The Great Trials of the Twenties: The Watershed Decade in America's Courtrooms

In the scandal-prone 1920s, celebrity athletes, gangsters, politicians, movie stars and magnates found themselves defendants in marquee trials that fascinated the American public. Here Grant and Katz, historians at, respectively, Framingham College (Massachusetts) and Long Island University, analyze 10 high-profile criminal trials from that tumultuous period, expanding beyond the decade to include the 1919 Chicago ""Black Sox"" scandal and the 1930s trials of Al Capone and holding-company ""super-titan"" Samuel Insull. The authors dwell on the factual background of the cases and the social forces that swirled around them, glossing over the actual courtroom proceedings. (Predictably, the only attorney whose performance is noted at length is Clarence Darrow, in both the Leopold-Loeb trial and in the Scopes trial.) Sometimes the intricate background information makes for tedious reading, as when the authors attempt to trace the payola in the Teapot Dome conspiracy or to untangle the corporate structure of Insull's electric companies. More compelling is their examination of the brouhaha surrounding the decade's more sensational cases, such as the rape and murder trial of KKK leader David Stephenson and the trumped-up rape and murder charges against cinema giant Fatty Arbuckle. Although this collection of essays offers no surprises (the authors concede, for example, that key elements of the Sacco and Vanzetti and ""Black Sox"" cases remain mysterious), it gives a general impression of the period and foreshadows infamous trials to come. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)