The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti : $b A summary of the outstanding testimonyBernheimer, Louis
History
The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti : $b A summary of the outstanding testimony
Bernheimer, Louis
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial, Dedham, Mass., 1921
Now, on April 16, 1920, the day after the Braintree murders, Police
Chief Stewart, at the instance of the Department of Justice, then
engaged in the round-up of Reds, had been to the house of this
same Coacci to see why he had failed to appear at the hearing
regarding his deportation. He had found Coacci packing a trunk, and
apparently very anxious to get back to Italy. Coacci’s trunk and
his haste to depart for Italy were not connected in Stewart’s mind
with the Braintree affair; but when, later, the tracks of a smaller
car were found near the Braintree murder car, and he surmised that
this murder car was Boda’s, and discovered that Boda had once been
living with Coacci, he connected Coacci’s packing, his eagerness
to depart, his actual departure, with the Braintree murders, and
assumed that the trunk contained the booty. In the light of later
discoveries, Stewart jumped to the conclusion that Coacci, Boda’s
pal, had “skipped with the swag.” As a matter of fact, the contents
of the trunk, when it was intercepted by the Italian police, on
arrival, revealed nothing.
In the meantime, however, Stewart continued to work on his theory,
which centered around Boda: that whosoever called for Boda’s car,
at Johnson’s garage, would be suspected of the Braintree crime. On
the night of May 5th, Boda and three other Italians did in fact
call, and two of them were Sacco and Vanzetti.
To explain how they came to do so, let us recall here the
proceedings for the wholesale deportation of radicals under
Attorney-General Palmer, in the Spring of 1920. In particular, the
case of one Salsedo must be borne in mind, a radical who was held
incommunicado in the New York offices of the Department of Justice,
on the 14th floor of a Park Row building. Boda and his companions
were friends of Salsedo. On May 4th, the day before they called
at Johnson’s garage, they had learned that Salsedo had been found
dead on the sidewalk outside the Park Row building, to which he had
been thrown or jumped from the 14th floor. Already frightened by
the Red raids they bestirred themselves to “hide the literature and
notify the friends against the Federal police.” For this purpose an
automobile was needed, and they turned to Boda.
Such were the circumstances under which the four Italians appeared
on the evening of May 5th at the Johnson garage.
Mrs. Johnson telephoned the police. The car, not being available,
the Italians left, Sacco and Vanzetti to board a street-car for
Brockton, Boda and the fourth member, Orciani, on a motorcycle.
Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on the street-car, Orciani was
arrested the next day, and Boda was never heard of again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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