(dramatic music)
(fast-paced music)
- It must be stopped.
You, and all the school parent groups about the country.
And you must stand united on this,
and stamp out this frightful assassin of our youth!
You can do it by bringing about compulsory education
on the subject of narcotics in general.
The dread marihuana in particular.
That is the purpose of this meeting, ladies and gentlemen.
To lay the foundation for a nationwide campaign by you
to demand, by law, such compulsory education.
Because it is only through enlightenment
that this scourge can be wiped out.
Out of the trafficking in these drugs,
a lawlessness that we can scarcely estimate
has grown and is now flourishing.
It exists in almost every city and hamlet in the country.
It might be interesting and important for you to know
some of the methods used in bringing
these drugs into the country
and the work of the forces of law and order
which are daily combating the traffic,
always at the risk of life by their agents.
This ceaseless fight against the drug traffic
is directed by the Department of Narcotics, Washington.
I have received a letter of vital importance
from a member of the Narcotics Bureau.
I'm going to read this letter to you.
My dear Dr. Carroll, the suppression of the use
of marihuana and of the forces lurking behind it
are the most important jobs this department
is now engaged in.
At the outset of this letter, there is one vital fact
I would like to submit.
There is a powerful agency.
I speak of the school-parent associations of this country,
which can be invaluable in stamping out this scourge.
Their help, their eternal vigilance,
could be the deciding factor in our fight against it.
The weed marihuana is grown in every state in the union.
Recently in the city of Brooklyn, New York,
a field of marihuana was found behind a tenement court.
The weed was here being cultivated, regularly stripped
and dried and sold in schools and at government army posts
in and around New York.
The dried leaves and berries are ground up
and made into cigarettes by a simple hand machine.
The deadly narcotic is thus quickly
and easily prepared for its market.
The sale of marihuana is even more difficult to detect
and halt than the traffic in drugs
such as opium, morphine and heroin.
They are hidden in fake jewelry cases,
in the heels of shoes, women's shoes especially,
because the drugs can be secreted in false heels.
Hollow shaving brushes are another means.
Books with false centers are often used,
watch cases are convenient hiding places.
The value of drugs thus seized is enormous.
Recently a huge supply of heroin was taken.
It was concealed in an apparently harmless shipment
of thirty-five barrels of olive oil.
The deadly drug was burned in the incinerator
of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
And more vicious, more deadly even than these
soul-destroying drugs, is the menace of marihuana!
No doubt, many of you do not believe that these things
do happen, that they cannot happen to you.
You may also believe that the facts have been exaggerated.
Let me tell you of something that happened
right here in our own city.
You probably read about it in the papers.
However I'll give you the real facts behind the case.
There was an apartment near one of our high schools.
It was run by a woman known as Mae Coleman.
- Hey!
Come on Mae, get up.
- What time is it?
- Time to get up and give this place a going-over.
It looks like the Marines have landed.
- Well, that bunch last night was high enough
was to take over the Marines and the Navy.
- You better get on the job.
Some of the kids may be over this afternoon.
- Oh Jack, we can get along without
dragging those young kids up here.
- Oh, why don't you button up your lip?
You're always squawking about something.
You got more static than the radio.
(doorbell buzzing)
Ah, greetings!
- Well hello Jack, how are you?
- Fine, how are you?
- Yeah. - Pleasure.
- Glad to see you.
- Is, uh, Mae in?
- She'll be right in.
Just sit down and make yourselves comfortable.
- What kind of a joint is this, Eddie?
- Oh, it's all right Gwen.
They probably had a party last night.
- Oh.
- A couple of your customers, Mae.
- Yeah?
They're old enough to know what they're doing.
Not like those young kids you bring up here.
- All right, all right.
Listen, I'm going to blow.
- Where you going?
- I've got to make some deliveries and then I'll probably
drop by Joe's place and bring back a couple of the kids.
- Oh, I wish you'd lay off those kids!
- Oh, why don't you get over that mother complex.
- Oh by the way Ralph, I'm sort of giving
a little party Friday afternoon over at my grandmother's.
You know the place with the swimming pool?
Would you like to come?
- Thanks Eddie, maybe I will.
- I'd sure like to have you.
- Okay, I'll probably drop over.
- So long, Ralph.
- See you later.
- Hey Ralph!
How ya been?
