Railway Union against charges of criminal conspiracy in the formulation and execution of the Pullman Railway Strike of 1894 (Sayer 1). In Los Angeles, Darrow, backed by union funds, had retained a detective, Bert Franklin, to investigate the background of every person on the list of prospective jurors. On November 28, 1911, Franklin was arrested for attempting to bribe a prospective juror, and Darrow was subsequently charged with having provided the funds used for the bribe.
In this circumstance, Darrow had the McNamara brothers enter a guilty plea and accept a reduced sentence. The situation was a political disaster. Many in the American labor movement considered Darrow to have betrayed the movement. However, Darrow may have seen this course of action as being the only way to ensure that his clients would not be hanged for murder. It may be that, as Lincoln Steffens averred, he had offered the corporate establishment the chance to prosecute him as a way to carry out the plea bargain for the McNamaras (Tierney 254).
It was probably self-evident in this situation, and was asserted by many, that the District Attorney, with the backing of the corporate establishment, was using this as an opportunity to attempt to destroy the best union lawyer in America. In any event, Darrow would use this apparent fact, that he was being persecuted for political reasons, with great success in his own defense.
A jury is never exactly a willing audience, but here, given the care w
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