At the end of the trial the Government put Mrs. Mary Gaines upon the stand to support the testimony of Mrs. Andrews and to contradict that of Mrs. Campbell. Mrs. Gaines declared that a few weeks after the crime she had heard Mrs. Andrews say in Mrs. Campbell’s presence that she had spoken to the man under the automobile, and that Mrs. Campbell did not contradict her.
Fred Loring, shoe-worker for Slater and Morrill, stated that he found a dark brown cap near Berardelli’s body; it was offered as an exhibit by the commonwealth. When tried on by Sacco on the witness stand this cap seemed too small; whereas a cap of his own, tried on immediately afterwards fitted with nicety.
The “bandit cap” was fur-lined and had ear-laps, which accounts for its being smaller although the same size numerically as Sacco’s. Sacco never owned a cap of this character. George Kelley, superintendent of the Three K Factory where Sacco worked, said the cap he had seen daily behind Sacco’s bench, as he remembered, was a pepper-and-salt cloth, which he believed was different from the one produced by the commonwealth. A cap like the one described by Kelley was found in the house at the time of Sacco’s arrest.
Of the four bullets found in Berardelli’s dead body, three were admittedly from a Savage pistol. The other one, however, was from some other kind of revolver, the make of which is in dispute. It is the prosecution’s contention that the leaden pellet designated as Bullet No. 3 which inflicted the fatal wound upon Berardelli, was from a Colt automatic found on Sacco when he was arrested three weeks after the murders. The bullet was a Winchester of an obsolete make.
The testimony upon this point by experts put upon the stand by both the government and the defense was voluminous and highly technical. The disagreement was sharp.
Captain Charles Van Amburgh, of the Remington Arms Works, testified for the prosecution: “I believe the bullet was fired from a Colt automatic pistol.... I am inclined to believe it was fired from this Colt automatic.” He based this belief, he said, on a mark he found on the bullet, visible only under a microscope, and on similar marks noted on three bullets which he had fired from the revolver. These bullets were all Winchesters of a modern make. On three Peters bullets fired at the same time no such marks were visible. The Peters bullet, he said, are a trifle smaller than Winchesters, and therefore under less pressure. Under cross-examination, Van Amburg acknowledged that pitting such as was present in the Sacco pistol was generally caused by rust or fouling and that to the best of his judgment, in the pistol before them, it was so caused.
Captain William H. Proctor, head of the state police.
He said that bullet No. 3 was consistent with being fired from Sacco’s revolver. “That bullet was fired from a 32 Colt automatic,” Proctor asserted. “It has a left twist and a .060 of an inch groove. No other revolver except the Colt has a left twist.”
“Don’t you know,” asked Defense Counsel McAnarney, “that at least two other kinds of revolvers make a left twist marking?”
“No, I don’t,” replied Proctor.