Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-11
.VANzETT| HOPEFUL,
SACCO STILL FASTS
Condemned Prisoners Last to
Receive News of Respite
Granted by Fuller.
By the Associated Press.

BOSTON, August 11.-Bartolomeo
Vanzetti awoke this morning with j
more cheerful outlook on life because
of the 12-day respite granted him,
Nicola Sacco and Celestino Madeiros a
short time before they were scheduled
to be executed last night.
Vanzetti drank the coffee brought
him at breakfast and in other ways,
according to prison officials, evidenced
that he derived real hope from the
respite. Sacco, however, remained
apathetic and refused all food. for the
twenty.fifth consecutive day.
Whether the three prisoners also
would obtain a brief respite from the
death house, where they have been
confined for more than week. was
still undecided this morning. Their
cells in the main prison have been oc-
cupied by others since their removal,
and some rearranging would be neces-
sary If they are to be returned.
While il is customary for condemned
men to be lodged in the death house
for 10 days previous to their execu-
ton, such confinement lies entirely
within the discretion of Warden VIII
liam Hendry. In view. OF the fact
that the respite only slightly exceeds
this Today period, 1t was regarded as
a possibility that the men might re-
main where they are.
Last to Hear of Reprieve.
Chronologically, Sacco. Vanzetti and
Madeiros were the last interested per-
sons to learn that their electrocution
this morning had been deferred by
executive respite until midnight OH
August %.
They were told exactly Is minutes
before the first of them, Madeiros, was
to have gone to his death. That was
at 11:45 O'Clock.
But at 1922 newspaper men had re-
ceived the news and before that War
den William Hendry had been told.
The fact of the respite, however, was
not officially announced until 11:45.
The diverse announcements from
the warden's Office Of the Charles
town State prison and the resultant
confusion among nearly two score
newspaper men and telegraphers who
had been assigned to cover the triple
execution, created one of the most
unusual scenes in Massachusetts
death-house history.
At 1922 Warden Hendry burst out
of private telephone booth TO an
nounce, We'll, boys, there's respite
for two anyway"
He started for the death house. ap-
parently to tell the prisoners the good
news, was recalled to the telephone
for a moment, and sang out, It's
three"
Seeks to Hold Up News.
Recalled for a second time, he
rushed, visibly shaken, through the
prison lobby and into the rotunda of
the prison. shouting. Hold that
story up
In the meantime reporters were
rushing from the lobby to the prison
clubhouse, where more than a score
Of direct telegraph and telephone wires
had been set up. Confusion reigned
as the successive bulletins went out
only to be countermanded a few sec.
onds later.
When the warden next appeared it
was with the fiat announcement that
William L. Reed, executive secretary
to the governors council, had made
public the reprieve and that the papers
were on their way.
A few minutes later Capt Charles
T. Beaupre of the State police dashed
through the Gordon of armed men
Hendry the formal documents.
! AS the crowd broke up and the State
/ executioner and witnesses took their
leave, the warden made his way to the
cells of the condemned men.
| Nanzetti told Hendry he was glad
| because his sister, who has started
! from Italy for this country. might yet
arrive in time to see him alive
| SaccO Unc0mmunicatiye.
! Sacco said nothing. Madeiros, 10
whom the respite was even more I'M
/ expected than 10 the other two, also
/ was uncommunicative.
Be men now. start in and eat
fendry admonished them as he left
| the death house.
1t was not necessary to tell Madei-
ros, for the youthful New Bedford
slayer has never missed meal in the
death house. He ate what was to
have been his last supper with gusto
and with little apparent concern about
his fate.