JAY MARTIN
523
Upon learning that Dewey had accepted and the hearing was
to
go
forward, Trotsky gave a telephone speech to a large audience at the
New York Hippodrome, stating flatly:
"If
this commission decides that
I am guilty of the crimes which Stalin imputes to me, I pledge to place
myself vo luntarily in the hands of the executioner of the G.P.U."
Jim Farrell accompanied Dewey-"Dr. Johnny," he called him-on
the train from New York. With him, Dewey had brought Trotsky'S
complete works, a portable typewriter, and a suitcase full of docu–
ments . Even at his age he had immense energy for work; hour in, hour
out, he read and wrote on the train, mastering Trotsky'S work- and
penning letters, sometimes several a day, to Roberta: "Dear Robbie: I
love you .. . .What more is there to say? These pages are covered with
the words I love you ."
The hearing was held at Rivera's in Casa Azul,
I27
Avenida Loun–
dres, Coyoacan. The tranquil setting at Casa Azul was deceptive. The
sun shone brightly on the purple bougainvillea and the orange trees;
ancient stone heads of Olmec gods rested peacefully on the ground. But
danger was ever-present. Preparations were made and precautions orga–
nized with the utmost care, since it was expected that at any moment an
attack on Trotsky or the commissioners might be made. Diego Rivera,
looking like a figure in one of his murals, wore ammunition belts slung
across his chest, and carried a carbine. Clothed strikingly in a Mexican
Indian dress, Frida carried a gun too. An official card of admission, per–
sonally signed by Dewey, was required for entrance.
The other commissioners were Karl Marx's biographer, Otto Ruehle,
a leader of the German communists who opposed Hitler's rise to power;
the labor advocate and writer, Benjamin Stolberg; Carleton Beals, a
well-known Latin America expert; and Suzanne La Follette, the editor
of
The Freeman
and a member of a well-known progressive family.
Other well-known figures in the progressive movement who were in
attendance included Carlo Tresca, the anarcho-syndicalist editor of
II
Martello .
John
F.
Finerty, Tom Mooney's attorney, served as the counsel
for the committee. The international press corps was in attendance,
along with representatives of major American papers . Soviet authorities
were invited to send documentary material and representatives to exam–
ine Trotsky; the Soviet ambassador to the U.S., Andrei Troyanovsky,
was urged to attend. These overtures were refused.
Surviving newspaper photographs, sketches, and paintings show that
the spacious room in which the hearings were conducted was divided
into two. On the one side of a barrier sat the Commission and Trotsky.
On the other were seats for the press, Mexican representatives of the
