April 15 1920
Bridgewater police chief Michael Stewart theorized that political radicals were responsible for the crime. Local anarchist Marlo Buda (Mike Boda) topped his suspect list.
Chief Stewart set a trap. He learned that Buda's car was being repaired at a Bridgewater garage, and asked the owner to contact police when someone came to pick it up. When four Italian men came for the car on the evening of May 5, 1920, the garage owner's wife called police and warned the four men not to drive the car as it lacked current license plates.Later that evening, police arrested two of the men, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, on a streetcar in Brockton.Two other men who also went to the garage were not detained. Buda, who was in hiding, did not resemble any of the robbers described by eyewitnesses. Orciani produced a time card showing that he was at work the day of the robbery.
Mug shots of Sacco and Vanzetti
When arrested, Sacco carried a loaded .32 Colt automatic pistol; Vanzetti, a loaded .38 Harrington and Richardson revolver. Sacco also possessed a notice in Italian of an upcoming anarchist rally at which Vanzetti was scheduled to speak. This notice, translated, stated:
"Fellow Workers, you have fought all the wars. You have worked for all the capitalists. You have wandered over all the countries. Have you harvested the fruits of your labors, the price of your victories? Does the past comfort you? Does the present smile on you? Does the future promise you anything? Have you found a piece of land where you can lie like a human being and die like a human being? On these questions, on this argument, and on this theme, the struggle for existence, Bartolomeo Vanzetti will speak. Hour__ Day__hall. Admission free. Freedom of discussion to all. Take the ladies with you"
Both men lied during their interrogation at the police station, which focused on their possession of guns and their radical political beliefs. Sacco and Vanzetti later said that they lied to hide their political activities. They believed they had been detained because they were aliens and anarchists. Why did they believe this?
On May 4, 1920, the day before their arrest, Sacco and Vanzetti had learned of the May 3 death of anarchist Andrea Salsedo while in federal custody. Many believed--and newspapers reported--that Salsedo had provided incriminating information about fellow anarchists to the police. Sacco, Vanzetti, and their companions intended to use Buda's car to dispose of evidence that linked them to anarchist activities.
A post mortem
Record of the post-mortem examination
May 5th 1920
Both Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested to be taken to court.
May 31st - July 14 1921
The Dedham Superior Court
Although unseen here, officials outfitted the courthouse with special lead shutters because they feared violence during the trial
Entrance to Dedham Superior Courthouse
Entrance of Dedham Superior Courthouse, guards on horses and at the top of the stairs
Wearing handcuffs, Sacco and Vanzetti were escorted daily from the Dedham jail to the courthouse.
The defendants together talking to a woman behind the bars of the steel cage in the courtroom. As was the practice in capital cases of that era, the defendants were kept behind bars in a steel cage.
August 23 1927
The Execution Site: The former Charlestown State Prison in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed by electric chair here on August 23, 1927. The prison was closed in 1955; Bunker Hill Community College has stood on this site since 1973.
August 27 1927
Langone Funeral Home on Hanover Street in the North End of Boston. Over 10,000 mourners viewed the men's bodies over two days.
The case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrants and anarchist activists who were tried, convicted, and executed for a crime they most likely did not commit. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on May 5, 1920, on charges that they were involved in an April 15, 1920, armed robbery of a Braintree shoe factory that lead to the murders of two men.
The trial and conviction of these two men became a worldwide sensation. Many people protested that the evidence against Sacco and Vanzetti was weak and that they were actually tried for their immigrant status and political beliefs. Judge Webster Thayer, who presided over their trial, spoke openly of his disdain for foreigners and anarchists, and refused several motions for a new trial, even after another man named Celestino Medeiros confessed to the Braintree crimes in 1925. Despite worldwide protests, Sacco and Vanzetti were put to death in the electric chair on August 23, 1927.
Ninety nine years later, the Sacco and Vanzetti case is remembered as a miscarriage of justice. The men were immortalized in songs by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Woody Guthrie, and poems by John Dos Passos, Carl Sandburg, Edna St. Vincent Millay and William Carlos Williams, as well as books, plays, an opera, and films. On the 50th anniversary of their execution in 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis declared Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Memorial Day. Dukakis declared that because their trial and conviction were unfairly conducted, “Any stigma and disgrace shall be forever removed from their names.”
I just thought this was an cool topic to share
August 23 1927 - Ground Zeroes
This year will be the 99th anniversary of Nicola and Bart's death
I'd love to hear what people think about this case well now what do you think about it?