The other, Nicola Sacco, worked full-time as a shoe edger. He lived in Milford, Massachusetts, with his wife and son. Sacco and Vanzetti were tried and found guilty in July During the six years before they were executed, their names became known throughout the world.
Millions of people felt passionately that Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent, and millions more believed that they had not received a fair trial. Today, 80 years later, historians and commentators continue to debate the Sacco and Vanzetti case. World War I created tremendous political turmoil. Many leftist groups in Europe and in America opposed the war.
They saw it as an imperialist struggle for power and profit, fought at the expense of the working class. But after America entered the war in April , opposition to the war was not tolerated. President Woodrow Wilson made this clear in his Flag Day address on June 14, "Woe to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high resolution. A year later, Congress passed the Sedition Act. It imposed the same penalties on anyone who uttered, printed, wrote, or published "disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language" against the government or the Constitution.
Most Americans supported the war. Private groups, such as the American Protective League, were formed to promote patriotism and seek out radicals who held anti-war beliefs. Their prime targets were members of the socialist and communist parties, members of the International Workers of the World IWW , and anarchists.
As the federal authorities began enforcing the Espionage and Sedition Acts, hundreds of anti-war and radical immigrants were arrested simply for criticizing the government and its war policies. Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, including Italian immigrants, were considered to be a suspect group.
Italian immigrants had flooded into the country beginning in Between and , 3 million Italians migrated to the United States. Most were unskilled and semi-skilled laborers, and some joined groups devoted to social revolution and overthrowing the capitalist system. Events after the war caused the Red Scare, a period of panic over the threat of communists and anarchists. The country saw a huge wave of strikes. Four million workers went on strike in , the year after the war ended.
A communist revolution had occurred in Russia in , and many Americans feared that a similar revolution would take place in the United States. Anarchist groups in the United States that had strongly opposed the war began a series of terrorist acts after the war.
In April , mail bombs were sent to prominent politicians and to wealthy and powerful businessmen. Among the targets were Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, J. Morgan, and John D. None of the intended recipients was injured, but the mail bombings aroused a surge of anger and hatred against communists, radicals, and foreigners. The fear intensified in June when bombs exploded in seven cities.
Delivered by hand to the doors of the intended victims, these bombs were much more powerful than the package bombs. Again, none of the intended victims was injured, but several bystanders were killed. Copies of a leaflet were found at every site, printed on pink paper and signed "The Anarchist Fighters.
The evidence pointed to a group of anarchists headed by Luigi Galleani, an Italian immigrant. He advocated the violent overthrow of the capitalist system.
In the United States, he started publishing a small newspaper for anarchists called Conaca Souversiva Subversive Chronicle. The newspaper often carried an advertisement for one of his publications that it said it was essential reading. Its deliberately misleading title was Health Is You! The manual explained how to make bombs.
In , the government had begun an investigation to identify Galleanists and other radicals suspected of terrorism. Arrest warrants were issued for about Galleanists in the Boston area alone. The next year, Galleani was arrested and deported to Italy. The Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Justice then planned a huge series of arrests of anarchists and radicals.
The so-called "Palmer Raids," named after the attorney general, took place in January About 10, people were arrested nationwide, suspected of anti-American beliefs. Many were arrested without warrants and marched to jails in chains.
Thousands were scheduled for deportation without trial. The press helped fuel the Red Scare. A newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts, wrote in April "Organized efforts are being started to fight the Bolshevik poison. It is none too soon. Sacco and Vanzetti were members of this feared and despised anarchist group.
They had both come to the United States from Italy in and settled in Massachusetts. Both were followers of Galleani and passionately believed in the principles of the anarchist movement. This is our career and our triumph. Our words, our lives, our pains—nothing! The taking of our lives—lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler—all! That last moment belongs to us—that agony is our triumph. It was an unlikely triumph. Beyond that, the crime for which they were convicted and sentenced to death—two murders committed during a robbery at a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts, in —was not a particularly remarkable one.
Even many of their sympathizers acknowledge, to this day, that they may very well have been guilty. But in an era of anti-immigrant, anti-leftist sentiment, their case became an emblem of prejudice in the American justice system—and a rallying point for those who wished to combat it.
