Sacco-Vanzetti+Case

=__Saccao-Vanzetti Case__= toc Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested and charged for robbing and killing of Frederick Parmenter and his guard who were carrying $16,000 in payroll for South Braintree, Mass shoe factory on April 15, 1920.They were not arrested on Apirl 15, 1920 they were arrested on May 5, 1920. Sacco and Vanzetti were followers of Luigi Galleani who was an italian anarchist who advocated revolutionary violence, which included bombing and assassination. Because they were in this group they were the first people that were thought of because they were tall and Italian just like how the killers were described. They were killed on August 23, 1927 and on this day 250,000 people took part in a silent demonstration in Boston.

What Happened
The crime was similar to a robbery and killing four months earlier and the police chief, Michael Stewart, investigates the Italian anarchists and saw a link between the two crimes. Sacco and Vanzetti were caught and were apperantly the perfect suspects that were discribed- poor Italian immigrants, and anarchists. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on May 5, 1920. The two men repeatedly lied during a heavily slanted police questioning, presumably out of fear that their anarchist ties would taint them. The case lasted for seven weeks and on July 14, 1921, after five hours of deliberations, the jury found both men guity.

Sacco
Nicola Sacco was born on April 22, 1891 in and Italian town of Torremaggiore. He was the son of Michele Sacco,a peasant landowner and marchant, and Angela Mosmacotelli. His original name was Ferinando but he adoptes the name Nicola in 1917 to honor a brother who had died. When he was seventeen he emigrated to the United States. He found work in Stoughton, Massachusetts as a floor worker in a shoe factory. Sacco married Rosina Zambelli in 1912; they had two children, the second born during Sacco's imprisonment.He also got involved in left-wing politics and at one anarchist gathering met Bartolomeo Vanzetti. They became great friends and often attended the same polotical meetings together. Sacco and Vanzetti opposed to World War 1 like most other left-wing radicals. Sacco and Vanzetti took part in protest mettings but in 1917, when the U.S. entered the war, they fled to Mexico in order to avoid being conscripted into the U.S. Army. They came back the the U.S. after the war was over. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on May 5, 1920. Even though a large number of Italians were questioned the authorities decided to charge Sacco and Vanzetti with the murders and the robbery. They did not have criminal records so it was argued whether they had actually commited the crime.

Vanzetti
Bartolomeo was born June 11, 1888 in Villafalletto, Italy. He had a very private life and endured long periods of unemployment or toiled at menial jobs before he became a fish peddler. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was twenty and became a fish peddler in Plymoth, Massachusetts.Vanzetti was the son of Giovan Vanvetti, who like Sacco's dad was a peasent landowner, and Giovanna Nivello. He was involved in left-wing politics and at one meeting he meet Nicola Sacco They became great friends and often attended the same polotical meetings together. Sacco and Vanzetti opposed to World War 1 like most other left-wing radicals. Sacco and Vanzetti took part in protest mettings but in 1917, when the U.S. entered the war, they fled to Mexico in order to avoid being conscripted into the U.S. Army. They came back the the U.S. after the war was over. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on May 5, 1920. Even though a large number of Italians were questioned the authorities decided to charge Sacco and Vanzetti with the murders and the robbery. They did not have criminal records so it was argued whether they had actually commited the crime.

The Trial
The trial started on May 21, 1921. The main and just about the only evidence against the men was that they were both carrying guns when they were arrested. A lot of the eyewitnesses said that the men they saw were Italian and when they saw Sacco and Vanzetti they claimed that they were the men they saw. Sacco and Vanzetti did not have a full grasp of the English language and by their answers the court could tell that they misunderstood some of the questions. The trial emphasized the men's radical political beliefs and were also accused of unpatriotic behaviour by fleeing to Mexico during World War. The trial lasted for seven weeks and on July 14, 1921, and both men were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death.

The End
The Sacco and Vanzetti case is still hotly debated in some circles today as a classic example of the tyranny of the establishment over the poor and politically non-conforming. Most people think a second trial should have been granted and that the refusal to do so was clearly unfair. For many years therewas much support for the belief that both men were wrongly convicted, but more recent scholarship has pointed to the probable guilt of Sacco and the likely innocence of Vanzetti. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation asserting that Sacco and Vanzetti had been treated unjustly. Vanzetti's last words before he died were: "What I wish more than all in this last hour of agony is that our case and our fate may be understood in their real being and serve as a tremendous lesson to the force of freedom so that our suffering and death will not have been in vain." They could have just said they were guilty even if they weren't and all they had to do was go to jail but they didn't so they were killed. Sacco wouldn't compromise but Vanzetti would but he would never betray his friend so both of them didn't confess and both got killed.

Resourses
http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/sacco.vanzetti/ http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsacco.htm http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1397.html