- Jonathan Wilk: If there is any way of destroying hatred and all that goes with it, it's not through evil and hatred and cruelty, but through charity, love, understanding.
- [last lines]
- Jonathan Wilk: In those years to come, you might find yourself asking if it wasn't the hand of god dropped these glasses... And if he didn't, who did?
- Max Steiner: It just irritates me to see anyone as brilliant as you make a jackass out of himself over someone like Artie Straus.
- [first lines]
- Judd Steiner: To the perfect crime!
- Arthur Straus: Crime. Oh, my wealthy fraternity brothers. 67 dollars, and a second-hand typewriter.
- Judd Steiner: Professor McKinnon, I must agree with Nietzsche. Tribal codes and such do not necessarily apply to the leaders of society.
- Professor McKinnon: No. No, Mr. Steiner. I can't see where your friend Nietzsche's theories have any application at all here. Hammurabi, Moses, Solon, Justinian - they were all known as lawgivers.
- Judd Steiner: Actually, my question was whether Moses and the others felt that they themselves had to obey those laws.
- Professor McKinnon: All men are bound by law, Mr. Steiner. And had Nietzsche been a lawyer instead of a German philosopher, he would have known that, too. Are you going to tell me that Moses felt himself above the laws that he laid down for his own people?
- Judd Steiner: Oh, I don't know, sir. He had a motley crew on his hands and he had to get them through the desert somehow.
- Judd Steiner: Please, Artie. I'll do anything you say.
- Arthur Straus: Anything? I wanna do something really dangerous. Something that'll have everybody talking, not just a few guys. With half the fatheaded cops in Chicago running around in circles wondering about it while we sat back and laughed at 'em, huh?
- Judd Steiner: Yes, but together, Artie. Something perfect. Something brilliant! The true test of the superior intellect, with every little detail worked out.
- Arthur Straus: And dangerous- really dangerous. That's the only way it'd be any fun.
- Judd Steiner: Yes.
- Ruth Evans: What is it, Judd? You seem so sad.
- Judd Steiner: That's a sentimental term. There's no such thing as sadness. Only the reality of things happening.
- Jonathan Wilk: The world has been one long slaughterhouse from the beginning until today, and the killing goes on and on and on. Why not read something? Why not think... instead of blindly shouting for death?
- Sid Brooks: Look, have you got a phone I could use?
- Medical Examiner: Right there. Leave a nickel on the desk.
- Judd Steiner: We almost killed him.
- Arthur Straus: A drunk. Who'd have known about it, anyway?
- Judd Steiner: It would have been murder.
- Arthur Straus: And you know why I tried it, Juddsie? Because I damn well felt like it. That's why.
- [hysterical laugh]
- Judd Steiner: If we use Plato's system, you see, all children would be wards of the state and assured of being educated correctly.
- Ruth Evans: Wouldn't that be terribly sad and impersonal? Children do have feelings and emotions, don't they?
- Judd Steiner: Of course they do, but for whom? Why should it be their parents? They didn't choose them. I certainly didn't choose mine. It's pure biological accident.
- Ruth Evans: He wants to take me out to Hegewisch Park.
- Sid Brooks: Well, if you're an ornithologist, I guess that's the best place to go - to find various species of birds. Should be a very entertaining afternoon for you, watching Judd and all the other strange birds.
- Ruth Evans: Oh, stop it, Sid. Judd isn't as strange as you're making him out to be. And I really don't think he's that different from any other boy.
- Sid Brooks: Yeah, I guess he isn't. But...
- Ruth Evans: What?
- Sid Brooks: Well, you know, the birds, the genius I.Q., graduate school at 19 - I just don't get the feeling he's gonna challenge Dempsey for the title.
- Ruth Evans: Just because he can speak about something besides sex - you, Artie and all the rest of you seem to think he's some kind of freak.
- Sid Brooks: Look, honey, for all I know, he's another Casanova. I just don't think I'm gonna have to worry about you at Hegewisch Park.
- Arthur Straus: Pop Wiggen. Uh, that's the - the - the gray-haired one. I guess you wouldn't say he was exactly normal. Snapping towels at kids in the gym - stuff like that. But, uh - that - that wouldn't mean anything.
- Judd Steiner: It's the place where I discovered the Kirtland's warbler. I was the first person to find one in 60 years. Of course, it doesn't exactly compare with Red Grange running 97 yards for a touchdown.
- Ruth Evans: I think it does. I think it's fascinating.
- Arthur Straus: If you were looking for a kid to kidnap, Paulie's just the kind of cocky little punk you'd pick.
- Mrs. Straus aka 'Mumsy': Arthur, that's a terrible thing to say.
- Arthur Straus: But it's the truth, Mumsy. You said yourself he was a fresh little smart aleck who ought to be spanked.
- Mrs. Straus aka 'Mumsy': I've said the same thing about every child in this neighborhood. Including you, Arthur Strauss.
- Judd Steiner: What's one life, more or less? There were nine million people killed in the war. What does one little Chicago boy matter?
- Judd Steiner: Murder's nothing. It's just a simple experience. Murder and *rape*? Do you know what beauty there is in evil?
- Arthur Straus: Gonna take her birding? Hegewisch?
- Judd Steiner: She said she was interested.
- Arthur Straus: Good idea. You'd have her out there all alone, huh? No witnesses? Yeah, yeah. You'd be perfectly safe. Girls never talk about it afterwards. She can scream her head off. Oh, what's the matter? Isn't that what you planned?
