Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 14, 1921 Dedham, Massachusetts – Attorneys Argue for New Trial for Sacco and Vanzetti
From the Appeal to Reason of November 12, 1921:
Guard All Roads During New Trial
of Sacco-Vanzetti
BY EUGENE LYONS.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Nicola Sacco, Rosina Sacco
Boston, Nov. 4-The courthouse in Dedham, Mass., and all the roads leading to it are in a state of siege, with mounted state constabulary, riot squads, and the rest of the terror brigades patrolling the neighborhood, as counsel for Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the two workingmen whose conviction on a far-fetched charge of murder has roused the proletariat of all nations, argue for a new trial before Judge Webster Thayer.
The hysterical precautions against dangers which do not exist except in the imaginations of alarmist newspaper editors have transformed the court so that it looks like a military camp prepared for battle, rather than a hall of justice. The presiding judge, although he has denied the fake stories of threats against his life, is heavily guarded. Among those who were searched for hidden weapons as they entered the room were many prominent New Englanders, among them John Codman, chairman of local Civil Liberties Union, Mrs. Elizabeth Glendower Evans and Mrs. William James, the widow of the great psychologist and philosopher.
It is in such an atmosphere that the appeal for a new trial was made by attorneys Fred H. Moore and J. J. McAnarney, on the ground that the evidence introduced against their clients did not warrant the verdict. They berated the court for its refusal to grant separate trials for the two defendants, the evidence against them being of a different nature. Mr. McAnarney asserted that the jury was undoubtedly influenced by the halo of terror thrown around the prisoners. Mr. Moore analyzed in detail the testimony against the men, showing how flimsy and untenable it is…..
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 1, 1921 Dedham, Massachusetts – Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti Begins
From the Boston Evening Globe of May 31, 1921:
SACCO-VANZETTI TRIAL HAS BEGUN ———- Parmenter and Berardelli Killed In Braintree Hold ———-
DEDHAM, May 31-At 2:25 this afternoon, after three talesmen had been examined, Wallace R. Hersey of Weymouth, a real estate dealer, was accepted as the first juryman to try Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo [Bartolomeo] Vanzetti on a charge of murder of Frederick A. Parmenter, the paymaster of the later & Morrill Shoe Company, and Alessandro Beradelli, a guard, at South Braintree, on April 15, 1920. Parmenter was robbed of the factory payroll of $16,0OO.
Sacco was brought over from the Dedham Jail and Vanzetti was brought from the State Prison at Charlestown, in charge of Deputy Daniel A. Griffin. Warden Shattuck also accompanied the prisoner, who is serving a sentence of 12 to 15 years for attempted highway robbery at Bridgewater.
The State, was prepared to put on the stand employes of the factory who were witnesses of the robbery and shooting. The prosecution relies upon them and upon residents of towns through which the robbers fled in an automobile to establish the identity of the men or trial as those responsible for the murder.
Sacco is rather a young-looking man smooth-shaven. Vanzetti look older. He wears a mustache.
Various organizations throughout the country have contributed to a defense fund for Sacco and Vanzetti. The defense will offer an alibi for both men and will contend that they were arrested on this charge merely because of their known radical activities.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 5, 1921 Dedham, Massachusetts – A Visit with Nicola Sacco, Gallant Fighter
From The World Tomorrow of January 1921:
Sacco and Vanzetti
By MARY HEATON VORSE
WE drove through the sweet New England towns on our way to the jail in Dedham , where Nicola Sacco has been sitting for six months , deprived of all occupation, waiting his trial.
He is accused of having killed two men on April 15th and having made off in an automobile with $ 18,000 from the pay roll of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Plant in South Braintree. Labor is again on trial in Massachusetts.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti is also accused of this crime. But he is not in Dedham Jail because he has already begun serving a fifteen year sentence in Charlestown. On December 24th, 1919 , there was an attempted hold-up in Bridgewater of another shoe company. No arrests were made-not until May 5th, 1920. There were eighteen people who swore an alibi for Vanzetti. Eighteen people testified that on the afternoon and evening of December 24th Vanzetti was selling eels in Plymouth, for eels on Christmas Eve are to Italians what turkeys are to us on Thanksgiving. These witnesses knew Vanzetti very well, for he was a fish peddler in Oldtown, where they lived. But the testimony of these eighteen people did not count with the American jury. There were three people who identified Vanzetti as the man whom they had seen six months before driving in an automobile, from which shots were fired in Bridgewater. One of the women who identified Vanzetti was blind in one eye. But their identification convicted him.
As for Sacco, not one of the people brought in to identify him swear that this was the man they saw shooting, yet he is held without bail.
But Sacco and Vanzetti are offenders of another sort than criminal offenders. They have both taken an active part as labor leaders among the Italians. Not only were they gallant fighters, both of them, but they were inconveniently holding meetings about Salsedo– Salsedo, who went crazy—maybe—and on May 1st jumped from the fourteenth floor window of the Post Office Building in New York City, where he had been illegally detained by the Department of Justice agents for months—the only man who died in Mr. Palmer’s great May Day revolution. Among the Italians there is a ghastly suspicion that Salsedo did not jump-anyway, it was mighty inconvenient having young men holding meetings about him.
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WE drove through the sweet New England towns on our way to the jail in Dedham , where Nicola Sacco has been sitting for six months , deprived of all occupation, waiting his trial.