- Fine, Jack, and you?
- Oh, great.
Where ya headed?
- Oh...
Hey how do you like that?
That's the one I was telling you about.
- Very nice!
- I don't know why you want to make
such a fuss over that Ralph Wiley.
- Aw, he's a swell swimmer.
He made the freshman team that year he went to college.
- Yeah, and that lets him out.
My dad knows his family.
Father and mother just got a divorce in Paris.
- Yeah?
- You know, Ralph hangs around pretty much on his own.
He's been in a couple of jams.
- Yeah, well I only try to say hello to him,
I don't go around with him.
- Yeah, you better not, he's a little too old for us.
That's what my dad says.
- Hmmm.
- Hello Mary!
Hi Bill.
- Hiya Ralph!
- Oh, hello Ralph!
You know my brother Jimmy, don't you?
- How are you?
- Swell!
- I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Jack Perry.
- Mary, Bill.
- How do you do?
- Good to know you.
- We're going over to Joe's place, why don't you come along?
- We have a date to play a set of doubles.
- Oh, you can play anytime.
Come on, we'll have some laughs.
- Oh we can't today Ralph, some other time.
- Can I go out with you?
- Sure!
- I'll see you at dinner, sis.
- Don't be late Jimmy!
- I won't.
(lively music)
- Hello Joe!
- Hi Jack!
- Jimmy! Jimmy!
- Hi darlin'!
- Hey, he ain't no paper man!
- Why don't you know him?
That's Hot-Fingers Pirelli!
- He really swings out with a mess of jive!
Wanna dance? - Sure!
- Mae's expecting us at the apartment a little later.
- Any new prospects?
- Maybe.
- Oh Jimmy, you're wonderful!
- You're just finding that out?
- Why can't we go now?
- Sure.
Say kids, we're having a little party
at my girlfriend's apartment.
Wouldn't you like to come?
- I'd love to!
You wanna come, don't you Jimmy?
- Aw, sure.
Anything with you!
- Well come on!
We can all go in my car.
- See ya later Joe.
- So long.
- It's good of you to help me, Bill.
- Well I'll try anything except domestic sewing!
- Why, Bill, don't you want to learn
something about running your own home?
- The answer is no!
You know, after that session we had yesterday,
I went home and told Mother that the trouble with
her pot-roast gravy was she hadn't added
three heaping teaspoons full of olive oil!
- What did she say?
- She didn't say anything.
She just threw me out of the kitchen!
- Well, I don't wonder!
- Hello children!
- Hello, Mother. - Hello, Mrs. Lane.
- That was sweet of you Mother.
- Gosh, hot chocolate!
Thanks Mrs. Lane!
- I know you can't study on empty stomachs.
Now enjoy yourselves.
- We will!
- We will too Mrs. Lane.
- May i?
- Oh thank you kind sir!
You're so very, very kind!
- Mary, before we do that math,
how about reading some of this?
It's swell!
- Romeo and Juliet?
- Don't you like it?
- Uh huh.
- You know, when I study this, I kinda think of you.
I just sorta feel as though you're there beside me.
Listen.
It is my soul that calls upon thy name,
how silver sweet sound lovers tongue by night.
Like softest music to attending ears.
- Romeo!
- My dear!
- What o'clock tomorrow shall I send for thee?
- By the hour of nine!
- I will not fail.
'Tis twenty years 'til then.
- Well, uh ha.
I'll see you tonight, Mary!
Goodbye Mrs. Lane.
Ha ha.
So long!
Ow!
- Oh Bill!
- Uh, ha ha.
I'm all right.
Uh. Bye. Bye!
- Hey Daddy! Daddy!
Hey Dad, got anything for me?
- Don't bother your father every night!
- Aw, have ya?
- There you are.
- What made you so late, Bill?
I was getting worried!
- Aw, I had to study, Ma.
- He was not, I saw him out walking with his girl!
Bill's got a girl!
Bill's got a girlfriend!
- Mom, make him cut it out!
- Junior!
- Well Bill has got a girl.
- Quiet!
And put that candy away until after dinner.
Henry, you shouldn't have given it to him.
- Well he has got a girlfriend and her name is Mary!
- I'll shut you up!
- Bill! Junior!
Quit that carrying on!
Junior!
- Aw, let them alone.
They're all right, they're young.
