Did Webster Thayer, trial judge in the case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, held under death sentence (TIME, Sept. 27, Nov. 1, April 18, April 25) in the Dedham (Mass.) jail, refer during the trial to Messrs. Sacco and Vanzetti as "those bastards"'? Did he say "a bunch of parlor radicals are trying to get those guys off," but that he "would show them and would get those guys hanged"? Did he add that "no Bolsheviki could intimidate Web Thayer," that he "would also like to hang a few dozen radicals"?
According to an affidavit of Robert C. Benchley, dramatic editor of Life, Judge Thayer said all these things to Mr. Loring Goes, of the Goes Wrench Co., Worcester, Mass., at the Worcester Golf Club. Mr. Goes, said Mr. Benchley, repeated Judge Thayer's remarks to him (Benchley). But Mr. Goes last week "flatly denied" the truth of Mr. Benchley's affidavit; recalled no conversation in which Judge Thayer flayed Messrs. Sacco and Vanzetti; said: "I have known Judge Thayer since 1908. I have never heard him use language that he could not repeat in mixed company and I have played golf with him."
Mr. Benchley's affidavit formed, with four other affidavits, part of a petition sent last week to Governor Fuller of Massachusetts by Mr. Vanzetti. Mr. Sacco refused to sign the petition, calling it inconsistent with his anarchistic principles. Dr. Abraham Myerson, Boston psychiatrist, said that Mr. Sacco's seven years of confinement had "brought about an abnormal state in which his [radical] fanaticism has been intensified into an obsession." In spite of Mr. Sacco's refusal to sign, the petition was presented as a joint plea from both the condemned.
It asked "not for mercy, but for justice," not for pardon but for a public investigation to "set us free." Reviewing the trial, it listed a long series of incidents to show prejudice on the part of Trial Judge Thayer. Its most vital new evidence came in the attached affidavits.
Affidavits:
Frank P. Sibley, Boston reporter, said that during the trial Judge Thayer repeatedly discussed the case with reporters, that Judge Thayer said: "I'll show them that no long-haired anarchist from California can run this court." The "long-haired anarchist" was Fred H. Moore, defense attorney, who had a reputation for defending radicals. Mr. Sibley added that Judge Thayer often called defense attorneys "those damn fools."
Mrs. Lois B. Rantoul, who reported the trial for the Greater Boston Federation of Churches, said that after the prosecution in the trial had rested, Judge Thayer asked her what she thought of the case. She said she was not convinced that the defendants were guilty. The judge said she would "feel differently" after hearing his charge to the jury.
John Nicholas Beffel, newspaper correspondent, said that Judge Thayer gave newspapermen advance copies of his charge to the jury (as is often done) but that the charge as delivered in advance differed from the charge actually given.