My name is Lawrence Letherman. I live in Malden, and am in the employ
of the Beacon Trust Company. I was in the Federal service for
thirty-six years, first in the railway mail service for nine years;
then as Post Office Inspector for twenty five years; then three years
as local agent of the Department of Justice in Boston in charge of the
Bureau of Investigation. I began the last named duties in September,
1921.
While I was Post Office Inspector I co-operated to a considerable
extent with the agents of the Department of Justice in Boston in
matters of joint concern, including the Sacco-Vanzetti case. The man
under me in direct charge of matters relating to that case was Mr.
William West, who is still attached to the Department of Justice in
Boston. I know that Mr. West co-operated with Mr. Katzmann, the
District Attorney, during the trial of the case, and later with Mr.
Williams. I know that before, during, and after the trial of Sacco and
Vanzetti Mr. West had a number of so-called “under cover” men assigned
to this case, including one Ruzzamenti and one Carbone. I know that by
an arrangement with the Department of Justice, Carbone was placed in a
cell next to the cell of Sacco for the purpose of obtaining whatever
incriminating information he could obtain from Sacco, after winning
his confidence. Nothing, however, was obtained in that way. One Weiss,
formerly an agent of the Department, was involved in this plan. He was
running a private office at that time on the seventh floor of the
building at 7 Water Street under the offices of the Department, and
remained in touch with the Department agents. Efforts were made by Mr.
West to put other men in the Dedham Jail as spies, but the men whom he
desired to use for that purpose objected.
Before, during, and after the trial, the Department of Justice had a
number of men assigned to watch the activities of the Sacco-Vanzetti
Defense Committee. No evidence warranting prosecution of anybody was
obtained by these men. They were all “under cover” men, and one or two
of them obtained employment by the Committee in some capacity or
other. I think one of them was a collector. The Department of Justice
in Boston was anxious to get sufficient evidence against Sacco and
Vanzetti to deport them, but never succeeded in getting the kind and
amount of evidence required for that purpose. It was the opinion of
the Department agents here that a conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti for
murder would be one way of disposing of these two men. It was also the
general opinion of such agents in Boston as had any actual knowledge
of the Sacco-Vanzetti case; that Sacco and Vanzetti, although
anarchists and agitators, were not highway robbers, and had nothing to
do with the South Braintree crime. My opinion, and the opinion of most
of the older men in the Government service, has always been that the
South Braintree crime was the work of professionals.
The Boston agents of the Department of Justice assigned certain men to
attend the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, including Mr. Weyand. Mr. West
also attended the trial. There is or was a great deal of
correspondence on file in the Boston office between Mr. West and Mr.
Katzmann, the District Attorney, and there are also copies of reports
sent to Washington about the case. Letters and reports were made in
triplicate; two copies were sent to Washington and one retained in
Boston. The letters and documents on file in the Boston office would
throw a great deal of light upon the preparation of the Sacco-Vanzetti
case for trial, and upon the real opinion of the Boston office of the
Department of Justice as to the guilt of Sacco and Vanzetti of the
particular crime with which they were charged.
I know that at one time Mr. West placed an Italian printer or
linotyper in the office of some Italian newspaper in Boston for the
purpose of obtaining information. One of the men employed by West at
one stage of the Sacco-Vanzetti case was named Shaughnessy. He was
subsequently convicted of highway robbery and is now serving a term in
the Massachusetts State Prison. One of the “under cover” men employed
by Mr. West was an Armenian named Harold Zorian. While being paid
$7.00 a day by the Government he became Secretary of some Communist or
Radical organization in the vicinity of Boston, the proceedings of
which he reported to the Department.
(So the government _was_ interested in the conviction of Sacco and
Vanzetti? Provocative agents _were_ used to gain the confidence of the
Defense Committee? The Department of Justice _is_ in possession of
evidence and information about the case?
“Have Attorney General Sargent and his subordinates ... stooped so low
and are they so degraded that they are willing by the concealment of
evidence to enter into a fraudulent conspiracy with the government of
Massachusetts to send two men to the electric chair, not because they
were murderers but because they were radicals?” asks Judge Thayer in his
decision).