- Bill's got a girl!
I didn't mean it Bill, honest I didn't!
- Aw. well, what I'm burnt up about is that
you didn't say that Bill had a swell girl!
- Gee, it must be love!
She has to be swell for you to like her!
- Uh huh.
Sounds like you want something.
Come on, what is it?
- Well, it's my model airplane.
It won't work.
Gosh, Bill, you can fix it.
You can fix anything!
- Okay, I'll fix it.
- Oh hello Jimmy!
- Mary told me to wait and tell you she had to go home
'cause her mother wanted her to
go to the dressmaker with her.
- Oh thanks, Jimmy.
Mmmm, must be getting grown-up,
i see Mary let you have the car.
- Yeah!
Can I take you anyplace?
- Hmmm, I wasn't going any place in particular.
- Well then, how about driving me over to the,
Joe's place with me?
I'll buy you a soda.
- I never drink the stuff.
- Well, gee, I'll buy you something else.
- Okay, you're on the hook for one root-beer!
- Swell!
- Hi Bill, hi Jimmy.
- Hi Joe!
- Hey Jimmy!
- Hi Jimmy, hello Bill.
Come on, slide in.
- Hello Blanche.
- Hello Ralph.
How ya been, Ralph? - Oh hello Jimmy.
- Two sodas.
Oh, I mean, one float and one root beer.
How's Mae?
- Oh, she's fine.
We're going up to her apartment later.
- Can Bill come along?
- Uh huh. - Want to come?
- Well--
- Oh come on Bill, you'll get a kick out of it.
- Thanks just the same.
- Aw, come on Bill!
Mary won't be jealous.
- Why sure, all the kids will be there, it's keen!
- Well I don't know, I really shouldn't...
Well, okay.
(lively piano music)
- Hiya kids!
- Hello Jack, what do you say?
Yeah, come on in.
- Come on Bill, don't stand there!
Mae!
He's Bill Harper.
He's okay.
- Hello!
- Well, if you say so, it's all right with me.
I'll be back in a minute.
There's a new one in today.
- Yeah, Bill Harper.
He's all right.
Blanche has got herself quite a yen for him.
- Not bad.
I didn't think she had that much taste.
- She knows what she's doing.
She's got Ralph nuts about her, and now
she's got her hooked up with this new kid.
- Hey, we haven't any more smokes.
You better run over and get some.
- Why couldn't you find that out
when I was here this morning?
Now I've got my car at the shop.
- Well, what of it?
That kid out there, Jimmy, he's got a car.
He'll take you.
Come on, get going.
- Hey Jimmy:
- Yeah?
- I need to go over to Cedar Avenue for a minute.
You've got a car haven't you?
- Why yeah, it's my sister's.
- Mind giving me a lift?
- Why, sure!
Come on!
- Okay.
- No thank you.
- Well, here they are.
- Oh, thanks!
- Oh Mae, don't forget me!
- I never forget you.
- Oh dear, if you want a good smoke, try one of these!
I thought you were a sport!
Of course, if you're afraid...
- That's better!
That's more like it!
I know you'll like it, really you will.
Just take a puff of it.
(laughing)
- Just be a minute, kid.
- Hey Jack, give me a cigarette before you go, will you?
- Hello Jack.
- Hi boss.
- How's business?
- Getting better every day.
Those kids sure go for it.
- Swell.
- Had to run over for couple more cartons.
Ran short today.
- Uh huh.
That's ten gross for Jack Perry.
Who? Pete Daley?
All right, send him in.
It's all right, stay where you are.
- I want to talk to you.
- All right, go ahead.
Jack's okay, what's the beef?
- Listen, you never heard no beef
when I had to sell that rotten gin.
- You're after the dough aren't ya?
- Yeah, well I don't need dough that bad.
Taking two-bit pieces from kids!
- There are millions of two-bit pieces
just beggin' to be taken.
Don't be a dope.
- I'm just dope enough to draw the line selling hop to kids!
- All right, Pete.
You know what my policy has always been.
If you boys are not satisfied,
I'm always glad to have 'em retire...
Retire, permanently.
So long.
- I only wish you had a couple of kids, so I could--
- Get out!
All right Jack, pick up your stuff and get out of here,
it ought to be ready by now.
- Okay, boss
- Let's go Jack, I'm red hot!
