New Britain herald., 1927-08-04
LEGAL struggle over
SEVEN-YEAR period
Continued from First Page)


kilograms, letters and petitions in
connection with the case.
May IA. 1o27-Postal authorities
intercept parcel post package con-
tanning a pound of dynamite and
threatening note addressed to Gov.
Fuller.
June l., 1927-Governor appoints
advisory committee of three to aid
in review of case.
June %, 1927-Governor grants
3o-day respite to Sacco and Van
zett.
Aug. 3, 1927-Governor Fuller de-
cines to intervene to prevent exc
cution.
BY tho Associated Press.
4 criminal case which has echoed
throughout the world began when
Frederick A.. Parmcnter paymaster
ct the sho. flctory Of the Slater and
Morrill, company in South Brain
tree Mass. and his guard, AleXan-
dor Eerardelli. were shot to death
ri tn" door OF the factory on April
j.. 1920. Bandits who had driven to
the factory in an automobile seized
the factory payroll OF several thou
sand dollars which Parmenter had
bl ought from bank and escaped.
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Van
zetti entered the case with their ar
rest ON charges of murder on May
5. 1920. Almost Immediately there
started the efforts to bring about
their liberation which spread over
more than seven years and extend
ed to Europe, Central and South
America.
Mistaken identity was the claim
set forth by supporters of the two
4, men. Even before they were brought
to trial 1t became known that Sacco,
stoughton shoe worker. and Van
. zetti, a Plymouth fish dealer, had
radical affiliations.
They were indicted on Septem-
, Der II, 1920. and at their trial
j which started at Dedham on May
81. 1921. both admitted that they
were radicals. When the jury on
y July IA, 1921, brought in verdict
of guilty OF murder in the first de-
gree, the Sacco-Vanzetti defense
committee which had been organ
: lied to finance their defense assert
ed that the jurors had convicted
the men because they were radicals
and not because the evidence had
shown that they had committed the
murders.
Judge Webster Thayer of the SUI
perior court, whose home is in Wor-
cester, presided at the trial. Fred Fl.
Moore OF San Francisco was chief
counsel for the defense. Sentence
was stayed pending motions for
new trial.
On December "a, 1921, Judge
Thayer denied the first of these mo-
tons At about the same time there
occurred the first of series of
demonstrations in foreign countries
by sympathizers with Sacco and
= Vanzetti, in the form of q protest by
9 a labor committee at Milan, Italy
In the years that the case dragged
along there were Sacco-Nanzetu
, demonstrations. some of them ac-
mpanied by the placing Of bombs,
in the vicinity of the American en-
bassies at Paris and Buenos Aires,
the American legation at Monte
video and other places in Europe,
Mexico and South America.
Several supplementary motions
for a new trial We're filed from
time TO time. In March, 1928. Ar
thur Hill, one of Sacco's counsel,
said that Judge Thayer was in no
way responsible for the delays in
the case. Lengthy arguments on the
motions We're made in October and
November 1928. In October, 1924,
Jduge Thayer refused all the mo-
tons.
Meanwhile Tanzetti was in the
state prison. Before his indictment
for murder he had been convicted
of the attempted robbery of a shoe
factory paymaster in Bridgewater
earlier in the same year and SEN
fenced 10 a term of IL to 10 years.
Judge Thayer presided at that trial
also.
Sacco had been held in the Nor
folk county Jail at Dedham. There
in February and March. 1928. he
conducted a months hunger strike.
Finally three alienists were called
in to examine him and on their re-
port he was removed to the Psy-
chopathic hospital in Boston. There
he vas forcibly fed once. then