After jury selection and opening statements, Judge Callahan instructed the attorneys to start calling witnesses. It was clear that Rico Caminetti was the shooter, and he had already been convicted of Murder in the First Degree. Now it was the prosecutor’s responsibility to demonstrate that William Ashford had hired Caminetti to commit the crime. The problem was that Caminetti was denying that his employer had solicited him.
Luden has spent hours trying to locate the money that Ashford paid to Caminetti, but he found nothing: no checks, no bank transfers, nothing at all. Ashford must have paid him in cash. A search warrant was executed, and the police found no large sums of money in the Caminetti home in Revere.
The prosecutors understood they had no case unless they could establish a connection between Ashford and the crime. Before Caminetti’s trial, the opposing attorneys had presented him with multiple opportunities for a deal. They informed him that the death penalty was on the table, and they would remove it if he spoke up. He would still be able to see his family from prison, but only if he were above ground.
Caminetti’s words had hushed the room.
Counselor, I want to help you, but I never see Mr. Ashford. I know he owns the company, but he’s never in the shop. I shot Johnny Sullivan because I was drunk, and I hate Irishmen. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s all there is to it.
In addition to a lying witness, public opinion also presented a problem. Few believed that a respected judge would order someone to kill his daughter’s boyfriend; it seemed implausible. News about munitions discovered at the Ashford Co. had made headlines. Despite this, the public trusted Attorney Seth Cohn when he claimed that Thomas Ashford was the only person running the family business. William Ashford had fled the country because he believed he would not receive a fair trial in a city dominated by powerful Irish politicians. Considering he had been a stern judge, often referred to as “the hanging judge,” he feared a biased courtroom.