- Better be careful how you drive,
or the first thing you know, you'll be ice cold.
Take it easy, kid!
Slow down, you'll kill somebody!
(tires screeching)
- Mary, you're not eating your breakfast again.
Bill Harper hasn't been around lately.
Anything wrong between you two?
- Why should there be anything wrong?
- There shouldn't be, I'm sure.
And whatever it is isn't serious, I know.
- I'm sorry Mother, for snapping at you like that.
- Don't worry about it, dear.
Why don't you speak frankly to Bill?
He'll be honest, whatever the trouble is.
I'm sure Bill Harper never lied about anything.
- Yes, that's right.
Bill's mother says he never lies.
- There, you see?
- You think it would be all right
if I speak to him about it?
- Why, of course!
Oh Jimmy.
- Hello Mom.
- Sit down, darling, and I'll have
your breakfast for you in a moment.
- Jimmy!
- What have I got to worry about?
- Why don't you tell me?
- Oh for Pete's sake, don't start to
cross-examine me, will ya?
I'm all right.
- Jimmy!
Don't let Mother see you like this!
- There is no doubt that there is an organized gang
distributing the narcotic to students.
Not only in my school, but all over the city.
You government men have got to find
some way to put an end to it!
- Of course I agree with you, Dr. Carroll,
but do you realize that marihuana
is not like other forms of dope?
You see, it grows wild in almost every state of the union.
Therefore, there is practically
no interstate commerce in the drug.
As a result, the government's hands are tied.
And frankly, the only sure cure
is a widespread campaign in education.
- Oh, it's all right to talk about education Mr. Wyatt,
but we educators can't do anything
until the public is sufficiently aroused.
- Let me show you something.
In 1930, the records on marihuana in the Washington office,
narcotics division, scarcely filled
a small folder like this.
Today, they fill cabinets.
All these, devoted to marihuana records.
Here is an example.
A sixteen year-old lad, apprehended
in the act of staging a holdup.
Sixteen years old, and a marihuana addict.
Here is a most tragic case.
- Yes, I remember.
Just a young boy.
Under the influence of the drug,
he killed his entire family with an axe.
Then there is the most vicious kind of case.
Here.
In Michigan, a young girl, seventeen years old.
A reefer smoker, taken in a raid
in the company of five young men.
Here is a particularly flagrant case.
- Yes, I remember the newspapers made quite a play of it.
In West Virginia, wasn't it?
- Yes, and there are hundreds of them coming up,
new ones every day.
- I'd like to take these records, if I may.
I feel they would be of invaluable assistance to me
in combating the evil in my school.
- You're very welcome, Dr. Carroll.
- Thank you.
- Sit down, Bill.
There seems to be something wrong.
What is it?
You were always a fine student.
You always had excellent grades.
- Oh I guess the work is getting
a little harder, Dr. Carroll.
- No, no, it isn't that.
Bill, I'd like to help you.
But of course I can't unless you let me.
You're undermining your health.
- No, there's nothing, Dr. Carroll, really there isn't.
I'll study harder, honest!
- Honest?
If you were being honest with me and honest with yourself,
I'm afraid you'd tell me an entirely different story.
Bill, I'm, I'm going to ask you a straightforward question,
and I'd like to have a straightforward answer.
- Yes sir.
- Isn't it true that you have, perhaps unwillingly,
acquired a certain harmful habit
through association with certain undesirable people?
Well?
- Oh, no sir, I haven't, Dr. Carroll.
Well, that is, you see, I'm worried about something at home.
- All right my boy, we'll just have to let it go at that.
But remember, if you ever want to confide in me,
no one will ever be the wiser.
- Thank you, Dr. Carroll.
- Hello, Mary.
You wanna play a set?
- Thanks Kenny, but I'm waiting for someone.
- Well if you're waiting for Bill,
he hasn't been here for weeks.
- Come on Jimmy, play something hot!
(fast-paced music)
- Didn't take that new kid long to catch on.
- Don't take any of 'em long.
Say, don't you ever get fed?
- You're feeding me, can't you see?
Get me a knife and fork, will ya?
- Get it yourself.
- Come on, Bill!
Come on, come on!
Come on, come on...
(fast-paced music)
- Morning, miss.
We're from the police department.
- Good morning.
