Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in 1927 for a crime many still believe the anarchists did not commit -- and that still raises the hackles of liberals who think the men were unjustly accused.
On May 5, 1920, Sacco and Vanzetti, 1908 immigrants from Italy and still speaking little English, went to Bridgewater, Massachusetts, near Boston to pick up a car from a repair shop -- and anarchist literature before the police seized it.
It was a time in America of "red-baiting" and a "red scare," when people had an unreasonable fear that anarchy and communism would undermine the U.S. way of
life.
As anarchists who opposed World War I, the fish peddler and shoemaker had fled to Mexico in 1917 to avoid the draft, and now faced deportation back in the U.S.
In December 1919, there had been a robbery attempt at Bridgewater shoe factory, then in April 1920, two men carrying the payroll of another shoe company were fatally wounded in a successful robbery.
An informant told the police chief that Italian anarchists
were to blame for the first robbery, and the chief decided the second was the work of the same men.
When Sacco and Vanzetti arrived to pick up their car, they were arrested, both carrying guns.
Vanzetti was convicted of the December robbery, and sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.
In May 1921, he and Sacco we put on trial for the murder of the paymasters.
The trial focused on the political beliefs of the anarchists, with emphasis on their draft-dodging. They were found guilty of murder in the first degree.
In 1925, a cellmate of Sacco's confessed to the crime, but no investigation was made.
From 1921-27, the defense filed eight motions for a new trial, alleging prejudice against foreigners to suppression of evidence -- all unsuccessfully. In April 1927, the men were finally scheduled to be electrocuted.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. Thousands of liberals marched in favor of the condemned, to no avail. The case stirred demonstrations strikes, riots and even
bombings in other countries, but on August 23, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. Their deaths are still a symbol of unjust persecution of foreigners and leftists.