Reference no: EM133042080

Question - On April 15, 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, Frederick Parmenter, the payroll officer of Slater and Morrill Shoe Company, and his security guard, Alesandro Berardelli, were robbed, shot and killed as they walked out of the office with two metal cashboxes each containing a canvas bag full of cash. A witness to the crime retrieved a dark felt cap that had fallen off the gunman and turned the cap over to police investigators. The witness described the gunman as being a man in his 20s of medium height and build with dark brown hair, and with an unusually long, thick mustache.

Investigators immediately suspected that a local man named Nicolas Crocetti was the gunman, as Crocetti fit the eyewitness's description of the shooter's age, height, build, hair color, and mustache. Crocetti, who had emigrated to the United States from Italy in 1908 at the age of seventeen, was a member of an anarchist group whose behavior had recently turned towards violence. In 1917, Crocetti had briefly moved to Mexico in order to avoid being drafted by the United States military to serve in World War I, and during that time he changed his first name from "Ferdinando" to "Nicolas." Investigators went to Crocetti's place of work and discovered that he had not shown up for work on April 15, and his boss and co-workers all noted that Crocetti owned and wore a hat identical to the one found at the scene. Crocetti was arrested and charged for the crime.

During Crocetti's trial, prosecutors demanded that Crocetti put the hat from the crime scene on his head. To the surprise of the prosecutors and delight of the defense team, it turned out that the hat was way too small for Crocetti's head; the sight of Crocetti wearing the too-small hat on the stand produced laughter throughout the courtroom audience. The prosecutors had much better luck with another piece of evidence, however: the two stolen Slater and Morrill metal cashboxes had been found by investigators in the trunk of Crocetti's car.

Crocetti's defense presented the jury with an alternative theory of the crime: the crime had been committed by the Morelli gang, a New England area group of mobsters who had recently committed many high profile armed robberies in the area. Frank Morelli, the leader of the gang, bore a striking resemblance to Crocetti. During the trial, another member of the gang, a twenty-five year old named Celestino Medeiros, who was being held in the same prison as Crocetti, passed a note to a prison guard that read: "I hear by confess to being in the shoe company crime at Boston on April 15 1920 and that Crocetti was not there." It turned out, though, that Medeiros was actually in prison on the day on April 15, 1920. The jury found Crocetti guilty and sentenced him to death.

Required -

1. What is the explanation that is being accepted by prosecutors and investigators?

2. What is the alternative explanation that is being suggested by the defense team?

3. What information in the article provides direct support for the prosecution's explanation?

4. What information in the article provides direct support, at least initially, for the defense's explanation?

5. What information in the article directly weakens the plausibility of the prosecution's explanation?

6. What information in the article directly weakens the plausibility of the defense's explanation?