- We're tracing a hit and run driver.
Someone caught the license number at the
place of the accident but didn't get it quite right.
And we're checking all numbers like it,
and yours was one of them.
- Well I'll try to help you.
- Do you remember what you did on the 29th of last month?
- Oh, that was the day before Mother's birthday.
Oh yes, I remember that because I left school
and went directly to the dressmaker's with Mother.
I was there all afternoon.
- Did you happen to loan your car to a couple of men?
- No.
No, I had the car all afternoon myself.
- Well, thanks miss, sorry to have troubled you.
- Tell me, er, did they, was the person killed?
- Fortunately he wasn't, but that's still
no excuse for hit and run driving.
- Has Jimmy Lane been here today?
- He was in.
He went over to Mae's place.
You know where that is.
- Well...
He was going to wait for me here,
so he didn't give me Mae's address.
Are you sure Jimmy didn't leave any message for me, Mary?
- No he didn't.
But I guess you're okay.
I'll write it down for you.
(doorbell buzzing)
- Mary!
Come right in!
- Is Jimmy here?
- He's around somewhere, I think
he went out to take Agnes home.
He'll be right back.
Come in and sit down Mary.
And let me take your coat.
- Who's the new kid who just came in?
- Oh it's that gal that Ralph has gone overboard for.
It's funny, he hasn't been able to get her up here before.
- Hey! Hey!
Scram, will ya?
Smoke, Mary?
- Thanks.
Are you sure Jimmy will be back soon?
- Sure, any minute.
(giggling)
- Say, what's the matter, an orphan?
- Where do you put it, you got a hollow leg?
- Thank you.
- How do you feel, Mary?
Oh Mary.
- No. No!
Stop!
No!
Leave me alone!
No!
Leave me alone!
(struggling and screaming)
(gun firing)
- Ralph, Ralph! Look!
- Jack, is she all right?
- She's dead.
Mae, get me some water.
Now listen you two, I want you to get out of here.
Get out of here and forget you were ever in here today.
I'll handle this.
Now get going!
Give it to me.
Here.
- Mary!
Mary! Mary!
What happened?
- You killed her.
(sobbing)
- Look, after I scram, you call the cops.
And this is your story, remember it.
These two kids came up here for a couple of beers.
You were out in the kitchen, you heard the shot.
When you got in here, that's what you found.
Just stick to that story.
- Mary!
Mary, speak to me!
Mary!
(cheerful piano music)
- Hello, Jack.
- I was just talking to a friend of mine, a cop.
A sergeant on the homicide squad.
That guy you hit that day died.
- Died?
You, I mean, you didn't--
- No, I didn't crack, and I'm not going to.
Nobody will ever know you were driving that car.
- Thanks Jack--
- Just as long as you keep your mouth shut
you were ever at Mae's apartment.
- Why sure Jack, sure.
- Okay.
- Your honor, I'd like to recall
Dr. Alfred Carroll to the stand.
- Call Dr. Alfred Carroll to the stand.
- Dr. Carroll, as principal of the Lakeside High School,
did you, during the last three months,
notice any changes in the demeanor
and attitude of your student, William Harper?
- Yes, in a number of things.
For example, at times, dissociation of ideas.
In uh, another instance, I happened to attend
the recent interscholastic tennis matches.
And while Bill Harper had been considered
an exceedingly good player, I saw him miss the ball
by as much as three or four feet.
This I understand could be
attributed to the use of marihuana.
It causes errors in time and space.
- Objection your honor!
The witness isn't qualified to express
opinions upon the effects of narcotics.
- Sustained.
Dr. Carroll has been called merely as a character witness.
- Well then, although you didn't know with your
own knowledge that the defendant was using marihuana,
did you notice any changes that wold lead you to believe,
as an educator, that he was under some severe mental strain
that might possibly have be induced by some drug?
- Yes, I recall distinctly a few weeks ago.
It was during a class of English literature.
There was a serious discussion of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, when he suddenly burst into
an uncontrollable fit of hysterical laughter.
- By the way, Dr. Carroll.
Six months ago, what would have been your opinion
regarding the character of my client?
- He was a fine upstanding American boy.
A good scholar, a good athlete, and representative
of the caliber of young men we are
proud to graduate from our school.
- Oh, snap out of it, will ya?
Not our fault.
