Today -100: September 11, 1924: Let them now be obliterated from the sight and thoughts of all wholesome-minded men and women

Justice John Caverly sentences Leopold n’ Loeb to life imprisonment +99 years, sparing them hanging on account of their age and “the progress of criminal law all over the world and... the dictates of enlightened humanity.” So the judge is simply disregarding all the questionable but no doubt expensive psychiatric testimony put up by the defense. Says the NYT: “Let them now be obliterated from the sight and thoughts of all wholesome-minded men and women.” Loeb will be shanked in the prison shower room in 1936. Leopold will be released in 1958 and become a medical technician in Puerto Rico and then teach at the University of Puerto Rico, dying in 1966.

The US lands 100 sailors in Ceiba, Honduras, to protect the consulate. There’s a little rebellion going on.

The Missouri Democratic Party adopts an anti-Klan plank.

The Chilean Congress (Parliament? whatever) gives Pres. Arturo Alessandri a 6-month “leave of absence” as he flees the county for Argentina. Oddly, after one or two more coups, he will actually return in 6 months and resume power.

Texas lawyer Charles Dickson files suit to keep Miriam “Ma” Ferguson’s name off the Texas ballot for governor, arguing that her husband James is the real candidate and he is barred from holding state office again by his impeachment. Dickson also argues that women can’t hold office and the governorship in particular, since the governor is commander-in-chief of the militia and the militia is composed of “able bodied male citizens.”

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