Under Katzmann’s cross-examination Williams could not remember the
dates of other visits to his doctor, or any advertisements he had
taken on April 14, or any other occasions when he had met Guadagni.
However, Dr. Gibbs testified that although he treated Williams
regularly, he had seen him only once in April and that was on the
fifteenth.
Albert Bosco, one of the editors of _La Notizia_, was another witness
who claimed to have seen Sacco in the restaurant. Bosco was already
at Boni’s with a man named Reffi when Guadagni came in with Sacco and
introduced him as “the man that is going to Italy.” Then Guadagni
talked about the banquet that the Franciscan Fathers of North Bennett
Street were giving at their priory that same day in honor of James T.
Williams, Jr., editor of the Boston _Transcript_, whom the Italian
government had just made a _Commandante_ in recognition of his war
work. The next day Bosco published an account of the banquet in _La
Notizia_—and also ran a story about the South Braintree killings.
When Guadagni spoke to him after the arrests about his meeting with
Sacco, Bosco went to the newspaper files and found that the banquet
they had discussed in Boni’s restaurant had been held on April 15.
Another witness, a contractor named Angelo Monello, had known Sacco
for several months before his arrest. On April 15, just before
noon, they had run into each other on Hanover Street. Monello had
the date fixed in his mind because on Sunday the eighteenth he had
tickets for _Madame X_, playing at the Tremont Theatre with the great
Italian artist Mimi Aguglia. Both he and Sacco were amateur actors
and belonged to dramatic clubs, and they had talked about the play.
Katzmann at once took Monello over the hurdles, asking if he had
talked with anyone about the play on April 16, 17, 13, 12, 19, 21,
28. All Monello could say was that he did not remember.
Michael Kelley and his son Leon appeared willingly as witnesses
for Sacco, but because of the agreement of counsel they were not
allowed—as they had intended—to testify as to his character. Katzmann
hovered over any such mention with an instant objection. Michael
Kelley managed to say, however, that he trusted Sacco with the keys
to the Three-K factory and that every night the place had been in
his hands. Early in the spring Sacco had shown Michael Kelley a
black-bordered letter saying that his mother had died. The letter,
from Sacco’s father, begging him to come home, was then translated to
the jury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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