Note

On October 31, 1928, with the first edition of “Boston” printed, bound, and about to be published, there appears in the Outlook, an old established weekly magazine of New York, the true story of the Bridgewater crime, of which Vanzetti was convicted; a detailed confession by Frank Silva, one of the bandits who committed the crime, the confession checked in every detail, and published with the Outlook’s endorsement. The following statements in the story will be of interest to readers of this book.

First: The “shotgun bandit” was not Vanzetti, but a professional criminal by the name of “Doggy” Bruno, who wore a closely-cropped mustache.

Second: Frank Silva is the man whom Fred Moore was trailing. The lawyer visited Silva in Atlanta penitentiary, where he was serving a sentence for another crime, and endeavored unsuccessfully to persuade Silva to admit the truth about the Bridgewater crime.

Third: The crime was planned in the headquarters of Jimmie (“Big Chief”) Mede, a Boston crook, and the details of the affair were known to Mede. Fred Moore came to see Mede, then in Massachusetts State Prison, and offered him inducements to tell the truth. Mede refused, because he was trying to get a parole, and knew that this would interfere. The brother of John Vahey, Vanzetti’s lawyer at the Plymouth trial, came in haste to Mede, along with “Joseph Ross” (that Rossi who was interpreter at the Dedham trial, and was frequently Judge Thayer’s chauffeur) and warned Mede to tell nothing about the Sacco-Vanzetti case.

Fourth: When Sacco and Vanzetti were about to be executed, Mede was so troubled in his conscience that he went to Governor Fuller, and made a clean breast of the whole matter. Governor Fuller called in a state detective, who so frightened Mede that he dropped the matter and disappeared. Later, however, still worried because innocent men were about to be executed, Mede went with two Italian lawyers to Captain Blye of the state police, and endeavored to make a statement to him; but Blye refused to hear him, saying: “Well, it is embarrassing; I think it will be damned embarrassing.”

Fifth: In the efforts to check Silva’s confession, representatives of the Outlook were refused every sort of coöperation by the Massachusetts police authorities, and mysterious threatening messages were twice received by one of the Outlook representatives in Boston.