When it turned to the ballistics evidence, the Lowell Committee was undoubtedly greatly influenced by the findings of Major Calvin Goddard, a New York expert who came to Boston at the end of May on his own initiative, bringing with him a comparison microscope and offering to make what he maintained would be conclusive tests on the shells and bullets offered in evidence at Dedham. He was accompanied by William Crawford, a reporter from the New York World, who called on Thompson to ask if he would cooperate in the holding of the tests. Resentful of Crawford’s contemptuous remarks about Dr. Hamilton, Thompson declined but said he would put no obstacles in Goddard’s way. Ranney, for the district attorney’s office, had no objections.
When, in preparation, Goddard demonstrated his double-image microscope to Hamilton’s supporting expert, Professor Gill, the latter was so taken with “the simplicity and accuracy of its findings” that he not only recommended its use to the governor but announced that he himself would abide by the results.
With Gill, Ranney, and Ehrmann present, as well as a stenographer and Frank Buxton and Thomas Carens of the Herald, Goddard examined the evidence in the clerk of courts’ office at Dedham on the afternoon of June 3. Comparing Bullet III with a test bullet fired from Sacco’s pistol, he suggested that Gill make the same comparison. “Well, what do you know about that?” Gill muttered to himself as he looked into the microscope. Goddard’s conclusion was that the mortal bullet taken from Berardelli’s body had been fired through Sacco’s pistol and could have been fired through no other. Gill, too, now became convinced of this, despite his earlier findings to the contrary. Ehrmann, examining the identifying scratches on the base of Bullet III, remarked that they were irregular and almost indecipherable compared with the scratches on Bullets I, II, and IV.
Looking at the shells through his microscope, Goddard concluded that Shell W had been fired in Sacco’s pistol and could have been fired in no other. Ehrmann, Buxton, and Carens did not find the comparison of the shells conclusive.
Soon after these tests, Gill told Thompson that he now doubted his original findings and wished to sever all connection with the case. His disavowal was followed by one from James Burns, another of the defense experts, who had recently become convinced, after studying certain microphotographs made earlier for Captain Van Amburgh, that the Fraher shell had been fired in Sacco’s gun.
Goddard’s report was forwarded without comment to Governor Fuller and to the Lowell Committee. Goddard claimed afterward that his tests would have been even more satisfactory if a sticky substance coating the bullets could have been removed. Ranney had been willing to have the bullets cleaned but Thompson refused to approve of this under any circumstances, adding that he believed there had been trickery and that the prosecution had made a substitution of bullets and shells among the exhibits. Goddard in turn said he had no opinion as to the genuineness of the exhibits, although he agreed that the scratches on Bullet III were less clear than on the others.
Before leaving Boston, in a deflating interview with Thompson, Goddard admitted that he had come to town with an adverse opinion about Sacco already formed, the result of studying Van Amburgh’s microphotographs. When he went on to express doubts about Hamilton, Thompson produced a letter that the aspiring Goddard had written the druggist-expert in 1924, asking his advice about starting a career in ballistics identification. Goddard’s reply was that he knew more about Hamilton now than he had known in 1924, and the interview ended with Thompson angrily defending Hamilton as a man of honor.
The uncertainty that eventually clouded the reputations of all the ballistics experts in the case enveloped Goddard three months after he left Boston. In Cleveland, several weeks after a bootlegger, Ernest Yorkell, was shot to death, the police arrested a Frank Milazzo with a revolver in his possession similar to the murder weapon. Two bullets from Yorkell’s body and several test bullets from Milazzo’s gun were submitted to Major Goddard in New York. When Goddard reported that one of the murder bullets and one of the test bullets had been fired from the same gun, Milazzo was charged with the murder. Unfortunately for Major Goddard, though not for his comparison microscope, Milazzo was able to prove that he had bought the revolver new a month after the shooting. Goddard attributed his mistake to a bullet mixup by the Cleveland police. Although it was never determined whether the fault was his, he had apparently compared the two murder bullets.
In the unconfessed course of events, Madeiros, following his second trial, would have been electrocuted during the week of September 5, 1926, but the motion and appeal based on his confession brought him a series of reprieves. Not until late in Governor Fuller’s Sacco-Vanzetti investigation did he see Madeiros personally and then for only fifteen minutes.