- Judd Steiner: No, it isn't.
- Arthur Straus: You're not falling for her, are you, Judd?
- Judd Steiner: Of course not. I just hadn't thought of that.
- Arthur Straus: But this is your chance! Now, look. We agreed to explore all the possibilities of human experience, didn't we? And emotionally detached.
- Judd Steiner: But together, Artie.
- Arthur Straus: Sure, but I've done things alone. You can too!
- Arthur Straus: Judd's broken his word of honor to me. He promised he'd never tell it to anybody.
- District Attorney Harold Horn: Why, Artie?
- Arthur Straus: Well - well, because that's - that's where we were Wednesday night - out with a couple of chippies we picked up on Lake Shore Drive. He knows what'll happen if my family finds out.
- Jonathan Wilk: I don't think we ought to worry our heads over the kind of folks who's reaction to an emotional situation is to pull a sheet over their head.
- District Attorney Harold Horn: Don't you know this is a murder case? Do you realize what the consequences could be?
- Arthur Straus: Can't be as bad as what my old man'll do. He'll skin me alive if he finds out I was out with a couple of tramps.
- District Attorney Harold Horn: Won't you sit down, Artie?
- Arthur Straus: Well, I'd prefer to stand, if you don't mind, sir. I'm the nervous type.
- Sid Brooks: I don't understand you, Ruth. He tries to rape you and you defend him.
- Ruth Evans: I know. It's difficult to understand; but, see, you weren't there. You didn't see him like I did, Sid. If you did, you'd have some compassion or sympathy for him, believe me.
- Sid Brooks: Sympathy? Ruth, you sound as though you're sorry he didn't go through with it.
- [Ruth slaps Sid]
- Sid Brooks: I hope they hang him. I hope he hangs till the rope rots.
- District Attorney Harold Horn: Europe, a Stutz Bearcat, the best restaurants. You fellas really have a hard life, don't you? By the way, that Stutz is a two-seater, isn't it?
- Arthur Straus: I thought you'd be wise to that one, Mr. Horn. You see, in a two-seater, a girls has to sit in your lap.
- Arthur Straus: They can't trace anything. The whole case'll blow over in a couple of weeks. Hey, come on. Let's go watch them slaughter the sheep.
- Jonathan Wilk: We're told it was a cold-blooded killing because they planned and schemed. Yes, but here are officers of the state who for months have planned and schemed - and contrived - to take these boys' lives. Talk about scheming.
- Jonathan Wilk: Did Judd give any demonstration that - he liked you as a woman?
- Ruth Evans: He kissed me.
- Jonathan Wilk: That's all? No further advances?
- Ruth Evans: There were, but they stopped.
- Jonathan Wilk: Your Honor, if our state is not kinder, more human, more considerate, more intelligent, then the mad act of these two sick boys, then I'm sorry that I've lived so long.
- Jonathan Wilk: I'll understand if you'd rather have another lawyer.
- Max Steiner: No, sir.
- Charles Straus: Now?
- Max Steiner: Between now and 9:00 tomorrow morning? Ridiculous. No. We're committed to you, sir and I think we've made a tragic mistake.
- Jonathan Wilk: I hope you're wrong. I really do, Mr. Steiner.
- Jonathan Wilk: Your Honor, I can only think now of taking these two boys, 18 and 19, penning them in a cell. Checking off the days and hours and minutes, until their wakened in the gray of the morning and led to the scaffold, their feet tied, black caps drawn over their heads, stood on a trap, the hangman pressing the spring. I can see them fall through a space. I can see them - stopped by the rope around their necks. It would be done, of course, in the name of justice. Justice. Who knows what it is? Do I know? Does Your Honor know? Can Your Honor tell me what I deserve? Can Your Honor appraise yourself and say what you deserve? Do you think you can cure the hatreds and maladjustments of the world by hanging them?
- Charles Straus: Oh, tommy rot! They are either insane or they are not. A sane person can't commit an insane act.
- Jonathan Wilk: I'm asking this court to shut them into a prison for life. Any cry for more goes back to the hyena. It roots back to the beasts of the jungle. It's no part of man.
- Jonathan Wilk: What about this matter of crime and punishment anyway? Through the centuries, our laws have been modified. Till now, men looked back with horror at the hangings and killings of the past. It's been proven that as the penalties are less barbarous the crimes are less frequent. Do I need to argue with Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty?
- Jonathan Wilk: Isn't a lifetime behind prison bars enough for this mad act? And must this great public be regaled with a hanging?
- Jonathan Wilk: It's taken the world a long, long time to get to even where it is today. Your Honor, if you hang these boys, you turn back to the past. I'm pleading for the future. I'm pleading not for these two lives, but for life itself, for a time when we can overcome hatred with love, and we can learn that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of men. Yes, I'm pleading for the future - in this court of law. I'm pleading for love.
- Arthur Straus: When we made the deal, you said you could take orders. You said you wanted me to command you.
- Judd Steiner: I do - as long as you keep your part of the agreement.
- Judd Steiner: Not tomorrow afternoon.
- Arthur Straus: Oh, you got another date?
- [in disbelief]
- Arthur Straus: Are you ditching me for some girl?
- Judd Steiner: I haven't been able to find you for three days.
- District Attorney Harold Horn: Look, Judd. I know how you feel about involving a friend and I appreciate your family's feelings about picking up stray girls; but, you might consider my position too. I simply have to check this story.