Under the forms of legal procedure, there was no chance to put in the plea that the earlier trial for the Bridgewater crime was believed by those who had studied the transcript of evidence to have been an almost grotesque travesty of justice. The Bridgewater crime stalked behind and overshadowed all the evidence introduced against Vanzetti at Dedham.
The failure on the part of Judge Webster Thayer to separate the two trials made it inevitable that this shadow (and no amount of instructions could remove it) also covered Sacco.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti declared on the witness stand that he was in Plymouth, 35 miles from South Braintree all day on April 15. He gave names of persons to whom he sold fish; told of buying a piece of suiting from Joseph Rosen, a woolen peddler; and of talking with Melvin Corl, a fisherman, while Corl was painting a boat by the sea.
Vanzetti’s alibi was supported by eleven undiscredited witnesses.
Mrs. Alphonsine Brini testified that Vanzetti brought fish to her home in Cherry Court, Plymouth, about 10 a. m. April 15. He came back about noon with Rosen, and asked her to examine and pass upon the quality of cloth he had bought for a suit. Mrs. Brini fixed the date by the fact that she had been home a week from the hospital, and that her husband telephoned that day to Dr. Shurtleff for a nurse.
Miss Lefevre Brini, 15, stated that Vanzetti delivered fish at the Brini home about 10 o’clock on April 15. She had remained home from work that day to care for her mother, who was ill.
Miss Gertrude Mathews, nurse in medical department of Plymouth Cordage Company, recalled telephone conversation with Dr. Shurtleff regarding the matter of attending Mrs. Brini. Was at Brini home to attend her from April 15 to April 20, inclusive.
Mrs. Ella Urquhart, another nurse at the cordage plant, recalled the same message from Dr. Shurtleff.
Joseph Rosen, woolen peddler, testified that he met Vanzetti in Suosso’s Lane, Plymouth, shortly before noon on April 15. Vanzetti was pushing his fish-cart. They were acquainted. Rosen had sold him cloth before. Sold him a piece of suiting now with a hole in it, “at a bargain”; went with Vanzetti to Brini home to show goods to Mrs. Brini.
Several other persons in Plymouth bought cloth from him that day, Rosen averred. Rosen was actually one of the strongest witnesses in Vanzetti’s defense. The prosecution never attempted to disprove his story of his presence in Plymouth on the day of the crime. If that story had not been true, it would have been easy for the commonwealth to have discredited Rosen by producing the various persons to whom he said he made sales. One of these was the wife of the police chief of Plymouth.