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Note: Became his father's confidant early in life. Charles apparently discerned in him a brightness an sympathy especially endearing. He received a better and a much longer education than the other siblings. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. degree. He attended Columbia University law school in NYC. Reverse in the family fortune soon necessitated his return to Chicago to live at home and go to night classes at Kent College of Law. In 1896, Ben was admitted to the Illinois Bar; in 1898, at the age of twenty-eight, to practice before the US Supreme Court. He gained distinction, if not notoriety, by successfully defending Jack Johnson, the first black champion prize-fighter in America, against a morals charge that resulted in Mann Act being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the US. The Loeb-Leopold case in 1924 brought Ben wide recognition. Ben along with his brother Walter, also a member of the Bar, for the first time in history introduced into American jurisprudence the procedure of considering scientific psychological evidence, such as the existence of the rare type insanity, as the basis of a plea for less than a death sentence.. .Ben engaged Clarence Darrow to present the final defense plea for life imprisonment. In 1930, Ben became the first Public Defender of Cook County, Ill.
Census !1900: VOL. 68; SHEET 4; ED 1030; LINE 8
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