Sacco-Vanzetti 2

In the early 80s I took a group of students to Washington for Project Close Up, a week long study of government which was still functioning at the time. There were teachers there from all over the country,  but I ended up rooming with a teacher from Sharon who was obsessed with the Sacco-Vanzetti case. He used the case as an annual source for teaching kids to research real issues. He was convinced that the ballistic evidence that linked one of the fatal bullets to Sacco's gun was cooked by the police.

Looking at the issue then, he had cause for concern. The science of ballistics was in its infancy then and the Red Scare was on so why not make up evidence to get two "dangerous" radicals off the streets? Add that one of the officers who examined the bullets was never convinced that the bullet came from Sacco's gun and that the defense, on appeal, hired an expert who switched parts of Sacco's gun with two new ones; and there was certainly room for doubt that the state did little to remove for decades.

Both men were armed and testimony was brought in that Vanzetti's gun was the .38 carried by the payroll guard which disappeared during the robbery. This evidence was even more controversial. Ultimately evidence came forward that the guard carried a .32.

Modern tests from the 1980s linked the death bullet to Sacco's gun, but I took this with a grain of salt given all the possibilities for error. Then another test occurred. When Sacco was arrested, he was carrying a box filled with bullets from a variety of manufacturers. Sacco had originally lied that he had bought a closed package of bullets because he didn't know the brands were mixed. One bullet, an obsolete type, wouldn't even work in his gun, but a shell casing of that type was found at the crime scene. The new test conclusively proved that bullets in Sacco's package were made in the same machine as other bullets from the crime scene.

There are numerous other reasons for reaching the conclusion that Sacco was guilty including a shaky alibi and the subsequent statements by dedicated supporters who believed that his insistence on his own innocence contributed to Vanzetti's execution. What about Vanzetti? I was lucky enough to have one very competent student, Cynthia Platter, who was enthusiastic to research the case and had connections in Plymouth, the town where Vanzetti was allegedly peddling fish on the day of the crime.

The case against Vanzetti has always been much sketchier than that against Sacco. I believe if he had a separate trial today and not at the height of the Red Scare he probably would have been found not guilty. He might even have been innocent as he proclaimed to his dying day-something Sacco stopped doing. Ultimately, my student came to believe the testimony of the Plymouth Italians who said that Vanzetti had sold them fish on that day. She had talked to relatives of these people and came to believe their stories. The jury was not so sure. Vanzetti's witnesses testified through interpreters or in broken English and the question remains "how could a witness connect Vanzetti and his fish to the day of the crime when he sold fish every day?" If the witnesses were right, Vanzetti couldn't have gotten to Braintree on the train by the time of the robbery. However, Cindy did uncover one old timer who had a chilling story. He said one day he and Vanzetti were digging a ditch outside of the Plymouth Cordage Compnay when the payroll delivery passed them. Vanzetti turned to his friend and said something like "Think how rich we could be if we robbed the payroll." Of course, having dug some ditches myself, I might have said the same thing, and, so far, I haven't robbed a payroll.

So you if you believe Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty you have to find three other people to help with the robbery. Most start with Boda and Coacci who were linked circumstantially to the Buick found in the West Bridgewater woods. A fifth anarchist named, Orciani, had connections to the other four and was suspected by the police. He had a punched time card from his factory job that established an alibi, the prosecution believed he had a friend punch in, so he was never tried.

Another enterprising group of Italians also had five members available for the robbery. This was the Morelli Gang. The Morellis were upwardly mobile and about to expand from robbery to bootlegging. The Morelli's were good "organizers" in the crime business. One of the Morelli's became the first godfather of the New England Mafia.

Could the Morellis have done the crime?  See you tomorrow for the answer and stories of bootlegging in Randolph and Holbrook.