Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Loading
FB![]()
author
Francis X. Busch
Francis Xavier Busch (May 9, 1879 - November 29, 1975) was a leading U.S. trial lawyer and accomplished author during the first half of the twentieth century. He was also prominent in legal‐educati...view moreFrancis Xavier Busch (May 9, 1879 - November 29, 1975) was a leading U.S. trial lawyer and accomplished author during the first half of the twentieth century. He was also prominent in legal‐education affairs.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, he moved with his family to Chicago in 1895. After employment as a secretary at the Chicago stockyards, he entered the Illinois School of Law, where he graduated in 1901. He began the practice of law, soon to return to his alma mater as adjunct professor. While teaching, he also continued his legal studies, earning his LL.M. in 1905 and the LL.D. in 1912.
Quickly becoming one of the leading trial lawyers of the city, with a practice that included both civil and criminal work, Mr. Busch was a close friend of the renowned trial lawyer Clarence Darrow, whose civil practice he took over while Darrow was in the West defending labor leaders accused of violence in the 1920’s.
Mr. Busch held a number of local offices and headed the legal division of the nation’s second-largest city as corporation counsel of Chicago in the 1920’s and early 30’s. He also served as delegate to several Democratic National Conventions and was among the founders of the law college of DePaul University, where he also taught and was an honorary dean.
In the 1940’s and early 1950’s, Mr. Busch devoted increasing time to writing legal textbooks, including a six-volume treatise on jury trial tactics, as well as popular books analyzing celebrated criminal trials.
Mr. Busch was married twice and had four children.
He died in Montgomery, Alabama in 1975 at the age of 96.view less
Books by Francis X. Busch
Prisoners at the Bar: An Account of the Trials of the William Haywood Case,: the Sacco-Vanzetti Case, the Loeb-Leopold Case, the Bruno Hauptmann Case