Vol. 9 No. 5 (May 1999) pp. 195-197.

CRIMES OF THE CENTURY: FROM LEOPOLD AND LOEB TO O.J. SIMPSON by Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1998. 230 pp.

Reviewed by John Paul Ryan, Director of School Programs, American Bar Association Division for Public Education. (The views expressed are those of the reviewer, not of the American Bar Association).

As we approach the end of the 20th century, we are being treated to books and television programs that catalog and describe the century’s greatest presidents, athletes, news stories, and most famous trials. Many of these accounts lack historical perspective, explicit criteria for inclusion in the list, in-depth research, and links to broader themes in American culture.

Against this challenging backdrop, Gilbert Geis and Leigh Bienen’s CRIMES OF THE CENTURY: FROM LEOPOLD AND LOEB TO O.J. SIMPSON is an excellent and distinctive book about a commonplace subject. The core of the book is its focus on five cases: (1) the 1924 murder of a fourteen year old boy by teenagers Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr.; (2) the 1931 Scottsboro cases, where nine teenage black men were charged with and tried (several times) for the rape of two young white women; (3) the 1932 kidnapping and murder of a twenty-month old child, the son of Anne and Charles Lindbergh, for which Bruno Hauptmann was convicted and subsequently executed; (4) the 1949-50 trials of Alger Hiss for perjury before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the height of the Cold War; and (5) the trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her acquaintance.

The authors’ selection of these five cases as the crimes of the century rests upon a number of criteria, including substantial media coverage, the significance of the cases in their own time, and a high degree of mystery or uncertainty about "who did it" (four of the cases) or "why" (the Leopold-Loeb killing). Equally important to the authors, however, is the lasting impression of these cases in American culture -- e.g., Geis and Bienen note in the introduction that a 1997 off-Broadway play, NEVER THE SINNER, revolves around the Leopold-Loeb homicide of seventy-five years before. The authors thoughtfully justify a close look at sensational cases, by arguing that the legal system needs to operate fairly and effectively not only in the routine, easy cases and times but also under conditions of societal stress and crisis -- including nativist fears of foreigners (Hauptmann), the shadow of war (Hiss), and America’s continuing struggle with, and turmoil over, race (Scottsboro, Simpson).

Much has already been written about these five cases, ranging from Dan Carter’s highly acclaimed book on Scottsboro to a rash of mostly forgettable books about the Simpson trial. Gilbert Geis, a well-known criminologist now an emeritus professor at the University of California-Irvine, and Leigh Bienen, a Northwestern University law professor and former public defender who is well-known for her scholarly work on the death penalty, have crafted a book of good stories that capture the historical and cultural settings as well as the legal issues (for a similarly successful look at famous trials in the 1920s, see the recent book by Katz and Grant). The first four cases are so well-told that, when the reader arrives at the last chapter on the O.J. Simpson trial, one still wishes to continue reading what these authors have to say ("O.J. Simpson: Can the Rich Buy Reasonable Doubt?"), a significant accomplishment in light of the recency of the case and the proliferation of media coverage and books about it.

CRIMES OF THE CENTURY has many virtues. First, the authors speak with a comfortable tone, with clarity, and succinctly (about 200 pages). Each case, however, is treated in considerable depth -- indeed, the authors provide a kind of meta-analysis, both of the evidence in the cases (which they review, sometimes by sifting through original documents) and the findings of earlier scholars and writers. Each chapter concludes with a "For Further Reading" section, in which Geis and Bienen carefully annotate literature on the many dimensions of the cases and the larger criminal justice issues raised (e.g., juries, psychopathy, capital punishment, televising trials, the felony-murder rule, etc.). The authors also provide comparisons, contrasts, and synthesis across the five cases, which bear little factual resemblance to one another.

The case studies are effective because they focus primarily on people and their lives, not on abstract legal principles. Geis and Bienen explore the defendants, the victims, and the legal professionals participating in the cases. They examine the prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges of the cases, as well as the impact of the cases on their legal (and, often, political) careers. We are reminded of Richard Nixon’s zealous pursuit of Alger Hiss, the several changes in defense attorneys for the Scottsboro nine, and Clarence Darrow’s defense of Leopold and Loeb that spared them from likely execution. Even more interesting is the discussion of life after the cases for the principals -- e.g., Leopold’s highly constructive work in prison including scholarship on parole success undertaken in collaboration with a University of Chicago criminologist, or Charles Lindbergh’s temporary emigration to England and France and, upon his return to the U.S., his sympathies for Hitler’s regime and support for American isolationism during World War II. Photographs always help to tell good stories, and the authors have interspersed about a dozen vivid AP photos of the cases, courtrooms, and/or key actors, which help bring other times to the reader.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Geis and Bienen’s analysis is their examination of the cases’ continuing presence in American culture -- i.e., how the cases came to be viewed, remembered, and sometimes reinvented long after the events themselves (on a similar note, see Edward Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the Scopes trial, Summer for the Gods). For example, the authors assess society’s changing view of Hauptmann’s guilt over time (from universal certainty amidst public outrage to later skepticism), and evolving portrayals of one of the female accusers in Scottsboro, Victoria Price, as reflected in a 1976 NBC-TV movie that led to a defamation lawsuit and subsequent settlement. Indeed, these five cases seem sure to echo past cases and presage future ones. The teenage killers, Leopold and Loeb, resemble in their (affluent) backgrounds and strong bond with one another, the two teenage perpetrators in the recent Littleton, Colorado school shooting tragedy.

The book’s only weakness, in my view, is that the story-telling format makes it difficult to discuss in any sustained way the many larger criminal justice system issues raised both by the cases and the authors’ useful commentary. Frequently, they mention such issues as the use of expert witnesses (p. 31) or the bifurcation of guilt and punishment phases of capital trials (p. 118) only in passing. Moreover, the absence of endnotes precludes the best opportunity to discuss some of these issues in depth, without distracting from the stories themselves. On other issues, however, Geis and Bienen do offer extended discussion, including the death penalty (Hauptmann), theories of crime causation (Leopold-Loeb), and the influence of money and resources in the criminal justice system (Hauptmann, Scottsboro, and Simpson).

Ultimately, the weakness of CRIMES OF THE CENTURY is its strength -- it is not a textbook on the criminal justice system or a treatise about criminal law or procedure. It is an infinitely more interesting treatment of crime, the legal system, and American culture, crafted by two scholars who make the readers care (again) about this century’s famous trials. As such, the book is well-suited not only for the "general reader" but also for college students. Courses in political science, sociology, history, American studies, and journalism, as well as criminology and criminal justice, would benefit from use of this excellent book.

REFERENCES

Carter, Dan T. 1969. SCOTTSBORO: A TRAGEDY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH (Baton Rouge: LSU Press).

	Katz, Joseph and Robert B. Grant. 1998. THE GREAT TRIALS OF THE TWENTIES: THE WATERSHED DECADE IN AMERICA’S COURTROOMS. (New York: Sarpedon).

	Larson, Edward J. 1997. SUMMER FOR THE GODS: THE SCOPES TRIAL AND AMERICA’S CONTINUING DEBATE OVER SCIENCE AND RELIGION (Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press).