Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
[Course]
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial 2
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
Introduction
The Sacco-Vanzetti Trial has always been а fascination for the media, even recently after
gaining а lot of media coverage. On April 15, 1920 at three in the afternoon а paymaster and his
guard were gunned down. Fredrick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli were carrying the
payroll for а shoe factory through the streets of South Braintree, Massachusetts. The payroll was
worth $15,776 (Dickinson, 1972). Two men standing in the street suddenly drew guns from their
dark apparel and shot down the payroll officers. The two men then grabbed the cash and swiftly
escaped into а getaway car containing several other people and then drove away from the crime
scene.
Investigators questioned bystanders. Quite а few witnesses avowed that the burglars were
Italians. This wasn't а big lead for investigators, but it was something. Although at first this
common post war crime only amused the locals in whom it most closely effected, it would soon
It was three weeks before any suspects were apprehended. Authorities of Braintree set а
trap strictly targeted to lure the felons of the payroll crime. The turn out of this plan was the
capture of Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco (Felix, 1965). The only evidence at the time
that was being held against the two was that they were in fact Italians, and they were both
carrying guns. Neither Sacco nor Vanzetti had criminal records, but they were known anarchists
and they were thought to have stolen the money to support their anarchist political campaign.
Before this trial was to begin, Vanzetti was being tried on another crime he supposable
committed. Vanzetti was convicted а robbery in Bridgewater. Although he had а strong alibi he
was found guilty and sentenced ten to fifteen years. He had many eyewitnesses who were mostly
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial 3
Italians who couldn't speak English and they were unsuccessful in convincing the jury of
Vanzetti's innocence.
Discussion
With the outcome of Vanzetti's trial, Sacco and Vanzetti new that it was going to be а
tough battle in order not to be accused for the murders. That being the case Fred H Moore was
put on the case for Sacco and Vanzetti. Moore was а socialist lawyer from the west and was
It was clear that the odds were against the two Italians. First off the Vanzetti and Sacco
could barely spoke any English, which cause them to misinterpret statements made by the court.
Also both defendants were thought of as unpatriotic, because they fled to Mexico to avoid the
draft. Another reason why the odds were against the accused was because they were known
anarchists and that didn't stand well with the court (Fast, 1972).
The two men did have good alibis. Sacco was in Boston with his wife having his
photograph taken and Vanzetti claimed that he was in Plymouth selling fish. Although these
statements would say that the two men weren't at the crime scene when the robbery took place,
there were only other Italian immigrants to back up Sacco and Vanzetti's alibis.
Moore, Sacco and Vanzetti's lawyer, had many different techniques for legal operations.
Moore, like Sacco and Vanzetti, realized that it was impossible to defend the two men against
their criminal charges. Moore decided to acknowledge their anarchism in court. Also Moore tried
to make it that the jury believed that the only reason that the two Italians were placed under
arrest was because of their radical activities and their unpatriotic ways. He then argued that the
only evidence on Sacco and Vanzetti was nonpolitical evidence that had suggested that these two
individuals had committed the crime together. Moore believed that the authorities were just
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial 4
trying to crack down on the Italian anarchist movement in which Sacco and Vanzetti had been
associated with.
Moore put together public meetings, solicited the support of labor unions, contacted
defense pamphlets throughout the U.S. and the world. This case only know to the local people
The trial went on for seven weeks. In the end of the trial the two Italians were found
guilty on the crime of first-degree murder and their punishment was death by electrocution. This
was not even close to the end of the fight to save these men. Moore would continue to fight for
This extremely controversial trial stretched out until 1927, six years after their first
conviction. Many appeals and petitions went into action desperately trying to save the men and
change the courts mind. Many unsuccessful attempts were tried in order to get а new trial to take
place.
The reason that this trial became so controversial was mostly because of all the judicial
prejudice, much of which had come from Judge Webster Thayer. Celestino Madeiros, а
convicted bank robber confessed tot the crimes of the Braintree robbery, and strong evidence had
been found that showed that а powerful gang known as the Morelli Gang. This made no
difference because, all of this evidence was ruled against, by Judge Thayer.
Conclusion
Paris during the duration of the trial а bomb exploded killing twenty people. This was not the
only thing; many riots and anti-U.S. boycotts took place. In the end the conviction stood
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial 5
unchanged. Sacco and Vanzetti were to be executed on August 23, 1927. This date, since the
Before the execution Vanttezi made а comment to а journalist: "If it had not been for this,
I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died,
unmarked, unknown, а failure. Now we are not а failure. This is out career and our triumph.
Never in our full life can we hope to do such work for our tolerance, justice, for man's
understanding of man, as now we do by accident. Our words - our lives - our pains - nothing!
The taking of our lives - lives of а good shoemaker and а poor fish peddler - all! That last
Whether or not Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent they felt they had done something
more with their lives than they could have if they weren't accused of the crime. They were
executed on the 23 of August in 1927. They were remembered by who they wanted to be
remembered by and forgotten by those who were prejudice towards them and there lives, they
References
Ehrmann, H. B. (1969) The Case That Will Not Die; Commonwealth vs. Sacco and Vanzetti.
Fast, H. (1972) The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti: А New England Legend. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press.
Felix, D. (1965) Protest: Sacco-Vanzetti and the Intellectuals. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.