The district attorney did not miss the fact that Vanzetti claimed that on the night of May 5 they were just going to get the car, whereas Sacco first said they were going to pick up radical literature. In the matter of picking up literature, if it was so urgent to get rid of it, why did Vanzetti do nothing for a week after coming back from New York? Why did he not warn his friends in Plymouth? Why did Sacco, after he heard from Vanzetti, take no steps to get rid of what he himself owned and so protect his home? Why would Sacco be so afraid of deportation when he was leaving the country in two days? What were they afraid of, anyhow, the night of May 5 when they had no incriminating papers with them?
As for the weapons, Katzmann argued: “They had arsenals upon them. Vanzetti had a loaded 38-caliber revolver, this man who ran to Mexico because he did not want to shoot a fellow human being in warfare, a loaded 38-caliber revolver, any one of the cartridges instantly death-dealing. This tender-hearted man who loved this country and who went down to Mexico because he did not believe in shooting a fellow human being, going down to get a decrepit old automobile, had a 38-caliber loaded gun on him.
“And his friend and associate, Nicola Sacco, another lover of peace, another lover of his adopted country who abhorred bloodshed and abhorred it so that he went down to Mexico under the name of Mosmacotelli ... had with him, this lover of peace, thirty-two death-dealing automatic cartridges, nine of them in the gun ready for action and twenty-two more of them in his pocket—carried it where the ordinary citizen carries it there? No, gentlemen, carried where those who have occasion to use it quickly and want to slip it out and use it quickly would be prone to carry it, that death-dealing instrument.
“But more than that, gentlemen, and ammunition enough to kill thirty-seven men if each shot took effect, they had or Vanzetti had four shells—no weapon in which to fire them at the moment that we found, but you will remember, gentlemen, that sticking out of the back of the bandit’s car on April 15 was either a rifle or a shotgun, and in Vanzetti’s pocket were four 12-gauge shells loaded with buckshot that they were going out to shoot little birds with.... Maybe, gentlemen, you think that is the way men would be armed who were going on an innocent trip, innocent so far as death-dealing matters are concerned at night time after closing hours of the garage and when the man who ran it was in bed, going to make a social trip down to see Pappi, the friend of Vanzetti, and he did not know where he lived, save that it was in East Bridgewater, gentlemen.”
The district attorney admitted that Pelser had lied at first both to the defense and the Commonwealth, because he did not want to be a witness, but afterward he was “manly enough to tell you of his prior falsehoods and his reasons for them.” On the subject of Splaine and Devlin, Katzmann became almost lyrical: “Gentlemen, do you think that two young women, presumably endowed with Christian instincts, young ladies who could have no enmity against the defendant Sacco, who could have no reason for committing the most damnable of perjuries, would bespeak evidence against a human being that would take his life away? Gentlemen, that passes the bounds of human credulity. You can’t believe that. You cannot have looked on Mary Splaine, a smart businesswoman, you cannot have looked on the gentle Frances Devlin and have seen the truth shining like stars out of her young womanly eyes and believe for a moment that either or both of them would dare, before a court of justice or before God their Maker, condemn Sacco to his death with a willful lie. You cannot believe that, gentlemen, having seen those women.”
He agreed that Levangie, the gate-tender, was wrong in saying that Vanzetti had driven the car. The probability was that Vanzetti was directly behind the driver, was leaning forward, and Levangie had given just a quick transposing glance. Lola Andrews conjured up a briefer burst of lyricism: “I have been in this office, gentlemen, for now more than eleven years. I cannot recall in that too long service for the Commonwealth that ever before I have laid eye or given ear to so convincing a witness as Lola Andrews.” As for Julia Campbell, she was “Aunt Julia, the elderly lady with the cataracts.”
The district attorney underlined the fact that the Buick getaway car was found only a mile or so from Elm Square. “You don’t find the car in Worcester. You don’t find it in Pittsfield. You don’t find it in South Boston, nor do you find it in Fall River. You find it in West Bridgewater, and the night these men were arrested, they were arrested within hailing distance of it. Can you put two and two together?”
In contrast to Moore’s objection to the microscope’s evidence, Katzmann declaimed: “Heaven speed the day when proof in any important case is dependent upon the magnifying glass and the scientist.” He marshaled the evidence of the guns and the bullets carefully in the Commonwealth’s favor. “What is the reason Captain Van Amburgh gives for saying that bullet number three was fired by the Colt of Sacco?” he asked, thus compounding Jerry McAnarney’s error.
It was after six before Katzman, facing a weary jury and a long-since emptying courtroom, made his last points. He asked who knew better about the Harrington & Richardson revolver, the man who had put in a new hammer or an expert who had never seen it before. He questioned the disorder and general lack of dates in Affe’s grocery account books. He wondered why the defense had produced no witnesses from Rice & Hutchins, where Sacco had worked, to say he was not the man. He concluded with a flourish: “You are the consultants here, gentlemen, the twelve of you, and the parties come to you and ask you to find out what the truth is on the two issues of guilt or innocence. Men of the jury, do your duty. Do it like men. Stand together, men of Norfolk!”
Nothing was left but the judge’s charge and the jury’s verdict.