The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-09-29
WOMAN C0NFESSES
TESTIMONY FALSE
FORCED TO PERJURE HERSELF
BY PROSECUTORS THREATS
BY Eugene Lyons

Boston.-Lola Il. Andrews, the stel-
lar witness on whose testimony the
labor organizers Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo VanZetti were condemned
TO die in the electric chair, has con-
fessed that her Identification was
in its entirety unqualified false ana
untrue" having been made under
the intimidating and coerclng. lntiu-
cnce" of police officers and the dis
trict attorneys office.
The frame-up ring of Norfolk
County stands exposed as a result
of this sensational confession by one
of its most trusted victims and tools.
The whole state is aghast at the de-
tailed account this woman has given
in affidavit form Of how the prose-
cution used its knowledge of her
past" to force her into perjury. Elk
cept for Estele Smith in the Mooney |
Billings frame up there is no parallel
for such deliberate intimidation of a
woman as Mrs. Andrews charges
against District Attorney Katzman,
Assistant Williams and their asso-
ciates.
The local press used the largest
available type for full page headlines
when with the filing of the affi-
davit in court the news of the con-
! fcsson became known. Because of
/ her fainting spells during the three
DAYS she was on the witness stand
/ and because District Attorney Katz-
mann made an especially passionate
/ appeal to the jury to consider her
evidence, Mrs. Andrews became the
central figure among the witnesses
/ in the famous Sacco-Vanzetti trial at
Dcdham.
Months before that trail she had
given the defense a statement in
which she denied being able to iden-
tify onyone On the stand, however,
she testified that while on the scene
Of the crime in South Braintree on
April Is, 1922, she had called a
!, man from under an automobile to
ask him a question, and that this
. man was Sacco. Now she merely re-
: verts to her original statement, in
= dicatng that between the time she
; talked to the defense and the trial
, the prosecution had used threats and
other pressure to make her lie. She
now reveals that she had never seen
< Sacco until he was pointed out to her
t in Dedham jail.
The confession of perjury was
= made in the presence of her own
j. son. VINO was the Ilrst 10 appeal 10
t his mother to clear her nv, name py
S telling the whole tf4tn. mere were
:. also present, IN addltlon TO deiehse
/. counsel. two prominent labor lead
d ers: John Van NaerehWyck, vice
: president OF the MassachuSetIS 1CaCe
k Federation OF LABOR, ana FREQ y
S Biedenkepp, well known New YORK
h labor man.
y This new evidence is beng added &c
d that already filed IN support Oh the
t, motion for a new trla! IN the llgh'
OF Louls PelserS confession OF per
n jury in his testimony fol-, the prose
lie cution, the expose of the crlmlna
'e record and perjured statements o
"Goodridge,"a and other matters TIT
IN Andrews affidavit is not really al
er surprising as the capitalist press herr
al seems to think, Mrs. Andrews !
ak not exceptional; There IS every IN
is dication Of deliberate ana organize
I'd frame-up go.
on dreWs' confession, the Boston Amer
ed lcan ran a lengthy edltorlal IN Wnlc
he 1t suggested, that II the revelation
by Mrs. ANDREWS were true; some