Nicola Sacco And Bartolomeo Vanzetti

On the afternoon of April 15, 1920, payroll clerk Frederick Parmenter and security guard Alessandro Berardelli were shot to death and robbed of over $15,000 in cash in South Braintree, Massachusetts. After a few weeks, arrests were made and charges were brought against two Italian immigrants by the names of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. A well known attorney, Fred H. Moore, was brought in to defend Sacco and Vanzetti. The accused immigrants had no criminal records, but were known as outspoken anarchists, labor organizers, and antiwar activists. These activities were viewed with great suspicion during this time period. A trial was then held in the summer of 1921 where, due to their lawyers advise, the accused admitted their radical beliefs,

Prejudice was strong against newcomers who embraced the radical ideas of anarchism and although Sacco and Vanzetti were never implicated in acts of violence, they were Italian immigrants and anarchists. The two men had a heap of suspicious evidence against them. Seven eyewitnesses placed Sacco in or near Braintree around the time of crime and four witnesses placed Vanzetti near the crime scene as well . A few other witnesses testified that Sacco resembled one of the bandits, but declined to make a positive identification and no one claimed to have seen Vanzetti during the actual shooting. At the time of their arrest, Sacco and Vanzetti had just gone to the house of the owner of a car repair shop where there was a man named Boda who connected with a stolen Buick that was presumed to be the car used in the murder. Under a prearranged plan, the wife of the repair shop owner called police, making the two immigrants seem like suspects. Sacco and Vanzetti suddenly left which suggested that they were hiding something triggered by Mrs. Johnson's action. But when it came time for the trial, Sacco and Vanzetti testified that the reason that they left Johnson's home without picking up Boda's car was that they discovered that the car did not have 1920 license plates. After their