Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Duluth, Minnesota 1908 4- ir + £ jL 5K«a p&ftt'Ss ILL sw*UH»
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- BEFORE THE TRIAL 313
- 314 SACCO AND VANZETTI
- Letter from Eugene V. Debs, written Feb. 1,1926, paying tribute to the author as “an intrepid warrior of the social revolution.”
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- THE TRIAL OF SACCO AND VANZETTI 319
- 320 SACCO AND VANZETTI
- THE TRIAL OF SACCO AND VANZETTI 321
312 SACCO AND VANZETTI fairs had already interested the American ambassador in the matter.” The Socialist daily Avanti, published an article on its front page, “Jus tice in America.” Lyons quoted a paragraph: Although its prisons are filled with the best elements of the working class, the American bourgeoisie is still clamoring for proletarian blood. Against Comrades Nicola Sacco of Torre-Maggiore, Province of Foggia, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, of Pedmonte, the American bourgeoisie has mobilized all its class hatred and its race prejudice. A motion was made for a 90-day postponement to allow defense counsel to complete its search in Italy for the witnesses. Also, new counsel had come into the case, Thomas F. and Jeremiah J. Mc- Anamey of Boston and Quincy, Massachusetts, conservative Catholic attorneys with reputations for great professional integrity. “If the McAnameys are defending Sacco and Vanzetti,” Bostonians said, “it means that they are certain they are innocent.” Meantime the Italian Embassy in Washington, D. C., through the U. S. State Department, had transmitted to Governor Cox an appeal that he use his good of fices to insure a fair trial. Public interest was now beginning to stir on their behalf. U. S. Con gressman Tinkham, E. M. Grella, owner of three large Italian newspa pers, Fiorello LaGuardia, then president of the New York Board of Aldermen, the Central Labor Council of Boston, and Dr. Scudder of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches had all spoken out in sup port of the request for time. The 90-day delay was granted by Chief Justice Aiken of the Massachusetts Superior Court. Meantime, many other struggles were going on, as I have indicated elsewhere. An item from our Workers Defense Union minutes of March 19, 1921, is of special interest. It reads: Letters from the New York Italian Committee and Mr. Walter Nelles, read, requested the Defense Union to contribute $50 towards the expenses necessary to carry the suit of Mrs. Salsadeo for damages against Palmer, Flynn, etc. to a higher court. The Italian Committee agreed to contribute $50. Carried to comply with the request. Mr. Nelles had told me of his great anxiety to interrogate Attorney General Palmer as a witness before he went out of office. He needed this money for railroad fare and a court stenographer. Mrs. Salsadeo’s suit had been transferred from a state to a federal court at Palmer’s re quest, where a U. S. Judge sustained his demurrer to the complaint. Mr. Nelles was appealing on behalf of the widow and her two children BEFORE THE TRIAL 313 to the U. S. Appellate Court. Nothing ever came of his efforts. And in the minutes of April 1921, is my report, as organizer, on the case of: Irving Potash, a young Brooklyn boy of 19 years, who was accused of being a Communist and had pleaded guilty to a charge of “criminal an archy” as a misdemeanor, on the bad advice of his lawyer. He was then held for deportation. His brother requested us to take up his case. We se cured bail and instructed Attorney Weinberger to proceed on his behalf. It was a difficult case, on account of the plea of guilty. But we were glad to report success. (Almost 35 years later, in 1955, Irving Potash was deported to Po land after serving a prison sentence under the provisions of the fas cist-like Smith Act.) I reported on the increase of requests for speaking dates on Sacco and Vanzetti. I had letters from the Liberal Club of the University of Pennsylvania; from the Students Liberal Club of Harvard; also from Mrs. Elizabeth G. Evans of the League for Democratic Control and from the New England Committee, which planned a supper meeting to raise funds, as well as from many trade unions. By this time we were sending out from our New York office weekly publicity releases on Sacco and Vanzetti, written by John Beffel, to over 500 papers. A most unusual meeting was held in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in April 1921, at which I spoke. This was the town where the payroll robbery of the L. G. White Shoe Company truck had been attempted, for which Vanzetti was already convicted. It was Beffel’s idea to hold this meeting, as good publicity. I admit it was with trepidation that I took the train to Bridgewater. We got off at the railroad station, which had figured in the testimony, and walked up the street which had been traversed by the pay truck. It was a quiet little New England town with wide streets and a beau tiful white inn on the square. This, the Bridgewater Inn, was our des tination. Its proprietor, George Alcott, a local Socialist, sponsored the meeting, got a police permit, printed and personally distributed the handbills. After supper he drove his car around to the square in front of the Inn under the spreading trees. Slowly the townspeople gathered until we had an audience of about 500, including three policemen. I was acutely aware that I was there to tell these New Englanders that Vanzetti, a foreigner and an anarchist, was an innocent man false ly accused and that townspeople witnesses who might be present were 314 SACCO AND VANZETTI mistaken or had deliberately lied. I could feel the coolness as John intro duced me. I knew this must go off all right, for if a meeting in Bridge water was broken up by irate townspeople it would flash all over the country and be extremely injurious to Sacco