The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-13
ACCORSI CASE
Goes TO JURY;
TRIAL RUSHED D
Killing of Gunman a n
DoWney Justified
Says Attorney
Y er ict Fri d a Y
No Identification Made
Of AccOrsi

PITTSBURGH, Pa, Dec. 12-The
Accorsi case went to the jury today
and the jury is locked up for the
night. A verdict is expected at 9:30
in the morning. Salvatore Accorsi,
the miner defendants, whom the coal
and steel government of Pennsyl-
vania is trying to send to the cleo
trio chair because they recognize
him as a class enemy, took the stand
today in his own behalf.
In clear cut-frame up attempt,
the state charges he was the man
who shot a state policeman named
Downey, while the troopers were
smashing a Sacco-Vanzetti demon
stration of thousands of miners, and
their families, on August %, 1927.
Accorsi was arrested year and 2
half after the meeting, and after
be had worked for months around
Cheswick, the scene of the meeting,
until he had to move to Staten Is
land, New York, to look for more
work.
Accorsis testimony was dramatic.
He defied the prosecutor to put
through the frame-up, and shouted :
"You and the state police want to
get me! Kill me if you want to-"
Accorsi testified that he was not
at Cheswick August %, but as
many more have sad, was fixing
his car at Russelton. He took a
ride in his car with his family to
Harwick about 2:3O and passed sew
eral state troopers. "If they wanted
me, why did they not arrest me
them" he said.
When summing up his case the
prosecutor made a vicious appeal
for "Nordic superiority to the
jury with reference to the in
ferior intelligence and inferior
character of foreigners" and their
''irresponsibility." The prosecutor
eulcgized the troopers, saying, 81
am always glad to associate with
them" He appealed to the prop
erty prejudices of the middle-class
jury, by repeated declarations that
the Taxpayers have to foot the bill
following riots and disorder"
He referred to Sacco and Vanzetti
as "murderers." He described the
murderous state police of Pennsyl-
vania who not long ago beat the
miner Barkoski to death, and who
showered bullets, clubs and tear gas
into the Cheswick meeting, as "sol-
diers of peace"
The prosecutor evidently felt the
need of whitewashing the badly
marred reputation of Andy Melons
Cossacks.
During Accorsi's testimony the
fraudulent nature of the identifi-
cation of him by the perjurer Cop
Ian was illustrated. Accorsi showed
how, after he was arrested at Staten
Island, he was paraded alone before
a box-like window in front of the
warden's office, in Jail, and Coplan
stood back Of the window with a
mask on and identified" him.
Today an obvious perjurer, j. G.
Curry, foreman of the Byllesby En-
gineering and Management Co.,
testified against Accorsi. He said
Accorsi worked under him until
August %, and had mustache.
This is one of the marks of identi-
fication on which the prosecution
witnesses insist, and is flatly de-
MED by a long list of defense wit
nesses, and by Accorsi himself.
This Curry was defense witness,
had told many people the opposite
of his testimony on the stand today,
and was expected to testify for Ac-
corsi up until the time the prosecu-
tor apparently interviewed" him
yesterday.
Trooper VIM. M. Brown, who tes-
titled Wednesday in the Accorsi
case, is one of the chief frame-up
witnesses. Brown testified at the
coroner's inquest few days after
the shooting of the vicious Downey
that he did not know who killed
his fellow gupman. His memory
has been refreshed in the usual
method of capitalist courts and he
(Contnued on Page Three)