On August 23, 1927, two Italian-born American anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Charlestown, Massachusetts, for the murder of a shoe factory payroll agent and a security guard during the robbery of over $15,700 in payroll funds, which the factory employees had been transporting. The multiple trials, convictions, and executions of Sacco and Vanzetti comprised perhaps the first great political trial of the 20th century in the United States. The trial occurred in the context of nation-wide fears of anarchism, socialism and communism. As is suggested by this editorial, popular opinion about the men was sharply divided. For some, they were martyrs. Sacco and Vanzetti had received an unfair trial by a corrupted judicial system. For others, such as this editorialist, they represented hostile, alien, and violent political ideologies brought to the United States by those who immigrated here. Ninety years after their deaths, scholarly opinion is still divided as to whether Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty of the crimes for which they were charged, convicted, and executed.
Greenfield Gazette and Courier. “Communist Impudence.” August 25, 1927. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l06-057/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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