N. SACCO & B. VANZETTI, UNFAIRLY TRIED AND CONVICTED

Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born American anarchists who were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920 armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. 

In August, 27 1927, they were executed in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Both men adhered to an anarchist movement that advocated relentless warfare against a violent and oppressive government.

More information: Barnum Review

After a few hours' deliberation on July 14, 1921, the jury convicted Sacco and Vanzetti of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to death by the trial judge. 

They were sentenced to death

A series of appeals followed, funded largely by the private Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee. The appeals were based on recanted testimony, conflicting ballistics evidence, a prejudicial pre-trial statement by the jury foreman, and a confession by an alleged participant in the robbery.  

All appeals were denied by trial judge Webster Thayer and also later denied by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. 

More information: Famous Trials

By 1926, the case had drawn worldwide attention. As details of the trial and the men's suspected innocence became known, Sacco and Vanzetti became the center of one of the largest causes célèbres in modern history. In 1927, protests on their behalf were held in every major city in North America and Europe, as well as in Tokyo, Sydney, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg.

Protest to demand justice for Sacco and Vanzetti

Investigations in the aftermath of the executions continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s. 

The publication of the men's letters, containing eloquent professions of innocence, intensified belief in their wrongful execution. Additional ballistics tests and incriminating statements by the men's acquaintances have clouded the case. 

On August 23, 1977, the 50th anniversary of the executions, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried and convicted and that any disgrace should be forever removed from their names. Writer Bruce Watson, in his introduction to the 2007 re-printing of The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti, noted Sacco and Vanzetti are still on trial and probably always will be.

More information: The New York Times (August, 23 1927)

Sacco was a shoemaker and a night watchman, born April 22, 1891 in Torremaggiore, Province of Foggia, in Puglia, Italy, who migrated to the United States at the age of seventeen. 

Vanzetti was a fishmonger born June 11, 1888 in Villafalletto, Province of Cuneo, in Piemonte, who arrived in the United States at age twenty. Both men left Italy for the US in 1908, although they did not meet until a 1917 strike.

Here's to you, Nicola and Bart.
Rest forever here in our hearts.
The last and final moment is yours.
That agony is your triumph.
 

Joan Baez