farrell Page 0,260

Transcript, People v. Darrow; Scripps to Cochran, Nov. 20, 1911, Scripps to Ben Lindsey, Sept. 7, 1911, E. W. Scripps papers, Ohio University; Lincoln Steffens, “Explosion of the McNamara Cases,” New York Globe (reprint of dispatches by Steffens); Drew to James Hunter, Nov. 25, 1911, Drew to Fredericks, Nov. 25, 1911, WD.

21. Transcript, People v. Darrow; Los Angeles Tribune, Nov. 23, 1911; Los Angeles Herald, Dec. 4, 1911; Steffens, “Explosion.”

22. Franklin was not known to Darrow when he joined the defense, but the local U.S. attorney and others had vouched for him. Laborites given to conspiracy theories cited the suspicious number of Darrow’s accusers who, like Franklin and Lockwood, had ties to the district attorney’s office. Transcript, People v. Darrow; Los Angeles Times, Nov. 29, 1911, New York Times, Nov. 29, 1911.

23. Transcript, People v. Darrow; Fay Lewis to Irving Stone, Aug. 8, 1940, CD-LOC; J. B. McNamara to William Foster, Feb. 1, 1935, James and John McNamara papers, University of Cincinnati; Joseph Scott letter to C. J. Hyans, Sept. 6, 1950, California State Federation of Labor, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; fragments of second trial transcript, WD; Los Angeles Record, Nov. 29, 1911.

24. Sara Field oral history, University of California, Berkeley. A few liberal jurists endorsed Darrow’s actions. “The unions … are to be congratulated on the wise and courageous action of Clarence S. Darrow,” Louis Brandeis told the Boston Globe. “Unionism … would undoubtedly have suffered greatly from the prejudice created … by a continued contest which must have resulted in a verdict of guilty.”

25. Emma Goldman called Darrow and Steffens “timid … infants” and concluded that “the collapse of the trial disclosed the appalling hollowness of radicalism … and the craven spirit of so many of those who presume to plead its cause.” Maybe. But it should be noted that both Schmitt and Caplan were ultimately convicted and imprisoned on the evidence that Fredericks was prepared to present against James McNamara. Darrow probably saved his life. Emma Goldman, Living My Life (New York: Knopf, 1931); Job Harriman to Morris Hillquit, Dec. 19, 1911, Morris Hillquit papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society; Hutchins Hapgood, A Victorian in the Modern World (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939); Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 1911; Los Angeles Herald, Dec. 1, 1911; Irvine, Revolution in Los Angeles; Steffens, “Explosion.”

26. A decade later, after his release from prison, John McNamara met Gompers at a union convention. “If you had told me in confidence you were guilty, I would not have betrayed you,” Gompers told McNamara. Gompers refused to shake hands. “The last time I took your hand, you assured me of your innocence. After that, you betrayed yourself and labor.” Lucy Robins Lang, Tomorrow Is Beautiful (New York: Macmillan, 1948); Bernard Mandel, Samuel Gompers (Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press, 1963).

27. Darrow told reporters on December 2: “I never told Samuel Gompers, or anybody else, that James B. McNamara was innocent.” Indeed, Darrow said, it would have been unethical for him to discuss the question of guilt or innocence with an outsider, even one who was paying the bills. Darrow to Gompers, telegram, Dec. 1, 1911, Samuel Gompers papers, Library of Congress; Steffens, “Explosion”; Boston Globe, Dec. 5, 1911; Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 1911; Washington Star, Dec. 2, 1911; Washington Post, Dec. 3, 1911; Chicago Tribune, Dec. 3, 1911; Sissman interview with Stone, CD-LOC; Sara Field oral history, University of California, Berkeley; Gompers statement, Samuel Gompers papers, Library of Congress.

28. Los Angeles Times, Dec. 6, 1911; New York Times, Dec. 6, 1911; Los Angeles Herald, Dec. 4, 1911; U.S. v. Ryan files, WD.

29. Johannsen fancied, at one point, that Darrow had initiated the plea negotiations “to save his own skin” after learning that Fredericks was on to the jury-bribing plot, several weeks before Franklin was arrested. See Wood to Sara, Apr. 12, 1912, CESW-HL; Lissner to Norman Hapgood, Mar. 22, 1912, Meyer Lissner papers, Stanford University; Lawler to A. G. Wickersham, Dec. 6, 1911, U.S. Department of Justice records, National Archives.

CHAPTER 12: GETHSEMANE

1. The scene is drawn by Mary Field’s daughter Margaret Parton in an unpublished biography of her mother. ALW and MFP.

2. Los Angeles Herald, Dec. 4, 1911. James would die in prison, but John’s sentence was reduced for good behavior, and he was released after serving a little more than nine years. Several thousand people crowded the street outside the courthouse to see the brothers hauled to jail. “You see?” James McNamara told Steffens. “You were wrong and I was right. The