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Tragedy in Dedham

Chapter 2: CHRONOLOGY
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About This Book

This account traces the arrests, trials, appeals, forensic testing, and political fallout surrounding the prosecution and execution of two men accused of a payroll robbery and murder in Massachusetts. It reconstructs the investigation and courtroom proceedings, examines ballistic evidence and expert testimony, and follows successive motions, committee reviews, demonstrations, and international reactions that transformed the case into a polarizing social symbol. The narrative weighs competing interpretations of the evidence, details post-conviction inquiries and confessions, and situates the controversy within broader debates about due process, political fear, and the role of public opinion in the administration of justice.

CHRONOLOGY

1919
June 2. Attorney General Palmer’s house bombed, Washington, D.C.
November 7. First of the Palmer Red raids.
November 23. Buick belonging to F. J. Murphy stolen in Needham.
December 22. License plates stolen from Hassam’s garage, Needham.
December 24. Bridgewater holdup.

1920
January 2. Red raids in thirty-three cities.
January 6-7. License plates stolen from car, Needham.
February 25. Elia and Salsedo detained in New York by Department of Justice.
April 15. Holdup and murders in South Braintree.
April 17. Discovery of abandoned Murphy Buick.
April 20. Stewart interviews Boda.
April 25. Vanzetti goes to New York.
May 5. Sacco and Vanzetti arrested.
May 6. Orciani arrested. Katzmann questions Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco’s preliminary hearing on South Braintree charge.
May 11. Orciani released.
May 18. Vanzetti’s preliminary hearing on South Braintree charge.
June 11. Vanzetti indicted for Bridgewater holdup.
June 22-July 1. Vanzetti tried for Bridgewater holdup.
August 16. Vanzetti sentenced.
August 19. Fred Moore takes up defense of Sacco and Vanzetti.
September 16. Wall Street bomb explosion.

1921
January. Negotiations between Angelina DeFalco and Defense Committee.
May 31-July 14. Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti.
October. Mass demonstrations in Europe against verdict.
October 29, November 5. Motion for new trial argued.
November 8. First supplementary (Ripley) motion filed.
December 24. Thayer denies motion for new trial.

1922
May 4. Second supplementary (Gould-Pelser) motion filed.
July 22. Third supplementary (Goodridge) motion filed.
September 11. Fourth supplementary (Andrews) motion filed.

1923
March 8. William Thompson agrees to argue supplementary motions.
April 23. Sacco committed to Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
April 30. Fifth supplementary (Hamilton-Proctor) motion filed.
September 29. Sacco discharged from Bridgewater Hospital.
October 1-November 8. Hearings on the supplementary motions.

1924
August. Moore withdraws from case.
October 1. Thayer denies all five supplementary motions.

1925
January 2-May 28. Vanzetti committed to Bridgewater Hospital.
June. International Labor Defense takes up case.
November 18. Madeiros confesses.

1926
February. Renewed demonstrations overseas.
May 12. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejects Thompson’s appeal from Thayer’s denial of the supplementary motions; convictions of Sacco and Vanzetti confirmed.
May 15-20. Madeiros’ second trial.
May 22. Herbert Ehrmann finds trail of Morelli gang.
May 26. Motion based on Madeiros confession filed.
June 2. Samuel Johnson’s house bombed.
September 13-17. Thompson argues Madeiros motion before Thayer.
October 23. Thayer denies Madeiros motion.

1927
January 27, 28. Thompson appeals Thayer’s denial of October 23 to Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
March. Frankfurter’s Atlantic Monthly article.
April 5. Supreme Court affirms Thayer’s denial of October 23.
April 9. Sacco and Vanzetti sentenced.
May 4. Governor Fuller receives Vanzetti’s clemency petition.
June 1. Fuller appoints Advisory (“Lowell”) Committee.
June 3. Calvin Goddard tests shells and bullets.
July 27. Lowell Committee reports findings to Governor Fuller.
August 3. Fuller refuses clemency.
August 5. Bombings in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore.
August 7. Lowell Committee report made public.
August 15. Juror McHardy’s house dynamited.
August 23. Madeiros, Sacco, and Vanzetti executed.

1932
September 27. Thayer’s house bombed.

1959
April 2. Massachusetts Legislature Committee hearing on posthumous pardon for Sacco and Vanzetti.

1961
October 11. Re-examination of ballistics evidence by Jac Weller and Frank Jury.

BEFORE THE SHOOTING:
1 Neal
2 Tracey
3 Heron
4 Novelli
5 Behrsin

DURING THE SHOOTING:
6 Where Buick waited
7 Where Berardelli fell
8 Where Parmenter fell
9 Bostock
10 Wade
11 Nichols
12 McGlone
13 Langlois
14 Pelser
15 Liscomb
16 Laborers at excavation

AFTER THE SHOOTING:
17 Kennedy, Hayes
18 Splaine, Devlin
19 Carrigan
20 Pierce, Ferguson
21 Levangie
22 Workers on railroad
23 Gould
24 Burke
25 DeBeradinis
26 Goodridge
27 Damato