The Trial Of Nicola Sacco And Bartolomeo Vanzetti

On August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in one of the most iconic and infamous trials in American history. The 1920s fostered themes of nativism and xenophobia, fueled in part by the bombing of Wall Street, and further exemplified by the Johnson-Reed Act of 1925. The country was vigilant against all anti-capitalists. It is in this decade where Sacco and Vanzetti emerge. Accused of murder, the pair of Italian anarchists quickly found themselves in a one-sided court battle, one where the judge himself proclaimed Sacco and Vanzetti to be “anarchist bastards. ” Since that date, historians have argued on the attitudes surrounding this case that gained global attention throughout the 1920s. Immediately following

The men were anarchists, who believed in taking radical measures. As such, Sacco and Vanzetti were believed followers of Luigi Galleani. Galleani was an anarchist on the radar of the U.S. government for advocating extreme violence including (but not limited to) bomb making and murder. On April 15th, 1920, a double murder was committed on Pearl Street, Braintree Massachusetts, next to the Slater-Morrill shoe factory. A security guard and paymaster were shot multiple times by a .32 caliber gun, and the payroll boxes that the men were transporting were stolen. Sacco and Vanzetti were in the Braintree area at the time, and when stopped by police, both vehemently denied any participation in the murders, and furthermore denied any gun ownership. When searched by police, Nicola Sacco had anarchist pamphlet materials and a .32 caliber Colt, not unlike the weapon used in the double homicide. Vanzetti possessed a .38 caliber revolver identical to the weapon missing from the slain security guard’s holster. (Reed, Barry C., "The Sacco-Vanzetti Case: The Trial of the Century", ABA Journal, August 1960, pp. 867–869) In the beginnings of the trial, the outlook did not appear well for the two Italian