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Sacco and Vanzetti


Nicola Sacco


Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Italian anarchist immigrants tried and executed for the murders of Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick A. Parmenter. Evidence existed as to their innocence, and police had a different suspect (a fact hidden from the public.) Furthermore, the Massachusetts prosecution falsified ballistic evidence to convict the pair. Despite all this and massive foreign public pressure, the two men were denied proper justice and executed anyway. This sham becomes known as Trial of the Century, though most unlike that other sham of O.J.'s Trial of the Century.

Timeline

2 Jun 1919 Sacco and Vanzetti associate Carlo Valdinoci blows himself up at the residence of Attorney General Palmer.
24 Dec 1919 Payroll robbed in Bridgewater, MA.
15 Apr 1920 Payroll robbed in South Braintree, MA. Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick A. Parmenter are killed.
3 May 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti associate Andrea Salsedo suicides by defenestration.
5 May 1920 Aboard a streetcar, Sacco and Vanzetti arrested as they are acting suspiciously. Both men are armed.
16 Sep 1920 Anarchists detonate a bomb on New York City's Wall Street, in revenge for the Sacco-Vanzetti prosecution. Thirty die and over 200 injured.
14 Jul 1921 Sacco and Vanzetti found guilty of the two South Braintree murders.
Mar 1927 Felix Frankfurter's The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti appears in Atlantic Monthly.
Apr 1927 Motion for new trial based on new evidence denied.
3 Aug 1927 Governor Alvan T. Fuller denies clemency.
23 Aug 1927 Sacco and Vanzetti executed by electric chair, just after midnight.
1962 Tragedy in Dedham by Francis Russell.
1977 Case files released, including wiretap transcripts wherein the state is revealed to have been tapping Felix Frankfurter's telephone. Frankfurter later served as a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
23 Aug 1977 Governor Michael Dukakis proclaims "Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Day." Fun for the whole family!

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