Darrow's Nightmare by Nelson Johnson

Author:Nelson Johnson [Johnson, Nelson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Bert Franklin was a private investigator who worked for the Darrow defense of the McNamara brothers. He later testified for the prosecution against Darrow on the alleged bribery charges.

“Ford: Just state what Mr. Darrow told you…in reference to that matter? Franklin: I told Mr. Darrow if he had not happened to be at that particular place at that particular time that I thought I could have turned the tables on Mr. Lockwood, who was a traitor to me, and put him in the position that I afterwards was in myself; that it was my intention to turn Lockwood over to the officer at Second and Main and charge him with taking and accepting a bribe in the McNamara case to give his verdict for guilty, and I said if you [Darrow] had not happened to be at that particular place my arrest would not have taken place until I could have pulled off my stunt at Second and Main.” [Emphasis added.]6

Through it all, Rogers remained silent. He stored away Franklin’s testimony in the back of his brain, a wonderful morsel to be enjoyed later when he had the full attention of the jurors.

Rogers’s cross-examinations were a thing of subtle beauty. He could make use of the smallest details to refocus the jurors’ perceptions. With Franklin, Rogers’s cup runneth over.

At times in trials, there are witnesses who are simply astonishing. They either don’t remember their own testimony or engage in the wishful thinking that everyone else will forget what they have said. To Rogers’s delight, Bert Franklin was that person. Upon beginning his cross-examination, Rogers focused on Franklin’s testimony about the “stunt” Franklin had hoped to work on Lockwood. Rogers began by getting Franklin to admit that he “always considered him [Lockwood]” to be a close friend. To Franklin, Lockwood was “a man of sterling integrity.”7 Later, in response to a juror’s question, Franklin said that he considered Lockwood a “very intimate friend.” When reminded that he had planned to work a “stunt” on his longtime friend that would have resulted in Lockwood being charged with a crime and possibly a jail term, Franklin scoffed, “I didn’t say anything about a stunt. Q. Let me have the record…go ahead; you didn’t say anything about a stunt? A. No, sir.” When confronted with his own testimony from little more than an hour earlier, Franklin replied, “If that is in the record, Mr. Rogers, that is what I said.” Franklin continued, damaging his own credibility, and that of the prosecution as well.

Staying with the reference to the “stunt,” Rogers questioned Franklin by assuming that he had succeeded in turning the tables on Lockwood, and then asked how Franklin could have thought that he was “justified in sending a man to the penitentiary?” The confidence of his response was revealing on multiple levels.

“Franklin: I don’t think there would have been any danger of Mr. Lockwood ever entering the door of the penitentiary. Rogers: Well, you would have charged him with it and sworn to

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