Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-05-30
RED FUND TO
Defend PAIR IN
MURDER TRIAL
CT a i m Accused Men
Victims of Frame-Up
Radical Raids
Big Legal Fight Indicated in
Trial Bay State Men for
Double Murder and At
tempted Theft $4,000 at
Braintree last April

Dedham, Mass, May 29-In the
trial of two men for the killing of a
paymaster and his guard, to begin in
the Norfolk county superior court
here Tuesday, this town becomes the
stage Of what may develop into a
celebrated legal drama.
The defendants are Niccol Sacco of
Stoughton, a shoe worker, and Bar
tolomeo Vanzetti of Plymouth, a
vendor of cells. The men killed we're
Frederick A. Parmenter and Alessan-
dro Berardelli, shot down while at
tempting to protect a $4,000 factory
payroll from robbers at South Brain
tree in April, last year. These are
the principal elements in the case
as it appears on the court docket
of little more than local interest as
they stand-but which have been
made the vehicle of allegations that
involve the federal department of
justice.
1t is the contention of the defense,
with the endorsement of several Or
! CARNATIONS that have spread the
, word across the country, that the
,, men had no hand in the robbery but
| were run in on charges that consti-
tuted frame up because they were
active radicals at time when the
federal authorities were waging war
on the Reds. The Braintree shoot
-
Sacco, the defense claims, because it
offered a ready means of getting
them out Of the way.
Trial of the case, according to
| those associated with the defense,
will develop echoes of the thud on a
New York pavement on May 3, 1920
of the body of Andrea Salsedo, a
printer under detention by federal
officials for dissemination of radical
literature, who jumped to his death
from 18th story window of the de-
| partment of justice offices in Park
, Row.
Both Vanzetti and Sacco were ac-
! quaintances of Salsedo in radical ac-
tivities and Nanzetti had made a
| trip to New York to try and aid him
| after his detention by federal agents.
This the defense will contend was
the reason the men were arrested.
! VanZetti was charged also with at
tempted highway robbery at Bridge
water the previous December, the
circumstances Of which were similar
| this charge he was convicted. He
now is serving a state prison sentence
Of II to Is years.
| Irregularities of exhibits and evi-
dence at this trial also are alleged,
and it is understood that an attempt
will be made for counsel by the de-
Tense at the forthcoming trial to
bring up several issues of the first
! including an alleged alihi for VAN
zetti covering the time the robbery
occurred. The defense will offer also
4 an alibi for both men on the date of
the Braintree murders.
The states case against Sacco and
VanZetti will be based on the evil
dence of witnesses that the defend
ants were the robbers and the assas-
sins. The affair was a bold one-a
hold up in daylight, on the sidewalk
at the door of a shoe factory, from
! the windows of which. operators saw
| the events. The robbers after shoot
| ing down the paymaster and his
guard, took the money and fed in a
/ waiting automobile.
After their arrest, Sacco and Van
zetti were taken by police officials in
a car Of the same description, over the
route of the robbers through town
after town in which the fugitives were
seen. Citizens were told of the plans
and asked to take positions cores
ponding with those they held on the
day Of the robbery. On testimony OBJ
tanned from such spectators the gov
eminent will rely for "identitications,
Ut is understood. The states invasti-
cation has been exhaustive, and ac-
cording to police officials who par
ticipated in it, will include testimony
intended to rebut any alibl that may
be advanced.
The trial will be presided over by
/ Judge Webster Thayer before whom
Vanzetti was tried for the Bridge
water hold up. The prosecution will
be directed by District Attorney Fred
G: Katzmann of Plymouth and Norfolk
counties who handled the presenta-
ton of evidence at Vanzettis previous
| trial. AS counsel for the defense, sup
porters of VanZetti and Sacco brought
from the west Fred H. Moore of Los
Angeles. who last appeared in New
England as a special counsel in the
trial at Salem of Ettor Giovannitti
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