Robert Emmett Crowe (January 22, 1879 - January 18, 1958) was a Chicago lawyer and politician, who is best known as the prosecutor in the 1924

Leopold and Loeb Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago ...

murder case. He was 45 at the time and it would shape his career."Robert Crowe Services Set for Tomorrow", ''Chicago Daily Tribune'', Jan 20, 1958, p. 14. A product of Chicago public schools, Crowe graduated from Yale with a law degree in 1901. One of Crowe's early legal associates was

Leo Koretz Leopold Koretz (1879–1925) was an American lawyer and stockbroker who ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme in Chicago, called the "Bayano oil fraud," which garnered an estimated $30 million (about $450 million today) from dozens of investors in Chicago ...

, against whom Crowe would later file charges for running a massive

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

. With the help of Chicago Mayor

William Hale Thompson William Hale Thompson (May 14, 1869 – March 19, 1944) was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as "Big Bill", Reynolds, Paul (November 29, 2009)"US-UK 'Special Relationshi ...

, popularly known as "Big Bill" Thompson, Crowe was elected a

Cook County Circuit Court The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois as well as one of the largest unified court systems in the United States — second only in size to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County since that court ...

judge in 1916. Three years later, Crowe achieved a level of fame and notoriety by imposing the death penalty on Thomas Fitzgerald, who had pleaded guilty to the murder of his neighbor, 6-year-old Janet Dolly Wilkinson. The following year, with Thompson's continued backing, he was elected

Cook County state's attorney The Cook County State's Attorney functions as the state of Illinois's district attorney for Cook County, Illinois, and heads the second-largest prosecutor's office in the United States. The office has over 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In ad ...

. In 1924, he prosecuted Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb for the premeditated murder of Bobby Franks, squaring off against defender

Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowe, Robert E. 1879 births 1958 deaths District attorneys in Illinois Illinois Republicans Illinois state court judges Lawyers from Chicago Politicians from Chicago