Details

Subject(s)

• Sacco-Vanzetti Trial, Dedham, Mass., 1921 [Browse]
• Trials (Murder)—Massachusetts [Browse]
• Sacco, Nicola 1891-1927 [Browse]
• Vanzetti, Bartolomeo 1888-1927 [Browse]

Series

Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920. [More in this series]

Summary note

This collection is comprised of documents relating to the trial and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, with an introduction and selected bibliography by James F. Watts. Roughly three-quarters of the archive material is selected from the six-volume set of court transcripts; the remaining quarter contains related legal and state documents, selections from The letters of Sacco and Vanzetti, and articles from popular magazines representing a variety of viewpoints about the significance of the case. The court transcript material includes the prosecution's case, testimonies of the defendants, and the verdict, along with the prosecution's request for the death penalty. This is followed by Judge Thayer's 55-page refusal of a retrial, written after the November 1925 confession of Clementino Madeiros (a convicted criminal who confessed to involvement in the robbery for which Sacco and Vanzetti had been found guilty) prompted the defense to move that the guilty verdict be set aside. As appeals worked their way through the legal system and allegations of judicial bias were discussed throughout the United States and other countries, Massachusetts Governor Alvan Fuller also appointed an advisory committee to examine the court proceedings and records to determine whether he should offer clemency to Sacco and Vanzetti. The collection includes a summary of events in 1927 leading up to Sacco and Vanzetti's execution in August. The selections from the convicted men's letters include family correspondence, Vanzetti's pamphlet autobiography "Story of a Proletarian Life," and letters to supporters.

Notes

• Date range of documents: 1920-1926.
• Source institution: Primary Source Media.
• Images from the source libraries are selected contents of the original collection materials as representative of their value and pertinence to the digital product.

OCLC

937021684

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