How much that success truly meant is less apparent. And the tolerance, the justice, the understanding that he believed himself to be dying for remain, at best, a work in progress.. With their arrest, Sacco and Vanzetti stepped into the center of a firestorm of converging fears, prejudices and swelling radical political power.
Nativism and xenophobia were on the rise in the United States. The Russian Revolution of had given rise to the first Red Scare, and a slate of assassinations of world leaders since the s—including that of President William McKinley—had further sowed fears of anarchism.
Sacco and Vanzetti—themselves suspected Galleanists—had met in at a factory strike Vanzetti helped organize. Over the following years, they were united by their advocacy for workers and their opposition to World War I; they even fled to Mexico together in to escape the draft. They were arrested for the robbery and murders in Braintree—which police believed were carried out to fund the anarchist groups ongoing efforts to foment revolution— in May Details about Sacco and Vanzetti immediately began to filter into the news: descriptions of the evidence that had led the police to them and, not far behind, the first inklings of their backgrounds and political leanings.
Fuller announces that he will not intervene to stop the scheduled executions. To Top. Bartolomeo Vanzetti is born in Villafalletto in northern Italy. Nicola nee Ferdinando Sacco is born in Torremaggiore in southern Italy. Sacco and his brother Sabino emigrate to the United States. Bartolomeo Vanzetti emigrates to the United States. Vanzetti and Sacco meet in Boston at a meeting of Galleanist Anarchists. At the height of the Red Scare, the office of the Cronaca Sovversiva , an anarchist newspaper both Sacco and Vanzetti had written for and donated money to, is raided.
A bomb plot is discovered. In another round of bombings Carlo Valdinoci who had been in Mexico with Sacco and Vanzetti two years earlier blows himself up outside the home of Attorney General Palmer. The Justice Department begins rounding up anarchists. Four men attempt to rob the payroll of the L.
Roberto Elia and Andrea Salsedo, anarchists who worked for the Cronaca Sovversiva, are taken into custody by the Department of Justice without a warrant or being arrested.
Stewart talks to Simon Johnson, owner of the Elm Square Garage, and sets a trap for Boda by instructing Johnson to call him when anyone comes for the car. Andrea Salsedo--perhaps acting out of guilt--commits suicide by jumping out of the fourteenth-floor room. Vanzetti--despite having no previous criminal record--is indicted for the Bridgewater hold-up. Sacco and Vanzetti are indicted for the South Braintree murders.
After several days of voir dire, only seven jurors have been selected and the entire panel of people exhausted. The defense challenges the way in which the additional potential jurors were arbitrarily rounded up. Assistant Prosecutor, Harold Williams, delivers the opening statement for the State. Eyewitnesses Carrigan, Bostock, and Wade testify that were unable to identify any of the bandits they had seen at the crime.
Lola Andrews testifies that she had spoken to a man working under a car in front ofthe shoe factory the day of the robbery and identified Sacco as the man. Vanzetti is identified by Michael LeVangie, the gate-keeper at a railroad crossing, as being the driver of the bandit car.
Harry Dolbeare testifies that Vanzetti is the man who was in the back of the get-away car. The final identification witness, Goodridge, testifies he had seen Sacco shooting from the car.
Testimony is given concerning the finding of a Buick touring car near West Bridgewater. Connolly, the officer who arrested Sacco and Vanzetti on the train, testifies that Sacco and Vanzetti reached for their guns when they were arrested. Kurlansky testifies that Mrs. Vanzetti takes the stand. Sacco takes the stand.
During cross-examination, Sacco, too, is questioned at length concerning his political views. The case goes to the jury. The Ripley motion for a new trial is made. The Gould and Pelser motions are made. The Goodridge motion for a new trial is made. The Andrews motion for a new trial is made.
The Hamilton motion for a new trial is filed. The Proctor motion for a new trial is made. Celestino Medeiros, a Portugese convict doing time for murder, allegedly confesses to Sacco that he had been involved in the South Braintree hold-up.
0コメント