The Legacy of Sacco & Vanzetti

The facts of the crime in reality, crimes are, on the surface, simple and straightforward. They begin with a Buick, stolen on November 23, 1919, believed to be the principal car involved in the South Braintree holdup and murders, and possibly the same car used in the Bridgewater assault just before Christmas. On December 22, 1919, a set of license plates were stolen, and again, around January 6, 1920, a second set of plates were stolen. These are preparations calculated preparations for the attempted holdup in Bridgewater, and the more complicated robbery and murders four months later in South Braintree. Could these have been the preparations characteristic of professional criminals?

The Bridgewater Assault

Early on the morning of December 24, 1919, between seven and seven-thirty, two men, one armed with a shotgun and the other with a revolver, attacked a payroll truck containing about $30,000. The occupants of the truck, belonging to the White Shoe Company, were a driver, the paymaster, and an armed payroll guard. The truck swerved into a telegraph pole while shots were being exchanged between the payroll guard and the attackers. The bandits, apparently understanding that their attempt would not succeed, escaped in a car that probably had at least two other confederates in it. No one was hurt. Nothing was stolen. It was a case of attempted robbery and assault.

Michael Stewart, the police chief of Bridgewater, suspected that the holdup men were radicals of some kind, attempting to finance their activities through robbery. Since the bandits had been described as "dark and foreign," and had been driving either a Buick or a Hudson Overland, he focused his investigation on an Italian in Cochesett named Mike Boda, who owned an Overland. Boda shared a small house with Ferrucio Coacci, who had just been served with a deportation order. Both had alibis.

The South Braintree Holdup and Murders

Murder site in 1960 photo

Around three in the afternoon of April 15, 1920, Frederick A. Parmenter, paymaster for the Slater and Morrill Shoe Factories, and his guard, Alessandro Beradelli, were taking nearly $16,000 in payroll envelopes from one building to a second, some 200 yards off.

As the paymaster and his guard walked down Pearl Street, they passed a group of Italian laborers excavating a foundation for a new restaurant. Leaning against a fence were two other men with dark clothes and caps. As Parmenter and Beradelli passed the two men, one grabbed at Beradelli.

The second man started firing, putting three bullets into Beradelli and one into Parmenter. As Parmenter staggered towards the workmen, he was shot once more. Beradelli, on his knees in the gutter, was shot twice more as the gunman stood over him.

A seven-seater Buick pulled up. The two gunmen grabbed the payroll boxes and leaped into the car, as did a third man who had been hiding behind a pile of bricks. Two other men were already in the car, making a total of five bandits. As the car sped away, it approached a railroad crossing at which the crossing gates were being lowered. One bandit, waving a pistol, ordered the gate raised. The car continued to speed out of town, with a shotgun poking out through the rear window, and an occupant of the car throwing out strips of rubber with nails in them, to puncture the tires of any cars in pursuit of them.

The car doubled back into town, then disappeared down a road that led into thickly wooded country, and successfully escaped the pursuit of the police, which included Chief Stewart.