MELBOURNE PRECAUTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19712, 11 August 1927, Page 9

MELBOURNE PRECAUTIONS.

SAFETY OF AMERICANS. CONSULS' HOMES GUARDED. FEAR OF POSSIBLE ATTACKS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received August 10, 8.35 p.m.) A. and N.Z. ' MELBOURNE, Aug. 10. Iho homes of the United States Consul, Mr. Arthur Garrels, at South Yarra, and the Vice-Consul. Mr. E. Moran. at Toorak. have been placed under armed police, guards. The reason is that attacks by SaccoVansstti sympathisers are feared. No steps have been taken in Sydney to guard the United States ConsulGeneral. Mr. E. M. Lawton, as trouble is not anticipated there. STORY OF THE MURDER. HOW THE VICTIMS DIED. ARREST OF THE ITALIANS. The story of the crime in connection with which Sacco and Vanzetti are facing execution was recently narrated in the Chicago Tribune, which sai'd: — Rarely has so much mystery attached to a crime committed in broad daylight with numerous witnesses at hand. At about 3 p.m. on April 15, 1920, Frederick Parmenter, a paymaster, and Alessandro Beradelli, his guard, were carrying two boxes containing £3155 in cash from the main office of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Manufacturing Company through the main street of South Braintree (30 miles south of Boston) to the factory building where the employees were to be paid. Two men who had been seen lounging against a fence accosted the paymaster and his guard, seized the boxes and immediately began firing. Beradelli was instantly killed and Parmenter fell mortally wounded. At this moment a motorcar drew up at the scene, the murderers, with the boxes of money, leaped into the car, and it was driven rapidly away in the direction of West • Bridgewater after a few scattering shots had been fired in the direction of a gathering crowd. The car was a Buick which, two days later, was found abandoned in .some distant woods. Leading from this spot were the tracks of a smaller car, the police deducting: from this circumstance that the bandits had adopted the common device of exchanging cars to elude pursuit. The history of the Buick, which was a stolen car, yielded no clue to the identity of the persons who drove and abandoned it. -The only clues at the scene of the murder were a "pepper and salt" cloth cap dropped by one of the murderers and six bullets in the bodies of Parmenter and Beradelli. Three Men Call for the Car. The police immediately began search for a small car such as might have left the tracks of the car for which the bandits exchanged the Buick. It so happened that for several months Chief Stewart of the police of the neighbouring town of Bridgewater had been seeking clues to the identity of bandits who attempted a similar pay-roll hold-up at that place on December 24, 1919, but were frustrated. Witnesses of the Bridgewater attempt, as of the South Braintree crime, were of the opinion that the bandits were Italians or other foreigners.. Chief Stewart, at the time of the South Braintree murders, had been sleuthing in the town of Cochesett for trace of a car that mighthave been used in the Bridgewater attempt, the bandits having escaped toward Cochesett. His suspicion had fallen on a car owned by one Boda which was in Johnson's garage awaiting repairs. Stewart instructed Johnson to telephone the police when anyone should appear to claim the car. Stewart suspected that the same gang was involved in both the Bridgewater attempt and the South Braintree murders, and when he learned that Boda, owner of the suspected car in Johnson's garage, had been living with Coacci, an Italian who had just left the country, the police chief began to suspect that Coacci's trunk contained the loot of the successful robbery. Coacci was now on the high seas, but" the Italian authorities, being notified, intercepted his trunk upon his arrival in Italy and returned it to the United States, where the lock was broken open, but nothing except Coacci's personal effects was found. On the night of May 5 Boda called at Johnson's garage for his car, accompanied by three Italians—Sacco, Vanzetti and one Orciani. While Johnson detained the four men with warnings against 'hiving the car away because it bore no 1920 licence plates* Mrs. Johnson slipped awav to a neighbur's house and telephoned the police. Pistols Found on Arrested Men. | Boda and his friends saw Mrs. Johnson > leave the garage, followed her partly to the neighbours, then returned, and after standing about for some minutes in apparent uncertainty, took their departure without the car. Boda and Orciani went awav on a motor-cycle. Orciani was arrested the next day, but as he proved he was at work on the days ot both the Bridgewater attempt and the faouth Braintree murders, he was released. Boda disappeared and never has been located. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on the street car on which they left Cochesett. Sacco was not at work on April li>, 1920 nor was Vanzetti able to satisty the police that he had been peddling fish on that day, or on December 24, 1919, the dav of the Bridgewater hold-up. Both men were found to be carrying pistols when arrested, Under questioning by the police both told untruths frequently as to their whereabouts on the dates in question their purposes in carrying firearms, their friends, and, in short, with reference to every material fact. Ibis conduct confirmed the police in their sus- 1 picions. During the succeeding days witnesses of the Braintree murder were called to identify Sacco and Vanzetti. In connection with the police proceedings at tins time the defence made points at the trial that neither Sacco nor Vanzetti was informed of the reason for his detention at the time of his arrest, and that the police in calling witnesses to identify the men did not follow Iho practice of lining up the suspects with other persons of the same race and class, but brought the witnesses face to face with Sacco and \ anzetti and asked them if they could identify these men as having been among the Both men were indicted on September 14 1920, for the South Braintree murders, and, as Sacco had established that he was at work on December 24, 1912, Vanzetti alone was inflicted for the Bridgewater hold-up. .Vanzetti was convicted and given a sentence of fiom li to 15 vears. which he is now serving. Ins counsel took no appeal from the verdict This conviction reacted unfavourably acainst Vanzetti when brought to trial with Sacco for the .South Braintree murders.