Why'd I ever bring him up there, anyway?
He's just a kid.
They can't hang him.
- Shut up, shut up!
- Why don't you let yourself go?
Talk!
Go off your nut, and have me that way too.
It was his own fault, wasn't it?
- Shut up!
They've got us hidden out, haven't they?
The cops can't find us.
- Jack!
Jack, I want to get out of this place.
- You're gonna stay in here as long as
we have to keep those two out there under cover.
'Til the trial's over, or the boss gets a better idea.
- But they're getting on my nerves!
- It can't last much longer.
I'm not worried about her.
We gotta keep him gagged.
- Oh, he's about ready to crack.
- All you gotta do is keep him from having too many reefers.
- Any day now that punk'll get hot.
He'll probably spill and tell
all he knows if he gets a chance.
- I don't think he'll get it.
I'll see you later.
- Where are you going?
- I'm gonna see the boss.
- Hello Jack.
- Hello boss.
What are we gonna do about that Wiley guy?
- Still jittery, huh?
- I don't know what the punk's gonna do.
- Keep feeding him those hop sticks.
- That's what Mae's been doing.
That's no good.
I've got a hunch he's due to crack
when that Harper verdict comes in.
If he's on the tea, he's liable to
take a powder on us, and blow his top to the D.A.
- You mean we'd all be better off if
he never heard the verdict?
Well, what are you waiting for?
- You, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
have a duty to perform.
A duty to yourselves, and to our community.
Mary Lane is dead.
The evidence you've heard at this trial
could not have failed to convince you
of the guilt of the defendant.
By his own admission, he pressed the trigger
of the weapon that sent lovely and innocent Mary Lane
to a tragic and untimely death.
We are not so much concerned about the motives
behind the deed as to the deed itself.
While the defendant has told you that
he saw someone attacking Mary Lane,
and that his mind went blank from that moment on,
the defense has been unable to produce
one witness to substantiate that statement.
Now ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
you've heard able men testify at this trial.
Men who were proud to bring out the fact that
the defendant might have become momentarily insane
when he fired the shot that killed Mary Lane.
But the defense has been unable to prove that he was insane.
William Harper was sane when he visited
the apartment where the tragedy occurred.
He was in the habit of visiting the place.
He was sane when he went to bed with another young women.
You've all heard what went on in that room.
You heard it from the defendant's own lips.
Involved, as he was, in a tawdry love affair,
Mary Lane was in the way.
She had found him out.
In a moment of anger, he deliberately
and willfully killed her.
If such deeds are permitted to go unpunished,
this community would cease to be a decent
and safe place for us or our children to live.
I do not believe I need to plead, or even demand,
that you bring in a verdict to punish the defendant
for the crime he has committed against society.
You are upright citizens.
That is why you were chosen to judge another.
And as honest, upright citizens, there is
only one verdict which you could find.
And that is, a verdict of guilty!
- [Judge] And this court will be adjourned
until the jury's verdict is reached.
- I suppose you all feel the same about this case.
- But he might have been insane when he did it.
- No he wasn't.
He knew what he was doing.
- But, supposing he was insane?
- You'll never get me to believe it nor anybody else.
We'll take a first vote.
Eleven for conviction, one for acquittal.
- But there's a reasonable doubt about the boy's sanity.
We can't--
- No doubt about the fact that he murdered her.
He admitted it himself.
That wasn't the first time he was there.
We gotta make an example, before boys like that
contaminate all of our children.
We can't have every murderer hiding
behind the guise that he's insane.
Sure they see red before they kill somebody.
But whose fault is it?
- Have you reached a verdict?
- We have.
- The defendant will rise.
What is your verdict?
- We find the defendant guilty as charged.
- No!
No... (sobbing)
(crowd talking)
(piano music)
- Stop that racket.
Stop it!
- What's the matter with you?
You give me the creeps.
- Mae. Mae!
- What do you want?
- Bring me some reefers!
They're going to hang him.
Blanche, they're going to hang him!
- Aw come on, get a hold of yourself.
- Here ya are.
Now quit that crazy laughing!
- Where's Jack?
I want to get out of here.
- They'll pick you up and hang you
if you don't pipe down.
- I wanna see Jack.
Jack.
I wanna see Jack.
Jack...
- You better quiet him.
- I can't do anything with him.
