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He was a boarder in the house until he went to Mexico. I did not know at the time where he was going when he left us. In fact, he didn't say good-bye when he left to my memory. What I liked about him, he never seemed to be in the way. I was always glad when he was in the house. When he would interrupt whatever he was doing and would come and pay attention to me in the instruction of the Italian language or in my playing the violin or in my school work, he would give me counsel and advice. He made me feel as if I were somebody that was in existence, whereas my father and my mother were too busy to pay any attention to me. I was in their way, but Vanzetti, I was never in the way. He encouraged me, took me on walks, asked me to do favors for him like write money orders for him. He did not discuss his political opinions with me at all. He probably felt I was a little too young to understand, and I agree with that. I disliked [prosecutor Frederick] Katzmann very much. He made me angry. I know my reaction. I restrained myself from getting angry at him. I felt threatened by him when I was a witness at the time. But that's the only time I felt threatened by him, you know.
On his alibi for Vanzetti for the night of the Bridgewater robbery attempt: I remember going to his house to meet Vanzetti and he was already on the delivery trail and my first disappointment or the only disappointment was that there was not a horse and carriage in front of his house. He was already selling, delivering his eels in houses next to his house. Some of his fish, he used to cut some of his fish but this time, he had the packages of eels already wrapped up. I was with him...not continuously, in an interrupted way to get my basket filled again with eels when I ran out of placed to sell or deliver eels I would got back and get another load of eels. I was with him and not with him, but for no longer than perhaps 10 minutes or 5 minutes. I wasn't with him all that day, no. I didn't have a watch. At that time, I didn't own a watch, but it was noon time or one o'clock.
I think he's a great victim of misjudgment. He was hurt and I think he did not want to betray anarchism or the workers. I don't think there's any way he would [do] the wrong thing in trying to defend himself on behalf of the anarchistic cause. He meant to help the workman. I think he was a hero. I think he was a hero and that's how I'll always remember him as such. [He was] very calm, very quiet. I never saw him excited, never saw him look for money. In fact he would tell my mother, "What would you do with my money?" My mother would say, "Why don't you take care of it?" He would leave it around. He never cared for money and she often scolded him because he wouldn't take care of it. He'd leave it in his room. He didn't care. He wouldn't shoot for money and I never found a pistol and never saw an old one. Never saw an old one. Very kind man. Took time to talk to a kid like myself, spend his time with him. So a very kind man who was conscious of the inequalities of society and wanted to improve on them. Didn't care for women. Never saw him with a girl in his company, you might say. But he was always good, always good. Always pleasant, always calm. A miscarriage of justice and he understood his fate and remember he undertook it as part of his mission, I guess, in life. He was willing to die for his principles. When I eventually heard that he had been arrested for burglary or armed robbery, I found it hard to believe. I didn't believe it. And still I don't believe it. I don't see how he could have had the guts to murder even a payroll master. He was human too.
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