Trials of Sacco and Vanzetti

Sacco and Vanzetti Murder Trial

Throughout the conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti until decades after their deaths, there was two different of thought and stand: The first group believed that the trial was fair and that the two murders got what they deserved while the other group held the view that these two Italians anarchists were the innocent victims of political and economic interests with the intention of passing a message about the rising tide of anarchist, (Katherine Ramsland, 2014). Little attention was given to the idea that maybe there was guilty one and innocent one, not until the strong evidence from ballistics test in 1961 was provided indicating that indeed Sacco fired a fatal bullet on that April day in South Braintree, Massachusetts.

There were all the reasons to believe that the prosecution team got it right about the Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial. The finding of the investigation assisted the prosecution team in conducting the trial of the two men. Some two days after the crime took place, the police happened to find a dark blue Buick with stripped off license plates in woods miles away to the south of Braintree, in West Bridgewater. Apart from the Buick, there were the smaller tracks of the second car suspected to have been stolen. Therefore, the conclusion of the police was that the Buick was probably the car which indeed was involved in the Braintree murders.

The very day of the Braintree crime, April 15, happened to be the same date that was scheduled for the deportation of an Italian anarchist named Feruccio Coacci who lived Bridgewater. While preparing for his deportation, Coacci had quit the job he was doing at Slater & Morrill. Coacci did not appear on the 15th for his deportation. The next day he called the Immigration Service reporting that his wife was sick, and he was requesting to be given a few extra days to take care of her. However, when an investigation was done by immigration and a police officer, they found that his wife was never ill, and there was turn of event because Coacci was now willing and insisting that he should leave the country immediately. The suggestion of the agents was Coacci to leave some money behind for his wife and children, but Coacci said that his family did not need any money.

The very day that the deportation was done (April 18), as the police were digesting reports regarding the Buick that was discovered in the Bridgewater woods, they became curious to know if there was any connection between Coacci and the Braintree murders. Michael Stewart, the Bridgewater Police Chief took a step of going back to Coacci's ramshackle rented home in an attempt to find anything suspicious. He received greeting from Mike Boda before he was allowed to look through the house and the rear shed. Stewart was told by Boda that his car, an Overland, was initially kept in the shed but by that time it was at the garage at the Elm Street being repaired. What Stewart noticed was a tire imprints in the left-hand space of the two-car shed. The size of the track was too large to be for an Overland, and fitted the size of Buick. When Stewart returned after three days to look for Boda, he found the house was vacant and its entire furnishings removed. Stewart visited the Elm Street Garage and discovered that the Overland was still in the shop. Stewart left a message to Simon Johnson, the owner of the garage, that whoever wanted to pick up the Overland later, he should inform the police of the person.

A man knocked on the door of Johnson's home on May 5, and the door was answered by the wife of Johnson, named Ruth Johnson. The man at the door identified himself as Mike Boda and that he was there to pick up his auto. Simon remembered the instruction given by Stewart and told Ruth to go next door and call the police. While Ruth was leaving a headlight beam of a motorcycle parked outside their home caught her. She realized that there were two men talking in a language that seemed to be for Italian. Simon tried to delay Boda by telling her that he was waiting for his wife who went to borrow milk from the neighbor and which he was to take her to the garage. The whole time Boda seemed uneasy, (Fisher, Barry, 2000). As Ruth was returning to her house, suddenly Boda took off and he climbed into the sidecar of the motorcycle. The other two men also started walking away towards the streetcar line direction and they boarded the car from Bridgewater an around 9.40.

Stewart informed the Brockton police and when the car pulled into Brockton at 10.04, two officers boarded the car and they arrested two men whom they suspected to be Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco was found to have carried a loaded .32 caliber Colt automatic while Vanzetti was carrying a .38 caliber Harrington & Richardson revolver with its five chambers loaded. A penciled announcement for an anarchist rally was found in the pocket of Vanzetti. When they were questioned by District Attorney Frederick Katzmann they admitted that they were in Bridgewater and they were carrying weapons. However, they did not admit that they knew Boda or Coacci. What made Katzmann to be sure that these two men were the ones responsible for the Braintree murders was after discovering that on April 15, Sacco did not appear in his work place at the Three-K shoe factory.

Evidences during the trial process

Six witnesses for Vanzetti were produced by Moore claiming to have purchased fish from him or to have seen Vanzetti in Plymouth on April 15. However, the prosecution was able to show that many of the witnesses were friends of Vanzetti and succeeded in implying that these witnesses might have been confused about the date they claim to have seen Vanzetti.

Sacco defense found it difficult to convince otherwise about the grey cap found at the scene of crime. The hairs from the cap with hairs taken from Sacco came out to be identical after a medical examination. George Kelley, who was the son of the owner of the shoe factory where Sacco worked, had admitted at the trial that the cap that that the prosecution presented resembled the one Sacco used to wear in color and style.

The most set-back for Vanzetti at trial was the gun that was found with on the night of his arrest. Vanzetti could not explain convincingly the reasons he told the police at first a contradicting story that he had purchased the gun for $18 four to five years earlier, and also the reason to saying the gun had six chambers but in real sense had five, and even lied about the origin of the five bullets found in its chambers. According to his testimony he bought the gun from a friend for four or five dollars just before he was arrested. However, the prosecution had a plausible explanation for lies from Vanzetti. The same Harrington & Winchester revolver which Vanzetti was having was the same one that Berardelli was carrying at the time of his murder.