and Vanzetti. So I strove with all my powers to tell Vanzetti’s story to that stem New England audience. Finally, by that sixth sense of unity with an audience which speakers possess, I felt they were changing, melting, even becoming a little friendly as I spoke of the contradictions and inconsistencies in the evidence, such as the woman who identified a policeman as a bandit, and the boy who knew a foreigner by the way he ran. Chief of Police Stewart could not have been too popular, because they laughed up roariously at the fact that he had lost the number of the bandit’s car. We took up a collection of $19—a remarkable achievement under the conditions. The crowd said, “Come again!” Waiting for the streetcar in a drug store nearby, the clerk treated me to a drink of lemonade. Then we took the interurban to Brookline —the same route on which Sacco and Vanzetti had been arrested. We had an hour to wait for a train to Boston and seeing a light in Mr. Cal lahan’s office, took a chance on going to see him. Rather a silent Irish man, when he heard where we had been, he said: “Quite an undertak ing! Would you like a drink?” It was most welcome, I assured him. I don’t think that the unimaginative Beffel ever realized the ordeal I had been through. He was concerned that I had made a mistake in pronouncing the name of the shoe factory, and did not get the exact caliber of the gun, and corrected me quite formally on the train on the way home. I said I’d remember next time. The Trial of Saccq and Vanzetti For months prior to the trial, which started May 31, 1921, Norfolk County was the scene of a widespread whispering campaign against Sacco and Vanzetti and their friends as anarchists and bomb throwers, and it was prophesied that a reign of terror was likely to break loose during the trial. On the day the trial opened the Dedham County Courthouse was surrounded by armed officers and plain-clothes police. The two defendants were manacled and marched from the jail to the courthouse surrounded by eight officers. This was re-enacted during the entire 36 days of the trial. The defendants were placed in an iron “cage,” a barbaric custom in Massachusetts, and four armed officers OFFICE OF THEODORE DEBS TERRE HAUTE. IND.
February l3t.,I926 Ruth Albert, Executive Secretary League for Mutual Aid, New York City. My dear Miaa Albert: Please allow me to thank you for your kindneja 'in writing me in regard to the Dinner proposed to be given to our lby&l and dearly beloved comrade,Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,on the fourteenth instant. The invitation to participate in the happy occasion honors me and Is appreciated accordingly,and were it at all (possible I should be Sappy indeed to present my personal compliments to the guest df hon or and to mingle with the good comrades who will honor themse-lyes in this very beautiful and fitting celebration, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn holds a proud and enviable position in the American labor movement and yet she is one of the humblest and most unpretentious of its members. Ever since I~o>f,irst heard of this brave,dauntless leader of the working class siigkshas been at the forefront,one of its mo3t eloquent spokesmen and one of its most consecrated servants. She has espoused and championed the cause of the weakest,lowliest,most despised and persecuted,even when she stood almost alone,and in this she lias never weakened or wavered a moment but faced and fought the enemy without fear and without ref erence to consequences to herself. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is a typical proletarian leader,ahuintrep- id warrior of the pedal revolution,and tfter twenty years of single- hearted devotion, a^id unflinching service to the cause she is loved and honored throughout the labor movement of the United States. And so I gladly join as do also my wife aid my brother and hi3 wife in the loving:and appreciative testimonial to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,our feithful friend and our high-souled comrade, and with all cordial greetings to you all and wishing you a most joyous and in spiring celebration I am, Yours faithfully,
Letter from Eugene V. Debs, written Feb. 1,1926, paying tribute to the author as “an intrepid warrior of the social revolution.” 22^ fr ^fLaw + •» «ZL.'— V ^/e.'i*Jt dcrri ey$ — *£.o**St rSai
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The jury, going daily through the guarded doors of the courthouse, passed the spectators lined up to enter the courtroom as they were searched by officers for concealed weapons. Judge Thayer, during the examination of the jury panel and after the jury was sworn in, made unwarranted remarks on patriotism and loyalty to the government which were obviously directed against the defendants as radicals. Throughout the entire trial he made many prejudicial remarks, and by methods that do not appear in court records—tone of voice, facial ex pression and demeanor—conveyed his dislike of the defendants, in much the same manner as did Judge Medina years later in the Com munist trial at Foley Square. Finally, in his charge to the jury, Judge Thayer went far afield from the regulation instructions on matters of law and called upon them to perform their duty as loyal citizens and to seek courage in their deliberations “such as was typified by the Ameri can soldier boy as he fought and gave up his life on the battlefields of France”—a covert attack upon the defendants as men who might use violence against the jury. Only one weapon was found on a spectator and that was a deputy sheriff from another county! Yet, a desperado atmosphere was created. Harassments inside and outside the courtroom plagued the defense. It was necessary to raise $6,000 to pay for the stenographic minutes of the trial when Mr. Katzman, the prosecutor, refused to share the ex