Word: berardelli
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Finally, the prosecution brought a ballistics expert who said he was "inclined to believe" that Sacco's pistol fired the bullet that killed Berardelli, and another who said that the bullet was "consistent" with having been fired through the pistol. Two defense ballistics experts testified that the bullet could not, in their opinion, have been fired by Sacco...
There was a little more ballistics evidence; the bullet that killed Berardelli was of a rare type, no longer being manufactured. A defense expert and two assistants were unable to find any such bullets in a search through Massachusetts. Sacco had six of the rare bullets in his pocket when he was arrested...
Captain William Proctor, a Commonwealth witness who had said at the trial that the bullet which killed Berardelli was "consistent" with having gone through Sacco's pistol, admitted after the trial that he and the district attorney had framed his answer in order to sway the jury. All he meant by "consistent" was that the bullet was fired from a 32 caliber Colt--there were some 300,000 in existence at the time. Proctor died before he could testify on the matter in court, but the affidavit he had filed was made the basis of a motion...
...Winchester bullet . . . was fired through the barrel of the Colt Automatic pistol found upon the defendant Sacco at the time of his arrest." The newspapers of the day also failed to understand "the plain English words." "EXPERTS PICK MURDER PISTOL; Declare Bullet from Sacco's Gun Caused Death of Berardelli," read the headlines of the Boston Herald...
...report went to Governor Fuller, who agreed with its findings. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed on August 23, 1927, while men continued to debate their guilt or innocence. But whether or not Sacco and Vanzetti actually murdered Parmenter and Berardelli, there can be little question that the Lowell Committee failed in its objective--an honest overall evaluation of the case...