World's Greatest Trial Attorney Clarence Darrow Played Golf on the Jungle Course

In a 1963 interview, Walter P. Fuller told St. Petersburg Times columnist Dick Bothwell that Clarence Darrow ‒ considered to be the world's greatest trial attorney ‒ played golf on the Jungle course. Fuller should know ‒ he was the chief executive of the Jungle Country Club.

Babe Ruth signing a baseball for Clarence Darrow, 1931 (colorized)

Darrow was frequently in the headlines of the era. He was famous ‒ some would say infamous ‒ for defending the teaching of evolution in schools during the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was also at the center of many other high profile legal cases.

From the Clarence Darrow Wikipedia entry:
"He became renowned for moving juries and even judges to tears with his eloquence...Clarence Darrow is remembered for his reputation as a fierce litigator who, in many cases, championed the cause of the underdog."

We're not sure when Darrow left his footprints in our neighborhood, but it could have been in March 1928 when he was in St. Petersburg on a speaking tour with poet and fellow grandiloquent giant Carl Sandburg.

St. Petersburg Times, March 26, 1928

Quotes by Clarence Darrow:

• I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.
• I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.
• The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.
• No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
• The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.
• The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.
• When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
• I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.
• If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.