Plot summary

In Chicago in 1924, two rich college students, Judd Steiner and Arthur Strauss, decide they can commit the perfect murder and get away with it. They kill a boy, Paulie Kessler, but through the efforts of part-time reporter and fellow student Sid Brooks, a pair of glasses left at the scene is traced to the murderers. For their trial, the families hire defense attorney Jonathan Wilk renowned for his skills in getting acquittals. Both men confess to the crime and at first plead not guilty. Once the trial has commenced Wilk, realizing there is no possibility of acquittal, changes the plea to guilty and goes on to make an impassioned speech in favor of leniency. The court is swayed and the men spared the rope and sentenced to life.—garykmcd, edited by Chrid