Sacco and Vanzetti

THE LIVES OF NICOLA Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti changed forever on April 15, 1920. Seven years later, they were executed for their alleged roles in the events of that day. However, decades later the “case that will not die” continues to incite controversy over whether the two immigrants were even present when a paymaster and a guard were killed in the course of a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Around 3 P.M. on April 15, paymaster Frederick Parmenter and his bodyguard were delivering a payroll of around $30,000 in two boxes to two shoe factories. The two men were attacked, robbed, and murdered by two men carrying pistols. Witnesses later testified that at least five men were in the car that left the scene.

Sacco and Vanzetti, both Italian radicals, were known to openly endorse anarchy and atheism at a time when the United States was in the midst of a Red Scare. World War I had led to a new awareness of the threat of sabotage and sedition by resident aliens, and the U.S. Congress had passed the Espionage Act of 1917, and the Sedition Act and Immigration Acts of 1918. Overall, the national government had been given blanket authority to arrest anyone suspected of openly criticizing or trying to forcibly overthrow the government. Some idealists viewed the Bolshevik Revolution as an instrument of equality; and during this volatile period, some American liberals and radicals were flirting with far-leftist ideologies. While neither Sacco nor Vanzetti had been under investigation by authorities, a number of their associates were being closely watched as possible security threats.

A shoemaker, Sacco's family included his wife, Rosina, a young son, Dante, and a baby daughter, Inez, who was born after Sacco's arrest. Vanzetti, married with no children, was a fish peddler. Both men spoke broken English and were unable to understand some of the questions put to them by police and prosecutors. Witnesses at the trial testified that on the afternoon of April 15, Sacco had been obtaining a passport in Boston, and a number of witnesses had seen Vanzetti peddling fish.

Even though Sacco and Vanzetti asked for separate trials, their requests were denied. Prosecutors portrayed Sacco as a ruthless killer and insisted that Vanzetti was one of four accomplices. None of the others were ever brought to trial. Accusations centered on the fact that both Sacco and Vanzetti had been armed when police arrested them and that both had lied during detectives' questioning.

Civil libertarians and other supporters of Sacco and Vanzetti pointed out that neither had a record of prior arrest and that prosecutors had been unable to trace the money taken in the robbery to either of the two men. Committees were created to provide defense [Page 384]funds and to draw attention to perceived injustices. Writers who came forward to support Sacco and Vanzetti included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Dos Passos, Upton Sinclair, and Katherine Anne Porter, who gave Dante Sacco a home after his father's execution. Indeed, the plight of Sacco and Vanzetti became a leftist cause not only in the United States, but all over the world.

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