- I've gotta see Jack.
We can't let that kid hang.
- He'll be here, don't worry,
he'll be here in a little while.
- I've got to see him.
I've got to see him.
Oh!
- Don't worry darling, everything will be over soon.
You want me to play something for you?
- Yeah.
Yeah, that's it.
Play something.
- All right.
Honey, give me a smoke, will ya?
- Faster.
Faster!
Play it faster!
(music speeding up)
Play it faster.
Faster.
I know what you want.
You want to kill me.
- You're crazy.
Take it easy kid, I just want to talk to you.
(screaming)
(hysterical crying)
- Hurry! Hurry!
There's a terrible fight going on!
Yes, yes.
Apartment thirty two.
(crying)
- Stop it!
Stop it!
Get off of me!
Get your hands off of me!
Stop it!
Take your hands off me!
Stop it!
- Give me a glass of water.
- [Cop] Who's behind you?
- No, no, no!
- You'll hang if you don't talk.
Who is Jack Perry?
Are you ready to tell what you know?
- [Blanche] Yes! I'll talk.
- If we can gain some measure of leniency for my client,
she is prepared to enter a plea of guilty
and, in addition, turn state's evidence
in the case of William Harper.
- I regret that this court is not
prepared to bargain with justice.
- I'll tell anyway.
I was there, I saw it.
I know who killed Mary.
And I'll tell you who killed Mary lane.
It wasn't Bill.
It was Jack.
Jack Perry.
He shot Mary then he put the gun in Bill's hand.
We were all up at the apartment one afternoon,
and Mary came in looking for her brother.
Bill and I, we'd been in another room.
And Bill came in, he caught Ralph with Mary
so he started to fight.
But it was Jack who had the gun.
He was gonna hit Bill over the head
with it to make him stop.
And then, then the gun went off.
I saw it.
I can see it now!
It was horrible!
And, before we knew it, Mary was dead!
But you see, judge, Bill didn't
know that he hadn't killed Mary.
He was so doped up they made him think he had.
Ralph wanted to tell you too.
Oh, if they'd only let him!
But this is the truth, judge.
I'm telling you the truth.
After Jack saw that Mary was dead,
he put the gun in Bill's hand!
It was Jack's fault.
And it was my fault too.
I got all of 'em to come up to the apartment.
I'm just as much to blame.
I am.
I am!
- Do I understand you wish to plead guilty to a charge of
fostering moral delinquency in the case of William Harper?
- Yes, yes, I'm guilty, I am!
- Prepare a statement for signature, and also an order
setting aside the verdict in the case of
the people versus William Harper.
In the interests of justice,
I shall direct a verdict of not guilty.
Sign here, please.
You shall be brought into court on Thursday the 17th
when sentence will be pronounced.
Meanwhile, you will be held as a material witness
in the case of the people versus Ralph Wiley.
(screaming)
We have come in the hearings before this court today
to what I hope will be the final actions revolving about
an unhappy and unfortunate case, one whose
horrible tragedy will forever remain with me.
I am happy to have been enabled, before it was too late,
to order the verdict of the jury in the case
of the people versus William Harper to be set aside.
But young man, although this court is convinced that
to declare you guilty would have been
a gross miscarriage of justice, we cannot condone your acts.
And we can express only the hope your experiences
may not only keep you but thousands of others
from the vicious pitfalls of marihuana.
Thus I am ordering you to remain in this court
during the next case, so that you will be obliged
to witness what you yourself so narrowly escaped.
Call the case of the people versus Ralph Wiley.
- Your honor, in this case the state waives
trial of the defendant Ralph Wiley.
It is convinced that he is hopelessly and incurably insane,
A condition caused by the drug marihuana
to which he was addicted.
It is recommended your honor, that the defendant
be placed in an institution for the criminally insane
for the rest of his natural life.
Defendant's counsel joins the state in this request.
- Since counsel for the defense, as well as counsel
for the state seem to agree on this,
I see no reason why the request should not be granted.
- Yes, that happened right here, to your neighbors.
It is not too much to say that in your hands
lies the possibility of averting other tragedies like it.
We must work untiringly, so that our children
are obliged to learn the truth.
Because it is only through knowledge that we
can safely protect them.
Failing this, the next tragedy may be that of your daughter.
Or your son.
Or yours.
Or yours!