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The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow

Courtrooms have been dramatic settings 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 & staggering conceit collided at all turns with an unrivaled eloquence & humanism. 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 LA. Aged 67 he thought his life & career were almost over, until he was offered an impossible assignment: the defense of the teenage "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold & Richard Loeb. He then went on to earn even more international acclaim in two other groundbreaking cases: a classic standoff against Wm Jennings Bryan in the Tennessee Scopes Monkey Trial & the Ossian Sweet murder trial in Detroit. Throughout two crammed 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, important as they were, were not the only events that helped rejuvenate him & seal his courtroom legacy. There was also his enduring relationship with Mary Field Parton, his soulmate, a woman whose role toward the end of his career was larger than many have realized. With new research, including her private journals & letters, The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow is an intimate depiction of this American icon, one of the greatest lawyers the country has ever seen.

Back in the loop

Tangled together

Darrow on trial

The bridge of sighs

Beyond good & evil

Courtroom whispers

The book of love

The pinch hitter & the politician

Hellfire preachers & biology teachers

Monkey business

A duel to the death

Darkness in Detroit

Bittersweet blues

A peculiar fear

Sweet again

Slipping away

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 432
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 978-0-06-116149-0
  • EAN
  • 9780061161490
  • Genres
  • history, biography, law
  • Release date
  • 2009