penses, as was customarily done. An eleventh-hour attempt was made to speed the deportation of Frank Lopez, Spanish-born secretary of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, a man with a family and an ex pert cabinetmaker who had been in this country since 1904 when he came here at the age of 19. He was a valuable witness for the defense, and the Department of Labor finally agreed to postpone his departure until after the trial. The government’s case, like that of the Mooney case, hinged on tes timony of identification witnesses. No attempt was ever made to con nect the $18,000 stolen in South Braintree on April 15, 1920, with either defendant or anyone connected with them. Seven witnesses at tempted identifications. On May 18, 1920, in Judge Avery’s lower court, Louis Wade had said, “I might be mistaken.” Frances Devlin had said: “I do not say positively.” Mary Splaine had said: “I do not think my opportunity afforded me the right to say he is the man.” 320 SACCO AND VANZETTI Then, over a year later, they made more positive identifications which, after the trial, either fell apart or were exposed as perjury. Against the weak testimony of these persons, the defense was able to produce 28 persons who were at the scene of the crime, all of whom said they had not seen Sacco or Vanzetti. Some were close enough to the bandits to be shot at by them and had seen them clearly. Some of the state’s wit nesses were at the windows of the factory and a nearby factory. One woman said she knew the man she saw was a foreigner because “he had that blue look that foreigners have when they shave!” The defense further proved that Sacco and Vanzetti were many miles from the scene of the crime. Sacco was in Boston at the office of the Italian consulate applying for passports. The clerk of the consulate was by then in Rome, but he went before the American consul general there and swore to Sacco’s presence in Boston on that day. The clerk recalled the large family picture brought by Sacco, which Rose had de scribed to Mrs. Vorse and me. Others testified they saw Sacco in a Boston restaurant. Eleven townspeople testified that Vanzetti was in Plymouth that day, 25 miles away, going about his regular work. The lawyer for the Commonwealth (as Massachusetts is strangely called) relied primarily on psychological arguments, namely, “a con sciousness of guilt.” He argued this on the basis that Sacco and Vanzetti had lied on May 5, 1920, 20 days after the crime was committed. The state said they had gone with two other men, Boda and Ociani, to the house of a man named Johnson, where Boda kept his car, an Over land, in the garage. (The murder car was identified as a Buick). Mrs. Johnson, seeing four “foreigners,” had called the police. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested later on a streetcar. The other two men were not arrested. Because, as I have already described, Sacco and Vanzetti would not state where they had been and with whom, they were branded with “consciousness of guilt.” By this crooked legal device, Katzman forced the defense to introduce the issue and evidence of the activities and radical views of Sacco and Vanzetti, and then he dis claimed all responsibility. Both defendants testified at length. They said the reasons they did not tell the police the truth was, first, that during the war they had re fused to register and had gone to Mexico. Secondly, when Vanzetti was in New York City in April 1920, the secretary of the Italian Defense Committee there, Luigi Quintiliano, had told him, on the advice of At torney Walter Nelles, that if they had anarchist literature in their pos session it should be destroyed or hidden in anticipation of further trou THE TRIAL OF SACCO AND VANZETTI 321 ble. He so reported to his New England comrades and it was decided to take a car, gather up any literature in all comrades’ homes and con vey it to some safe place. On the night of their arrest, the police ques tioned them solely in reference to their radical views and associates and made no mention of the Braintree crime, therefore they were justi fied in assuming it was a political arrest. They said they were deter mined to protect themselves and their friends and therefore refused to give correct information, and that they had good grounds to be fearful because just two days before their comrade Salsadeo had been found dead. The Commonwealth also made much of the fact that both men were armed at the time of their arrest. An investigation made by three repu table lawyers, one an ex-prosecutor, for the New England Civil Liber ties Committee made this comment on that point: “It is safe to assume that seventy-five percent of all Italians go armed.” Sacco’s employer, Mr. Kelley, testified as a character witness that he employed Sacco for three years, knew that he was always armed, had employed him as a night watchman at the factory and that he could have stolen stock worth upward of $20,000 at any time. Carrying arms was much more prevalent among workers then than it is today. An attempt was made by police testimony to connect Sacco’s Colt with the murder through a fatal bullet. But experts from the U. S. Car tridge Company and the Colt Automatic Pistol Company flatly contra dicted their statements. Captain Proctor of the state police was a strangely hesitating witness and later told Albert H. Hamilton, ballistic expert, that he was convinced the fatal bullet was not fired through Sacco’s pistol. The jury was out five hours and found both men guilty of first-degree murder. The verdict of the committee of the New England Civil Liberties Committee did not agree with the jury. It stated that they had been de nied “the essential ingredients of a fair trial.” They said: Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 2.03 Mb. Share with your friends:
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