The hearings seemed to fall into the pattern of being argued for a day and postponed for a week. Not until November 8 were they concluded. When Thompson argued the Hamilton-Proctor motion and mentioned the police captain, sparks flew between him and District Attorney Harold Williams.[14] The district attorney insinuated that the reason Proctor had turned on the Commonwealth was that Katzmann had refused to approve his claim of five hundred dollars for his expert testimony, although it had later been approved by the court and paid. “I don’t want to make this a personal matter,” Thompson reminded Williams after the gust of angry words had died down. “I don’t want to go off on an attack upon any person. But here are these men, assured by the State of fair treatment here if nowhere else—and then a prearranged question and answer made to appear the exact opposite of what the witness really thought.” “Are you sure there was a prearranged question?” Thayer interrupted. “They knew and don’t deny it that Captain Proctor didn’t believe that bullet went through that gun,” Thompson replied. In a passionate summing up he asked Thayer if the court could really say that Sacco and Vanzetti had had a fair trial in the face of the failure of the government attorneys to bring out Proctor’s real opinion. Toward the close of the hearing Thompson reserved the right to be heard in a request to fire one hundred cartridges through Sacco’s pistol with a view of making further ballistic comparisons. At this point there began one of the equivocal episodes in the post-trial proceedings. Dr. Hamilton appeared with two new 32-caliber Colt automatics and offered to compare them with Sacco’s pistol. Before Judge Thayer and the lawyers for both sides he disassembled all three pistols and placed the parts in three piles on a table. Then, picking up various parts one by one, he explained their function and pointed out their interchangeability. After reassembling the pistols, he slipped his two in his pocket and handed Sacco’s to the assistant clerk. Hill and Thompson were already leaving the courtroom when Hamilton started after them. “Just a minute, gentlemen!” Thayer called out as they reached the door. Years afterward, not long before his death, Thayer related the sequel to Captain Van Amburgh: “They stopped, turned and looked at me. I said, ‘Come here, Mr. Hamilton.’ Hamilton advanced towards me. I said: ‘Hand me your pistols.’ He did so and I said: ‘They shall be impounded.’ I don’t know why I impounded those pistols. It merely seemed like the proper and thorough thing to do. I have thanked God many times since that I did so. And then the astounding discovery made later that the original barrel in the Sacco pistol was missing and an entirely different barrel substituted for it!”