Nicola Sacco And Bartolomeo Vanzetti: The Trial Of The 1920's

Many aspects shaped the 1920’s, and that includes the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The two were tried for killing a paymaster and his bodyguard. They were sentenced to the death penalty for a crime that their involvement in was questionable. Many people protested to their sentence. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti’s court sentence sparked a large debate through the nation that continues today as to whether it was justifiable or not. Nicola Sacco worked a steady job at a shoe factory in Stoughton. He took a day off of work on April 15th. Bartolomeo Vanzetti was a self-employed fish peddler in Plymouth and was unable to provide a valid alibi (Frankfurter). The two men were friends who believed the government needed to be destroyed in order to obtain social justice that is classified as being anarchists (“The Sacco-Vanzetti Case Draws National Attention”). On April 15, 1920, Fred Paramenter and Alessandro Berardelli were shot by two armed men while trying to move payroll boxes in Braintree, MA (“The Sacco-Vanzetti Case Draws National Attention”). A getaway car pulled up to the scene and drove the two murderers away at high speed. The car was found in the woods
Regardless of the evidence, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were found guilty of first degree murder on July 14, 1921 (Frankfurter). The execution took place at Charlestown State Prison (“Sacco and Vanzetti Case”). On August 23, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were electrocuted (Pernicone). The Sacco-Vanzetti case was an international controversy in the 1920’s (Pernicone). Many people were outraged by the sentence that Sacco and Vanzetti faced. There were many protests worldwide regarding the two Italians. An abundance of people compared the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti to that of John Brown, who was wrongly convicted of treason and murder, or even Jesus Christ. For six years the two were constantly headlining the news worldwide