Great Trials in History

Great Trials in History tells famous court cases as full stories, told by host Chris Lampe. He is a scene-setter. One episode puts the listener in a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday, July 29, with hundreds of people packed inside and hundreds more in the halls, as Clarence Darrow takes the witness stand. Another opens on October 28, 1925, in a run-down Washington office building where Billy Mitchell faced a court-martial. The storytelling is patient. The payoff is in the detail. Take the Darrow series, which runs to three parts. Lampe admits early that its title is a bit misleading, since the man he calls probably the most famous trial lawyer in American history is, this time, the defendant. The first part covers the Los Angeles Times bombing and the arrest of the McNamara brothers, which labor leaders saw as a frame-up by big business. Samuel Gompers publicly declared his confidence in their innocence. Darrow took the case, his own investigation turned up overwhelming evidence of the brothers' guilt, and he set out to save their lives. A grand jury later indicted him for jury tampering. The trial episodes are all about courtroom tactics. Defense lawyer Earl Rogers interrupts the district attorney's opening again and again to break its rhythm. He then walks jurors through a chart of the prosecution's witnesses, and a second chart of those who contradicted the two men whose testimony pointed directly at Darrow. 'The Trial of Billy Mitchell' moves to military justice. Lampe frames the insubordination case as a collision between the armed services' demand for order and the American attachment to individualism and free speech. He recounts how failed Navy seaplane flights to Hawaii angered Mitchell, who blamed naval negligence, and closes on Mitchell's reputation as the father of the United States Air Force. The McMartin preschool episodes carry the heaviest material. Lampe calls it the most notorious child sexual abuse case in American history. It grew from a single child's allegation against one person in 1983 into claims against dozens of people, involving hundreds of children and satanic rituals. He is exact about the evidence: a police raid on three homes and the preschool turned up little beyond an old magazine, and Raymond Buckey was released without being charged. Part two picks up after charges against five of the seven employees were dismissed in 1986. It follows a trial at which prosecutors called 61 witnesses, nine of them children. Lampe is courteous and formal. He addresses his audience as ladies and gentlemen and signs off by name. For a first listen, the Billy Mitchell episode stands on its own, while the Darrow and McMartin stories are best heard in order.