On Monday morning George Kelley was recalled to explain more details
about the caps. He maintained that the lighter-colored of the two,
the one Sacco had agreed was his, looked much more like Sacco’s.
The one found near Berardelli’s body was darker than any Sacco had
ever owned. Kelley admitted reluctantly that he might have made some
remark about “not wanting to get a bomb up my ass” to Stewart and
Brouillard. This morning, while he was waiting in the courthouse
library to take the stand, he had seen a pepper-and-salt cap on the
table that looked much more like Sacco’s cap than the other two.
“The nearest I have seen yet,” Kelley remarked, as the third cap was
offered in evidence. When cross-examined by Katzmann, Kelley admitted
that he was fond of Sacco. Four or five months before the murders,
learning that Sacco’s radical activities were being investigated,
he had warned him. It was obvious that Kelley, whatever his own
political views, had not changed his friendly feelings.
During the recess Judge Thayer again asked Mrs. Rantoul to come to
his chambers. She made notes of the interview immediately afterward.
Judge Thayer began by asking her what she now thought of the case.
_I answered [she said in an affidavit in 1926], that I thought
Kelley’s statement as to Sacco’s character was important. I well
remember Judge Thayer’s reply and the manner in which he gave it. He
expressed scorn and contempt for my view, and told me that Kelley did
not mean what he said because he [Judge Thayer] had heard that on
the outside Kelley had said that Sacco was an anarchist and that he
couldn’t do anything with him. I told Judge Thayer that I had never
before realized that it was fair to judge a case by what witnesses
said outside of court, and that I had supposed that the only proper
way to judge a case was by what the witnesses said in open court.
Judge Thayer’s manner and expression of face expressed dissent from
this view, but he made no definite statement of dissent._
The mysterious spectator Sacco claimed to have seen on the Stoughton
train now appeared as a witness. He turned out to be James Hayes,
for thirty-three years a mason and contractor in Stoneham, and
town highway surveyor until March 1920. A defense investigator had
brought him to court in regard to some technical information about
the Stoughton street layout. Watching the trial, Hayes had become
interested in it, and he and his wife had returned on three other
days to follow the proceedings. It was while he was sitting there
that Sacco caught a glimpse of him.
Hayes agreed that he had indeed gone to Boston on April 15. He was
certain of the date because he had gone through his time-books and
found that on that day his brother had paid him fifty dollars. He had
used part of the money the same afternoon to buy parts for his Ford
in Boston.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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