Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_

TRAGEDY IN DEDHAM

_In his Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard,
Lowes Dickinson inquired,
“Is immortality desirable?”
I almost think it is,
if only to get at the truth
of the Sacco-Vanzetti case._

—FERRIS GREENSLET

TRAGEDY
IN DEDHAM

THE STORY OF THE

SACCO-VANZETTI CASE

_Francis Russell_

NEW YORK / TORONTO / LONDON McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC.

TRAGEDY IN DEDHAM

COPYRIGHT © 1962 BY FRANCIS RUSSELL.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF
MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT
WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER.

_Library of Congress Catalog Card Number_: 62-13822

54340

CONTENTS

CHRONOLOGY vii

MAPS xii

ONE THE TRAGEDY IN DEDHAM 1

TWO HISTORY,
WRITTEN AND OTHERWISE 10

THREE APRIL 15, 1920 28

FOUR BRIDGEWATER
AND WEST BRIDGEWATER 49

FIVE THE NIGHT OF MAY 5 60

SIX THE MEN AND THE TIMES 71

SEVEN THE PLYMOUTH TRIAL 93

EIGHT THE YEAR BETWEEN 107

NINE THE TRIAL—I 129

TEN THE TRIAL—II 158

ELEVEN THE TRIAL—III 176

TWELVE POST-TRIAL—I 216

THIRTEEN POST-TRIAL—II 237

FOURTEEN THE CONFESSIONS 270

FIFTEEN MORE HISTORY,
WRITTEN AND OTHERWISE 302

SIXTEEN 1926 326

SEVENTEEN 1927 349

EIGHTEEN THE PUBLIC
AND THE LOWELL COMMITTEE 380

NINETEEN AUGUST 1927 404

TWENTY AFTERMATH 451

SOURCES
AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 467

INDEX 471

CHRONOLOGY

1919
June 2. Attorney General Palmer’s house bombed,
Washington, D.C.
November 7. First of the Palmer Red raids.
November 23. Buick belonging to F. J. Murphy stolen
in Needham.
December 22. License plates stolen from Hassam’s garage,
Needham.
December 24. Bridgewater holdup.

1920
January 2. Red raids in thirty-three cities.
January 6-7. License plates stolen from car, Needham.
February 25. Elia and Salsedo detained in New York
by Department of Justice.
April 15. Holdup and murders in South Braintree.
April 17. Discovery of abandoned Murphy Buick.
April 20. Stewart interviews Boda.
April 25. Vanzetti goes to New York.
May 5. Sacco and Vanzetti arrested.
May 6. Orciani arrested. Katzmann questions
Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco’s preliminary
hearing on South Braintree charge.
May 11. Orciani released.
May 18. Vanzetti’s preliminary hearing on South
Braintree charge.
June 11. Vanzetti indicted for Bridgewater
holdup.
June 22-July 1. Vanzetti tried for Bridgewater holdup.
August 16. Vanzetti sentenced.
August 19. Fred Moore takes up defense of Sacco
and Vanzetti.
September 16. Wall Street bomb explosion.

1921
January. Negotiations between Angelina DeFalco
and Defense Committee.
May 31-July 14. Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti.
October. Mass demonstrations in Europe against
verdict.
October 29, November 5. Motion for new trial argued.
November 8. First supplementary (Ripley) motion
filed.
December 24. Thayer denies motion for new trial.

1922
May 4. Second supplementary (Gould-Pelser)
motion filed.
July 22. Third supplementary (Goodridge) motion
filed.
September 11. Fourth supplementary (Andrews) motion
filed.

1923
March 8. William Thompson agrees to argue supplementary
motions.
April 23. Sacco committed to Bridgewater State
Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
April 30. Fifth supplementary (Hamilton-Proctor)
motion filed.
September 29. Sacco discharged from Bridgewater
Hospital.
October 1-November 8. Hearings on the supplementary motions.

1924
August. Moore withdraws from case.
October 1. Thayer denies all five supplementary
motions.

1925
January 2-May 28. Vanzetti committed to Bridgewater
Hospital.
June. International Labor Defense takes up
case.
November 18. Madeiros confesses.

1926
February. Renewed demonstrations overseas.
May 12. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
rejects Thompson’s appeal from Thayer’s
denial of the supplementary motions;
convictions of Sacco and Vanzetti confirmed.
May 15-20. Madeiros’ second trial.
May 22. Herbert Ehrmann finds trail of Morelli
gang.
May 26. Motion based on Madeiros confession
filed.
June 2. Samuel Johnson’s house bombed.
September 13-17. Thompson argues Madeiros motion before
Thayer.
October 23. Thayer denies Madeiros motion.

1927
January 27,28. Thompson appeals Thayer’s denial of
October 23 to Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court.
March. Frankfurter’s _Atlantic Monthly_ article.
April 5. Supreme Court affirms Thayer’s denial of
October 23.
April 9. Sacco and Vanzetti sentenced.
May 4. Governor Fuller receives Vanzetti’s clemency
petition.
June 1. Fuller appoints Advisory (“Lowell”)
Committee.
June 3. Calvin Goddard tests shells and bullets.
July 27. Lowell Committee reports findings to
Governor Fuller.
August 3. Fuller refuses clemency.
August 5. Bombings in New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore.
August 7. Lowell Committee report made public.
August 15. Juror McHardy’s house dynamited.
August 23. Madeiros, Sacco, and Vanzetti executed.

1932
September 27. Thayer’s house bombed.

1959
April 2. Massachusetts Legislature Committee
hearing on posthumous pardon for Sacco
and Vanzetti.

1961
October 11. Re-examination of ballistics evidence by
Jac Weller and Frank Jury.

BEFORE THE SHOOTING:

1 Neal
2 Tracey
3 Heron
4 Novelli
5 Behrsin

DURING THE SHOOTING:

6 Where Buick waited
7 Where Berardelli fell
8 Where Parmenter fell
9 Bostock
10 Wade
11 Nichols
12 McGlone
13 Langlois
14 Pelser
15 Liscomb
16 Laborers at excavation

AFTER THE SHOOTING:

17 Kennedy, Hayes
18 Splaine, Devlin
19 Carrigan
20 Pierce, Ferguson
21 Levangie
22 Workers on railroad
23 Gould
24 Burke
25 DeBeradinis
26 Goodridge
27 Damato
]